Secondly, I created a tornado piece by starting with a 500x500 pixel page. I changed the the colours to a light blue and white. After this, I went to filter, render and chose clouds. I then went to filter, distorte and click on twirl and put the settings to 182. I created the image, but then tried something a bit different. I went to filter, distorte and put pinch on at 100%.
To create this lava effect, i started with a 500x500 pixel page and changed the colours to black and white. Firstly, I went to filter, render and clouds. After this, i went to filter, render and then difference clouds. this gaves the effect which looks like lava and then I held ctrl and pressed f to find a patern which I liked, I did this four times. I then went to image, adjustments and clicked on gradient maps and chose the orange, yellow, orange pre-set. I changed the left orange to black and added a new post and made that a dark red and that left me with my final piece.
To begin with, I searched for images of a size 600x400 of an abandoned town and an active volcano. I saved the images to the desktop and started by pasting the town image into a 600x400 pixel page. I used the lasso tool to take the buildings from the image and place them in another 600x400 page. I then went onto paste the volcano image onto the page and placed it behind the buildings and re-sized and positioned the volcano and town to get the look that I wanted. To improve the look of this piece, I used the blur and smudge tool around the edges of the building to blend it with the background. I also used the dodge tool which changed the brightness of the ares i clicked on. I also used the blur tool to give depth of field to the volcano. I feel this piece looks good, but it looks boring and needs more drama to give a sense of danger. I feel that I could have used my imagination better and more images to create a better image, but as this is my first attempt at photo manipulation and I will create some more images to improve my photoshop skills.
http://www.journeyetc.com/travel-ideas/top-7-scariest-abandoned-cities-around-the-globe/
http://www.ravingravens.com/blog/2010/06/james-versus-the-volcano-top-gears-james-may-drives-on-an-erupting-volcano.html
This piece isn't as developed as I would have liked because whilst I was using Photoshop, it crashed on me and then when I re-opened it, it crashed again so I wasn't able to continue the creation of this demo piece.
Solar Explosion
Lizard and hippo manipulation
Step by step guide on how to create this hippo and lizard manipulation photo.
1. Get images from moodle and open them in photoshop.
1. Get images from moodle and open them in photoshop.
2. Make selection round hippo head, avoiding the very top where there are hairs.
3. Copy and paste into the lizard file, name this layer and the lizard layer.
4. Turn hippo into a smart object (Layer – convert to smart object) - you can mess around with it – re-size, rotate etc. and if you want to revert back the image will retain its optimum quality.
5. You can’t edit the smart object directly, you have to double click on it, a warning message appears, about saving changes, ok it and the image opens in a new layer – you can edit the image totally separately. Note the .psb file extension. (A tippary file)
6. Editing the hippo head psb file, jump into quick mask mode, and alter brush size with maximum hardness. Make sure foreground colour is black, (when you paint it shows red). Paint carefully over the hair area, just down to skin.
7. Turn opacity of mask down, to 20% to see the hairs. Zoom (z) right in close then
8. Select brush (b) and re-size to hair width, change colour to white and paint the hairs in (this subtracts from the mask). Adjust opacity of mask (double click on mask area in the layers palette) as needed.
9. Edit in standard mode, to view the selection as “crawling ants”. With the layer mask, the background is cropped by the black area, you can adjust by painting in white to reveal more or black to mask more.
10. Remember to save the psb file and this will update the lizard file of which it is a part.
11. In the lizard file, make hippo active and free transform it (ctrl+t), reduce keeping the aspect ratio (hold shift) and line up leg crease and neck.
12. To adjust colour of hippo, create colour balance adjustment layer (hold alt, click and select) and tick “use previous layer” box. Increase green, yellow, red sliders to turn hippo green.
13. To blend hippo into the lizard, add a layer mask above the hippo, and paint black into the mask to hide white to reveal the hippo – (toggle colour is x). Use a minimum hardness brush on the body, harder under neck.
14. Check that no lizard head remains – use the clone stamp, and paint into the lizard layer.
15. To create the lizard scale texture onto the hippo, take the clone tool, make a new layer right on top, name it “skin” and make sure you tick “sample all layers”. Any clones patches will be pasted into this top layer, and you can reduce the opacity of the layer to give a hint of scales.
16. Brightness – the hippo looks flat, lizard has highlights, so create a new LEVELS adjustment layer above the hippo and bring the right slider back to the left.
17. But to exclude the mouth, with a soft brush, paint black into the mask area of the levels adjustment layer.
18. If levels have increased the yellow too much you can re-adjust the sliders in the colour balance adjustment layer.
19. The lizard background needs attention, to darken the area behind the hippo head, to make it stand out: Make the lizard layer active and edit in quick mask mode. Paint with a soft brush in black over are behind hippo head. Revert to standard edit and see the selection. INVERSE THE SELECTION. Holding alt creates a brightness contrast adjustment layer and adjust brightness and contrast sliders (you can use the eye icon to compare this effect with the original).
20. The hippo needs its red mouth; edit the layer mask on the colour balance layer, paint over the mouth area in white to bring original colour back. Also add “shadow” to bottom of the head, by painting (with soft brush) black on the same colour balance layer mask revealing the darker hippo skin tone.
21. Finally add an overall contrast effect, make a new layer at the very top, select a blue foreground colour, fill the top layer, blend mode overlay, reduce opacity.
These steps where taken from the PDF file from moodle to help me if I ever need references to create a piece like this or for any short cuts and tips. This can also be used by other pupils if they wish to know any steps.
Working with a graphics tablet
Today I learnt how to use a graphics tablet and also how to create a brush. I started off by doodling and testing how the pen and tablet work. I then tried to do some other small test pieces to get a feel for it but I had a problem which the pen, it would start drawing when I hovered over the tablet so it made it difficult to start drawing. I overcame this problem by going to the control panel and adjusting the setting. This allowed me to start my concept piece with the volcano. I tried to apply perspective to the road in the piece and also give shading to the volcano by lowering the opacity. My final image was created using a brush which I learnt how to create today.
Final piece tools and techniques
Photoshop will be what I use to create a realistic piece and the tools within this software will assist the creation of it. But Photoshop can crash and can cause problems if you haven't saved your work and it crashes, you will lose your work, this is a negative that I took into consideration when creating pieces on Photoshop because it has crashed on me before.
On creating this piece, I will different tools which I have learnt over a period of time on this course and also through experimentation. Tools I can use; Blur tool, smudge tool, sponge tool, layer masks, lasso tool, filters and creating brushes, also using brightness/contrast and levels to create the right look for the piece giving it a darker look.
I can use the sponge tool to take away the colour in some areas to create a dark effect because of the volcanic ash in the piece.
Using the blur tool to blend imported images in the piece so they don't look out of place or stuck on, this makes the piece look more realistic.
Other tools I can use such as the smudge tool, to help me to blend piece on the piece together making it look more natural and also to create the small lights on the emergency service vehicles. Although this tool is good, it is easy to makes major effects on the work with can cause problems and delays in the creation of my work.
I will use the layer mask on many layers to paint the image with a black brush which erases the area painted and then easily returned by painting it white, this was helpful and saved any problems if I use an eraser.
Lasso tool will help me to split up my piece and be able to put image between layers which created a realistic look.
I can also go to filter, render and chose clouds to create a background and also used brightness/contrast on this the create a better look and also used it on all my layers to make them darker and also used levels to finesse the darkness of the piece.
I could find an image of an ash cloud and use quick selection tool to chose the ash cloud and then redefine brush to create it.
Final piece tools and techniques
Photoshop will be what I use to create a realistic piece and the tools within this software will assist the creation of it. But Photoshop can crash and can cause problems if you haven't saved your work and it crashes, you will lose your work, this is a negative that I took into consideration when creating pieces on Photoshop because it has crashed on me before.
On creating this piece, I will different tools which I have learnt over a period of time on this course and also through experimentation. Tools I can use; Blur tool, smudge tool, sponge tool, layer masks, lasso tool, filters and creating brushes, also using brightness/contrast and levels to create the right look for the piece giving it a darker look.
I can use the sponge tool to take away the colour in some areas to create a dark effect because of the volcanic ash in the piece.
Using the blur tool to blend imported images in the piece so they don't look out of place or stuck on, this makes the piece look more realistic.
Other tools I can use such as the smudge tool, to help me to blend piece on the piece together making it look more natural and also to create the small lights on the emergency service vehicles. Although this tool is good, it is easy to makes major effects on the work with can cause problems and delays in the creation of my work.
I will use the layer mask on many layers to paint the image with a black brush which erases the area painted and then easily returned by painting it white, this was helpful and saved any problems if I use an eraser.
Lasso tool will help me to split up my piece and be able to put image between layers which created a realistic look.
I can also go to filter, render and chose clouds to create a background and also used brightness/contrast on this the create a better look and also used it on all my layers to make them darker and also used levels to finesse the darkness of the piece.
I could find an image of an ash cloud and use quick selection tool to chose the ash cloud and then redefine brush to create it.
I am very fond of the image of what appears to be a solar explosion. I like how you have warped the the road so it looks like a gust of wind is blowing the trees to aside. I think its amazing how you have made the background into the colours that you have done, there must of been loads of layers in photoshop. Keep up the good work Matteo.
ReplyDelete