The help me out
pyrokid | 03/25/2008 @776 | edit post

I was looking through Conceptarts forum and I found a thread which was aimed to help people devolop there painting skills by helping each other. I thougth this would put a stop to people posting stuff like "how do i do that" and free some webspace(in the future ofcourse). Heres how it works. If you have trouble with something you can come here and post it up. Someone will see it an reply to you and show you how to do whatever it is you need to do. So, who's first?

Re: The help me out
Almost-Human | 03/26/2008 @032 | edit post

Its a mad idea but it just might catch on Can someone please take the time out to tell me their process for HDR work.. ?

Re: The help me out
pyrokid | 03/26/2008 @516 | edit post

I'm not an expert but I know a way to get the effect your looking for. Although it would require editing within photoshop. You can do easily manually, first take a photo of what you want(this should include no distractions as this is your base to edit from later on) in normal exposure then after that you can take as many over exposed or underexposed images as you like import them to photoshop and have the normal exposure as the base image and the others (in layers-experiment with layermodes and opacity-hard light and soft light) so you can have all the over exposures on top of the base image layer and the under exposed behind it, remember to have the base layers opacity around 50, thats the only way I know of. I'll do something like this as show you the results to show you what you can acheive. wikipedia article on HDR imaging [Message edited on 03/26 @517]

Re: The help me out
pyrokid | 03/26/2008 @536 | edit post

Here one attempt I've made just now and well it is cheating, I just fiddled about with curves and made duplicates of the image and made them under-over exposed and the best layer mode is hard and soft light. and don't put the over exposed images benath the base image. that was a mistake I made in showing the technique. Heres an link to the result and it also has a link within the link to the original image. http://randomlittledeviant.deviantart.com/art/Chrysler-Building-81062114 [Message edited on 03/26 @541]

Re: The help me out
Almost-Human | 03/26/2008 @576 | edit post

Cheers Arfan, both your time and effert is appreciated.. Your a good guy !!! Reading the article now !! What would be fantastic, if we could get some of the hard hitters here at GFX who do HDR and get a complete workflow rundown from them! Here is hoping ! otherwise it will be name and shame time !!!! Come on ................ help me out here ! [Message edited on 03/26 @577]

Re: The help me out
emarts | 03/26/2008 @798 | edit post

it's difficult for me to tell you a workflow because I change it for nearly every image I do. I can tell you that I bracket 2 stops down and up and take 3 shots in general. I also use Photomatix. But sometimes I do exposure blending and sometimes i use Tone Mapping. Since I don't really understand all the settings, I just fool around with it until I get something I like. I then save the settings for use again. But usually those settings may not look good on the next image. Sorry about the cheesey explanation, but that's pretty much how I do it.

Re: The help me out
pyrokid | 03/26/2008 @919 | edit post

Can anyone give a alternative to stick figures for starting off an character design. I've been struggling with something I want to get over and done with.

Re: The help me out
Almost-Human | 03/26/2008 @923 | edit post

Cheers Emarts !! Its a start !

Re: The help me out
SandraS | 03/28/2008 @200 | edit post

Ok, I need some help... but I've tried almost everything so I'll be really surprised if anyone knows the solution for this.. The problem is about the layer style blending options in Photoshop. I like to work in high resolution big canvases when I paint, and once in a while I like to use the style options on some layers, like... drop shadow, outer glow, stroke, color overlay and all that stuff. ..But everytime I flatten, resize or rasterize the image the layer style either changes or dissapears! Here's an example: In the first image I've used bevel&emboss, outer glow, and drop shadow. In the second image it's how it looks like when I've flattened or resized the image. Anyone know how to solve this?

Re: The help me out
kittyKat | 03/28/2008 @222 | edit post

maybe you are only flattening a few layers not all layers? did you try this with all layers being flatten? or merged. try this again but save me a screen shot so I can see your layer pallet before and after also instead of flattening try merging as viable [Message edited on 03/28 @225]

Re: The help me out
L-iNC | 03/28/2008 @224 | edit post

Merge the style layer with an empty layer? No idea if that works.

Re: The help me out
kittyKat | 03/28/2008 @225 | edit post

L-iNC jinx we posted at the same time =P

Re: The help me out
SandraS | 03/28/2008 @598 | edit post

Uhm is it this you mean Pam? I've tried to.. flatten all layers at once flatten the layers one by one merge visible merging only the comission info-layer with an empty one below it rasterizing it, or rasterizing all the text before merging it converting it to a smart object before merging merging everything but the commission info-layer, and then flatten it Strangly the Layer 9 that has drop shadow to it doesn't get affected or changed when I merge/flatten/resize.

Re: The help me out
emarts | 03/28/2008 @796 | edit post

send me your PSD file and I'll have a look. If you are resizing the image, that can affect your outcome. Photoshop might set the effect (like bevel/emboss) to just a few pixels, which may be big enough for a 72 dpi image. but if you resize up those few pixels are tiny tiny.

Re: The help me out
pyrokid | 03/28/2008 @818 | edit post

I know this is a bit of a drag but try not to flatten the image until you have to save it. Or you can try exporting the image as a .bmp and opening it up again.

Re: The help me out
Wysiwyg | 03/28/2008 @857 | edit post

Why even flatten? Just do a marquee around the area you want 'merged' and press Ctrl + Shift + C Then Ctrl + V to paste. It's the copy merged function. And you don't have to have any certain layers selected. It will copy/merged all layers that are active and have content in your selection area. This will also allow you to have your original for editing later

Re: The help me out
Wysiwyg | 03/28/2008 @863 | edit post

It should be noted that when you apply a layer style, and your resize the settings for the layer style don't change. A 3pt stroke is a 3pt stroke until you go and adjust for the new size...same for bevel/emboss.....

Re: The help me out
SandraS | 03/28/2008 @865 | edit post

Emarts, thanks for trying to help. I sent you a pm. Pyrokid, I tried saving for .bmp and .jpg without flattening, resizing or anything, but it didn't help. Wysiwyg, it didn't help either. The pasted version looks like the example in my first post. Nothing seem to help. I'm starting to think there's something wrong with my Photoshop.. even thought I haven't touched the settings. Lately I've also been having some problems with layers set to multiply. In some cases they can't be merged properly without looking weird. (Though resizing and saving for.jpg works fine). [Message edited on 03/28 @867]

Re: The help me out
pyrokid | 03/28/2008 @885 | edit post

I think a re-intstallation is in need.

Re: The help me out
SandraS | 03/28/2008 @893 | edit post

Yeah I think too. I have backuped my presets. Now I'm only waiting for a reply from emarts to see if he might have figured out something.

Re: The help me out
pyrokid | 03/28/2008 @919 | edit post

Does anyone know of an alternative to stick figures for starting off an character and creatre design. I find if I start ith stick figures the end result looks flat. Any help would be appreacitaed

Re: The help me out
emarts | 03/28/2008 @942 | edit post

quote:  Wysiwyg wrote on 03/28 @863 It should be noted that when you apply a layer style, and your resize the settings for the layer style don't change. A 3pt stroke is a 3pt stroke until you go and adjust for the new size...same for bevel/emboss..... Hmmm. unless I'm missing something, my Photoshop applies layer styles in pixels not points. So if I set a bevel to be 10 pixels, it's a decent size at 72 dpi. But at 300 dpi, it's thin. I'll have to go back and do some experimenting.

Re: The help me out
emarts | 03/28/2008 @943 | edit post

Sandra, see my PM. When I opened your file and flattened the image, it seemed to be fine. The layer style held. It did seem to disappear when zoomed out though. That's kind of weird. but at 100% everything was good. It seems like Photoshop has a problem rendering to screen when not 1:1 ratio. Perhaps it has something to do with pixel averaging. [Message edited on 03/28 @945]

Re: The help me out
SandraS | 03/28/2008 @965 | edit post

Yes that might be the reason, emarts. But even on the 100% the layer style shrinked when I flattened it. Well, at least in my photoshop it did...

Re: The help me out
SandraS | 03/28/2008 @973 | edit post

quote:  pyrokid wrote on 03/28 @919 Does anyone know of an alternative to stick figures for starting off an character and creatre design. I find if I start ith stick figures the end result looks flat. Any help would be appreacitaed Try building up your characters with basic shapes instead. I always do this in my designs and paintings. Making them see-trough is good too cause you will be able to see more properly where a shape (for example an arm) begins and ends. I've also found it much easier to start a painting with a very thick brush to settle the shapes, measures and composition, and then do a new version/layer where i add the thin lines and details. This other way is a very funny, fast and easy way to gather together ideas for a character design. Just block together some rough shapes with a thick hard brush. You'll be able to see much faster what sucks and what is good. You can do 10 of these sketches in 3 minutes. Find one you like and scrap the bad ones.Then re-draw it with basic shapes and add details at the end. Not sure if this is what you asked for, but I hope it helps.

Re: The help me out
Raphael | 03/28/2008 @994 | edit post

Sandra, what version of Photoshop are you using and on what OS?