I started this post during tech week, but never finished it. If anyone is interested in learning photo manipulation, I would like to give a hand. The following link is to a great program that is quite easy to learn. It's on sale for 20 bucks. Adobe Photoshop is horribly expensive, and not really necessary for a beginner. If anyone is interested, reply and let me know. I could also give some tips if you have the Adobe program. http://www.arcsoft.com/en/products/photostudio/2000.asp
The first tip I have....if you know how to get a picture loaded, that's the first thing you have to do. On either the Arcsoft or Adobe program, I use the clone tool quite a bit more than any other tool....I would start with learning that tool first....it's fun.
Sounds like a cool idea hatch! Heres your first question on this topic that I've been dealing with. Say you have 2 layers you want to merge. and you have an effect on one layer like outter glow that also happens to be a 'multiply' layer, and you want to merge that layer down into a different layer that has a different effect, like inner glow, and its a 'difference' layer. how do you keep the layers options and effects true to the layer when you merge the two? instead I get the top layer overriding the one getting merged, and overriding the bottom layers options and effects? If i link them or leave them unlinked i get different results for each, but not the ones i want. any suggestions? Thanks hatch (this is for adobe photoshop btw)
hope you dont mind me adding a tip here......if your not sure and dont wanna shell out loads of dollars/pounds for the latest photoshop...checkout uleads photo-impact...fraction of the cost and does the same thing monkey
Monster...I guess I should clarify what I'm doing....with just one year of experience, I think I can help some people get started doing some car chopping....your photoshop images blow mine away!!!!.....You could teach me....but, I think helping you might be tough. If you have any thoughts on this topic that will help people learn, please feel free to jump in....that goes for anyone replying.
Ive got Photoshop 7 (freebie of course) and can do most enough for fixing up EBay stuff. But is there any way to correct for poor focus and get rid of flash reflections/white spots? How can I select just say one object and eliminate all else? Ive played with brush, crop and some others but it doesnt do what I want. Yeah, I'm probably dense. That is enough for starters.
ahh hatch, i think we are all learning here! every time i start my computer up i learn something new, you know? I really appreaciate youre kind comments! I enjoy your photoshop work as well as others that contribute to HAMBers requests. I think this is a cool tech idea, and as a matter of fact, I have a guide line thingy i made up for a HAMBer a while back when he had some questions about layers and how to use them. I could post them here if youd like. I dont want to rob your post man, you run the show! But I may throw in my 2 cents here and there on occation screen 0001 red arrow is tool bar white arrow is upper tool bar orange arrow is options and brush sizes for each tool yellow arrow is for layers and navigator black arrow shows the layer options purple arrow shows that layer is visible but not selected dark blue arrow shows layer is selected but not visible green arrow is new layer light blue arrow is trash a layer pink arrow is history of steps grey arrow is showing the first step made
screen 02 red arrow is the l***o tool yellow arrow shows the layer is visible and selected, you can see the green in the little view window. orange arrow is showing that if you have that layer selected and create a new layer it will pop up ontop of that layer. also it shows how easy it is to effect your image with layer, you can notice that the sun spots and glimmers are turned off now with that layer unvisible. in the history you can see what has happened, opened it, created new layer, used l***o and dumped paint. you can click back up through the history to back up a few steps, or throw that layer away and get a new one if you dont like what you did. This is just a generic beginner layout for someone that has never used layers before, to help get them started. (sorry for the ****py quality, I know its hard to read)
Hatch, I've got adobe but I never used it enough to get good at it. Always used paint shop pro. Gonna load adobe in the very near future. Expect lotsa questions. The PknBner
Hey monster, If you are finished with the artwork go ahead and save it out as a photoshop eps. The layer effects should stay the same and it will be a flattened image when you open it back up. Make sure that you do a "save as" lways keep your layered photoshop do***ents in case you have to adjust something later. you can always save a new eps file from it. KCsledz
Monster, I'm a bit of a novice myself, but have you tried lessening the Opacity of the affect your trying to get on the upper layer? This might let the lower layer show through more(?)
I think this post may quickly become...."Wannabe teacher becomes student" ....but I think that learning is a good thing....I'd like to keep this going and make it a group effort. I know there are some beginners and also some very advanced people into this addiction called photoshop...I love it and want to p*** some of my excitement along...maybe help someone who is intimidated by the whole concept of a huge program with a million ways to chop a top....and no idea how to start....sorta like me one year ago. Monster...those are fantastic learning tools...most of the books I have read aren't even close to the learning tools you are doing. Please keep contributing to the thread...I love it!!!! I would like to see some beginners reply with questions too......anybody wanna jump in???
thanks for the input guys! Gr8, its not that it doesnt show through, its more like the upper layers option and effects dominate over the lower one thats getting merged upon. its weird. try it yourselves, see what im talking about. make two layers, put differernt effects on each or change the options of each, whatever, and then merge one into the other. because you can only merge down, the bottom layer falls victom to the top. KC, thats good advice, I always save a photo shop version with all files for sure, like you say, you never know when youd like to tweek something, and you wont have to go through it all again. However, the reason i was wanting to merge them is so that i could move them around alot on the page and have them lined up perfectly at the same time, instead of aligning them every time i moove it. and yea, i use the arrow keys to move them percisely, and count them, so that they are perfect, but its still a h***le. I just found a way to overcome it! (duh! ) turn off all layers except the ones I want to merge then just do a select all, copy merged, paste. thats the answer right there! haha, sometimes it takes a while, i know. Like this for example. the text is red with a white outter glow effect. the shadow behind is black with a white inner glow (making it transparent) and opacity is down to 39. and when Im moving text around the page to see where it looks best i like to have it all with me, instead of moving the text, and then the shadow and lining them up. Well enough of that, im sure I'll come up with another question sometime soon, haha
I definitely qualify as a beginner. I have Photoshop 5.0 and ran through the tutorial when I got it a few years ago, but haven't used it often enough to remember what I learned. I'd love it if you could show step by step some of the most obvious customizing procedures: 1. Change style and/or size of wheels/tires 2. Lower a car on its wheels 3. Change the overall paint color while retaining highlights and reflections 4. Chop or section a car These would be hugely valuable!! Thanks to both of you for taking this on.
no prob, ill try a bit to tell you a few secrets. 1. change style of wheels, go to altavista.com, choose image tab and type in anything, it finds images found on the net. save pic, open it, use marque tool or l***o tool to selecet it roughly. drag it onto your image youre working on. use erase tool at 100% fine edge. clean it up. chose to mess with brightness/contrast in the image/adjust drop down, also change color balance if needed. change size of anything, do a cntl+T or free transform. hold shift while pulling for uniform expansion or whatever, and theres other ways to distort. 2. use polygon l***o tool to select whole car, ecept the wheels, have orignal car pic layer selected, chose cntl+C then cntl+V (copy/paste) now you have a car body on a new layer you can move up/down whereever. (youll have to recreate, or fill in the background if lowering the car, youll see the original roofline) 3.select the car like above excluding all windows, lights grill etc, just painted surfaces. go to image/adjust/desaturate. will give you a grayscale without choosing grayscale (grayscale wont allow color on that layer) now make a new layer, with still selected dump paintbucket. change layer to multiply and youll see all highlights. if you ever want to change the color or paint, go into that layer, choose effects, go to fill color and choose what color you want. very easy. 4. l***o select the roofline down to the tops of the doors. choose copy/paste. its on a new layer, move it where you want it. you may need to expand or stretch it, thats where the artist part comes in, but chop it smart, just like a real chop job, save yourself time. now youre a pro!!!
Right Monster...great tips.....keep em coming!!! I do my chopping and sectioning a little differently. I'll explain how a simple chop on a profile shot of a modelA works for me. I rely heavily on the clone tool for chops, sections and lowering. ON the "b" pillar of a modelA, set your clone at the high point of the chop(on the B pillar)...then...slide down the pillar(the amount you want to chop) to where you want to start your clone..."blow" the image from that point upward. Learn this first....then try a section job on a fifties car...same method with the clone....a lowering job can also be done with the clone...just start your clone above the car...drop down the amount you want to drop the car and "blow" the image towards the bottom of the car, but only to the wheelwell edges... without disturbing the lower portion of the tires....this will drop the car and leave a small duplication at the top of your screen...just crop the whole picture to remove that area. My wheel replacement is done with two images on the screen....resize if necessary (most likely)....and clone from one pic to the other...alot of times I just clone the wheels and not the tires.
I'm with 50fraud , I can't even bring up 2 pics on the same page,but his list is exactly what I need to learn- wheel/tire changes and color w highlight/shading.chopping is secondary as I'll never chop a real one tho I like em.not enough tosls or patience + Too scared to ruin a car.I put this in my favorites and will keep coming back to it for reference-thanks guys -D
fender_clip05 1 original pic 2 found front clip and back fender online from a car with correct perspective, cut them, scaled them into position (this was actually a pic of a toy car!) 3 make everything smooth, using airbushing on different layers and 'airbrush' eraser on low 'pressure' 4 shine up the paint a bit, add reflections using l***o and large airbrush at very light pressure and sun highlights 5 chop and scale the roof, cleaned the windows by hand with airbrush. created bushes above the roof with clone tool and airbrush. use lots of layers, theyre free!
steel_04 1 original pic 2 select car (l***o), copy/paste, lower and tweek the angle a bit, turn into a desaturate while still selected. add more shadow under the car due to its lower now, less light 3 creat background by hand with airbrush and clone tool when possible. 4 smooth up the car and add highlights with airbrush. dont forget cool reflections, like from the garage lights on the back fender on this car!
chopped_04 1 original pic 2 you can see original pic, roof hieght and level stance. next i l***o selected the body copy/paste, lowered it, and gave it a rake by using free transform and rotating it counter clockwise by hand. next you can see i chopped it. if you look at the headlights you can see that i gave it even more rake, hehe! I also got rid of the spare tire and rear fender, front fender and running board all with the airbrush. 3 again, using the clone tool where i could, the rest created using the airbrush. i removed the rack from the back using airbrush. 4 add wheels from two different pics i had. the flames were created first by 'laying them out' with the l***o tool, dumping paint. then using the outer glow layer effect giving it a pinstripe, mild shade down the side to create the illusion of the body rolling down, getting darker.
Monster...how long have you been working with PS????....your tutoring is great....more more more!!! Mike...do you have a shortcut(visible icon when you start your computer) to your picture file?..This is the easiest way to open a picture and start your PS (photoshop)program. If you don't have a shortcut, open a new file( right click on open area of screen and click "open new file".....and name it PS pics or whatever you like. Now you have an easy way to start working each time When you open your picture file and right click on a picture, you should get the next window with options...clic on "open picture with"...then click Adobe PS...that should load your first picture.....downsize your PS window...return to your picture shortcut file and open the next picture the same way. The pictures will be stacked on top of each other...enlarge the first one for ease of working...you can switch back and forth by enlarging or clicking the minus sign on the open picture "window".. let me know if this helps....now get learning....I suggest the clone tool first.
Are you using a mouse, or some other type of pointing device? I find the mouse hard to use when trying freehand jobs.
Hatch, now about doing a step by step How To on Photoshop.. Do something simple like lowering a car... How to load a pic, what ****ons to choice when cut the wheels or car to lower etc... I would really enjoy knowing how to use my program for more then resizing pics and optimizing them.. Or maybe how to change a cars color etc...
Nice Monster... amazing work there. I've been messing with PS and PSP for a while now, and while I've gotten down all my basic skills when it comes to virtual kustomizing, one thing gets me. How do you do that with the paint? I can't figure it out. You have that one there with the rusted car, but then you've smoothed it out to look all like brushed metal. What's the trick? Cloning?
The Jalopy Journal
