Photo Shop Help

[Fritzkrieg]

Does anyone have any tips for creating Photo Novels using Photo Shop. I'm flying blind here. I want to take pics of my figs and apply them to background photos. Then I'd like to spruce them up with cool effects, Explosion, Laser Blast, Light sabers etc..

Please help me Obi Wan your my only hope.

[CHEWIE]

This takes a LOT of practice (at least from my experience).  I'm not expert, but I've learned that it takes a lot of trial and error.  What I would suggest is practicing on making some photos first with special effects from your tool bar icons, copy/paste, adjust lighting techinques, etc. on a lot of practice pics before starting a photonovel.

 

[Darth Tedious]

I am a photoshop professional. It's how I make my living. 

Your question is a pretty tall order. PS is a huge program. My first suggestion is to get used to using layers. They can save you a lot of time.

Work on a layer above your original to experiment. That way you don't have to ditch the whole picture to get rid of an effect you're not fond of.

Name your layers too. They can multiply pretty fast and you will end up digging through them to try to activate a specific layer.

Here's a tip: to make a layer active, make sure you are on the "black arrow" tool and click on he image on the layer while holding down the "control" key. You will get a pop up menu beside your cursor asking what layer you want active.

 

[Darth Tedious]

Here's a small tutorial that I made for the RS boards on making a lightsaber. Though this might be kind of rudamentary for you.

Make a lightsaber shape that you like on a new layer. I use the brush tool. Hold down the shift key and you will draw a straight line. You can then use the "distort" function under the EDIT menu to tapper one end.


In a drop down menu in the layer menu, choose the layer effect button. It's the first button on the bottom left.


Choose "outer glow." Click on the light yellow box. Light yellow is the default colour. This will pop up a colour menu. Click on the colour you want your glow to be.


Once the blade looks the way you want it, you can use the "free transform" funstion in the EDIT menu to rotate the blade, change the size of the blade and put it in the perpective you need.


Play around and if you have any more specific questions, I'd be glad to help if I can.

[Joe]

well Now I can say I know how to do it lol. Thanks for the turorial.

Joe

[In Rem]

I want to echo the suggestion to just play with it. I'm *not* a photoshop professional and have never been trained in it. However, I have been able to learn quite a bit through trial and error. My stuff's not *great* by any measure, but I have been able to generate these, which I like :-)









All the blast effects are done with layers and layer effects. The backgrounds are all simple landscape shots, and my figures are cut out of very ordinary desktop shots, and other items are also cut out of product stills and the like.

Remember to adjust the levels to match up the various elements of the picture (i.e. each layer as pasted), and you may have to work with the color balance to get things to look more like they go together. The orange rock in two of the pics above, for example, looked even more out of place before I started tweaing. Some things just won't fit in, it seems, so remember to use good base photos.

You're talking about learning to use a *very* powerful graphics tool, and just like all things, you won't be very good for a while (even if you take a course, IMO). The cool thing is that when you learn how to accomplish something, you won't forget it, as you'll have learned what NOT to do about three dozen times before you get it just right.

Best of luck, and I can't wait to see your PN work.

[CHEWIE]

Really nice tutorial there InRem!

I don't use photoshop, but am considering learning how to use it for my series.

 

[Darth Tedious]

Yeah, In Rem, I never would have guessed you have no training in PS. Very nice stuff. You have a natural talent.