Tutorial files available at:
blog.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/tutorial-files
The
30
RETOUCHING TIPS FOR PROS
SECRETS OF ADVERTISING Killer commercial art every time
Master pencilling & inking O Compose a dynamic layout O Design character archetypes O
CREATE THIS IMAGE UR OWN ERHERO TEAM HOW TO PAINT
MIC ART BUILD YOUR OWN
ANTASY WORLDS PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES te-painting techniques for creating Create custom tools to streamline your istic environments with photos
workflow and stand out from the crowd
ISSUE 126
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NVIDIA® QUADRO® #1 IN THE HEARTS, MINDS, AND WORKSTATIONS OF DESIGNERS EVERYWHERE
NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards are the most trusted in the world, empowering 80% of design professionals to do their best, most important work across the widest range of applications. Quadro solutions can help you accelerate your workflows, enhance your results, and maximize your productivity, whatever configuration, model size and complexity, or views you use. ®
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Insight
uk.insight.com Tel: 0844 846 3333
Misco
www.misco.co.uk Tel: 0800 038 8880
© 2014 PNY Technologies. The PNY Technologies logo is a registered trademark of PNY Technologies. © 2014 NVIDIA Corporation. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, NVIDIA Quadro are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. All company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are all subject to change without notice
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CONTENTS
ISSUE 126
WELCOME Welcome to the latest issue of Advanced Photoshop. With comicsinspired movies going from strength to strength at the box office, we take a look at the original inspiration behind them. APRIL MADDEN Editor IN THIS ISSUE: PHOTOMANIPULATION DIGITAL PAINTING WEB DESIGN ADVERTISING TYPOGRAPHY NEW MEDIA
COVER IMAGE DAVID NAKAYAMA
dna-1.deviantart.com
Illustrator, concept artist and comic-book cover creator David Nakayama walks us through the process of designing a superhero team from thumbnails to final artwork. Check it out in his tutorial on p52.
This issue our cover features our very own superhero team, created from scratch by illustrator David Nakayama. Find out more on p52. On p26 we delve into the world of advertising and branding, looking at how composition, colour and typography can tug on a viewer’s psychological strings to get a message across. Then we move into the sometimes-controversial area of retouching on p34, where a selection of professionals share their 30 tips for perfect images. John Ross from The Art of Retouching follows this up on p46 to craft an image using both standard and creative techniques. On p62 you’ll learn how to use Photoshop to create icons and graphics for responsive web designs across phones, tablets and desktops alike with award-winning designer Rolf Anders Jensen. Then we jump into some serious matte painting techniques on p66 with Tony Andreas Rudolph Plus there’s a host of interviews, r you to explore and enjoy.
FIND US ONLI @advancedpshop
/AdvancedPhotoshop
.co.uk
46 MASTER RETOUCHING WORKSHOP:
Use Photoshop to produce an image that combines standard retouching techniques with creative ones
66 EPIC FANTASY WORKSHOP:
LANDSCAPE COMPOSITE
Combine photo elements and painting techniques to create photoreal concept art
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FOR BACK ISSUES, BOOKS AND MERCHANDISE VISIT:
WorldMags.net ISSUE 126
CONTENTS EYE ON DESIGN
What’s hot, who’s in and the latest art & design happenings
06 08 10 16 18
THIS ISSUE’S PRO PANEL Our contributors share Photoshop secrets INDUSTRY NEWS Introducing Corel Painter 2015 PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW Advantages of working with CGI PROJECT FOCUS Creating a successful ad campaign STUDIO INTERVIEW True North
46 MASTER RETOUCHING
52
CREATE COMIC ART
66 EPIC FANTASY LANDSCAPE CONCEPT
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TECHNIQUES
Professional artists reveal their high-end Photoshop skills in our easy-to-follow workshops
26 34 46 52 58 62
INDUSTRY FEATURE
Creative advertising INDUSTRY FEATURE
30 retouching tips for pros WORKSHOP
Master retouching WORKSHOP
Create comic art HOW I MADE
66 72 78 86
WORKSHOP
Epic fantasy landscape concept READER INTERVIEW
Retro fantasy
#/.4%.43
REVIEWS
We put the latest creative kit and apps to the test
80 84
FEATURE: UGEE Rainbow III vs Wacom Intuos Manga REVIEW: Mischief
HOW I MADE
A’khami READER INTERVIEW
Photography in a digital world
Troller Made of What You Are WORKSHOP
Responsive design
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RESPONSIVE DESIGN PREMIUM RESOURCES
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WorldMags.net EYE ON DESIGN THIS ISSUE’S PRO PANEL EYE ON DESIGN
THIS ISSUE’S PRO PANEL MEET THE EXPERTS BEHIND THIS ISSUE’S AMAZING ARTWORK AND DISCOVER SOME OF THEIR TRADE SECRETS JOHN ROSS
© David Nakayama
© John Ross
www.theartofretouching.com The best retouching is when no one knows you have done anything at all. Proper retouching begins in pre-production, not post-production. Know where you are going, and how you are going to get there. On the back end, keep your file structure clean and organised. No one will see it, but it will make changes easier later. ■ Master pro retouching with John Ross in his expert tutorial on p46
DAVID NAKAYAMA
http://dna-1.deviantart.com Using Window>Arrange>New Window for…, I always keep a duplicate window of whatever I’m working on open on my secondary monitor. This lets me keep an eye on the overall image even as I’m focused on details, and unlike the Navigator, the image isn’t grainy or partially covered by a distracting border box. ■ Create incredible comic art from scratch with Marvel superhero David Nakayama on p52
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WorldMags.net The magazine for Adobe® Photoshop® professionals Imagine Publishing Ltd Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH2 6EZ +44 (0) 1202 586200 Web: www.imagine-publishing.co.uk www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk www.greatdigitalmags.com
Magazine team Editor April Madden
[email protected] 01202 586218
Editor in Chief Dan Hutchinson Production Editor Alicea Francis Senior Designer Curtis Fermor-Dunman Photographer James Sheppard Senior Art Editor Duncan Crook Publishing Director Aaron Asadi Head of Design Ross Andrews Contributors © Rolf Anders Jensen
Julie Bassett, Rolf Anders Jensen, Larissa Mori, David Nakayama, Kirk Nelson, John Ross, Tony Andreas Rudolph, Anna-Lisa Saywell, Simon Skellon and Poz Watson
Advertising Digital or printed media packs are available on request. Head of Sales Hang Deretz 01202 586442
[email protected] Advertising Manager Alex Carnegie 01202 586430
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Cover disc
ROLF ANDERS JENSEN
www.portfolio.works Using Smart 34 x 34 Vector Objects to create icons in Illustrator and pasting them into your Photoshop designs is the best and most seamless way to create SVG or Retina-ready graphics for your developer, and they will love you for it. This is a great workaround instead of having the designer save out 2x graphics for every icon in your user interface. ■ Discover more about creating web assets in Photoshop in Jensen’s tutorial on p62
Proper retouching begins in pre-production, not post-production. Know where you are going, and how you are going to get there
JOHN ROSS / WWW.THEARTOFRETOUCHING.COM
Junior Web Designer Steve Dacombe
[email protected]
International Advanced Photoshop is available for licensing. Contact the International department to discuss partnership opportunities. Head of International Licensing Cathy Blackman +44 (0) 1202 586401
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© Tony Andreas Rudolph
Disclaimer
TONY ANDREAS RUDOLPH
www.zulusplitter.de Photoshop has a lot of different, useful tools to select a part of a photo, like the Lasso tool, Color Range or Magic Wand tools. Very often I use photos as a kind of brush. To select the part I want, I can recommend the Quick Selection tool. This powerful tool works like a brush and creates automatically smoothed selections. ■ Journey to a fantasy world with Rudolph as he explains how to use matte painting techniques in imaginative scenes on p68
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The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited material lost or damaged in the post. All text and layout is the copyright of Imagine Publishing Ltd. Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the publisher. All copyrights are recognised and used specifically for the purpose of criticism and review. Although the magazine has endeavoured to ensure all information is correct at time of print, prices and availability may change. This magazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein. Photoshop is either a registered trademark or trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/ or other countries and is used with express permission. All $ prices are US Dollars unless otherwise stated. If you submit material to Imagine Publishing via post, email, social network or any other means, you automatically grant Imagine Publishing an irrevocable, perpetual, royaltyfree license to use the images across its entire portfolio, in print, online and digital, and to deliver the images to existing and future clients, including but not limited to international licensees for reproduction in international, licensed editions of Imagine products. Any material you submit is sent at your risk and, although every care is taken, neither Imagine Publishing nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for the loss or damage.
© Imagine Publishing Ltd 2014 ISSN 1748-7277
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WorldMags.net EYE ON DESIGN INDUSTRY NEWS INDUSTRY NEWS
INTRODUCING COREL PAINTER 2015 THE LATEST ITERATION OF COREL’S PREMIUM DIGITAL PAINTING SOFTWARE IS MORE PHOTOSHOPFRIENDLY THAN EVER
© Erik Holman Painter is associated with rich, painterly artwork, but in Dragon Hunter, Erik Holman shows off its clean, illustrative capabilities
support for both Mac and PC. It’s also the fastest version of Painter to date. Corel claims that it runs, on average, 40 per cent faster than previous versions, with brushes typically benchmarking at six times faster than their predecessors. For digital artists used to the speed of Photoshop CC, this is a welcome performance boost. Other new features include better stylus control and support, known as Real Time Stylus, default UI profiles for a range of different digital artists, such as photo artists and illustrators, and of course the obligatory new brush set that always wows long-term Painter fans. 2015 is no different: the Particle brushes it introduces are groundbreaking. The Painter Advisory Council, a community of digital artists who have been using the program for a long time and know exactly what digital artists want from it, have driven many of the innovations in Painter 2015. Take a look at the new features they’ve inspired right here!
Forward Escape by Painter Master Android Jones showcases the awesome possibilities of Painter’s latest iteration
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NEW FEATURES Many of the libraries within Painter have been updated, with new toys to play with in the Weaves, Patterns, Selections, Papers and Image Hose Nozzle libraries. Flow Map textures allow you to apply a texture to a piece of artwork that will emerge as you paint, and you can now transform your own images into Flow Maps too. The Brush Tracking utility has also been improved, allowing you to teach Painter your preferred painting style, such as the levels of pressure you typically use.
© Android Jones
C
orel Painter 2015 hit the shelves in August, and it’s looking like the best version of Painter yet. Many digital artists bounce their work between Photoshop and Painter, using the strengths of each program to craft the ultimate in digital illustration. Painter has always been Adobe file-friendly, but this release sees it stepping up to the level of its frequent partner, as it finally introduces 64-bit
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© Mike Thompson
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JITTER SMOOTHING Painter’s Jitter controls allow for natural-looking variance within your brushstrokes. You can now achieve handmade, naturalistic variance without constantly varying your settings. The Jitter controls cover variations in colour, angle and opacity for building up different hues, shapes and shades, allowing you to create a truly organic look with Painter’s extensive library of real-media-inspired brushes.
PARTICLE BRUSHES
© Don Seegmiller
The innovation that will really excite long-term Painter fans and Photoshop users alike! Painter’s new Particle brushes are inspired not by traditional brushes but by physics itself. They come under three different umbrellas: Gravity, Flow and Springs. Each of these reacts to brushstrokes in different ways, producing marks never before seen in digital painting. They can be tightly controlled or allowed to run free to create abstract effects, and are perfect for glowing and fiery effects.
Much-loved digital painting tutor Don Seegmiller shows off the capabilities of the new Particle brushes in Dark Princess, also used as the box art for Painter 2015.
The new Particle brushes provide the ability to create fiery and glowing effects with the stroke of a stylus
CUSTOMISED UI PROFILES Painter is a feature-packed piece of software and can sometimes feel overwhelming. If you want to use it for specific tasks, you can now set it to one of three built-in UI profiles optimised for different kinds of artwork. The Simple layout features commonly used tools, the Photo Art profile concentrates on image optimisation, cloning and paintover tools, and the Illustration profile is optimised for illustrators. When you open the program, you can choose one of these profiles for the project you’re working on directly from the Welcome screen.
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WorldMags.net EYE ON DESIGN PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW
www.radoxist.com Radoxist_studio
ADVANTAGES OF WORKING WITH CGI CREATIVE RETOUCHER AND 3D EXPERT RADOSLAV ŽILINSKÝ ON CREATING IMAGES FOR BIGNAME CLIENTS
C
GI photography is not an easy field to master, so when you throw 3D into the mix, things can get very complicated. By his own admission, Radoslav Žilinský believes that artists should specialise in one area rather than being just okay at everything – that way clients know what to look for. However, with experience working for big-name clients including Saatchi & Saatchi and Magnum, Žilinský’s creative flair seems to have no bounds. “Now what really fascinates me about the industry is the variety of requests that come to me. It always surprises me, especially if you work with top art directors and advertising agencies. Emerge a submarine in the streets of Paris? No problem!” TELL US A LITTLE MORE ABOUT YOUR HISTORY AS AN ARTIST? I was always fond of drawing and cartoons, but what really made a difference was when I got a first release of 3D software – 3ds Max. I had a long summer in front of me, and an even longer software manual. Page after page it revealed the mysteries of 3D CGI. It was during that time that I became fascinated with anything visual. It was just a first step.
WHAT WERE THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSONS THAT YOU LEARNT DURING YOUR EARLY YEARS OF IMAGEMAKING? When I think about it, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are lessons to be learnt all the time. This is maybe the most important one too – the sole realisation that everything happens [in order to] teach us something. It is hard to give advice, because everyone needs to learn something different. Recently I have tried to meditate more – it gives me more detachment and clears my mind. This helps me to identify and learn the lessons. YOU WORK A LOT IN CGI PHOTOGRAPHY AND CREATIVE RETOUCHING. HOW DID YOU SPECIALISE IN THAT? I slowly realised that there are so many ways of applying my talent and it is sometimes a bit confusing. From making 3D models for games,
matte paintings for films, through to retouching for advertising agencies, it is easy to get lost. Therefore it is great to specialise and pick just what you are best at. Then, for clients, it is much easier to identify you from the crowd. YOU SAY YOU’VE WORKED WITH SAATCHI & SAATCHI BEFORE. WHAT WAS YOUR BRIEF WITH THEM? It is nice that you mentioned Saatchi & Saatchi, because it is actually the agency I started collaborating with back in 2010, and now we have completed 51 projects together! Back then, CGI was quite new to clients and they were a little bit sceptical. Slowly, one project after another, they became more confident and eventually understood the big advantages of CGI. But if I could pick a particular client of Saatchi & Saatchi, I would definitely go for CSOB Bank. They were happy from
Back then, CGI was new to clients and they were a little bit sceptical. Slowly, one project after another, they became more confident and eventually understood the big advantages of CGI
Last Minute: This is a perfect example of what we love to do
© Radoxist studio
the most. A neat combination of 3D CGI, fashion retouching, matte painting, photomanipulation and colour grading accompanied with a nice idea
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© Radoxist studio
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Flip Flop Visuals – Island: This was the first visual from a series. MUW Saatchi & Saatchi commissioned us to do the series of image visuals for their client, travel agency Ruefa Reisen.
Flip Flop Visuals – Pool: This is the second
© Radoxist studio
visual from the travel series. From time to time, there is a project that you instantly fall in love with. Finally I can showcase it here
© Radoxist studio
Flip Flop Visuals – Inflatable: Finally, the third visual from the Ruefa Reisen travel series commissioned by MUW Saatchi & Saatchi
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WorldMags.net Football Visual: After receiving a brief of ‘the
© Radoxist studio, Slovak football association
atmosphere of village football’, we knew that this was going to be a lot of fun during the production and photo shoot phase. It was a beautiful project!
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WorldMags.net EYE ON DESIGN PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW © Radoxist studio, Jekyll ‘n Hyde
the start about using CGI and 3D, and we have done many creative prints for them. TELL US ABOUT MAGNUM’S 25TH BIRTHDAY IMAGE CAMPAIGN. WHAT PART DID YOU PLAY IN IT? I was quite excited when LOLA Madrid came to me to produce a visual for Magnum’s 25th birthday: wrapping a Magnum in golden paper with a beautiful bow on top. I always wanted to do something similar to this, because the simple things are often the most difficult. It was the first time my visual was tested on people before launching on air, and thankfully it passed successfully! In the end it was used as a teasing visual on digital and social media for the new Silver Magnum. WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING PART OF CREATING A COMMERCIAL IMAGE? To stay confident. There are so many people adding their input during the process. Meeting the visual taste of an art director and client, consistently watching over the quality of output of your co-workers and keeping up with deadlines can be difficult. So many things can go wrong, but you just need to stay focused and believe in yourself. In the end you often realise that everything went smoothly.
Do The Right Mix – UFO: The second in the series of 3D work completed for ‘Do the Right Mix – European Mobility Week’ with friends Jekyll ‘n Hyde
Travel Luggage: We used a
combination of 3D CGI and retouching for this project. The shoot was organised by Radoxist studio and a matte painting background was used to produce this visual
© Radoxist studio
WHICH OF YOUR IMAGES ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF AND WHY? It is quite hard for me to maintain pride, because I’m a person that loves to progress, and when you progress, the love for your older work slowly shrinks. I know that this is a little bit cruel, but it applies to everything in life. But if I have to pick one project, it would be my series of flip flop visuals for Saatchi & Saatchi and client Ruefa Reisen travel agency. I had a chance to cooperate with one of the most talented art directors and co-owner of Saatchi & Saatchi, Rasto Ulicny. I learnt a lot from this project and it pushed my skills much further. WHAT DO YOU FEEL SEPARATES YOUR ARTWORK FROM THE OTHERS? It will sound surprising, but my personality. Even through my work, I believe that the most important part is to evolve as a human being, and when I develop my personality it will reflect in my work too. It’s a win-win situation. My work is not about my visual talent, it is more about adding tons of tiny details. Most importantly it’s about good communication with your client and people around you, having a helpful attitude, solving problems, staying organised and not overloading yourself. I try to do all of these things. DO YOU PREFER WORKING IN 3D OR PHOTOSHOP SOFTWARE? It slowly shifted from 3D in the past to Photoshop in
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WorldMags.net %9%ď/.ď$%3)'. PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW
CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR DAYTODAY WORKING LIFE? ARE YOU OFTEN WORKING ON MORE THAN ONE PROJECT? My working life is dependent on the period I’m in. I try to focus my work on one particular project, because doing too many things at the same time leads to nothing. For example, recently I have focused more on advertising and redesigning my website. It started with a feeling that I needed to make another step as a studio. From now on, it will go back to being about work, so it just naturally shifts forward. WHICH TECHNIQUE DO YOU FIND GETS YOU THE MOST COMMISSIONS? IS THERE A GENRE THAT IS MOST POPULAR WITH CLIENTS? It is hard to tell. My visuals are rarely done using just one technique, so I think what really attracts my clients is my visual style, a combination of realism and the illustrative look.
The most important thing for anyone to discover is whether your personality fits to freelance or working in a studio. The only way to find out is to try both IS THERE AN ADVANTAGE TO WORKING FOR A STUDIO AS OPPOSED TO FREELANCE? I do not think that advantages are the most important. The most important thing for anyone to discover is whether your personality fits to freelance or working in a studio. The only way to find out is to try both. The more you try, the easier it is for you to find out what works. Listen to your intuition and do not mistake it for fear.
TMP Worldwide London and their client Arup. It is the kind of project I love the most and presents another challenge for me. Hopefully I can share it with you in the next few weeks, so stay tuned on my website or social networks.
DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR ANY OTHER FREELANCERS OR GRAPHIC ARTISTS TRYING TO GET A FOOT IN THE DOOR? I think that the most important thing is to realise that it is not solely about your talent. I have to admit that the biggest weakness of most artists is communication. For me, communication is one of the most important aspects of work or any relationship, because I think that everything can be solved just by talking.
■ THE BIG PICTURE Do not get stuck on the details too early. They are essential, but your image needs to work as a whole first. Work on the rough image and when you think it fits, move on to a deeper level of detail. After a few steps, do not forget to zoom out and check if everything is alright.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON? Right now I’m finishing a series of three visuals for
PORTFOLIO TIPS ǿ),).3+ƀď2%6%!,3ď()3ď4/0ď4)03ď&/2ď#2%!4).'ď!.ď )-02%33)6%ď0/24&/,)/ď&/2ď9/52ď&5452%ď#,)%.43ď 4/ď%80,/2%
■ NEW TECHNIQUES It is good to master one technique, but try not to stay with your favourite one for too long. If you are stuck and not improving, try to learn a new tool. It will push the old one too. Look into fields like matte painting, concept art, photomanipulation, 3D, photography and retouching. ■ DO NOT BE AFRAID OF MURDER Every project counts, because you have definitely learnt something new. However, it doesn’t mean that you have to showcase them all. Just pick the best ones, with the most public reaction and kill the old ones. People are busy, so they need to know quickly who you are.
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the present. In the past I really enjoyed working with the details in 3D, observing materials and mimicking the real world. Now, I’m more into the emotion and overall feeling of an image and with Photoshop, I get quicker visual feedback. This allows me to do a better job regarding the final result. So even though Photoshop is more important to me, I always try not to forget the things that I learnt in early years about adding detail.
Magnum’s 25th Birthday:ď2ADOXISTď
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Create and sell photo books directly from your website Por tfolio
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Transform your photos into photo books ou decide which books are available for sale and et the prices. Your clients order by dragging and ropping their photos into the template of their hoice. One Vision Imaging prints and ships the HDXWLIXOŵQDOSURGXFW,WőVWKDWVLPSOH$OOVWDUWLQJDW ust £100 per year.
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WorldMags.net EYE ON DESIGN PROJECT FOCUS PROJECT FOCUS
CREATING A SUCCESSFUL AD CAMPAIGN GRAPHIC DESIGNER KRZYSZTOF OLAK REVEALS HOW HE AND HIS TEAM CREATED THE ADS FOR ORIGINAL SOURCE’S SEASONAL EDITIONS
W ABOUT THE ARTIST KRZYSZTOF OLAK www.behance.net/krisolak
Krzysztof Olak is a multidisciplinary designer who lives and works in Stettin, Poland. Aer five years of experience in the industry, his work has been featured on Digital Art Served, Branding Served, Packaging Design Served and in numerous magazines. Olak works full time as a graphic designer at interactive agency byss.pl, where he works for numerous clients such as Original Source and Carlsberg. He is also a proud member of Goverdose Polish art collective.
NAME OF PROJECT ORIGINAL SOURCE SEAS
2014 ‘Carambola’ ad
hen Polish advertising agency byss.pl was first approached to work on the labels and key visuals for a client as important as Original Source, it was up to graphic designer Krzysztof Olak (www.behance. net/krisolak) to use Photoshop to create the artwork that would be perfect for the job. “I had the pleasure of working on the Seasonal Edition designs,” he explains, telling us that he was given a lot of creative freedom to generate the ideas that would eventually go into the ads. “Our team had the idea to hint at the origin of the components and fruits used in the Seasonal Editions within the label design. In the 2013 Seasonal Editions there were two fragrances: ‘Raspberry & Cocoa’ and ‘Mandarin & Basil’. In the first one I made reference to Aztec culture for the cocoa and my home country, Poland, for the raspberry.” The result of the team’s idea and Olak’s ingenious work was a big success. So much so, in fact, that byss.pl and Olak created another vibrant ad using the same idea for the ‘Carambola’ Seasonal Edition fragrance again in 2014. To find out more, Advanced Photoshop spoke to Olak to discover exactly how he did it. WHEN WERE YOU FIRST INSPIRED TO LEARN PHOTOSHOP AND USE IT AS A TOOL FOR ADVANCING YOUR CAREER? Well, since I was a little boy I have liked to draw, and everyone told me I was a gifted guy. I won a lot of drawing contests in primary school. I remember back in 2009 a friend that I have known since my childhood showed me some work by Peter Jaworowski. I was really amazed by the power of Photoshop to the point that I installed the CS2 version on my PC. From that moment my curiosity turned into a hobby, and after a year I had my first features and exposure on the web.
Ingredients as inspiration
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Two of my works have won a Featured Image award on the Advanced Photoshop website. I was spending my whole spare time learning the tools and techniques in Photoshop back then, constantly learning something new. I was really determined to grow my skills in every field of design and every award that I’ve achieved pushed me to work more and more. Today I work full time as a graphic designer in one of the best advertising/ interactive agencies in Poland. WHAT PHOTOSHOP TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES DID YOU MAINLY USE TO CREATE THE AD? DETAILS LIKE THE WATER ARE STUNNING! Thank you! Mainly I used creative photo retouching with photomanipulation and digital painting techniques. As for the water, I used the good old Warp tool with the Screen blending mode, and a lot of water splashes were digitally painted. The key visuals are based on stock photos. I also used a lot of clipping masks to paint the shadows and highlights or other image adjustments such as Brightness/Contrast, Levels or Selective Color. WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER USING SOFTWARE OTHER THAN PHOTOSHOP TO CREATE ADS SUCH AS THESE? To be honest with you, no! I’ve been using Photoshop since I can remember. If someone took Photoshop away from me I would probably start using 3D software to try to make ads like these. Of course, 3D modelling takes a lot more time, and time is precious when you work in an ad agency. Photoshop gives me a range of opportunities to work on stock photos and retouch; this software is irreplaceable for me. HAVING SAID THAT, ARE THERE ANY TOOLS OR FEATURES THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SEE IN THE NEXT VERSION? I work with the CS5 version at my agency and I really miss some features that are available in CS6, especially the layer search feature. I am the first to admit that I’m not a tidy person when it comes to naming each layer separately, that’s why I really love this feature. It’s also possible to not only use layer groups as the basis of clipping masks, but also to apply layer effects to an entire group. Previously, they could only
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WorldMags.net Water effects
The splashes are also stock photos resized and distorted with the Warp tool. I mostly used the Screen blending mode, and sometimes Linear Dodge on the bright sides of the background to make the water more visible.
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be applied to individual layers. The Eyedropper tool has also now been tweaked so that it can sample underlying layers as if intervening adjustment layers weren’t there, which makes patching and retouching much easier. I’m a lucky owner of Photoshop CS6 and it has all the features and functions I need to keep my workflow going strong.
All images © Wiktoria Gryniec
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A BEGINNER ON HOW THEY CAN QUICKLY IMPROVE THEIR PHOTOSHOP SKILLS? Only hard work can improve your skills quickly! Keep an eye out for good tutorials and learn from them, visit good design portals for inspiration, and join an art collective where you can get feedback from other designers and artists. Most importantly, love what you do. WHAT RESOURCES WOULD YOU RECOMMEND TO OTHER BUDDING DIGITAL ARTISTS FOR INSPIRATION AND LEARNING NEW SKILLS? I’m a part of Goverdose art collective. You can get free PSD files to download from our ‘Goverdose Academy’ page on Facebook. I suggest keeping an eye out for some great free stuff and tutorials on there. I would also recommend visiting ‘Psdtuts+’ for some awesome tutorials.
The tree was made by combining about 20 bark stock photos. To blend the bark together as one I used masks and a lot of retouching techniques and digital painting to paint branches or leaves. Some of the bark stocks were resized and stretched by using the Warp tool. After everything was blended together, I had to adjust every piece I used to build the tree. There were a lot of clipping masks used with adjustments like Selective Color, Curves and Shadows/Highlights painted with a simple soft brush.
I had to make a background that indicated the carambola fruit origin, so I decided that I would make a photomanipulation using stock photos from Java. The biggest challenge was to make the packshot more interesting. To do that, I decided to wrap the package around with a carambola tree, an idea which all started with a simple sketch.
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WorldMags.net EYE ON DESIGN STUDIO INTERVIEW STUDIO INTERVIEW
TRUE NORTH
MEET THE MANCHESTER STUDIO THAT HELPS BUSINESSES BUILD EFFECTIVE BRAND IDENTITIES AND CAMPAIGNS THROUGH A STRONG TEAMWORK ETHOS AND AN UNDERSTANDING OF CLIENT NEEDS
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t True North, every member of the team is considered equally important, and it is by working together that the studio can deliver effective designs that help brands to drive business. Head of artwork Ed Dunsdon believes that this is what sets the studio apart from its peers. “In my experience, the True North studio stands apart from other studios because of the structure of the design teams and the egalitarian culture that permeates from the top down,” he says. “The teams, led by senior designers and guided by the design director and creative director, continually share and discuss ideas from the concept stage through to final artwork. There are no egos or dominant personalities, which makes for a very calm, focused and enjoyable creative environment.” The studio was started 12 years ago by co-founders Ady Bibby, Martin Carr and Craig Webste. “They shared a ‘frustration with mediocrity’ and believed that there was a place for a really great Manchester-based design agency,” says design director Karen Hughes. “The original details of True North were decided at a high-powered meeting in the Sainsbury’s cafe in Denton. Despite these humble beginnings, within six months of setting up they had been appointed to the rosters of Bank of Scotland, BMI, and worked on the launch of Imperial War Museum North. From day one the driving force behind True North has always been great ideas that ‘work’ for our clients and help drive business success. To achieve this is a matter of strategy, creativity and craft, and although there have been many changes at True North over the years, this has and always will remain the why and how we do what we do.” The reason for the success of the studio is down to the collaborative efforts of the team members, each pulling on their own strengths to the requirements of the brief. “It’s about getting the right team and the right expertise on the right jobs,” says Hughes. “Our strategic and creative teams work closely together from day one and throughout the process to make sure we really understand the client and deliver on their brief.” This collaboration very much centres around the client and their needs, with the studio team working closely with them at every stage to ensure that the final result is the very best that it can be. When asked if True North is able to add its own style and input into each brief, Hughes replies: “Rather than
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ABOUT THE STUDIO TRUE NORTH www.thisistruenorth.co.uk @thisistruenorth
True North is an award-winning strategic branding agency based in the heart of the Northern Quarter in Manchester. Its ethos is ‘brands that drive business’, and they believe in simple ideas that make a big difference to brands and businesses.
Karen Hughes Design Director
Sarah Hardman Designer
Ed Dunsdon Head of Artwork The studio works on a range of projects, predominately print-based, for well-known business clients
From day one the driving force behind True North has always been great ideas that ‘work’ for our clients and help drive business success
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WorldMags.net EYE ON DESIGN STUDIO INTERVIEW England players illustrated through ash for our ‘New Era, Old Enemy’ campaign for the Ashes at Old Trafford in 2013
The studio enjoys “a very calm, focused and enjoyable creative environment”
A team of 11 legendary British footballers come together for the first time in Royal Mail’s Football Heroes stamps The team know how to relax in-between working hard to meet client briefs and deadlines
influence our clients with our own personal taste, we help them to find their own style that helps them capture and communicate who they are and what they do. To make this happen, we start a long time before we start kerning the type and looking at CMYK breakdowns. It’s about really understanding the job in hand. This means when we get a brief, we pull it apart, get to grips with what the client actually wants to get out of it, then we put it back together again. We ask lots of questions, we involve all the stakeholders and really get under the skin of our client’s businesses and organisations.”
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Because of this flexibility and ability to adapt to meet each client’s needs, True North has attracted some well-known businesses to its roster. A particular standout project for the team was a recent commission for a wayfinding job for Dunham Massey, a National Trust property on the outskirts of Greater Manchester. This job came off the back of another, creating a set of guidelines for them to use internally. Designer Sarah Hardman tells us more about the brief: “A visual language was created to help them push their proposition of ‘More than just a walk in the park’, unifying all areas of the estate and
drawing visitors into areas they might not have previously visited.” In February this year, Dunham opened an impressive new visitor reception building to facilitate its large number of visitors. True North’s job was to design the wayfinding and environmental graphics for the new build, helping people navigate while bringing the story of Dunham to life through material, interpretation spaces and the visual language. “For the navigational elements we created a modular system that could be applied consistently throughout the space for ease of use,” explains Hardman. “Once we had tackled the practical
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WorldMags.net SPORT PSYCHOLOGY BRAND IDENTITY
ARTWORK MANAGER ED DUNSDON TALKS US THROUGH THIS RECENT BRANDING PROJECT The brief for this project was to “create an engaging brand identity based around the function of the company that is both professional and confident”
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SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST CONCEPT
This shows the initial concept for the brand identity; a strong identity that helps communicate the mental and physical elements of sports psychology. It was built on the observation that muscle definition of the human body mirrors the brain.
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03 STUDIO SHOT
This is the chosen image from the studio shoot. The designer oversaw the shoot and planned the lighting with the photographer to match as closely as possible to the visual concepts.
FIRST RETOUCH
The retouch increases the highlights and overall lighting, enhancing the muscle definition to give the impression of the surface texture of the brain. At this stage the retouch is shown to the designer and the creative director. Amends are marked up on the proof and returned to the retoucher.
FINAL RETOUCH
Working from the marked-up proof, the retoucher has strengthened the lighting on the leading edge, rounded the back and tidied the model’s hair. The image has been cut out and layered so that it can be dropped into the artwork files.
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PRACTICAL USE
The retouched image is now incorporated into client stationary. The image is applied to the letterhead and the reverse of the business card.
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WorldMags.net EYE ON DESIGN STUDIO INTERVIEW components of the wayfinding system, we could then layer in ideas that had a bit more emotion, that told a story, that communicated the brand and engaged with its users. We had to consider the use of the visual language in the environment and how it could be used to talk to various audiences that Dunham welcomes. Communicating on these different levels brought us a lot of enjoyment, and it was great to see people engaging with the space while also being able to find where they need to go.” True North isn’t afraid to tackle a challenging project head on, as exhibited through the Dunham project. Another recent example is a pilot project for Sport England and Bury Council to encourage women and girls to do more exercise. This type of project needs much more than just good design, as there are numerous other factors that need to be considered from the outset. “The main challenge was to get women to overcome their fears and barriers to exercise,” says Hardman. “Our solution was to take the intimidation out of exercise, showing women they are not on their own. Therefore we created the brand campaign ‘I Will If You Will’, which encouraged women to support each other and get moving together. The campaign involved creating a brand video, six sheet campaigns, and campaign collateral, which all showed real women of Bury, in real situations, telling real stories, deliberately avoiding the unrealistic, intimidating, size 8 model imagery usually used to promote women’s exercise. The response in Bury has been great, and so far the campaign has been a huge success, with women
An updatable timeline of events and exhibitions during the Wellcome Collection’s redevelopment project
sharing their positive stories and benefits of getting more active.” The team uses the Adobe suite of programs to achieve its creative visions, including Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. “Photoshop is an intrinsic tool within the studio,” says Ed Dunsdon. “[It helps] to manifest creative ideas and concepts. We use it at all levels, from batch processing and contact sheets, to retouching and full creative compositions. The majority of our work is print-based, and imagery
Our team here is a great mix of experiences; we’ve got people here from day one who’ve been through it all a hundred times over, mixed with enthusiastic young graduates A DAY IN THE LIFE OF SARAH HARDMAN
plays an important part in bringing concepts to life, from postage stamps to billboards.” A combination of effective imagery and a strong understanding of what a business needs from its branding materials is certainly a recipe for success, and will ensure a strong future for the operations of True North. For Karen Hughes, it is the members of the team that are the real secrets to its impressive achievements: “The people who work here are what make True North, and they will be what shapes True North over coming years. Our team here is a great mix of experiences; we’ve got people here from day one who’ve been through it all a hundred times over, mixed with enthusiastic young graduates who are looking to make their mark. It’s this mix of people and energy that makes the future of True North really exciting, and there really is a feeling that the best is yet to come.”
DESIGNER SARAH TAKES US THROUGH A TYPICAL DAY AT TRUE NORTH
09:00
BREW ROUND
With the ‘delayed trains’ excuses out of the way, it is time for the morning brew. We all do our best to avoid having to make it. If successful in escaping the round, then yesterday’s timesheet will always need completing.
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10:30
MORNING BRIEF
Due to the nature of my work, there’s never really a typical day. A new project is briefed this morning and I will get time to think around the idea. More often than not a team of us will get our heads together to gain stronger answers.
13:00
LUNCHTIME RUN
Running club commences at 1pm, all abilities welcome. A slow, steady pace is run along the canal, Manchester City Stadium being our halfway marker. With a cold shower and a clear head, we’re now ready for the afternoon.
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WorldMags.net Photoshop is an intrinsic tool within the studio, helping to manifest creative ideas and concepts
Repositioning campaign encouraging people to ‘take another look’ at the National Portrait Gallery
The team work together on briefs to come up with ideas
TOP 5 PRODUCTION TIPS
Ed Dunsdon shares his top tips for ensuring a seamless workflow
■ PHOTOSHOP LAYERS Always order and name your layers clearly and logically. This is especially important when working on multi-layer comps that someone else may need to pick up to work on. ■ RENAME FILES Batch Rename in Adobe Bridge is a quick and easy way to rename multiple image files.
All article images © True North 2014
■ NEVER DELETE When a designer, or client, asks you to take something out of a comp, never delete it – always mask it. They are bound to ask for it to be put back in. ■ HOUSEKEEPING Artwork is about good housekeeping. Create a centralised resources point for all images and logos, so that the creative team is always using the latest versions. ■ CAN DO Artwork and production should be about ‘can do’ or ‘let’s see what we can do’ to assist the creatives to visualise their concepts. Be proactive, not reactive.
14:00
PHOTO SHOOT
This afternoon I am out of the office at a photo shoot for Bury Council, art directing our photographer Stuart Hendry to capture how the real women of Bury are getting more active as part of our ‘I Will If You Will’ campaign.
16:00
BACK TO WORK
Back to the office to get cracking on with the brief. I will spend a couple of hours researching and scribbling down ideas before sharing with the rest of the team in the design crit. Not quite there yet, best keep thinking...
18:30
HOME TIME
With the timesheets done, it’s now time to put the Mac to sleep and call it a day (or sometimes a night). On a good day it’s a 6.30pm finish (if we’re lucky). Cue the race for the lift. Maximum weight is 400kg!
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© Amol Jadhav Photography / Creative retouching by PixelPaint
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“We worked very closely with the photographer to get the desired lighting in the studio, with respect to the selected backplates in which the bike and the rider were going to get comped into,” explains creative production studio PixelPaint
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WorldMags.net CREATIVE ADVERTISING
TECHNIQUES
WE TALK TO PROFESSIONALS WITH EXPERIENCE IN ALL OF THE KEY AREAS OF GOOD ADVERTISING DESIGN, AS THEY SHARE THE TRICKS OF THE TRADE
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reating effective advertising imagery is the mark of a good designer, but there is a lot more to it than simply making pretty pictures. Yes, the key artwork needs to be high-quality, attractive and engaging, but an advertising image needs to be so much more. It is the combination of the key artwork, text and necessary information, put together in the most effective composition; it is the right colours to speak to the right target audience; and it is the correct typeface to match the brand and the message being conveyed. Advertising imagery is often the result of a large number of people from different disciplines working together as one, including the client, an ad agency, the art director, the designer/designers, CG artists, retouchers and copywriters. To be dominant in this field, you need to be flexible and resilient, as
numerous changes are likely to be made, but if the end result is successful, then it can lead to bigger and better things. As a starting point, Emlyn Davies and Lewis Williams of Bomper studio suggest that you break your project down into stages so that you can tackle each one effectively: “A solid understanding of how design principles work in harmony can help you to deconstruct an overwhelming artwork into a series of elements, whose relationship to each other determines the next logical step you need to consider. Write a checklist, organise your workflow and take it one element at a time. And remember, composition is as much about whether it feels right as whether it technically looks right. If something just doesn’t feel right, change it.” Being able to place all of these elements in the right place is one thing, but it is skill with Photoshop
that brings it all together. Often, even the key images themselves are complex composites, bringing together studio shots and location photography into a seamless whole. This is something that creative retouchers Chirag Doshi and Prasad Shetty of PixelPaint specialise in, working with their clients to create bespoke visuals that are high-quality and photorealistic, even though they bring together different photographic elements. “For us at PixelPaint we think that for a really good advertising visual the image should be seamless, irrespective of any number of different images comped in to create one image. We believe in creating visual content [that is both] emotional and engaging for the audience, and where the essential elements (ideas, product or cause) are highlighted at once.”
CONTRIBUTORS EMLYN DAVIES AND LEWIS WILLIAMS
BOMPERSTUDIO.COM Davies is the creative director (and founder) and Williams is the studio manager at Bomper studio, a boutique CGI and design studio specialising in photorealistic 3D visualisations.
JONATHON GARRATT
WWW.BEHANCE.NET/JGARRATT Garratt is a graphic designer working for Marketing In Partnership (mipagency. com). He does a lot of print ads for magazines, as well as campaign imagery for sports events.
DMITRIY GLAZYRIN
WWW.WESTERNJACK.COM Glazyrin is the production director at Western Jack, a CG production studio specialising in photography, 3D graphics and retouching. The small team produces big work for a range of clients.
PIXELPAINT
WWW.PIXELPAINT.IN PixelPaint is a creative production studio based in India that specialises in creative retouching and CGI for still imagery. It combines the skills of Chirag Doshi and Prasad Shetty.
SASHA VINOGRADOVA
WWW.SASHAVINOGRADOVA.COM Sasha Vinogradova is a Russian artist and graphic designer. She is currently working in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles doing key visuals for movies and TV series.
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LAUREN HOM
WWW.HOMSWEETHOM.COM Hom is a designer, illustrator and letterer based in Brooklyn, New York. She combines hand-drawn lettering with her digital work to create a unique, whimsical style.
© Bomper studio and Hurricane design studio
WorldMags.net TECHNIQUES CREATIVE ADVERTISING COMPOSITION Composition refers to the way that the different elements of your design are put together. In advertising, that may include a brand logo, a strong selling message and more descriptive and informative text. It’s a lot to balance all of this in one small space, and often an advertising image needs to work just as well when printed in a magazine as it does when it’s posted as a giant billboard. Emlyn Davies and Lewis Williams know that advertising artworks have a specific purpose or focus, which is determined from the outset through the brief or brand guidelines: “We try to guide the viewer to firstly consume the image as our entry point (establishing an emotional connection), followed by the descriptive copy (communicating the value), and finally the product or brand (creating a lasting image) as our exit point. Composition has the power to control the viewer and can determine how much impact an artwork has, how coherent its message is, or even how long it holds the viewer’s attention. The importance of composition is huge; it truly is the foundation of successful ad design.”
We think that for a really good advertising visual the image should be seamless, irrespective of any number of different images comped in to create one image
PixelPaint, www.pixelpaint.in
Doughnut retouch: Retouch of photography and CGI chocolate for Hurricane design studio
CONSISTENT COMPOSITIONS
© Ogilvy, Delhi / Creative retouching by PixelPaint
OFTEN YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO CREATE MULTIPLE IMAGES FOR A SINGLE CAMPAIGN, WHICH NEED TO LOOK AND FEEL SIMILAR TO MAINTAIN CONSISTENCY ACROSS A BRAND, AS THIS EXAMPLE FROM PIXELPAINT SHOWS
“The client, Aciquick, wanted to portray the instantaneous effect of its product, which is an antacid tablet relieving acidity quickly. The copy for this campaign reads: ‘Aciquick – gets to work in six seconds’. For this project we worked closely with art director Khurram Haque and creative director Nitin Srivastava at Oglivy, Delhi. “We started off with the use of stock imagery for the animals; the dynamite was crafted by us in order to achieve the real scraped look needed, and further shot by photographer Dushyant Bhatt individually and as a group together. The vests seen in the image are also shot individually, and finally all of these multi-part elements are comped in to make it work as a seamless image.”
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WorldMags.net KEEP COMPOSITION SIMPLE EMLYN DAVIES AND LEWIS WILLIAMS OF BOMPER STUDIO TALK US THROUGH THIS IMAGE FOR THE CADBURY REBRAND AND NEW BAR SHAPE
Composition has the power to control the viewer and can determine how much impact an artwork has, how coherent its message is, or even how long it holds the viewer’s attention Emlyn Davies and Lewis Williams, www.bomperstudio.com There are various ‘rules’ of composition that are relevant to any piece of design work, no matter its intended output. Things like the ‘rule of thirds’ or the ‘golden ratio’ are what students are taught as theory when studying the art of advertising design, but it is quite something else to apply it to real-life commissions. As well as thinking about what is aesthetically pleasing, it is also essential to consider the purpose of the advert: who is it trying
© Bomper studio and redtag
NBS brochure: 3D poseable characters for redtag design agency for the Nottingham Building society print and digital campaigns. Robin Hood and Maid Marian are out and about on the streets of Nottingham to launch the Nottingham’s Whole of Market mortgage campaign
to target and what will encourage them to interact with the product or service? “Composition that engages the viewer, establishes an emotional connection, holds their attention and guides them to the important details is important no matter what the audience,” says the team at Bomper studio. “Meanwhile, designers need to put themselves in the mind of the target viewers and try to imagine what would grab (and
© Bomper studio and Cadbury Design Studio
“The hero of this campaign was the new branding and product shape. Trying to showcase this without cluttering an ad is always a challenge. We began the process by sketching several thumbnails, to work out the optimal flow that would accommodate each of the elements, and tried to scale back anything that was not required. We utilised CGI to create the product shots for the newly rebranded bars, along with the new format and shape for the smaller bars. Creating elements entirely in 3D gave us the most flexibility later when considering composition. “Another benefit of CGI is the consistency of the visuals across multiple variants, as well as any potential future campaigns. Consistency is important in advertising, as we look to establish a lasting connection between brand and consumer. We combined the CGI elements and environment with dynamic typography, to better reflect the new size and weight of the product. With some final reflections and background highlights, we felt we had focused the design, and captured everything that we set out to capture within one great visual.” hold) their attention. Where the target is a younger audience or the content a more energetic brand or product, it may be more effective to stick to a shorter eye path or a more dynamic flow between elements, for example. But we’ve found no quick and fast rules relating certain target groups to specific composition choices; ultimately it’s determined by the tone of the brand and the emotion that the concept aims to evoke.” Putting this into practice requires a strong workflow process that address all of these concerns. For Emlyn Davies this starts with looking at the brief and determining the key points required within the advertisement. “We try to follow a hierarchy of what is most important – most often the message – and first tackle that visual or typographic element. The branding of the ad is very important too, and can range from just subtly using the brand’s colours to flooding the ad with logos.” From here, the team use sketched thumbnails to work out what the best flow of the required elements is. Next, assets can be collated and put within the decided structure. Of course, when working with clients and on briefs, there are always going to be compositional changes throughout the design process to contend with. “Liaising with marketing teams usually throws up amends to copy or headlines within the middle of a job, so you always have to be ready to adjust what you’ve already done, and what you’ve planned to do next. Ultimately with ads it’s about what looks right, as it has to have its desired effect instantly – if we’re not successful in grabbing the eye and the attention of the viewer right away, most will either just pass the billboard by or turn the page.”
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WorldMags.net TECHNIQUES CREATIVE ADVERTISING
Choosing the right colours and knowing what works best for your market is key if you want the attention of your customers
THE IMPORTANCE OF COLOUR DMITRIY GLAZYRIN OF WESTERN JACK SHARES HIS TOP TIPS AND ADVICE ON WHY COLOUR IS SO IMPORTANT IN PRINT ADVERTISING “Colours and shades often help convey emotions and mood; a drawing can be dull, lively, neutral or repulsive. Therefore, the colour scheme is picked to match the scenario of an ad print. There are many stereotypes and standards here that every designer must know and use. For instance, food images cannot be lacklustre and bleak, and serious social messages will look bizarre if rendered in bright, vivid colours.
“I pick the colour scheme at the beginning when I start creating a sketch. Later on, colours can be adjusted at each stage, but final colour correction of the ready print is a must in most situations. For instance, in this image (pictured), colours were corrected at the very end of the process. Although the work had been officially accepted, we continued looking for a colour that would help us achieve the necessary effect and make the print more expressive.”
© Western Jack
COLOUR Once a strong composition has been created, then the next thing to consider is the colours that you are going to use. This is both in terms of the colours themselves and the shades of those colours, but also colour correction in Photoshop of key photography and other elements – especially in complex compositions where multiple lighting setups may have been used. Colours can play a strong role in whether an advert is successful in its goal of attracting an audience, and their effect can be immediate. “Printed advertisements are often seen for only a few seconds. This time should suffice for attracting attention and delivering the ad’s message,” says Dmitriy Glazyrin of Western Jack. “A proper combination of colours, shades and the overall composition help place the key highlights and focus on the main point [of the advertisement].” This is true across the board when it comes to advertising imagery, explains graphic designer Jonathon Garratt: “I’ve always believed that regardless of which market you are in, more often than not aesthetics will be the deciding factor in what you spend your money on. Picking the right
BEFORE FINAL COLOUR PROCESSING
AFTER FINAL COLOUR PROCESSING
Jonathon Garratt, behance.net/jgarratt © Western Jack
China Town: Colours don’t always have to be bright to be effective; in this image, Western Jack creates an engaging atmosphere through powerful but dark colours and strong highlights
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WorldMags.net GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS WITH COLOUR
Intercomp Lion: When working with food imagery, there are certain colour rules to be met. It needs to look appealing, so dull imagery wouldn’t work
Wooster Hound: Using a moodboard of designs that you like can help to determine the final colour scheme of a print ad, as demonstrated here by Western Jack’s design for Wooster Hound
customers,” says Jonathon Garratt. The youth market, for example, traditionally responds better to bright, vibrant imagery, whereas if you want to attract business people, then sleek blacks and greys are more effective. One way to determine the colours that you want to use is to study the work of others that has proved successful. “Every project starts with analysing the work of other authors; what approaches were used, how similar scenarios were portrayed, what quality of shading was achieved,” says Glazyrin. “All concepts and ideas of a new project are assembled on a large moodboard, which helps to pick the necessary colour scheme and overall style.” Simplicity is also key, as too many colours can confuse the eye and lose the viewer’s attention. “I like to avoid using a large amount of varying colours. Pick two or three colours/shades that work well together and roll with them – this creates strong, simple design that gets the point across,” says Garratt. When it comes to adding in the text to your image, that also needs to match the colours of the image and be bold enough that it can be read without taking over the carefully constructed artwork too much.
Red: A ‘hot’ colour that is often associated with fire. However, it can also be used to show that something is important or special (because of the Hollywood ‘red carpet’ effect). Orange: Part of the ‘warm’ family of colours, orange is often used to show energy (think vitamin C and vitality). It can also give an autumnal feel in some tones. Yellow: The colour of the sun, yellow lightens and brightens an image, and is associated with happiness, joy and wellbeing. It can make viewers think of holidays and relaxing. Green: Part of the ‘cool’ family, green is linked to nature (think grass and trees) as well as environmental issues and being eco-friendly. Green is also the colour of money. Blue: Blue is a colour of contrast. It is a sad colour (‘feeling blue’), but it’s also associated with the sky, which can invoke feelings of limitless possibilities (‘reach for the sky’). Purple: This is a regal colour and is often used to show luxury. It can be a very rich colour when used in this sense, but pastel versions are romantic and spring-like. Black: Part of the ‘neutral’ family, black is a strong colour that is often associated with both power and death. Practically, it is also perfect for logos and typography, as it’s not distracting. White: Think white and the usual visual images are those of purity and softness. It’s also very clean and sterile. White space is important in designs to give ‘breathing space’. Brown: This is a down-to-earth colour, as it makes viewers think of mud, trees, nature and wood, making it great for tactile or natural-looking designs.
© Western Jack
colours can make all the difference in grabbing the consumer’s attention and ultimately making them want to invest time and money into your design.” So we know how important colours can be, but how do you pick the right colours for your designs? In the boxout on this page, we look in more detail at what each colour ‘means’ and the connotations associated with them. On top of that, there are other things that you need to bear in mind. “Other considerations with colour in advertising is the brand and the target market. Choosing the right colours and knowing what works best for your market is key if you want the attention of your
© Western Jack
THE RIGHT COLOURS CAN AFFECT THE IMPACT OF YOUR DESIGNS, SO FIND OUT WHAT MESSAGE YOU ARE SENDING WITH EACH COLOUR
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Grey: A colour that is popular as an alternative to white or black, especially for logos or typography, as it creates a more subtle effect. It can also look very business-like and professional.
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Typography is a key component of any print advertisement – an ad is designed to give information after all. Getting the typography right is down to balancing it with the imagery and any other assets (like a logo), and choosing the right fonts to make the message easy to read. “On a functional level, typography provides the design with hierarchy. Hierarchy is vital as it gives indication to important information and balances the design,” says graphic designer Jonathon Garratt. Getting creative with your typefaces can be effective, as the team at Western Jack know. They take a different approach to lettering, as they don’t use traditional fonts; instead handwriting and calligraphy is applied to print ads. “We consider handwork to be a more expressive method than the usual typography, and our customers understand that,” says Dmitriy Glazyrin. “Calligraphy and typography help to reproduce the intonation of the phrase – words can ‘shout’ or ‘fall apart’, or they can be ‘strong’ or ‘soft’. The fact that we have a handwriter in the our team and our ability to make typography more atmospheric differentiates us from most other CGI agencies.” It’s also not unusual to come across an advertisement that uses the typography as the main focus, which can catch attention when done correctly, agrees Garratt. “Typography is an important aspect of advertisement, and a useful and effective tool for your design. If it is done well enough it can work as
“[It was a challenge] to create a legible logo in one colour,” says designer Sasha Vinogradova. “Before approval of the final version, we explored different colours and angles. As part of the new branding, the logo changes depending on the TV show”
FYI: “This is a branding project for a new TV network: FYI,” explains Vinogradova. “The three letters represent different directions of the new network – lifestyle, fashion and food – so the letters of the logo were made in different ‘materials’, representing these directions”
SIMPLE VS DECORATIVE
© Sasha Vinogradova
© Jonathon Garratt
BOTH FORMS OF TYPOGRAPHY CAN BE INCREDIBLY EFFECTIVE, AS LONG AS IT IS MATCHED TO THE OTHER ELEMENTS IN THE ADVERTISEMENT AND THE TARGET AUDIENCE, AS THESE SAMPLES SHOW
the sole feature of the design, removing any need for a graphic or hero image”. One typographic designer who does this well is Lauren Hom, as she explains her process: “When I’m designing a piece that’s purely typographic, I first have to take into consideration the importance of each word. This helps me determine which words are illustrated bigger, bolder and fancier, and which words are smaller, simpler, and more subdued. That’s also how I balance creativity and legibility.”
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Pernod: Western Jack doesn’t use traditional fonts; for type work on print ads they create hand lettering and calligraphy
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© Western Jack
TYPOGRAPHY
© Sasha Vinogradova
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WorldMags.net TOP 5 FONTS IN ADVERTISING KEY FONTS THAT ARE WORTH EVERY DESIGNER KNOWING AND USING IN THEIR PRINT DESIGNS ■ Helvetica AMERICAN APPAREL, NESTLÉ, LUFTHANSA Despite being around for over five decades, this is still a popular font for advertising designers and is one of the most recognisable around.
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© Penguin Books
■ Gill Sans BBC, TOMMY HILFIGER, PENGUIN A sans-serif typeface that has been around since it was designed by Eric Gill in 1926. He was inspired by the Johnston typeface for the London Underground, and Gill Sans is the font used on classic Penguin Books from 1935. It remains popular with big brands.
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■ Myriad APPLE, LINKEDIN, ADOBE Originally designed for Adobe Systems. When Apple took on Myriad (‘Apple Myriad’) as its corporate typeface in 2002, this font took on a new popularity in big brand advertising and logos.
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■ Futura ABSOLUT, IKEA CUSTOM, UNTIL 2010, VOLKSWAGEN CUSTOM Futura is famous for being the font that advertised planet Earth (on the commemorative plaque left on the moon). Lots of big companies use customised versions of the font, including IKEA.
© NASA
■ Garamond ABERCROMBIE & FITCH This serif font is one of the oldest still in use and is popular for printed works as it is considered very readable. It has also been identified as ‘toner-efficient’.
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WorldMags.net TECHNIQUES 30 RETOUCHING TIPS FOR PROS PHOTO EDITING
30FOR PROS RETOUCHING TIPS
IT ISN’T JUST REMOVING SPOTS AND MAKING PEOPLE THINNER. RETOUCHING HAS BECOME A PROFESSION WITH SPECIALITIES AND AN ARTISTIC ENDEAVOUR IN ITS OWN RIGHT
© Franklin Thompson
“Commercial beauty and fashion retouchers have quite a streamlined set of tools,” says retoucher Daniel Meadows (www.dmd-digital-retouching. com). “The foundations are Clone/Heal, Dodge and Burn with filters, paint brushes and masks, but the majority of the time you’ll find yourself hitting J, S and O (Healing Brush, Clone Stamp and Dodge/Burn respectively), although most retouchers, including myself, have their own dodge and burn system. “A great way to give yourself a little extra control is to create two Curves adjustment layers, one with the midpoint lowered to burn, and the other raised to dodge. Black mask these out and paint on the mask with white to bring in the effect as locally as you’d like. This gives you the opportunity to tweak the curve at any point in your workflow and to work completely non-destructively… quick fixes won’t work until you’ve got the basics covered.
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“There are a number of plug-ins or techniques around that blast somewhere around the middle radius of a shot and make them appear smooth while retaining texture. This sounds great in theory and they’re extremely tempting to overuse because the results are dramatic, but it’s an obvious and unrealistic approach avoided by the majority of the clients you’ll be hoping to work with. “Once you’ve got the foundations of dodge and burn (I cover this on my blog), you can start to implement a few of these quick fixes, such as Frequency Separation and inverted High Pass to complement your workflow. It’s all about learning how to work correctly before fighting dirty! It’s also hugely important to regularly look through fashion magazines; they’re full of the kind of ads you’ll be hoping to work with, and trends in post-processing do change.”
© Adam Browning Hill
01. KNOW YOUR TOOLS
02. BE COMMUNICATIVE AND CREATIVE “So much of being a good retoucher is having exceptional communication skills, and being honest and reliable,” says Ashlee Gray (www.ashleegrayretouch.com). “It may sound silly, but over the years I’ve learned that clear communication is key. Retouchers are hired to interpret and execute other people’s visions on a daily basis; however, I believe it’s just as important for retouchers to have a vision of their own and bring more than what’s expected to the table. “First, I like to find out as much as I can about the client and their brand by researching previous work to get a feel for what they like. Often times they pass along inspiration or detailed retouching notes that help me to understand how far to go with the images. Some clients come to me with very specific retouching notes to make sure things don’t get overlooked for any reason. Retouching notes are a great starting point, especially when there are tight deadlines. On the other hand, there are some people who hire me based on my work and trust that I can bring my vision to the table. If this is the case, we have some sort of creative conversation where I ask a lot of questions and send samples to make sure I’m on the right track and not wasting time.”
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© Charn S Bedi
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Nice gnashers: “Sometimes I leave flaws on images on purpose to help create a sense of reality. Flaws on this image that I left were the not-so-perfect teeth (but almost perfect).”
Laughter lines: “Leave some wrinkles on the image rather than softening them down too much.”
In the pink: “Already having used nice vibrant colours on the nails and eyes, I then decided in post to add a nice pink poppy tone to the background rather than keeping it white as originally shot.”
Take your time: “Never give up! Beauty retouching is so time-consuming that it will always take longer than fashion or editorial. It’s easy to judge if an image has been rushed.”
03. FROM FLAW TO FINISH
CHARN S. BEDI TALKS THROUGH SHOOTING AND RETOUCHING THIS MUA IMAGE
Tools of the trade: “It’s a good idea to invest in a decent tablet. I use the Wacom Intuos5 Large on my Mac Pro, and an Intuos5 Small on my MacBook Pro. I also have a preference of using the spring-loaded nib on my Intuos pens.”
Retro retouching: “I had the opportunity of shooting this great image. MUA was going for an Audrey Hepburn-style pose.”
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WorldMags.net TECHNIQUES 30 RETOUCHING TIPS FOR PROS ASHLEE GRAY EXPLAINS HER WORKFLOW ON THIS IMAGE SHOT BY FRANKLIN THOMPSON
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A MODEL JOB
Once I open an image, I start by creating a blank layer and begin drawing notes all over the image with a bright-coloured brush. This helps me visualise what I want to accomplish before I start working on the specific areas.
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LUSTROUS LOCKS
From there, I’d like to say I always start at the same place, but usually it’s with the things I find the most distracting. It’s often hard to look past big blemishes, hairs going through the eyes, or even areas that need colour correction. In this case, the skin has been cleaned, all flyaways and cross hairs have been removed, and additional hair has been added to the right side.
05. ACHIEVING SYMMETRY
© Sergey Moshkov
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© Tim Johnson
© Photographer: Max Oppenheim. Make up: Nikki Wolff
© Stefan Bourson
Every blocked pore For Daniel Meadows, much of the retoucher’s job is bridging the gap between what the naked eye sees, and what the increasingly sophisticated camera does. “With modern lenses we can achieve very sharp images,” he says, “and unfortunately with that comes a detailed record of every hair and blocked pore, every irregular eyelash. The eye doesn’t tend to pick up on these tiny details in real life, but with close, sharp beauty shots we tend to even these out before print for the benefit of the shot.” Glowing skin “With beauty work, skin is probably the most time-consuming part of the process, as texture must be retained. In advertising and editorial at the high end, each part of the skin is carefully dodged and burned to even out texture and maintain realism. I usually start with compositional adjustments. Sometimes a hand, for example, will be better positioned in an outtake from the set, so occasionally there’s some compositing.”
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BURNING BONE STRUCTURE
This is now complete with dodging and burning to bring out bone structure and shine to the hair, with colour and toning added. Finally, a High Pass with a layer mask was used to sharpen the hair in some areas, and a small amount of grain added.
06. LIPSTICK AND SPIT “Some of the most common fixes are eyelashes not being stuck on properly, hair coming across the eyes, and uneven lipstick,” says beauty retoucher Charn S. Bedi (www.thebeautyretoucher.com). “When retouching macro lip shots, spit on the gums can be annoying as the light reflects off it, causing a shine. I have a library of eyelashes taken and neatened up from previous work to aid me if I ever have to re-create them. The trickiest thing to retouch in beauty is hair as it is so fine. I zoom in very close for hair retouching to remove strands of hair that go against the natural flow of the hair style. This helps to refine the hair to make it look neater. This then enables me to fill in dark areas to make it look more full bodied and healthy. I use various amounts of layers and clone brushes with different blend modes to get to the final result, finishing off with a dodge and burn to create contouring and a nice shine.”
Dipping a fashion toe “Quite often I’ll receive a sidecar XMP file with RAWs if the photographer knows the look they’re going for, but some of the most fun projects are those where I’m encouraged to experiment with colour treatments. I’ve frequently got my head in a fashion magazine, so there are always a few styles I’m looking to try something new with for the right shot.” Even eyes “Another one of those things the naked eye doesn’t tend to pick up on but the lens notices is the symmetry of the eyes. My own left eye is slightly higher than my right. No-one would ever pick up on it but you can tell if I point it out on my driver’s license! At the other end of my workflow, I usually leave sharpening and colour treatments until the last steps. It’s important not to oversharpen your working file at the start or you’re giving yourself a lot more work.”
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© Photographer: Max Oppenheim. Make up: Nikki Wolff
04. A MODEL JOB
WorldMags.net Bringing the burn: The main focus was bringing out her eyes and the gold of the eye shadow. I built in dimension using dodging and burning and also put a tone on the background that made it a little cooler.
Facial freestyle: When I don’t know how to tackle tricky things I like to do what I call ‘freestyling’. It’s basically creating a new layer and telling myself I’m going to problem solve using any way I can think of, and if it doesn’t work out I’ll just delete the layer, grab another coffee and start all over.
07. FACE TO THE FORE ASHLEE GRAY TALKS THROUGH HER RETOUCHING ON THIS IMAGE
Making the cut: The image was part of an editorial we did for Factice magazine. It wasn’t part of the original selection; it wasn’t until we were almost finished with the retouching of the others that we added this one in, to make the story a little more well rounded.
Horizontal power: We picked this one to help break up all the other vertical shots. This beauty shot allowed us to get much tighter and really focus on her beauty.
Clothing concerns: The top she had was pretty structured and fit her really well, so it only required a bit of shaping around her shoulder area.
08. A FACE TOO FAR
09. ARTISTIC, NOT ANOREXIC
“For me, an image has gone too far when you’ve lost natural texture, dimension and shape,” says Ashlee Gray. “Texture can be lost by a number of ways, blurring and cloning are probably the top two. Dimension is often lost by removing natural smile lines completely, making the whites of the eyes too white, and by removing shadows under the eyes or lips. Having a basic understanding of anatomy is really important so that tools like Liquify aren’t abused when trying to shape parts of the body. In the end if retouching goes too far it looks cheap and tacky. I suggest keeping it simple by polishing the skin while keeping some natural elements such as moles or freckles. On the other hand, those who are learning how to retouch often forget about the body parts matching the face. The face will look clean and polished but the arms, hands, and legs will all be a different skin tone. Don’t forget about the rest of the body!”
“The best retouchers have a solid understanding of light, anatomy and composition,” explains Daniel Meadows. “It’s helpful to study the planes of the face, of the way light and shadow behave from a traditional art standpoint. Good make-up tutorials that deal with contouring are also a great source of knowledge and inspiration. There are centuries of sound advice from before we had Photoshop or even photography – be sure to learn from them! One of the most important things to learn as a beginner is what a flaw is or isn’t. I engage online with a lot of beginner retouchers and try to offer advice where I can, and I know how easy it is to be over-enthusiastic. Lines under the eyes, moles, freckles, beauty spots, perfectly natural neck creases, I’ve seen them all wiped out. Usually the question ‘why?’ is enough to prompt a eureka moment of ‘you know, I’m really not sure!’ Beauty retouching isn’t about creating a wax model. You learn as you go that less is often more, that if it isn’t improving the shot it really isn’t worth doing simply because you have the tools to do so. Remember that the brand or photographer chose the model for a reason. Slightly contour an unfortunately squished bit by all means, improve a line a little for composition, but the small percentage of retouchers whose first instinct is to make someone thinner need to re-evaluate their methods.”
© Photographer: Lara Jade
A sharp hairline: Her hair had some subtle motion and a beautiful shape so it was pretty minimal work, only removing cross hairs and a few distracting flyaways, as well as cleaning up the hairline.
“A good retoucher is someone who will obviously go above and beyond their client’s expectations, without being asked,” argues Bedi. “After all, the final result of the image will also reflect on their reputation. I generally start by looking at an image to see what I think has to be done to it, then send my client back a marked up version with notes. Normally they will add to the mark up. If I think too much has been added, I usually flag it up straight away as I wouldn’t want to give them back something that may look like a waxwork, or just overly retouched. I am strongly against the term ‘it can be fixed in post’. This screams at me if I am sent an image where the hair and make-up has not been done properly, which is where the line is crossed for too much retouching to be done. I have had to deal with a few of these in recent times where I have had to just turn the job down.”
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© Photographer: Charn S. Bedi, make up: Aimee Bassi
© Photographer: Sarah Silver
10. ABOVE AND BEYOND
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11. CLEAN UP BEFORE CREATIVITY “My first stop on any image is clean-up: removing any dust, lens spots, sensor marks and so on,” explains Barry Craig (www.barrycraig.co.uk and www.digital-giant.com). “This is the work that needs to be done regardless of client comments. The process after this varies depending on the image. If there are elements to be composited into the main scene, I will repeat the clean-up on these then extract them with the Pen tool. Then I will build a low-res composition to show the client before the high-res retouching begins. Clients usually have an end product in mind; more often than not they have concept art that the art director has drawn or commissioned. The role of the retoucher is to take this concept to the very strongest final image it can be. There’s still a lot of magic involved and the client still expects a lot of creative initiative to be taken.”
“Create a rectangle and add a gradient from one end to the other,” instructs Mark Gilvey (www.mgcre8v.com). “Now put a mark through it and try to restore the gradient to its original state. Why? You will see this linear gradient in many different things; architecture, walls ceilings, a sheet of paper on a table, a sign and so on. If you can restore the gradient, chances are you can reconstruct or restore it in a real retouch. Before I start with a composite, a retouch, restoration, or any type of major work that I will do in Photoshop, I will look the parts over as if I’m about to write a piece of music and assess what needs to be done and weigh that against my confidence to be able to do it. Then I begin the composition. I know it sounds goofy but some work is like that. You have to get your skills and your confidence to a level where you can be the conductor, and that takes years of practice.” © Mark Gilvey
© Photographer: Jeff Ludes
12. TUNE YOUR INSTRUMENT
Serial options: Because it was a series of images, Craig could borrow bits and pieces from other shots
Bring on the brushes: Craig made brushes shaped like clouds and explosions from the material shot to complete the image
Explosive images: The explosion was shot separately, with a mannequin taking the place of the player
© Photographer: Sophie Ebrard
13. PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE “This shot was a nightmare to get right,” says Barry Craig of the Adidas MiCoach series he worked on. “The poor guy had to do the same aggressive sprint all day until the client was happy that they’d captured the energy well enough. The explosions in the image were shot separately in the studio, so we used a mannequin to get a sense of how they would interact with a body. The shape and direction of the explosions are supposed to be representative of the particular movement that the player is performing, so the clouds were shaped using numerous different shots. I actually ended up making a number of brushes shaped like clouds and explosions from the material we shot to help shape the explosion how the client wanted it. Having brushes shaped like this was the only way to flexibly sculpt the explosion with speed and accuracy while the client was still making comments. Once we had the general shape and size confirmed, we could go in and improve it, add fine detail, shadowing, interaction with the player and so on. I also had to change the entire background. The client liked the player’s shape and expression in this shot, but not the amount of smoke or the lighting in the background, so I ended up building a composite of a few of the other shots from the day’s shooting.”
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Client comments: Taking the feedback of the client on board is always a big part of the job
TECHNIQUES © Photographer David Westphal
WorldMags.net 30 RETOUCHING TIPS FOR PROS
14. ADDING ATMOSPHERE BARRY CRAIG EXPLAINS THE WORK HE DID ON THIS IMAGE FROM PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID WESTPHAL
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While on location, the photographer was able to capture some longer exposure shots of the night sky. To add a little more life into this shot, I’m just going to use one of these shots to add some stars to the sky and lift the colour to a more attractive blue. Already the image is looking more alive. The product being advertised in this instance is a bluetooth speaker that also features party light. Keeping this in mind, the next step is to add some directional, coloured lighting to the tent.
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Adding some lighting, glows, and rays to the tent really helps to lift the whole image. There’s lots to consider when adding lighting effects, highlights on the sand and glows on the dunes behind, for example. We’ve also had to create a shadow for the boy in the tent. When the image was shot there was still no physical product in existence, so as part of the final stage we will also add in the speaker, which was shot at a later date in the studio. © Photographer: Brian Konoske
This is the image after basic clean-up. There is some nice light in the sky and some point-ofinterest light in the tent, but these both need to be enhanced. We also need to think about the client and what the product is trying to communicate. Let’s start with the sky.
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15. MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE “The most important skill for a good retoucher is an eye for realism,” adds Craig. “Even when you’re working on a fantastical image you have to base it in reality. Lighting and physics will give the game away if they aren’t correct. You also have to be patient; there’s lots of ground work to be done on any composition, all of it important to the final result. The most common issues are adding or removing features that couldn’t be physically altered on location; removing streetlights, buildings, logos, cars, people and so on. Where possible, the photographer will shoot plates to the left or right of the obstruction to aid in removing them, but this is only really common in a photographer who is used to working with a retoucher. The trickiest things can be complicated image extensions for new layouts. These are usually required last minute, meaning the photographer likely didn’t shoot any material to aid with the job.”
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WorldMags.net TECHNIQUES 30 RETOUCHING TIPS FOR PROS To improve your own retouching work, McLaughlin advises that you look at other great photography for inspiration. “Truly awesome images have been expertly retouched as well as superbly shot, as what’s left out can be as critical as what’s left in. Quite often I’ll study an image to get an understanding of the lighting setups used as much as the retouching techniques. If the retouching has been done well, you’ll probably have a hard time telling what the retoucher has done! “My own rule of thumb is not to let the viewer see my lights or modifiers reflected anywhere in the subject, and definitely no dust left on there. When you look at even a well-cleaned product straight from
camera, there’s loads of fine dust on there; get rid of it. Create your own set of golden rules regarding what you always fix or change, or faults to fix every time. Before you know it, you’ll have your own style. In my own work I love to explore mixing graphic art, photography and retouching, I love enhancing my own product photography with light painting as well as freezing liquids with flash and incorporating the results. They are often unexpected and unusual, especially with liquid. “I believe that the combination of creative retouching and the different photography techniques brings an element of surprise and an unusual twist to displaying products, and some interesting graphic arts images.”
proportion, materials, colours and graphics for that particular product. A retoucher’s job is to make that image believably match the schematic. There are some tricks to this type of retouching that incorporate a lot of drawing techniques, a good imagination and a determination to make a less-than-perfect image look amazing. “Patience and discipline are important traits for retouchers, along with speed, and a good eye for detail. Good retouchers have a passion for their work. They also must have a good understanding
of colour correction, lighting, shadows and compositing. You have to be willing to ask questions, step out of your comfort zone and experiment. You must be willing to accept advice and criticism. You need to have a solid understanding of your tools and keyboard shortcuts to access them. The ability to seamlessly move from one project to another when priorities change is very important. And it is critical that you understand your client’s vision to envision the final results. The most successful retouchers understand the value of customer service.”
© Andy McLaughlin
“Colour casts and removing unwanted items, logos, and extending backgrounds and floors are the most common changes,” says Andy McLaughlin (http://tcistudio.co.uk). “Often the trickiest are seemingly the simplest. Extending areas like floors can be tricky and can require re-creating your own textures and custom brushes to match the original textures. Clone Stamping and Content-Aware Fill may give you a starting point, but are often affected by light gradients and vignetting caused by light fall-off. Clone Stamping these types of surfaces can just create a blotchy mess. In my own work, the most common retouching is bleaching backgrounds and making dark areas clean. I use a lot of channel masking to create accurate selections for layer masks and adjustment layers. I retouch a lot of my own photography and I think that understanding the image as a photographer makes me a better retoucher and visa versa.”
17. FIND YOUR OWN STYLE
© Andy McLaughlin
16. PRODUCT PROBLEMS
18. KEEP THE CLIENT IN MIND “Many finished images are what we lovingly refer to as ‘Frankensteined’,” jokes Nancy Lund Springer (http://nlsretoucher.com). “It is very common in product retouching to not receive ‘golden’ samples, as the product has not been fully developed; but the packaging, including the images for that packaging, needs to be developed. You may sometimes get a crude image of the product in whatever iteration of production it happens to be in accompanied by a printed schematic that represents the final size,
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19. USE SMART OBJECTS Pro retoucher Brian York (www.brnyrk.com) outlines his workflow: “First, process the RAW files, which I prefer to do myself to ensure highlight and shadow detail is preserved, just slightly under what the final contrast of the image may be. Since the majority of what I do is compositing, I start with cutting out the elements and creating Smart Objects, always with a layer mask inside. Then I add everything to the composition to make sure the processing of the elements are all at a good starting point. Using Smart Objects for the elements means I can always go back and replace the base image if needed, regardless of any transformations applied. Basic clean-up would later be done inside the Smart Object. Smart Objects are important when compositing as they allow me to retain the transformation points after they are applied, so I can go back and make subtle tweaks if needed. I recently had to create a tapered mug from a straight sided mug and apply an embossed logo. The alterations to the ice and condensation of the mug were dealt with and then put into a Smart Object to create transformations. This allowed me to be able to tweak the shape to the client’s specifications at any point while retaining the original image inside the Smart Object to make changes easier.”
21. BEWARE HIDDEN JOBS
“The golden rule of retouching is that the final product must look natural,” says Nancy Lund Springer. “The image should be perfect to your client’s specifications, without leaving a trace that a retoucher has been there. Assessing the image, especially images that are problematic, is the first step. This generally takes a few minutes. There are many problems that may need to be overcome, from moiré and false colour artefacts, strange waves or rings of colour and tone rippling over fabric, to imperfections in skin, facial hair on women, wrinkles needing removal in fabric, seams that don’t match… the list is endless. While the toolset needed to address these problems remains the same, the image always dictates which combination of myriad techniques will be used. I usually start with what I determine to be the most difficult area in order to overcome difficult obstacles at the beginning of the project rather than at the end. Sometimes you just need take some deep breaths and start. When faced with a daunting retouching task, I look to one of the most relevant expressions for inspiration: it’s like eating an elephant; just take one bite at a time.”
“There can also be an array of problems overlooked by your client that need to be addressed, but due to the extra time it might take, may not have been budgeted into the project,” adds Lund Springer. “An example of a retouching job I once had is typical of this scenario. We were asked to retouch a very dark image of two models in Egyptian costumes flanked by a beautiful gold-encrusted sarcophagus and large vases. Upon review of the image with a creative director, there didn’t seem to be a lot of work involved in post-retouching and [it] was budgeted accordingly. However, when I opened the RAW image, it was revealed that the vases and sarcophagus were placed on wooden crates to make them at a higher level to fit into the shot properly. Also, the fabric used for a backdrop was too long and fell in waves on the ground, and some objects unrelated to the shot were in full view. My task was to cover these distractions by compositing parts of other existing elements into the shot.”
© Photography: Innerspin
20. ASSESS THE IMAGE
© Photography: Innerspin
© Photographer: Taylor Castle
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003 Portrait polishing “It’s extremely common for a portrait to need a new background colour, or in the case of advertising, for the subject to be able to be placed on any number of backgrounds. That’s where silo’ing comes into play, and you need to be able to either mask hair out perfectly, or be able to hand draw it in convincingly. The four subjects for this campaign all needed backgrounds that had more impact, and so they all had to be removed.”
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© Photographer: Gregg Segal
© Photographer: Jason Maris
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004 Balancing the real “Working with Gregg Segal is always a blast because his images usually have a large amount of humour in them. He’s also one of those shooters that are really good at getting things in one take, but when it comes to animals it usually doesn’t matter how good you are because they don’t seem to like taking direction. This was a little tricky in that there’s the combined lighting of the figures and the environment, so trying to find a balance between natural and artificial was a bit of a trick.”
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© Photographer: Maarten de Boer
002 Three become one “This is one of my all time favorite projects because we got to pickle Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen,” continues Hilmers. “It was a dream come true. This one needed a lot of TLC because it was basically three original shots – each actor behind Plexi and an image of a pickle jar with green liquid. They really needed work when it came to depth of field, colour shift, shading and then warping to emulate the feel of being submerged in liquid. Smart Objects had a heavy part to play in this shot. A fun little side note – those are my homemade pickles in the jar with them.”
© Photographer: Michael Clinard
001 Never work with children or animals “One of the big tricks here was capturing the feel of the little feathers on the edges,” explains Gretchen Hilmers (www.g-tou.com). “One of the most important aspects of the composites is to clean up the seams. When you’re compositing, the joining edges need a little TLC and that usually starts with blending, adding textures and ensuring the depth of field is correct. Sometimes there are faint lines that occur around the edges of figures, and while I use several methods of fixing, I like to use a layer on Darken or Lighten and clone the background elements up to the edge. But I think the real secret to any composite is how you shape with light and shadow because that will really bring the elements together.”
23. PERFECT, BUT NOT TOO PERFECT Getting down to business: “I start on any gross stuff first…nose hair, food in teeth, boogers, acne… I just want to get that out of the way so I can move onto the fun, creative stuff.”
Zoom in: “Don’t work at anything less than 200%. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received redos and when I zoom in past 100% it’s a disaster. Sure… maybe you can get away with something when it’s only printed at 9 x 12, but that doesn’t mean you should deliver it that way.”
Fabric fusses: “Every fabric is different but the general method is to match up the colour and then either create a pattern stamp or use small patches of a high pass layer to re-create the texture. It can take a lot of time, and I know the general rule is to just try to re-create it and throw a bunch of noise on top, but when you work on an image at 200% or more you notice that inconsistency. It’s really important to me that things line up, even such a small detail. Sure, 99% of people won’t notice, but I’ll know.” Hair hassles: “Usually hair needs some work. While I personally like natural, more crazy stray hairs a lot of other people don’t. There’s a delicate balance between sculpting hair shape to avoid the dreaded helmet head, removing flyaways and then drawing them back in where they look natural.”
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Don’t go too far: “There are times when so much has been changed that reality just feels off. There’s the phenomena of the uncanny valley, which is when you just know something is off. It generally applies to people, but I strongly feel we can sense it with everything. There’s just a moment when something changes and an image can go downhill, and when it does, it usually goes downhill quickly.”
Work together: “Of course, there’s only so much a retoucher can do, and starting off with a beautiful photo and a great relationship with a client can really help. Every client has a particular style, and it’s up to the retoucher to be able to assist with making that extra step while maintaining the integrity of the original work. That’s why I always look at what I do as teamwork.”
© Photographer: Alberto Oviedo
GRETCHEN HILMERS WORKED ON THIS IMAGE, FEATURING THE DANCERS OF THE MIAMI CITY BALLET, AND DESCRIBES HER GENERAL APPROACH TO COMPOSITING WORK
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“The biggest challenge in photo restoration is having to reconstruct missing or destroyed parts of an image,” says Mark Gilvey. “When there is little or no source material to work from, this can be difficult to work with. I had a photo of a brother and sister like this. Some people looked at the damage in the lower right corner and thought it was an ice sculpture, but it wasn’t. The photo was just missing emulsion. I had to reconstruct the entire area of his plaid coat. Basically, I guessed at what it would look like on his side vs a sleeve. I sampled certain areas onto new layers and pushed and pulled them until they looked close. I think I put 20 hours into this one image, going way beyond the client’s budget, but I stuck to their budget because I wanted to see if I could do it. I wasn’t going to let it beat me!”
27. IF YOU WANT TO GET INTO COMPOSITING… “Study how light works, how a camera sees objects and space,” says Brian York. “Become good at painting in Photoshop. Make composites for practise, and always refine the way you do things and lay out a file. Buy a monitor made for colour-critical work and learn to use a Wacom tablet. “Most of what I do involves basic tasks; just done with a lot of finesse. Things I use a lot are brushes, Curves and Smart Objects. I have found it valuable to become good at creating detail from nothing, and brushes are instrumental in that. I have a huge trove of brushes that I have created for various things over the years. Many people use Levels, but Curves gives you a lot of finesse over contrast and saturation that is just not possible with levels; especially when dealing with skin tones.”
26. KEEP LEARNING “Be patient,” advises Rob DiCaterino, a high-end digital imaging specialist. “Photo restoration can be slow, painstaking, time consuming, and yes, even boring, but good results are extremely satisfying and worth the effort to both my clients and me. It’s win-win. Zoom in close and pay attention to detail. Global filters are usually too heavy-handed and destructive; use layer masks to apply them locally instead, as needed. Understand histograms and the info panel, and use spatial frequencies to your advantage. “Successful retouchers are also proficient with a pen tablet, use profiled and calibrated displays, understand colour theory and management, and create Actions to increase efficiency. They are interpreters, translating clients’ notes into the end product. They are good at sales, marketing, and customer service in order to attract and retain happy, paying clients. They are responsible enough to work out realistic deadlines with clients up front… and stick to those deadlines. They trust the info panel… and their eyes. They handle rejection well. And they always continue to learn. “My motto is, ‘There are ten different ways to accomplish the same thing in Photoshop.’ I learn
as many ways as I can so I have more options to approach any given situation. Some retouchers might struggle through a situation using only one or two techniques, but I’ll know some additional ones that allow me to complete that step more quickly. That’s one of the things I love about what I do – retouching fulfils the part of my brain that craves problem solving and logic, and allows me to achieve many personal victories on a daily basis.”
© Sharon M. Atkinson, CARE for Sandy, Sayreville, NJ
25. RESTORATION
© Photographer: Taylor Castle
© Photographer: Clint Blowers
24. MASK OUT “Using a Wacom tablet and pen, I set a brush at 90% Hardness and a smaller size and go all the way around the object at 200% zoom, painting black on the layer mask with an opposite-coloured background behind it,” explains Brian York. “If, for example, I am masking out a bottle on a white background, I put a black background solid colour layer behind it, and then I know it will look great on anything. Some people get caught up in a lot of Photoshop trickery to get a mask, but for me a mask is about how the edges look visually when cut out. This direct visual process allows me to inspect every edge, and once I go around an object like this I know it is perfect. I’m a bit obsessive about masks, and want to know that it is right. However, in saying all of that I don’t discount sophisticated techniques in getting masks; I just prefer this method most of the time.”
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28. BRING THE PAST TO LIFE 2/"ď$)#!4%2)./ď˴7772/"$)#!4%2)./#/-˵ď %80,!).3ď4(%ď7/2+ď(%ď$/%3ď&/2ď#!2%ď&/2ď3!.$9
01
THE PROJECT
02
THE METHOD
The damage was severe, and in this case DiCaterino’s main technique was Split Frequency, but sometimes he has to be more creative: “Good, successful retouchers are artists, craftspeople, and technicians. They are analytical. They mentally deconstruct each image, envision the end result, and quickly formulate the steps to achieve it. They show restraint, know when to apply a specific filter, and invent unconventional uses for them to speed up the workflow.”
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THE RESULT
After colour correction, this is the final image that the family got back. As DiCaterino notes, Photoshop is “an incredibly powerful tool that helps produce amazing results in the right hands – in my case, restoring priceless memories and preserving history. Photo restoration is its own form of time travel and I find it fascinating and gratifying.”
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Since June 2013, DiCaterino has volunteered for CARE for Sandy, which offers free digital restoration services for individuals and families with photos damaged by Hurricane Sandy. CARE stands for Cherished Albums Restoration Effort and is made possible by the efforts of generous retouchers worldwide. This is one image he received from a family in Long Beach, NY, who wish to remain anonymous. You can volunteer yourself at www.careforsandy.org.
“The main problems are usually rips, creases, stains, and fading,” says DiCaterino. “The trickiest is repairing damage to a photo printed on paper that features a textured pattern, which was popular several decades ago. Many retouchers blur the texture out or apply FFT, but to me, restoring a photo means returning it to its original state, texture and all. To retain that detail, I use the Healing Brush, Frequency Separations, Channels, and so on. It can be a painstaking process depending on the severity and location of the damage, but the results are true to the original and more representative of the photo’s era. For lightly damaged or faded photos, it’s easy to know when I’m finished. For badly damaged photos or ones with major colour shifts, it can be more difficult. In those cases, when I think I’m done I’ll revisit the photo the next day with fresh eyes and make any necessary adjustments. Sometimes, I even ask a colleague to quickly evaluate my work and see if anything looks off. “Retouching and restoration is best when it looks natural, as if nothing had been done to the image. It becomes too much when it looks obviously phony, plastic, processed, or otherwise manipulated. I’ve seen a lot of restorations that look soft, airbrushed, cut out, and/or borderline-cartoonish. If the background is in bad shape, fix it, don’t just cover it up with a gradient. If the original photo contains film grain, keep it, don’t surface blur it to death. Like recorded music, when too much noise reduction is applied, the fine details are lost. By retaining fine detail, I succeed in preserving history. Yes, doing it that way is more challenging, but the results are better.”
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Plane sailing: “The jet had some flaws covering it including dust and other types of crud that were probably ONďTHEďFILMďEMULSIONď4OďREMOVEďDUST ď)ďWOULDďUSEďAď combination of making a selection with the Lasso tool and running Dust & Scratches on it where there are large AREAS ďORď)
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Duplicate the issue:ď!NOTHERďTECHNIQUEď)ďUSEďISďTOďDUPLICATEďAďLAYER ďRUNďTHEď'AUSSIANď"LURď ONďIT ďANDďEITHERďAPPLYďITďUSINGďAďLAYERďMASKďATďďORďSETďITďTOď$ARKENďORď,IGHTENďDEPENDINGď ONďTHEďDEFECTď)T
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…to the bottom: “There were all kinds of ugly stuff on the tarmac. I just cloned good parts over the bad parts and extended the image to the bottom of the scan by continuing to clone.”
cgi illustration by sanders.shiers
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WorldMags.net MASTER RETOUCHING
TECHNIQUES
PHOTOMANIPULATION
MASTER RETOUCHING USE PHOTOSHOP TO PRODUCE AN IMAGE THAT COMBINES STANDARD RETOUCHING TECHNIQUES WITH CREATIVE ONES
W
hen working on composite images, you will often find yourself jumping back and forth from one element to the other. As you continue to manipulate the layers and masks, you will often find that colour and tone that looked good before may not match the evolution of the final image. The success of a composite image relies on the artist’s ability to make changes and tweaks throughout the creative process. One way to give more flexibility is by using adjustment layers for lighting effects, rather than a blank layer with a paintbrush. Besides the usual Opacity and blend
modes, you will also have additional sliders and options for greater efficiency. Expand your creativity by also introducing Smart Objects to your workflow. At any point in time, you can go back to the original RAW file and make the same changes there, without the need for more layers and masks. Used with Smart Filters, you can make changes to the filter’s settings whenever you want. Layer effects allow you to build upon existing layers, without the need to create more layers and do extra work with the Brush tool. They are another great way to enhance your images within a non-destructive workflow.
RETOUCH THE MODEL
OUR EXPERT JOHN ROSS
www.TheArtofRetouching.com @ArtofRetouching Ross specialises in portrait and composite retouching. He has worked in advertising and editorial for 20 years, and lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut.
SOURCE FILES On the supplied disc, you can find the model and disk-shape images. The additional images and brushes can be found at deviantart.com and shutterstock.com.
START WITH BASICS LIKE CLONING, COLOUR AND TONAL CHANGES
01
CAMERA RAW FILTER
Open ‘Imensia.tif’ from the disc. In the Layers panel, Ctrl/right-click and select Convert to Smart Object. Use Filter>Camera Raw Filter to begin doing some basic colour and tonal corrections. Click OK. Smart Objects will give you flexibility in a nondestructive workflow. This is great when working with composites. Name this Layer ‘Original Model’.
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CAMERA RAW AND SMART OBJECTS
With CS6 and older, you can use Camera Raw’s Preferences to open ‘All Supported TIFFs’, which will open this image in Camera Raw to make changes. To go from Camera Raw to Photoshop, hold down the Shift key. It will change Open Image to Open Object. You will now have access to these changes later for further tweaking.
WORK IN PROGRESS
FROM STUDIO TO COMPOSITE FANTASY
Progress 1: Prep the photos
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PREPARE THE MODEL
Create a new blank layer for your cloning and touch-up. Smooth out the skin, enhance the eyes, and clean up some flyaway hair. Some wrinkles can be removed with the Healing Brush, while others may prefer Dodge and Burn. You will make many adjustments later, but starting with a clean image will lead to the best final results.
Progress 2: Compositing
Progress 3: Final effects
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04
ANOTHER SMART OBJECT
Select all the layers and Convert to Smart Object. Name it ‘Retouched Model Bottom’, and change the Opacity to 95%. To make changes to the model later, you can go back to this base image by double-clicking the Smart Object layer. This layer will contain all of the corrections you have made to the model. If you want to change it later, just double-click again, and a new window will open. Make your changes and then save the adjusted image.
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BEGIN COMPOSITING
Create a layer mask for the model’s Smart Object layer and loosely cut her out using a brush on the layer mask. Close is good enough because you can fix this later when you have a better idea of how it will look when it’s all put together. Place a galaxy image like http://tinyurl.com/lxya5t8 from deviantART behind the model. Use the Camera Raw or Camera Raw filter method like before to make the colour and tonal changes. Place all these visible layers into a folder called ‘Back’.
PLACE THE DISK
Open the image ‘Disk.psd’ that you can find on the supplied disc. Drag and drop the Disk layer containing the shape underneath the model’s layer and above the Galaxy layer. Move the Disk layer into position behind the model’s body. Use Opt/Alt while clicking on the Disk layer to create a selection of the shape, and then click the Add Layer Mask icon at bottom of the Layers panel. Change the blending mode of the Disk layer to Screen. This will give a mask of the intricate shape.
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ADD THE DISK’S LAYER EFFECTS
Select all the pixels on the Disk layer and delete them. All you want is the shape as a mask – the pixels will not matter. Use the FX icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and enable Outer Glow with settings of Screen, 75% Opacity, Size 56%, and pick a blue colour. Next, enable Drop Shadow with a black colour set to 75% Opacity, Distance of 10, and Size of 5. All the other settings can remain as defaults. Click OK.
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ADD THE DISK’S GLOW
From the disk centre, use the Elliptical Marquee while holding down the Shift key. Select a Curves adjustment layer. Move the curve up, and set to Luminosity blend mode. This goes above the Back folder. Name it ‘Disk Glow’. Use Layer FX to select Outer Glow, Precise, and Size of 81, with the rest default. Place Disk Glow into a new group folder called ‘Disk Glow Cutout’. Add a white layer mask to the group, using a black brush to stop the glow from crossing over the model’s legs. QUICK TIP Photoshop CC now supports linked Smart Objects. This means you can work on a full size image in great detail. After saving, you can link it to another document at whatever size you want, without the need to double or triple the size of your final composite while working on it.
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WorldMags.net REFINE THE MODEL AND LIGHTING
ADD TEXTURE, LIGHTING AND LAYER BLENDING
09
ADD TEXTURE
Above the Back folder, create a new folder called ‘Texture’. Inside, place a textured image layer of your choice like http://tinyurl.com/mrgl6fv from deviantART and cover it over the whole image. Drop the Opacity down to 15% with a blend mode of Difference. This begins to add a painterly effect. Add a layer mask, and paint black to remove the effect from the top half of the image, where you want to retain the details. White will be on the bottom, revealing the texture effect.
10
DUPLICATE THE MODEL
Select the Retouched Model Bottom layer, and drag it onto the New Blank Layer icon. This will create a second model layer, but still reference the same embedded Smart Object. So if you want to alter one Smart Object, it will apply the same change to the other layer. Place it above the Texture folder. Name it ‘Retouched Model Top’, with 100% Opacity. Paint on the layer mask to erase the lower half of the layer. This will make more sense in the next step.
Smart Objects can go back to the original RAW files without a need for extra layers
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ADD GLOW AND STAR BURSTS
Under the Retouched Model Top layer, create a new Curves adjustment layer. Pull up on the middle of the curve to lighten over the image. Fill the mask with black to hide the effect, then use a white brush to paint in a glow under the Top Model with various brushes of different sizes and shapes. Create multiple Curves layers, with different settings, and different opacities. You can find many custom brushes perfect for the task at http://www. deviantart.com/morelikethis/99002450.
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BEGIN THE BLENDING
Now that you can begin to see it come together, you can really start fine-tuning the layer masks for the two model layers. For the bottom model layer, you should keep the body tight and let the gravel at the bottom fade up into the sky. Mask the loose hair, and let the wispy parts blow around. For the top layer, keep the parts you want the natural colour and erase away, starting at the chest. You can continue to clean these masks up later, as needed.
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ADD A GRADIENT MAP
Above the Texture layer, add a Gradient Map adjustment layer. Click on the gradient’s drop-down, and then the sprocket. You will see many new types to choose from. For now, choose Photographic Toning. Cycle through the options until you find one you like. A blue one would be nice. On the layer mask, paint away the top half of the image with a black brush. Blend it in so that while a different colour, the bottom gradient merges with the top area seamlessly.
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WorldMags.net TECHNIQUES MASTER RETOUCHING GROUNDING THE SCENE
ADD DEPTH, EMOTION AND CHARACTER WITH THE FINISHING
14
ADD TEXTURE LIGHT
Above the Texture layer, add a Curves layer if you want to lighten up the image. With all these layers being added, the image starts to get too dark. This should really start adding depth to the image, now that you have had a chance to play with the tonal range. Remember, you want to see the details of the texture in the lower areas of the frame, as well as ensure that the upper body remains the focal point of the image.
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DUPLICATE GEOMETRIC SHAPES
Select the Curves layer with the geometric shapes on it, and use Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer. On the lower version, go into the Layer FX and disable Outer Glow and Drop Shadow, then enable Stroke with a Size 46px, Position: Outer, Blend Mode: Soft Light, and Opacity: 7%. This blend mode should be Normal. To match the glow of the circular shape behind the model, add your own halo around these new geometric shapes. You could use a brush, or Layer FX with a mask for accuracy.
FOCUS ON THE FOCAL POINT When retouching, direct the viewer’s eye to where you want them to go. Bring the focus to the most important areas. Warm colours come forward, cool colours go backwards… bright tone comes forward, dark tone goes backward. With these simple principles, you can guide the viewer through the image. In a portrait, the face should be the brightest and warmest. By creating darker barriers around the sides and lower part of the image, you can often hold the viewer’s attention much longer. The darker and cooler areas do not need to be severe; even subtle shifts can lead to favourable results.
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ADD TEXTURE SHADOWS
Under the Texture layer, make a Curves adjustment layer. Bring the curve down around half way. Fill the mask with black. With a white brush, you can start to paint back in the darker tone around the lower half of the image. Focus it on the left and right sides, as well as over the gravel at the bottom. Avoid painting over the model’s legs. You want to try and keep this detail, not darken it up. We will add details back in the next step.
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ADD GEOMETRIC SHAPES
By using image 166758839 from Shutterstock or similar, you can add geometric patterns to the lower half of the image, off in the distance. Apply the shape to a Curves layer mask, but do not apply any changes with the Curves tool. Instead, use Layer FX with Outer Glow of blue, and a Size of 29px. Also add a Drop Shadow with a Distance of 31px and Size of 16px. Set the layer’s blend mode to Screen.
ADD PAINT SPLATTER
Make a new Curves adjustment layer on top of everything. Bring the middle of the curve up half way, and fill the layer mask with black. Using a white custom brush with paint splatters from http://mouritsadastock.deviantart.com/art/Brush-Pack-Splashes-Of-Paint-94180220, you can add splashes of paint around the image. For variety, adjust the Opacity of the layer, or arc of the curve. You can use one Curves adjustment layer, or several with different settings. Also try some Layer FX like Outer Glow for added realism.
QUICK TIP By using the Brush panel’s Shape Dynamics, you can adjust the Size Jitter, Fade Jitter, and Roundness Jitter. When you paint with the brush now, it will randomly change many of your brush settings as you paint. There’s also Scattering, Texture, and Wet Edges, as some of the many options available.
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WorldMags.net In the case of comic art, theme and colour story go hand-in-hand
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WorldMags.net CREATE COMIC ART
TECHNIQUES
DIGITAL PAINTING
CREATE COMIC ART CREATE A VISUALLY STRIKING AND DIVERSE TEAM OF ARCHETYPAL SUPERHEROES!
T
he super team is a comic book staple (think Avengers, X-Men, or Justice League) – a motley crew of specialists who, as a unit, can tackle threats too large for any one of them alone. Each member wields unique powers and abilities that have to read at a glance on the comic book page. In this tutorial, learn how to design and illustrate a wide range of characters with powers to suit any situation. You’ll use body type, pose, theme and colour palette to differentiate each member and
make it crystal clear to the reader exactly who does what. Photoshop is the perfect tool for this because its layer management is second to none, and you’ll need that while juggling all five of these character stacks at once. Likewise, you’ll rely on Photoshop’s excellent colour blending modes and adjustment effects to help you keep each figure popping off the page, yet also a properly balanced member of the group. Quick note: in the line art ‘inking’ phase, a pressure-sensitive input device is essential, and a line stabilisation plug-in is definitely helpful.
OUR EXPERT DAVID NAKAYAMA
http://dna-1.deviantart.com
Illustrator and concept artist currently working for San Francisco-based KIXEYE. He works in both digitally painted and comic book styles and freelances for Marvel Comics, Corvus Belli, and others.
DESIGN THE SUPERHEROES
CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTERS AND COLOUR THEMES
01
CREATE BASIC SILHOUETTES
Start simply, with basic body shapes. In comics, most characters fall into one of three standard categories: male, big male, and female. Select five familiar archetypes: the tank-like Brute, energy-casting Elemental, inventor/tech expert Gadgeteer, the Psychic, and urban combatant the Hunter. To make a balanced roster, opt for two males, two females, and a big male.
02
CHOOSE THEMES AND COLOURS
In the case of comic art, theme and colour story go hand-in-hand. At this early ideation stage, it can be helpful to fill the silhouettes you have drawn up with various colors to see what jumps out. In the case of the Elemental, warm hues suggest a fire theme and immediately lead to ideas for the next step. With the Brute, all you really need to do is avoid green…*wink*
WORK IN PROGRESS
BUILD THE TEAM
Progress 1: Design the
characters
03
EXPLORE BROADLY Progress 2: Compose the
Now you can let the imagination – and stylus – wander. For the Brute, how about some Kirby geometric design? What if he’s reptilian? Futuristic? Try anything that makes sense and has a clear, obvious theme. On the Elemental, you can explore more and less humanity, places where the fire might replace her skin. Or hey, what if she’s not human at all?
elements
Progress 3: Detail the
illustration
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WorldMags.net TECHNIQUES CREATE COMIC ART
04
CHOOSE THE TEAM
Consider origin stories and day-to-day routines – what are the characters’ home countries or timelines? Who trained them and what’s their MO now? A useful layer setup might include a base layer with colour tint layer Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt-clipped to it, foreground layer for things in front (armour, straps), and background layer for capes, tails, etc. With a nice spread of options to choose from, you can pick the standouts from each category, but also consider what the group’s going to look like as a whole. Ultimately, you need to settle on a nice diverse ensemble.
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05
FRAME THE ILLUSTRATION
Now you need to figure out a compelling illustration that gives each superhero a moment to shine while communicating his or her power and role in the team. Give each figure its own layer for line art, and stay loose as you sketch out different poses. As they begin to overlap, separate each one with a layer of flat grey. Place each set (lines and grey) in a folder to stay organised, and set the lines layer to Multiply so the black lines remain crisp against the grey.
MAKE REVISIONS TO THE LAYOUT
With this setup, you can freely move characters around in the composition, flipping, scaling, and redrawing as needed. Eventually, you will arrive at a promising layout. At this point, the editor indicates that the image might be used as a cover, but with all the real estate accounted for by the figures themselves, there’s none left for logos and text blurbs. Fortunately, our setup makes this an easy revision. Be sure to account for ALL compositional elements as early as possible, or you risk something important being covered up later.
07
BEGIN PENCILLING
Now create a new document at the final output size. Drag over the existing sketch layers and create a new layer above these filled with white. Reduce its Opacity to about 85%. Now you can start pencilling in earnest, using the sketched-in poses as a base. Use the same layer setup as before – lines on Multiply and grey fill. It’s important here to be loose and energetic with your marks, so use a rough chalk brush (or something similar) to ensure you don’t get overly precious with the lines.
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FINAL PENCILS
Repeat the process for each character, and from time to time, check your work for drawing mistakes by flipping the whole canvas horizontally. It’s an old illustrator’s trick and an essential one: looking at your work in the mirror immediately lays bare anatomy problems, especially on faces. You’ll see right away that one eye is too high, for example. Fortunately, Photoshop has the perfect tool to fix these issues without totally redrawing everything. Use Filter/ Liquify to quickly push things back into place. QUICK TIP How awesome is Liquify? It’s one of the most useful tools in Photoshop and gives the artist a tremendous advantage over drawing traditionally by making small adjustments a snap. Use Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+X for quicker access. The Forward Warp tool is incredibly intuitive and, honestly, all you really need.
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WorldMags.net TIGHTEN THE ILLUSTRATION
BEGIN INKING AND ADD THE COLOUR
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ARRIVING AT FINAL LINES
So far, you’ve explored a wide range of possible designs for your superhero team, cherry-picked the best of them, composed a layout that lets all five characters shine (while still leaving plenty of room for text blurbs), and worked out almost all of the line art details in a rough pencil pass.
001
10
INK UP CLOSE
Similar to step 7, you will be starting fresh with a new process. To streamline the total number of layers, feel free to bake down or trash the older ones (ie you no longer need the sketch layers, as the pencils will now serve that purpose, and those can be collapsed). While inking, it’s best to zoom in fairly close. During this process, your aim is to create precise, final lines, so rely on your Wacom tablet or Cintiq to create smooth, sharp marks with varying weight.
This is the foundation and it needs to be rock-solid
002
003
001 PREP FOR INK
Things are coming into focus, but the drawing remains ambiguous in places and will need to be clarified
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002 DOUBLECHECK
Before moving on, double-check anatomy and eliminate tangents. This is the foundation, and it needs to be rock-solid
CHOOSE YOUR LINE ‘FLAVOUR’
Think about context when choosing a type of line: use heavier lines for shadows and outlines and thinner ones for interior detail. Soft round lines work best for the female form and, likewise, squared-off angular lines for males. On effects like fire, try a rough dry brush. When inking machined metal objects, use Shift-click to rule perfectly straight lines. To make circular forms, use the Pen tool or make a circle with a hard round brush, then delete all but the outer line with a hard round eraser.
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003 NEXT STEPS
In the next step you’ll lock in your character art, committing sketchy pencil marks to solid black ink lines
FLAT THE COLOUR
Finally it’s time to bring this illustration to life with colour, and the first step is to create some ‘flats’ – ie specific groupings of flat local colour that fit perfectly into the ink lines you established earlier. Flats are both a base layer for the rendering to come as well as a master selection tool. Placed on a separate layer or in Channels, you can use the Magic Wand to easily select specific areas of the figure to work on while keeping colour boundaries perfectly defined.
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CONSIDER OUTSOURCING
Another helpful note about flats: many professional colourists in the comic field rely on dedicated flatters to take care of this step for them, at the cost of about $10-12 per page. This portion of the colouring process is timeconsuming, repetitive work that doesn’t require a professional, so if the cost to time ratio makes sense for you, by all means make use of these incredibly helpful and dedicated artists, available on deviantART and elsewhere.
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WorldMags.net TECHNIQUES CREATE COMIC ART RENDER IN COLOUR
ADD HIGHLIGHTS, SHADOWS, TEXTURE AND SPECIAL EFFECTS
14
PAINT HARD LIGHT SHADOWS
Where to start with the rendering? One approach is to choose a cool, dark grey and paint it over your flats on a Hard Light layer. The beauty of this is that it’s additive, casting the look of a shadow over your local colors without overwriting them completely (as with Normal mode). Even better, the shadows thus created have built-in saturation, which looks far better than simply turning up the black. Since you’ll be reusing this colour repeatedly, create a swatch of it on a separate layer and use the Eyedropper as needed to select it.
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15
ADD SHADOW AND TEXTURE
There are many approaches to rendering, which is the process of adding volume and texture to round out and surface a form. Dodge and Burn (or alternatively, a brush set to Soft Light) can be helpful as a first pass, roughing in the basic lights and darks in no time. From there, soft and hard-edged brushes will finish the job. In areas of intense light, it helps to lighten portions of the line layer. Add texture by erasing out of the Hard Light shadow layer or simply painting on top.
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SPECULAR WHITES
For matte surfaces, this level of rendering might be sufficient, but for materials like metal, glass, and even skin, you’ll need much brighter whites to show the proper level of specularity. Above the shadow layer, clip a new light layer, and because you’re looking for the brightest, most intense whites here, set it to Normal mode. On skin surfaces, use the white sparingly – just a single hotspot at the apex of a lit area should be ample. On metal or wet surfaces, use larger swaths of whites running down the length of a form.
SPECIAL EFFECTS
Now for the bells and whistles that really bring an illustration together. When colouring energy effects, you have to give the sense that they’re insubstantial compared with the actual figures. For starters, lock the layer (see Quick Tip) and paint the lines of the fire (or lightning, etc) in a light, saturated colour. Next, create a new Hard Light layer and build up a glow with a soft round brush set at around 25% Opacity. Add and subtract until you achieve the desired effect.
PAINTING METAL SURFACES Rendering metal surfaces can be tricky. Often in a beginner’s work, the shadows aren’t black enough and the lights aren’t white enough. Even more frequently, they aren’t positioned next to each other properly. Grab yourself some chrome reference and note this great rule of thumb: put strong lights and darks RIGHT NEXT to each other. The name of the game is contrast – the more, the better – and you want the border of the shadow immediately next to the solid white of the lit area.
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QUICK TIP At the top of the Layers panel there are four icons for locking layers. The first of these – Lock Transparent Layers – is really useful for manipulating line art. Turn it on, and you’ll only be able to paint over existing pixels and nothing else, making it easy to do re-tints.
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SPECIAL EFFECTS 2
Energy is light, of course, and it should have an effect on nearby figures. Make sure you account for this as you near the end of the colouring phase. Again, use a Hard Light setting and paint with the same colour you used before, but this time on a layer clipped to the target figure’s flats. Pay careful attention to the direction of the light, and only paint on surfaces that are actually facing it. The effect is only convincing if the application is applied selectively.
19
CONCENTRATE FOCUS
To finish up, step back from the piece and see what needs extra attention. When dealing with multiple overlapping figures, they’ll often compete for attention and require a certain amount of dialing back. For example, the reds on the Telepath feel a little too strong in the context of the overall piece, so you can create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, clip it to her flats, and selectively reduce (using a layer mask) the saturation on her bottom half.
20
CREATE DEPTH OF FIELD
Next, you’ll need to make sure the figures in the background recede where they overlap the figures in the foreground. Case in point: the Brute’s elbow. Using the Eyedropper, select the background colour and, on a new layer set to about 60%, paint in a bit of atmospheric perspective. This makes the individual figures read a lot more strongly, keeping the viewer’s attention where you want it. Add similar layers over the Gadgeteer’s shin and Elemental’s knees – anywhere one figure is in front of another.
QUICK TIP Adjustment layers (found under Image>Adjustments or at the bottom of the Layers panel) are your best friend at the end of an illustration. Color Balance and Photo Filter are great tools when unifying a mess of disparate colours under one unifying tint. Levels and Curves adjust the global distribution of darks and lights.
21
BRING IT TOGETHER
Lastly, you need to do a few tweaks to help unify the group of five figures as one united whole. First, select ALL the figure layers (minus the soft glow effect layers) at once and Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+E to Stamp Layers, ie create a flattened copy of all the selected layers. Now you have a silhouette of the whole group to which you can apply a coloured stroke (pink/purple here because it complements the yellow background). Finally, add Levels and Color Balance correction layers on top.
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TECHNIQUES HOWWorldMags.net I MADE
HOW I MADE
TROLLER MADE OF WHAT YOU ARE
SAAD MOOSAJEE
© Client: Troller; Agency: JWT Brazil; Art Direction: Thiago Arrighi, Pedro Hefs; Illustration: Saad Moosajee
HOW THIS STRIKING ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN WAS ABLE TO SHOWCASE AMAZING PHOTOSHOP SKILLS AS WELL AS SELL THE CAR’S STRENGTHS
F
reelance visual artist and designer Saad Moosajee (www.saadart.com; @Saadart) created this billboard advertisement for agency JWT Brazil’s Troller car campaign. Moosajee was commissioned by the agency to visually depict the merits of the car. “The Troller is a well-known off-road car in Brazil, famous for being extremely durable and tough,” he says. “Troller is one of the few Brazilian cars that can handle all aspects of its diverse environment. This versatility makes it attractive to various demographics in the country. When creating the campaign, our goal was to make
the car more popular among those who are interested in a reliable off-road vehicle. In terms of design and art direction, the visual objective was to show Troller’s close relationship to both consumers and Brazil’s indigenous landscapes.” It was brought together through photomanipulation, 3D rendering (in CINEMA 4D) and digital painting. “The 3D objects were intertwined with the surrounding wildlife and planes. I was able to achieve this effect through heavy manipulation of the images and 3D objects with the Puppet Warp and Transform tools.”
I was able to achieve this effect through heavy manipulation of the images and 3D objects with the Puppet Warp and Transform tools
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01
ORIGINAL PLATE
I began by working on the original background plate for the image. The perspective of the floor in the photograph and free-flowing branches made this an ideal plate based on the brief provided.
02
BRING IN 3D
To create the forest, I cut up 3D objects and wove them into the branches of the photograph. I also began integrating some of the animals and reworking their colour and light.
03
MORE BLENDING
Further integration of the 3D objects into the environment. Here I roughly placed the figure and the 3D branches. I then began working on the atmosphere of the forest by darkening and desaturating the whole environment.
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TECHNIQUES HOWWorldMags.net I MADE
04
THE RIGHT ATMOSPHERE
Re-creating the forest atmosphere required balancing dark, mysterious tones against areas of intense illumination. To accomplish this I manipulated another light source into the background, which also allowed for more atmospheric perspective.
06
CHANGE OF MODEL
In this image I shifted the placement of foreground objects to be more central, and then added the second half of the car to the composition. The figure was swapped out by request of the agency’s art directors to someone ethnically Brazilian.
05
THE CAR’S THE STAR
Here I began roughing in the Troller car. The car was made by cutting up a stock image and re-creating the inside with digital painting and 3D renders. I then overpainted the whole thing to match the environment’s lighting.
07
REFINE THE DETAILS
I eventually increased the quantity of the light coming from the back light source to help illuminate the forest atmosphere. A warm, orange-green tinted light was used. I then manipulated the ground plane with more renders and stock textures.
CREATE MORE SPACE
MOOSAJEE SHARES HIS TOP TIP FOR WORKING ON PROJECTS LIKE THIS When working in photomanipulation, consider how focus and atmospheric perspective can be employed to provide more space in your piece. In the early stages of the JWT illustration, the piece didn’t have much depth or space because the background values weren’t really receding. Managing how bright and clear something is as it fades away can be a quick and simple way to create more space in an invented environment.
08
FINAL TOUCHES
The client eventually allowed for the figure to be replaced again and the car to be coloured. I digitally painted each half of the car to align with the hue of the main light source, giving the image a more unified aesthetic. The lighting was also once again boosted from the background, this time spreading into the foreground.
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WorldMags.net RESPONSIVE DESIGN
TECHNIQUES
WEB DESIGN
RESPONSIVE DESIGN
CREATE A RESPONSIVE FRONT PAGE WITH PRESENTATION MATERIAL
A
s well as having to design for desktop, tablet and smartphone, and deciding whether to use fluid or non-fluid content grids, responsive design bears yet another challenge: making sure all your assets look sharp on HD screens. If it were only @2x, this would be rather easy. But with the dozens of sizes and resolution types that Android devices bring with them – sometimes as high as @4x – things get more complex. This tutorial will focus on how to design a responsive website, and how to easily prepare it for client presentations along the way. We will be looking into everything from setting up the ideal
Photoshop document as a template to work from, to working with grids, guidelines and vector Smart Objects, which allow you to create SVG files for your final website that can be animated on rollover and work perfectly on Retina screens. While most graphic assets like images will still look acceptable when scaled a tad up or down, it’s not as easy when it comes to icons. There’s a simple reason for that: icons are usually much more filigree and detailed than most other image assets. Thin outlines especially don’t scale well. There are two great solutions that are lightweight and incredibly easy to implement and use: SVG sprites or icon fonts.
GETTING STARTED
PREPARE THE DOCUMENT AND CREATE THE GRAPHICS
01
SET UP THE DOCUMENT
Start by designing in 1600px in width, with a safe zone of 1000px in height. Then you know anything within the 1600 x 1000px will be available at the desktop version of the site. And it’s easy to prepare the presentation in monitor screens later, as the ratio also works in an image of a cinema screen that is 1440 x 900px.
02
PICK COLOURS AND THINK MOBILE
The first thing to do after setting up the document is to add three guidelines: one that defines the centre of the document and two more that define the 640px mobile height. You can also search for images to base your colour inspiration on, which can be taken from the product trends and similar.
OUR EXPERT ROLF A. JENSEN
www.portfolio.works @rolfajensen Rolf A. Jensen is an international award-winning Norwegian art director, designer and co-founder of Good Morning, an interactive design agency. In a career spanning over a decade, he’s worked with clients such as DreamWorks, Electronic Arts, Warner Bros, Ford, Sony and Toyota.
SOURCE FILES Included on the disc is the final Photoshop file of the web design as well as presentation and vector resources. The main image is available at www.thinkstockphotos. com/image/stock-photo-sensualcouple/184738880.
WORK IN PROGRESS
FROM RAW TO RESPONSIVE
03
START FROM THE TOP
Start out by doing the navigation. Just get an icon next to text and see how it looks with the chosen colours. I chose a margin of 75px from the edge. Create basic icons, like the menu icon, straight in Photoshop. You can then re-create them later in Illustrator just to make sure you have it in vector for SVG output later.
Progress 1: Create the
SVG-ready icons
With the dozens of sizes and resolution types that Android devices bring with them – sometimes as high as @4x – things can get complex
Progress 2: Add the graphics
Progress 3: Prepare for mobile
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WorldMags.net TECHNIQUES RESPONSIVE DESIGN
04
MA+%Ĉ4(%Ĉ36'Ɏ2%!$9Ĉ)#/.3
For the social icons, make one 36 x 36px in Illustrator and use that as a template for the rest of the icons. After pasting it into Photoshop, click on it and select ‘New Smart Object Via Copy’. This will avoid conflict between the icons you copy and reuse on your website, as if you were to make an adjustment to one of them, it would apply to all icons you’ve copied. Social icons can be found on the disc.
06
05
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Tone down the image by creating a new layer on top and fill it with colour #202020. Set the Opacity to 50%. Add a Black & White adjustment layer and boost the Exposure to give the image a traditional fashion look. As a last touch, add the colour on top of the layers. Make sure it’s above the Black & White layer, otherwise the colour won’t be visible. Hit [G] and fill the layer with bronze (#ad825d). Select Color blending mode and set the Opacity to 10%.
SV'Ɏ2%!$9Ĉ7%"Ĉ'2!0()#3
Create a new document in Illustrator. Set the values to 36 x 36px. Now click the Round Rectangle tool and drag a line 25px in width and 2.5px in height, duplicate it three times and rotate the lines 45 degrees to create a diamond square. Duplicate this and move it up as seen on the image, then select the two diamonds with the Selection tool, change the colour to white and copy and paste it into your Photoshop document. Place the graphic in the centre underneath your title treatment.
07
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In Photoshop, use the Rectangle tool and drag to make a bronze shape 250 x 50px. Choose a font with less detail for the smaller text and buttons. I’ve used Cabin from Google Web fonts – it’s also included on the disc. After placing the text in the centre of the shape you just created, make sure the size of the text is 18pt and set to regular. Now you’ve just created your ‘rollover’ for the button, as you will do the buttons in the same style as the 2pt circles you have around your social icons and the 2pt diamond graphics.
08
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After you’ve created the rollover state for your button, it’s easy to make the normal state, since this is going to be an outline that gets filled in on rollover. Simply make two new rectangle shapes, which are 2px in height and 250px wide (the button’s width). Do the same with two new shapes that are 50px in height and 2px in width to create the vertical sides for the button. If you are using Photoshop CC, you can simply select all four rectangle shape layers and merge them into one shape. QUICK TIP Double-click on your Vector Smart Object while in Photoshop and it will open in Illustrator, then click File>Save As and choose SVG from the file options. You will have exported a perfectly scalable web icon.
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REDESIGN FOR MOBILE
ADJUST THE SIZE AND POSITIONING OF ELEMENTS FOR MOBILE DEVICES
09
FINISHING DESKTOP
Now let’s finish up on the desktop design. Add a few more details like the slide options on the left side that indicates that the imagery in the background can be interactive in some way. Then take a look at the mobile safe-zone, marked red on the picture. You now need to make sure all of your elements can scale and work down to that space. It’s a simple matter of re-organising your elements so they fit within the safe zone, with some space on the sides.
001
Make two new folders on top of all your layers (click on the folder icon at the bottom of your Layers panel or hit Cmd/Ctrl+G). Name them ‘Desktop’ and ‘Mobile’. After that, copy all your current layers into the desktop folder, and copy all the layers a second time into your mobile folder. Do this by Shiftselecting all the layers (besides the two recently created folders called Desktop and Mobile), and drag all the layers into the folder while holding Opt/Alt down on your keyboard.
002
003 001 HELPING HAND
Set up a grid and use existing industry imagery for inspiration and colour reference
11
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002 WORKING WITH FONTS
Research typography and place in a nice header text to make a bold statement in the centre of the design
003 PREPARING FOR MOBILE Reorganise the elements from your desktop design into their own folder so it fits on a mobile screen
It’s always great to show your client how the design will look in a browser, to give them the picture of how things will be aligned and scaled
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After you have re-organised the folder and layers, it’s time to re-organise the position and sizes. A few key rules are to scale all your icons to about 30 per cent of what they were on desktop. If your icons are already small in the desktop design, you might want to double that scale. Another tip is to never use a text size less than 24pt – it’s just going to be hard to read on a mobile screen. Place a new layer on top of your mobile folder and create two black shapes to the sides of the workspace so you have all your focus on the centre part where the mobile design will be. Make a new margin from the edge of the design at 30px on both sides to keep some space between your elements and the edge of the screen.
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PREPARE FOR PRESENTATION
It’s always great to show your client how the design will look in a browser, to give them the picture of how things will be aligned and scaled on a computer screen and a mobile screen. On the disc, you can find some pre-made assets of an iMac screen and an iPhone. These are great tools to help sell your design and create a better awareness on the client’s side of how the final outcome will look and feel.
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Open up ‘iMac_screen.psd’ from the disc, double-click the layer called ‘Put your design here’, then open up your PSD file with the web design. Go to Image>Image Size and scale it down to 1440 x 900px, then with the mobile folder off, merge the desktop folder with all the layers and drag it over to the Smart Object called ‘Screen_11’ that you opened from ‘iMac_screen.psd’. Now make sure it’s centred and save it. Repeat the same steps for the ‘iPhone_ screen.psd’ to get the phone screen.
ICON FONTS VS SVGS There aren’t fundamental differences between the two when you just want to display a couple of resolutionindependent monotone icons on your site. Of the two, icon fonts have greater support of out-of-date software, so if you’re working on a larger scale project that is expected to get great traffic from less techy audiences, you might want to go with icon fonts. If, however, you want to use the power of recent browsers and mobile OSs, then SVGs are for you. While creating icon fonts is a bit of setup work and you’ll probably look into a proper software tool that’ll help you do it, SVGs don’t require anything. Simply export to the format from Illustrator and your job is done.
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OUR EXPERT TONY ANDREAS RUDOLPH www.zulusplitter.de
Rudolph is a digital matte painter and concept artist, and has worked on projects like Guardians Of The Galaxy, Jupiter Ascending, Captain America 2 and Divergent.
SOURCE FILES On the disc provided with this issue, you will find the full-size 3D render and all the passes needed to complete this tutorial.
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WorldMags.net EPIC FANTASY LANDSCAPE CONCEPT
TECHNIQUES
PHOTOMANIPULATION
EPIC FANTASY LANDSCAPE CONCEPT COMBINE PHOTO ELEMENTS AND PAINTING TECHNIQUES TO CREATE PHOTOREAL CONCEPT ART
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earn how to use a 3D block mesh, photo bashing and digital painting techniques to create an epic fantasy kingdom scene. The combination of Maya and the renderer Chaos Group V-Ray will help you to set up the perspective and basic lighting for the final scene. The use of photos will help you to create the first details for the
image and generate a photoreal touch. You will then use digital painting techniques to match, merge and change the photos to the way you want them, which will help you to create a final concept. This is an advanced Photoshop tutorial, for artists who have a bit more experience with this program or someone who wants to push their skills to a new
level. You will be using photos to make up most of the base, which you can find on the web. Here, stock sites like CGTextures, Texturepilot or deviantART were used. Shop around to find images to suit your own scene. On the disc provided with this issue, you will find the 3D render and all passes. When you have these downloaded, you’re ready to begin.
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TECHNIQUES EPICWorldMags.net FANTASY LANDSCAPE CONCEPT
WORK IN PROGRESS
THE PHOTOREAL CONCEPT
Progress 1: From 3D to 2D
02 Progress 2: Using the photo
bashing technique
Progress 3: Painting on top
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3D BLOCK SKETCH
Create a new document with a size of 5661 x 3669 pixels and 300dpi. You will start by using a 3D render. The 3D render was created with Autodesk Maya and V-Ray. You can use other 3D programs and renderers to create a similar image, like CINEMA 4D or Google SketchUp. The 3D mesh will help to give you the basic composition, perspective and lighting for the scene. For this painting, the 3D part was completed in around two to three hours. Render out different passes like Diffuse or RGB.
The next step is the background. For a better overview, create a group by clicking the group icon in the Layers panel. To browse the photos you want to use in the image, the best way is to use Adobe Bridge or Adobe Mini Bridge. To activate the Mini Bridge, go to File>Browse in Mini Bridge. When you find the right images for the background, double-click on the thumbnail in Mini Bridge to open them. Use the Move tool to move the image into your PSD file.
The 3D mesh will help to give you the basic composition, perspective and lighting for the scene
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EXTEND THE PHOTOS
The next stage is the extension of photo elements by copying the images and painting on top of them. Duplicate the sky image with Cmd/Ctrl+J and put it under the original sky. Than use the Move tool to move it to the right. Make another copy and move it down. After that, merge the sky layers together and use the Brush tool with a chalk brush to paint a seamless edge between all the sky parts.
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FIRST PHOTOBASH
MATCH THE ELEMENTS
Now it’s time to match the mountain with the sky. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+B for Color Balance to match the colours. Select Shadows and add a bit of cyan to the mountain. Press OK and open the Hue/ Saturation dialog with Cmd/Ctrl+U. Go to the cyan and blue channel and pull down the Saturation. Create a new layer behind the mountain layer. Use the Lasso tool to make a shape for the distant mountains. Pick a shadow colour from the mountain and fill the selection with this colour.
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WorldMags.net QUICK TIP If you want to select a part of a reference image you picked for the painting, use the Quick Selection tool to create a fast and accurate selection. Sometimes the Quick Selection tool creates better results than Color Range selection or the Magic Wand tool.
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ADD THE WATERFALLS
Other than the sun rays, the background needs another interesting element – the waterfalls. To create these, use two different waterfall images. To paint the shapes of the waterfalls, create a layer mask by clicking on the layer mask icon in the Layers panel and paint with the round brush in black to change the shape. It’s important to look at the size of the trees – the waterfalls shouldn’t be bigger than the trees on the mountain. After that, match the colours again with Color Balance.
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OVERPAINT THE WATERFALLS
Now you need to match the waterfall size by painting on top of the waterfall. Create a new layer on top of the waterfall layer and use a chalk brush. Pick a dark colour from a nearby area and just paint some lines on the waterfall. Then add some smaller islands and stones. Go to Image>Image Rotate>Flip Horizontal to have a fresh eye and check the perspective and scale. Create a new layer and set it to Lighten. Pick the sun colour and paint some highlights over the waterfall where the light hits.
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THE MIDDLE BACKGROUND MOUNTAIN
Now you can repeat the same techniques as used in the steps before. Try to match the shape of the 3D render to the scene as much as possible, as well as the lighting direction. Create a new group and call it something like ‘midground mountain’. Import the images into your Photoshop file and place them by using the Move tool. Then create a layer mask for every image you want to add and paint the shapes. Here, tree images were used to create a base for the mountain.
OVERPAINT THE MOUNTAIN
The next step is another overpaint and colour matching. You need to match the grassy top and the forest to the rocky mountain image. To match the colours, use the Match Color adjustment. Go to Image>Adjustments>Match Color. Select the PSD file as a source and the layer you want to match this layer. After you have done this, create a new layer for the overpaint and paint the edges between the images, as well as painting in some trees on the light side of the mountain.
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PAINT THE SNOWY DISTANT MOUNTAINS
Flip the image again to get a fresh eye. Create a new group. Use the 3D part as a base, but extend the shape a bit more with the Lasso tool. Import a snowy mountain and put it into the PSD file. Use Color Balance to match the colours. When you have done this, create a new layer over the mountain. This layer will be a cloud layer. Use the Brush tool and a cloud brush. Pick a cloudy colour from the sky layer and paint the clouds.
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TECHNIQUES EPICWorldMags.net FANTASY LANDSCAPE CONCEPT
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MIDGROUND MOUNTAIN
Create another new layer. Select the part of the mountain you want to add details to with the Lasso and click on the mask icon in the Layers panel. Now the group must have the mask in nearly the same shape as the mountain. Import some more grassy mountain images. Here just two different ones were copied and moved around so that they did not look like duplicates of each other. Create a mask for every image and paint some areas away if it ever starts to look too similar.
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PAINT THE SUN AND SKY
Create a new layer inside the mountain group. Pick the colour of the darker cloud and change the layer mode to Multiply. Fill the layer with the colour and paint the elements away on the mask where the sun hits the mountain. After, create a new group with a mask. Inside this group, add a Color Balance adjustment and match the light side of the mountain with the sun colour. Then create a new layer in Lighten mode, picking the sun colour, and paint the sunny side of the mountain.
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FINAL DETAILS OF THE MOUNTAIN
Here, some rocky parts of the mountain didn’t match the buildings and smaller cathedrals. Create a new layer on top of the latest layers you created. Pick a colour from the rocks and start painting on some rocks near the buildings to create something like platforms that the buildings are built on. Be sure to repaint as much as possible, like the existing rocks. Use a chalk brush with a texture for this part. The result should show nearly no difference between the original rocks.
MOUNTAIN, CLOUDS AND FOREGROUND
Look for some cloudy mountains. Use the Quick Selection tool to select the cloud and move it into the PSD. Match the colours with Color Balance. Move one cloud on top of the mountain group and one behind. Paint in some details on the top cathedral. For the foreground, use three images for the water and two for the riverside in front of the gate and copy them three times. Merge the images again by painting on top of it. The colours are matched with Color Balance. QUICK TIP When you work with 3D, be sure to render out as many passes as possible, including Diffuse, Ambient Occlusion, and shadow and light passes. You can then combine these passes with the layer blending methods in Photoshop, like Multiply, Darken and Lighten.
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MAIN CATHEDRAL, GATE AND RIVERSIDE
Create a new group. Select the main cathedral and make a layer mask out of it. Use cathedral textures to add some basic details and paint on top of it. Do the same with the bridge and the wall. For these elements, just use some old stone textures you can find at CGTextures or Texturepilot. Copy the image from the riverside on the left and put it between the tree images you added before. For the tree, use just one image and paint on top of every layer to create randomness.
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FINAL STEP
Now add some textures to the remaining parts. Create a new layer and paint some city smoke with a cloud brush. Use a knight image, scale it and paint on top of it to create some randomness. Then create another new layer, pick the sun colour and paint all the sunny parts with a soft brush to create a moody feeling. Press Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+Shift+E to create a master copy. Then go to Filter>Blur> Gaussian Blur set 4%. Change the layer mode to Lighten at 75%. Done.
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READER INTERVIEWWorldMags.net RETRO FANTASY
READER INTERVIEW
RETRO FANTASY
OLI ROGERS EXPLAINS HOW HE TAUGHT HIMSELF TO USE PHOTOSHOP TO CREATE THE FANTASTICAL AND MYSTERIOUS, WITH A RETRO TWIST
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li Rogers first began to use Photoshop as an art student, five years ago. Using online tutorials and magazines to teach himself, he gradually shifted from working with pencils, a paintbrush and an airbrush to his graphics tablet; painting all things weird, fantastical, surreal and mysterious – though usually with a retro flavor. “That airbrush was way too noisy anyway!” he begins. BEING SELFTAUGHT, WHAT PARTS OF YOUR WORK WOULD YOU SAY YOU FIND PHOTOSHOP TO BE MOST USEFUL FOR? Almost all of my work is now made entirely in
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Photoshop. I used to scan pencil drawings and work them up, but these days it’s all digital from the inception of the image. I love the flexibility of digital work, and that’s one reason why I think it’s a great learning tool for illustration. You can make so many decisions that you’d have to be incredibly brave to attempt on a physical piece that you’ve been slaving over for days. There’s no
I’m often asked if I use photomanipulation in my images. The answer is no; all of the work you see here is made from scratch
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OUR READER OLI ROGERS, AKA STEGOSAURUS www.olirogers.artworkfolio.com
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All article images © Oli Rogers
Zpiral Galaxy: Rogers explains: “With this poster I seek to answer the question that seems to be on everyone’s lips these days: What if the makers of ‘80s Saturday morning cartoons had been into the esoteric knowledge traditions of the ancient world, and hallucinogenic drugs?”
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Texture: You can overlay a subtle photo texture to add interest to an otherwise flat surface, but don’t go too crazy Brushes: You can render all manner of finishes using a very limited range of brushes; in this image, four
Love For The Haters: “One of my personal favourite poster designs, based on a mixture of Hindu and Bollywood imagery with the addition of some subtle ‘80s pop elements,” says Rogers. “As you can see, I like to create illustrative mash-ups. The design is inspired by something very important once said by Martin Luther King Jr.: ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.’”
Lighting: Multiply layers are great for adding shadows to elements that have already been rendered, and I sometimes use Overlay for highlights
Pattern: When making intricate patterns you can copy and paste repeated elements, but for realism make sure they don’t appear too identical
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WorldMags.net RETRO FANTASY READER INTERVIEW fear of ruining your work, so you can be as daring as you like in terms of experimentation. DO YOU FEEL AS THOUGH YOUR STYLE HAS CHANGED A LOT SINCE YOU FIRST BEGAN TO USE PHOTOSHOP? I suppose I’d describe my style as highly rendered digital painting, but that’s definitely evolved considerably over my time using Photoshop. To begin with I just wanted a new way to colour my traditional drawings. WHAT PROJECT THAT YOU HAVE USED PHOTOSHOP FOR DO YOU FEEL MOST PROUD OF HAVING WORKED ON? I graduated from university eighteen months ago, so I’m really just starting out in my career. I still consider
As you can probably tell, I’m really into ‘80s airbrush art – the kind of fantasy and sci-fi stuff that was all over movie posters, record covers and videogame boxes one of my student projects, which was an entry for the Macmillan Prize for children’s books, as a bit of a milestone. It was called The Tremendous Moustache, and it was about a friendly woodland creature with magical facial hair. I didn’t win anything, but I’m still fond of the project as it was really the first work in which my digital skills started to catch up with my imagination, and other people seem to like it too. Looking at it now, though, I can see that I’ve definitely come a long way since then.
TOP FIVE DESIGN TIPS Using separate layers for each element from the rough stage allows you to play around with the composition of your painting until you get the most effective layout possible. Don’t expect Photoshop to create things for you. You’ll need the same foundation of basic art skills as you would for work created with physical paints and canvas. Practise! It can be easier to paint complex forms in monochrome first, then use Color layers to add ‘glazes’ of colour. You can then tweak these with Overlay and Color Balance adjustment layers. I use adjustment layers for adding the finishing touches to a painting. Hue/ Saturation and Color Balance can pull your palette together, and Levels can add extra punch. Have a play. Look to magazines like Advanced Photoshop for useful technical tips and creative inspiration, but don’t just copy others’ content unless it’s strictly for practice. Your style should be your own. Gold: “An editorial illustration that symbolises the financial struggle of working in the creative industries as the ‘Magnum Opus’, the alchemical quest to turn lead into gold. In this case, it’s pencil lead,” explains Rogers Truth Hurts: Like most of his art, this poster was inspired by ‘80s airbrush art. It was also inspired by a lyric from David Bowie’s ‘Underground’: “Don’t tell me truth hurts, little girl, ‘cause it hurts like hell.”
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READER INTERVIEWWorldMags.net RETRO FANTASY
WHAT OTHER ARTISTS DO YOU FEEL HAVE BEEN MOST INFLUENTIAL AND INSPIRING TO YOU? As you can probably tell, I’m really into ‘80s airbrush art – the kind of fantasy and sci-fi stuff that was all over movie posters, record covers and videogame boxes. Also, imagery from the picture books that I read as a small child still leaks into my work here and there. In terms of individual artists, I’ve always been into Edward Gorey (although of course my digital work is a world away from his pen-and-ink drawings), and at this moment I can’t get enough of Christopher Conn Askew and Femke Hiemstra’s stuff. It’s magical.
Full Boar: “Here we see a bunch of Victorian socialites engaged in worshipping a pyrotechnic boar-cannon,” tells Rogers
WHAT ARE THE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES YOU WOULD SAY ARE YOUR FAVOURITES? I’m often asked if I use photomanipulation in my images. The answer is no; all of the work you see here is made from scratch. Then there’s the classic question, “Which bits did you do?”, to which the answer is “All of them.” Besides the odd font and the occasional hint of a photo texture, nothing goes into my work that wasn’t generated by me, using primarily the basic soft and hard round brushes, along with a slightly ragged-edged brush. Besides that, I’ll make a few adjustments to the levels and colour balance but that’s really it. Cmd/Ctrl+Z is my other favourite feature – you don’t get that on a physical canvas. DO YOU FEEL IT IS IMPORTANT FOR ARTISTS TO LEARN A VARIETY OF SKILLS, SUCH AS BOTH DIGITAL AND TRADITIONAL ART? Definitely – although, you probably won’t get too far as a digital artist if you haven’t got a good grounding in traditional art skills. As a digital painter you most definitely still need to know how to draw, and even if you are a photomanipulator you will still need to know how to compose an image and how to pick a palette. But then, I think that working digitally can help you learn these things. As an artist you need to experiment with all the different media that you can get your hands on – how else will you find out what you’re good at? Crafty & Furious: This album cover, called Crafty & Furious, was made for a dance music producer, featuring a dinosaur Jesus chilling in downtown Miami.
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© Elena Matyush
I imagined my character with iridescent scales, so I decided to add something reptilian to her design – a dragon’s chest
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WorldMags.net TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE HOW I MADE
A’KHAMI
ELENA MATYUSH AMATEUR DIGITAL ARTIST ELENA MATYUSH TAKES US THROUGH THE PROCESS OF PAINTING AN EYECATCHING FANTASY CREATURE PORTRAIT
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lena Matyush (http://leinara.deviantart. com) first developed the idea for her recent digital character painting from none other than a simple sketch: a cute face with large eyes and long ears whose eyes she fell in love with. “I imagined the delicate creature looking up with naive and surprising
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sight at a glowing butterfly, which was ultimately replaced by the jellyfish,” she explains. From the very beginning, Matyush’s plan was to make the image colourful and vibrant, with surrealistic elements such as luminous plants added in. “I didn’t want it to look like Pandora, though,” Matyush continues. “I imagined my
DEFINING THE COLOURS
I started with a line sketch of the character, then defined the basic colours for the whole picture. To do this, I created two layers under the creature to sketch the colour layout for both the background and the character separately.
character with iridescent scales, so I decided to add something reptilian to her design – a dragon’s chest. For a long time I didn’t know what to call this creature, so during the entire process I called her a lizard. I then finally decided to give her a name – A’khami.” After 183 layers, the adorable sketch was finally brought to life.
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CHARACTER AND BACKGROUND
I used a simple, round brush with hard edges to shape the trees, then used the Dual Brush so that the leaves wouldn’t look duplicated. When the main part of the background was done, I moved onto the character. I used the Pen tool>Make Selection in order to make the edges of her body sharp.
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BRINGING IT TO LIFE
It was then time to work with the details. I created a new layer onto which I put the tracery, then applied Transform>Warp and placed it onto the stripes. Finally, I moved onto the jellyfish. To make the tentacles perfectly smooth, I used the Pen tool>Stroke Path>Brush, then used Transform>Warp to make my jellyfish less flat.
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WorldMags.net REVIEWS UGEE RAINBOW III VS WACOM INTUOS MANGA
UGEE RAINBOW III VS WACOM INTUOS MANGA
WE PIT THESE TWO RIVAL TABLETS AGAINST EACH OTHER TO FIND OUT WHICH IS BEST FOR LESS THAN £100
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ou don’t need to spend a fortune when looking for your next creative device, and when it comes to graphics tablets this is especially true. For less than £100 you can have a capable tablet that combines the latest technology with a simple, functional design. Now your instincts may lean towards the Wacom Intuos
Manga before we even get started, but it can sometimes pay to consider the underdogs, like this one by a Chinese company, UGEE. Although, straight off the bat, this Intuos edition from Wacom comes shipped with a full version of Manga Studio Debut 4, which includes integrated colour palettes and thousands of halftone patterns and brushes.
But for those of you who are just on the look-out for a tablet to complement your Photoshop artwork, perhaps as a more portable addition to a larger tablet, then either one of these could be just right for you. Join us as we challenge these two graphics tablets side-by-side to see which is the best buy for under £100.
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£90 $99
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APPROX £53 $90 080
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WorldMags.net SIZING UP THE COMPETITION
WHICH TABLET HAS MORE ERGONOMIC APPEAL? On initial glance, we’re immediately drawn to the difference in physical dimensions between these two graphics tablets. The Rainbow III has three inches more active area than Wacom’s Intuos Manga. Not that size makes a huge difference in this case, because we found it surprisingly easy to adapt our
UGEE RAINBOW III
pen movements to the more confined space of the Intuos Manga after a few short moments. We did find that the Rainbow III was more comfortable to paint with, and in terms of ergonomics, the broader edging and raised hot keys down one side of the tablet sat better on the lap; as opposed to the squarer and flatter Intuos Manga. We also found the Rainbow III easier to operate, having all the hot keys at close reach with one hand while the other hand operated its pen. With the Intuos Manga, two hot
THIS GRAPHICS TABLET IS THE MOST AFFORDABLE OUT OF THE TWO, AND PROVIDES A LARGE ACTIVE AREA FOR MORE FREEDOM ACROSS THE CANVAS. DISREGARD THE FACT THAT THIS IS WITHOUT ANY OF 4(%ď-5,4)˶4/5#(ď4%#(./,/'9ď4(!4ď4(%ď).45/3ď-!.'!ď"/!343 ď)4ď STANDS ITS GROUND BY PROVIDING A BETTER RESOLUTION FOR PRECISION PAINTING.
keys are set in both of its top corners, so no matter whether you’re a left or right-handed artist, you’ll have to cross arms over to utilise all four of these. The Intuos Manga is still better equipped for left-handed artists; because of its symmetry, you’re not required to turn the tablet 180 degrees, which isn’t the case for the Rainbow III. In order to use the tablet’s hot keys with our right hand, we had to turn it completely around and accept the inwardly protruding USB cable, as opposed to its more natural position of facing away.
A chunkier pen is sometimes easier to handle for those with larger hands
No wireless connectivity leaves you reaching for the USB cable, but it’s long enough to reach across an averagely sized workspace
The raised edge of this tablet is just right for operating the hot keys with one hand and painting with the other
Rainbow colour themes: If shades of brown are not quite your style, then there is a black version available
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WorldMags.net REVIEWS UGEE RAINBOW III VS WACOM INTUOS MANGA WACOM INTUOS MANGA
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OUT OF THE BOX?
THE EXTRA KIT THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
Both tablets do have their own surprises out of the box. With the Rainbow III, you are welcomed with a pen holder that stashes away a number of spare nibs, too. This is a neat way to keep the pen accessible in your studio, but Wacom’s solution to this is a little different. Using a very tight-fitting fabric tag along the top of the tablet, one end of the pen is squeezed into the holder; it does mean, however, that it’s never too far away at a moment’s notice. If Manga is your genre of choice, then having Manga Studio Debut 4 software and resources all bundled might tip the scales. The pen of the Rainbow III does require charging via a
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The Intuos finish:ď4HISďISďARGUABLYďTHEďMOREďSTYLISHďTABLET ď WITHďAďMETALLICďGREYďACTIVEďAREAďANDďRUBBERďEDGING
separate cable that connects to the top end. With a battery life of supposedly 5,000 hours, this isn’t something that restricted creativity when working with the tablet in Photoshop. One major disadvantage of the Rainbow III’s pen is that it’s minus an eraser. To work around this, it was
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SďRUBBERYďTEXTUREďHELPSďMAKEďITďFEELďANDď APPEARďMOREďPROFESSIONALďANDďSOPHISTICATEDď
possible to set one of the hot keys to Photoshop’s Eraser tool, but then we had to sacrifice a second hot key to jump back to the Brush tool once the eraser was done with.
7ACOM
SďSLIMďPENďCANďBEď slipped inside this handy TAG ďWHICHďREPLACESďAď pen holder
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WorldMags.net UNDER THE SURFACE
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4(%ď34!.$˶/54ď4%#(ď4(!4ď3%43ď4(%3%ď4!",%43ď!0!24 Although, on the surface, the Rainbow III might not be much of a looker, it does feature twice as many pressure levels and double the resolution compared to the Intuos Manga. In fact, this is more in line with Wacom’s Pro range and even the company’s high-end Cintiq models. The Rainbow III doesn’t give you the same level of customisation as you have with the Intuos Manga, and on top of this Wacom’s multi-touch, gesture commands makes it much more natural to move, rotate and pan across the canvas as paint is applied. Being considerate of the price mark of both of these tablets, the plastic surface of the active area was more noticeable on the Rainbow III during our tests when put up against the smoother surface of the Intuos Manga. That’s not to say the Rainbow III was entirely out-performed, however, giving a more than acceptable painting experience inside of Photoshop.
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4HEREďISďJUSTďENOUGHďROOMďAROUNDďTHEďEDGESďTOďRESTď THEďBASEďOFďYOURďHANDďONďWHILEďCONTROLLINGďTHEďPEN
4HESEďLINEARďHOTďKEYSďONď THEď2AINBOWď)))ďCOULDďSTOREď YOURďMOST USEDď0HOTOSHOPď shortcuts
AND THE WINNER IS... WACOM INTUOS MANGA Although not without its foibles, Wacom’s tablet really comes into its stride when using the multi-touch commands for full control over a wide range of gesture functions and navigational aids, which is something the Rainbow III can’t provide. Lightweight and wireless (with the additional accessory kit), this makes the Intuos Manga the more portable tablet out of the two, and it’s for these reasons that it has come out on top.
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WorldMags.net REVIEW
MISCHIEF
THIS DIGITAL PAINTING PROGRAM PROMISES A RADICAL INNOVATION, BUT IS IT COMPLEX ENOUGH FOR TODAY’S PHOTOSHOP FAN?
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ntil now, digital artists have always had to make compromises. You can use raster-based software like Photoshop to work with pixel-based images, taking advantage of the rich shifts in shade and tone that they can create, but hampered by the dreaded jaggies when it comes to resizing images for higher resolutions than you started with. Or you can use vector-based software like Illustrator that allows you to create images that can be scaled up with no loss of resolution, but be forced to eschew subtle tonal shifts in favour of crisp lines and colour delineations. You couldn’t have both – until now. Mischief lets you have your cake and eat it, as the drawing and painting program makes use of a new
aă MMOLUă_ăaă+?Aă-1ă ăLOăFGEFCOăaă5GKBLTPă6. ă4GPQ? ăăLOă and intriguing development called Adaptively Sampled Distance Fields. This new way of representing digital shapes, invented and patented by the brains behind Mischief, offers fast rendering, high-quality anti-aliasing, and the ability to represent variable, textured strokes that can be rescaled without losing quality. Put simply, Mischief offers you an infinitely scalable canvas with painterly mark-making that won’t lose resolution when you scale it up. As disruptive technologies go, this innovation is potentially huge. Adobe, then, will be relieved to note that Mischief is a simple program, far from offering all that Photoshop is capable of. It has a limited range of brushes and tools, no blending modes or layer
adjustments (beyond basic opacity controls), and no support for PSD files. All it does is let you sketch and paint with a few simple brushes. The thing is, those simple brushes happen to be very good. Pencils provide a naturalistic sketchy look. Conte crayons give soft, textured, buildable colour. Markers offer a tactile, felt-pen look and feel, while Highlighters can give a soft, semi-transparent glaze. Calligraphy brushes offer crisp, elegant strokes while Erasers – well, they do what Erasers do. It’s a simple feature set, but for digital painters who work in a predominantly traditional way, with sketching, inking, shading and colouring, it’s perfect. If you’re happy bouncing between Photoshop and other programs and you don’t mind dancing around
MADE WITH MISCHIEF
A LOOK AT MISCHIEF’S SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE SKETCHING AND PAINTING TOOLSET ■ BRUSHES
■ BRUSH CONTROLS
Mischief’s capsule collection of brushes include pencils, Conte crayons (aka coloured pencils), markers, highlighters, calligraphy pens and erasers. It’s a small set, but it’s all you need for a realistic hand-drawn look.
Brush controls are basic, offering Width (size) and Opacity controls plus a full colour palette. You can drag and drop colours into the Saved box on the right for ease of use. You can also control paper colour here.
■ LAYERS PALETTE No blend modes, no adjustments, no Styles or Effects – just simple layers for you to build up artwork on. Make sure you merge before exporting your image to a Photoshop-readable format, as PSDs aren’t supported.
■ TOOLS PALETTE The Tools palette is shockingly simplistic for Photoshop users, featuring a Rectangular Marquee, Brush tool, various shape and line presets, Eyedropper, Zoom, Undo and 100% Size command.
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WorldMags.net MISCHIEF with PNG and JPEG files to export your artwork in a Photoshopusable format, Mischief’s realistic brushes and ease of use make it well worth taking for a spin. It’s the infinitely scalable digital painting aspect that is the most exciting innovation about Mischief though, so even if it’s not your thing then it’s worth keeping an eye on how it develops. You can bet that Adobe will be.
VERDICT
TOP 5…
PHOTOSHOP BRUSH REPOSITORIES BRUSHEEZY
Features: 6/10 Ease of use: 8/10 Value for money: 8/10 Quality of results: 9/10
FINAL SCORE:
REVIEWS
www.brusheezy.com With free Photoshop brushes, patterns and textures as well as premium content available, Brusheezy is a great resource for finding brushes and other assets that can be used in both personal and commercial art projects.
8/10
MYPHOTOSHOP BRUSHES
www.myphotoshopbrushes.com qďǿIVKOď+ONDIƠ ďďZHILLETUMBLRCOM
Mischief is an exciting innovation in the digital painting field, although other kinds of Photoshop enthusiasts will find its feature set lacking in regular image-editing tools.
4HISďIMAGEďBYďǿIVKOď +ONDIƠďSHOWCASESďTHEď capabilities of Mischief’s small but perfectly formed brush set
This website is packed with free brushes and much more, but look at the terms and conditions for each resource carefully – some are okay to use commercially, but others can only be used for personal projects.
CREATIVE MARKET
www.creativemarket.com This premium site features individually priced brushes, photos, graphics and much more. It’s not cheap, but every week the site offers six hand-picked freebies to newsletter subscribers, which is great value. All are usable in commercial projects.
This sequence below by Sav Scatola shows off the possibilities of Mischief’s infinitely scalable canvas, as he zooms in on the decorative elements at the top of the tower
DEVIANTART
www.deviantart.com Head to the Resources and Stock Images section of deviantART and go to Application Resources>Photoshop brushes for mainly free, but some premium, content. Always check the terms and conditions though as many have very strict usage rules.
BRUSHLOVERS
© Sav Scatola, artist
www.brushlovers.com Many of the free and premium brushes on this site are okay to use on commercial projects, but the onus is on you to establish this with the individual brush author, so check before you start a commercial project!
CREATE SOME ARTWORK
DISCOVER MISCHIEF’S SKETCHING AND COLOURING TOOLS AND HOW TO USE THEM
01 START WITH A SKETCH
02 ADD BASIC COLOUR
03 ADD MORE COLOUR
Grab your graphics tablet, open Mischief (note the lack of dialog box asking you what size and resolution you require) and make a new layer. Grab the low-opacity Pencil tool, set it to a soft 2B-style grey and start to draw a portrait. You can build up shading by choosing one of the higher opacity pencils or by manually adjusting the Width and Opacity of the tool you’re using.
Grab the low-opacity Conte crayon, set it to a neutral flesh tone and make a new layer. Start to colour your drawing, concentrating colour in areas that you want to emerge from the image. Use the erasers to clean up and soften edges. You can build up soft shading and highlights on new layers by choosing shadow and highlight tones based on your midtone.
Make another layer, choose a warm red-pink and select the low-opacity Highlighter. Add a blush of colour to the cheeks and lips. Make another layer, choose a deeper, more saturated tone of the same hue, and run it over the top lip to add depth and definition. Clean up the edges with the diffused Eraser for a soft, subtly shaded look.
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READER INTERVIEWWorldMags.net PHOTOGRAPHY IN A DIGITAL WORLD
READER INTERVIEW
PHOTOGRAPHY IN A DIGITAL WORLD
PHOTOGRAPHER AND DIGITAL ARTIST ARTHUR RAMSEY SHOWCASES HIS CREATIVE STREAK AND DISCUSSES THE IMPORTANCE OF SELECTIONS
F
or talented photographer Arthur Ramsey, creating digital art was never a part of his image workflow. Starting out using film cameras and traditional darkroom processes, it wasn’t until another photographer introduced Ramsey to the world of digital editing that he started exploring manipulation techniques. “I used to be a fine-arts artist mostly selling images in galleries. This part of my life has really transitioned into what I would call a hobby, but it is a hobby that helps me learn techniques and brings zest to my commercial work.”
COULD YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR WORK AND WHAT PERSUADED YOU TO CREATE DIGITAL ART? I have been a professional photographer for 25 years, and I work for myself under the business name of Ramsey Still Imaging. Since launching into digital editing, I now bring a camera and simple lighting to a law firm, take pictures of their employees, and make all the images look like they were taken in a high-tech studio. My wedding photography is also much more creative now. I do trash-the-dress shots of brides, and it’s all done in Photoshop so their beautiful dresses stay
OUR READER ARTHUR RAMSEY www.ramseystillimaging.com
All article images © Arthur Ramsey Model: http://faestock.deviantart.com
Urban Alice And Morphing Statues: I used personal stock to make this urban fairytale of my own
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Model: http://jlior.deviantart.com
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Joy: I made a selection of the red scarf and copied to a new layer, then duplicated this layer many times, spreading pieces to fill a larger space, then merged. Finally I used the Clone Stamp tool with a leaf brush to make the floating leaves
Model: http://nhuval-stock.deviantart.com
Hungry: Changing a daylight picture to night isn’t too complicated, but I then added 3D texture to create zombie effects and painted portions of the photo
My style is really about light and how that light interacts in each environment. It is diversified and always changing WorldMags.net
Models: http://cathleentarawhiti.deviantart.com and http://forestfairy-stock.deviantart.com
WorldMags.net Painting: I used a custom brush to reduce noise and sharpen local areas on the face of the model in the foreground
Cooling colours: After merging greyscale with daylight and duplicating the layer, I then made a Gradient Map, set the coloured layer to Color blending mode, reduced the Opacity and added a blue Cooling Filter
Ripple effect: A great way to distort objects is to use the ripple effect. I used this for the hand under the water Lighting: I used greyscale mapping on a daylight image and used models from stock sites
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beautiful. I had a couple who wanted me to turn the wedding party into zombies, so we staged the shots! HOW DO YOU APPROACH YOUR PROJECTS? DO YOU HAVE A SET STYLE? My style is really about light and how that light interacts in each environment. It is diversified and always changing. I feel like I am a lot like Alfred Hitchcock with a somewhat strange sense of humour and a love for dark elements of art. I seek to ‘show’ elements of an unseen world. WHAT PHOTOSHOP PIECE IS YOUR FAVOURITE AND WHY? Urban Alice is my favourite because it’s about creating my own fantasy story. The model is from Deviant Art, and she does such a nice job of bringing stock that has virtually an unlimited potential for photomanipulations. I like the mystery in Urban Alice and the breaking of rules that says Alice has to be seated at a table with the Mad Hatter or falling into a rabbit hole. ARE THERE ANY SPECIFIC TECHNIQUES THAT YOU REGULARLY USE WHEN BUILDING DIGITAL IMAGES? The most important feature is to save your selections. Saving selections provides more control over the image and is great for creating the tonal range. I always paint my tonal range in levels of grey on a layer set to
DESIGN TIPS
Living Sacrifice-Mask: This image utilises textures from a peacock, which had to be defined using the tip provided herein
THE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES RAMSEY USED TO #2%!4%ď()3ď)-!'% ď,)6).'ď3!#2)&)#%˶-!3+ With my photo pieces displayed out in front of me with the light source, I then merged the pieces into one layer and duplicated it. I turned the duplicated layer into a drawing with a white background, then added a layer above it set to Multiply and filled it with black, reducing its Opacity to 87%. With the default soft brush set only to smoothing, I painted different shades of grey on the layer. Using saved selections, I was able to exert a lot of control over the lighting values. Finally, I reduced the drawing layer Opacity to about 20%, merged the two layers, and set it to Multiply.
Multiply blending mode. I follow the old-school teachings of Ansel Adams, who was a great photographer and darkroom artist. His teaching on the zone system still underlies the fundamentals of creating shadow and light. Photoshop is built on old-school theories. WHY DO YOU USE THE ADVANCED PHOTOSHOP WEBSITE? I love to post my artwork on the Advanced Photoshop website. I feel like I get a more honest response from Swim, Angeles, Swim: I drew the octopus body, filled it with grey, and enhanced it in a 3D workspace
Model: http://mariaamanda.deviantart.com
WorldMags.net PHOTOGRAPHY IN A DIGITAL WORLD READER INTERVIEW
your viewers. I also like being able to purchase the magazines and books from your website. WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT USING PHOTOSHOP FOR YOUR ART? It’s like a master mechanic’s toolbox to the auto mechanic. My Dad taught me as a kid that there is a right tool for each part of a project. The goal is familiarity with each tool. I actually use everything including the 3D workspace. I have learnt that every image is different and must be treated as such; therefore all the tools become indispensable. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO ANY NOVICES WHO ARE THINKING ABOUT TURNING PROFESSIONAL? Never give up on an image. One of my more recent images in my gallery entitled Living Sacrifice-Mask was an image that I almost gave up trying to create. Deep in my heart I knew I couldn’t let go of the vision and give up. The idea of the image was to bring a peacock texture into the entire image. If you let an image get the best of you, you’re resigning from growth. Also, it is a great idea to create a library of your own personal stock to work from.
Model: http://la--boheme.deviantart.com
The Need For Speed: Using my own stock images here helped me create my own brand. This and many of my other images use my own stock for backgrounds
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RESOURCE PROJECT
PAINT SPLATTERS
CREATE REALMEDIA GRUNGE BRUSHES
D
igital art is frequently known as a medium marked by clean designs, pristine lines, exact placement and perfect alignment. In many ways, digital art can feel very cold and digital because it lacks the bit of chaos that fills the real world. Just a touch of grunge or a small splatter of paint can add significant visual interest and excitement to a design. Traditional artists have known this for generations and have been
incorporating touches of grunge and other elements into their work. In this project we will walk you through the process of creating and using your very own! We will explore the methods of using three very different types of inks to produce several different results that can be used to add real-life paint splatters and splashes to your clean digital works. Follow along with this project, which is quick, cheap, easy, and a lot of fun!
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WorldMags.net PAINT SPLATTERS
ON THE DISC
PAINT SPLATTERS WITH ACRYLIC PAINTS
USE BASIC ACRYLICS TO CREATE INTERESTING PAINT SPLATTERS
01
MATERIALS
To make paint splatters with acrylic paints you’ll need acrylic paint, a variety of brushes, a large sheet of paper and some water to mix with the paint so it splatters better.
03
SPLATTER VARIETY
Different brushes produce different types of splatters. Regular brushes produce smaller drops, watercolour brushes create large blobs and a toothbrush will make a fine mist of paint. Experiment with brush-flicking methods to create different effects.
04
02
Mix the paint and water until you get an almost glue-like consistency. This will make splattering easy. Just fill the brush with paint and flick it onto the paper.
05 CAPTURE
You can digitise your paint splatters by either scanning them or photographing them. Photographing will give them more depth and tone while scanning will make them appear flatter.
SPLATTER
CLEAN UP
Once in the computer, clean up any little drops that are distracting from the main splatter. Too many little droplets will make the splatter harder to use because there will be more paint pieces to deal with. The simpler the better for these. You can always add individual dots where you want in specific projects.
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WorldMags.net TYPES OF PAINT
AN EXPLANATION OF DIFFERENT PAINTS TO USE TO SPLATTER Different types of paint have different effects when used. Here we’ll look at four different types of paint and how they work when splattering.
India ink: India ink isn’t technically a paint, but it works very similarly to watercolours. However, it is more highly pigmented, and therefore even though it’s in a convenient dropper bottle that’s perfect for paint splatters, it should be diluted first for the best colour and the least waste.
Oil paint: Oil paint is obviously oil-based; it takes a long time to dry and is very thick unless diluted with turpentine or a similar substance. It also separates and leaves oil stains on paper unless it’s prepared first. Therefore it is not a good candidate for splattering.
Acrylic: Acrylic paint is cheap and easily accessible. It comes in a variety of colours and has the most diversity when it comes to the splatters that can be made. When mixed with only a little water, the splatters are thick and opaque but with more water they can look like watercolour.
Watercolour: Watercolour splatters are thin and transparent, which makes them great for blending into photos for cool effects. You can also manipulate the splatters easily to make them as precise as you want them for a specific project. Just paint the shape you want and fill it with more water.
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WorldMags.net PAINT SPLATTERS
ON THE DISC
GET A LARGER SPLASH FROM THINNER PAINTS
USING INDIA INK AND WATERCOLOURS TO CREATE SPLATTERS
01
MATERIALS
When using either India ink or watercolours, you’ll need a brush that holds lots of liquid, water, lots of paper, watercolour paint or India ink.
02
DROP IT
For watercolours, gather lot of water and a little bit of colour in your brush. Hold it over the paper and wait for the paint to drip off the brush. Try dropping it from different heights for different effects.
DESIGNING WITH GRUNGE
USE PAINT SPLATTERS TO SPICE UP A DIGITAL DESIGN
Working with digitised paint splashes can be a lot of fun and bring a much needed addition of visual interest to an otherwise somewhat bland design. In this example, we began with an attractive text design. The placement and colours are good, yet still rather boring and plain. But adding a slightly tilted angle to the camera view along with several paint splashes and splatters for
03
SCAN OR PHOTOGRAPH
Again, you can either photograph or scan these. If your paper is lightweight like standard printer paper then you may get some warping, so it’s a good idea to photograph these while they’re wet.
texture creates a visually compelling and interesting piece. These paint splashes can be used as simple layers and positioned precisely, but that frequently defeats the purpose of adding an element of randomness. Using the splashes as brushes allows the use of the scattering, angle jitters and flip jitters from the brush properties to create chaotic sprays of paint spots. Be sure to still use layers for blending modes and matching the sprays to the perspective of the scene. Then see just how much more exciting a design can be if everything isn’t perfect and pristine!
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WorldMags.net ON THE DISC PAINT SPLATTERS HOW TO CREATE SPIDER SPLATTERS
CREATIVE METHOD FOR CRAFTING MORE INTERESTING SPLATTERS
02
BLOW
Using a hand pump or a straw, blow air directly into the centre of your puddle of colour. Continue blowing to create the desired shape. You can blow from any direction to create some very interesting, complex splatters.
03 01
DROP
ON THE DISC
Drop either watercolour or India ink as you usually would to get a splatter, but load the brush or dropper more than you normally would. Make sure you have space on your paper to do this – you’ll need it.
094
SCAN OR PHOTOGRAPH
The uses for these splatters are endless. You can create specific shapes by carefully blowing the ink around. But as you can tell these can take up a lot of space, so make sure they’re not too close together or you’ll have a hard time separating them once they’re scanned in.
PAINT SPLATTERS
COLLECTION OF 15 PAINT SPLASHES, SPLATTERS, AND DROPS rovided you with this assortment of fun, energetic paint s for you to use. Use them to add colour, interest and a touch of your personal designs.
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The TM
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CREATEWorldMags.net THE ART OF THE FUTURE w w w. 3dar tistonline .com
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PLUSH TOY VIGILANTES
BROUGHT TO LIFE USING MODO
Matt Burniston uses MODO to model, animate an d render his BXBSEXJOOJOHBOJ NBUFEmMN The Mega Plush.
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