Photoshop Users, step forth to enter the Academy! =D

2004-04-16 04:24:26 pm

直死の魔眼使い

First, I acknowledge this is going to sound like I'm bragging. I just want to make clear that this is because I've seen good stuff here, stuff that with a little help and some tricks of the trade, can become incredibly cool; in other words, I do NOT want to brag, but to help people. Now, to the point.

After seeing so many fanmade images from people that I've noticed that have great potential to improve themselves, I decided to create this thread. In it, I will post tutorials on doing various things in Photoshop (sorry, Paint Shop Pro and Fireworks users) such as cleaning images, creating background effects, and more, all by request. (Note that some of these, such as cleaning images, may be somehow applied to both of those programs, PSP and FW, if they have the necessary tools.) Just post the image you're working on, and tell me what you want to do with it, and I will see how can it be done, and teach you how to do it. :)

This is going to sound like I'm bragging around, but proof of my work can be found in M2k2's official wallpapers (found, all four of them, in the main page), and these sample wallpapers:
Naruto
Resources:
Naruto and Sasuke, Naruto 2004 Calendar
Naruto promotional poster
Sasuke promotional poster

Final Product:
Naruto Wallpaper

MegaMan X
Resources:
Patrick Spaziante's original MMX artwork

Final Product:
MegaMan X Wallpaper

Now, let the requests begin. :) Note that I will be only offering help, and will not do any special requests of wallpapers whatsoever... Unless the request poses a decent challenge, and I find that challenge interesting. :P However, if in any case you need to see a preview of what your final product should look like, feel free to ask, and I'll see how can I work it out. :)

Thread title:

First, I acknowledge this is going to sound like I'm bragging. I just want to make clear that this is because I've seen good stuff here, stuff that with a little help and some tricks of the trade, can become incredibly cool; in other words, I do NOT want to brag, but to help people. Now, to the point.

After seeing so many fanmade images from people that I've noticed that have great potential to improve themselves, I decided to create this thread. In it, I will post tutorials on doing various things in Photoshop (sorry, Paint Shop Pro and Fireworks users) such as cleaning images, creating background effects, and more, all by request. (Note that some of these, such as cleaning images, may be somehow applied to both of those programs, PSP and FW, if they have the necessary tools.) Just post the image you're working on, and tell me what you want to do with it, and I will see how can it be done, and teach you how to do it. :)

This is going to sound like I'm bragging around, but proof of my work can be found in M2k2's official wallpapers (found, all four of them, in the [url=http://www.metroid2002.com]main page[/url]), and these sample wallpapers:
[u][i][b]Naruto[/b][/i][/u]
Resources:
[url=http://kisekinet.hp.infoseek.co.jp/naruto/2004cal2.jpg]Naruto and Sasuke, Naruto 2004 Calendar[/url]
[url=http://kisekinet.hp.infoseek.co.jp/naruto/pad2-2.jpg]Naruto promotional poster[/url]
[url=http://kisekinet.hp.infoseek.co.jp/naruto/pad2-3.jpg]Sasuke promotional poster[/url]

Final Product:
[url=http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/naruto/sasuke_naruto_1024x768.jpg]Naruto Wallpaper[/url]

[u][i][b]MegaMan X[/b][/i][/u]
Resources:
[url=http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/spaz/original.jpg]Patrick Spaziante's original MMX artwork[/url]

Final Product:
[url=http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/spaz/spaz_x_zero_wall_1024x768.jpg]MegaMan X Wallpaper[/url]

Now, let the requests begin. :) Note that I will be only offering help, and will not do any special requests of wallpapers whatsoever... Unless the request poses a decent challenge, and I find that challenge interesting. :P However, if in any case you need to see a preview of what your final product should look like, feel free to ask, and I'll see how can I work it out. :)

Phazon Eater

2004-04-16 07:58:54 pm

Its because of me isn't it? :(

*Dies*

Thanks for all the tips! :)

DominicanZero

2004-04-16 09:20:55 pm

直死の魔眼使い

Heh. :D It's not because of you, pal. (Well, at least not only because of you. :P) It's because I've seen people like MMMcLean (Metroid Prime) and some others posting stuff that looks good on its own, but could be improved to become something FAR better. And since I've seen your stuff, you can also share your tips with us. That way, we all learn together. :)

-¤MaynardsTOOL¤-

2004-04-17 12:04:18 am

If I may make some suggestions for tutorial sites:

www.pixel2life.com
www.snecx.com
www.good-tutorials.com

KennyMan666

2004-04-17 06:23:17 am

Viking

Precursor

I'd like a 1600x1200 Kakashi wallpaper. But since it doesn't seem to exist anywhere, I think of doing one myself. If anyone could find me a good, high-quality, close-up pic of Kakashi's face when he's using Sharingan, I would love that person. Other good Kakashi pictures would be nice to. I'm going to use a picture of Kakashi as ANBU Captain, but that isn't enough.

Kakashi as ANBU Captain:
http://www.narutochaos.com/images/chars/kakashianbu.jpg
(has to be cleaned up a bit, but it's cool)

Roy

2004-04-17 08:02:38 am

i want to know how to filter logo's(like the m2k2 logo)from its background,i know how to extract picture,but not logo's...

RoboBlob

2004-04-17 09:56:44 am

Yay phor fotoshop! ( Question

) Oh, man how photoshop makes paint completely useless. It's like going from 56k to cable!

DominicanZero

2004-04-17 11:23:22 am

直死の魔眼使い

Quote from Roy:

i want to know how to filter logo's(like the m2k2 logo)from its background,i know how to extract picture,but not logo's...

It's the same basic principle. Let's take a look at how I extracted the M2k2 logo for the wallpapers...

(The original logo can be found in the main page.)

Also, from this point on, you can click on the images to see them in real size.

Here we are:

The first thing we do is increase the Canvas Size to have more room to work (don't worry, when the image is completely cleaned, we will extract the pic and paste it on a new image, so the size matches the cleaned area). You can also refrain from doing this in case you think you have enough room to work the cleaning job. ;) But I usually do increase my canvas, just to make sure. :P

Now, Zoom into your picture at a minimum of 500%, like this:

Since we're so close, the pixels that form each image can be clearly seen. Pick the Polygonal Lasso Tool (

) and get ready to spend a good while cleaning. ;)

Choose any area of your image, and make a small selection, going around the outlines of what you want to extract, like this:

(The selection borders in the shrunken image had to be modified so the can be clearly noticed, but the full sized image has them clear enough.)

Now that you've made your selection, press Delete. You should come out with something like this:

As you can clearly notice in the bigger image, the surrounding pixels become semitransparent, so you can easily put that image over something else, and it'll blend easily with the background behind it.

Now all you have to do is keep doing that until you have your image completely cleaned out. :)

Here's a quick job of extracting the text out of the M2k2 logo, done in about five minutes:

It's not perfect, but you can clearly notice that with more time and dedication, it could have come out wonderfully.

You just have to practice it over and over, and you'll soon become better at it. :)

And here ends the first tutorial of the Metroid 2002 Photoshopping Academy. :D

EDIT: corrected a few minor typos, and added a random comment somewhere. :P

EDIT: Just noticed all the reference images were deleted by angelfire. Evil or Very Mad

Refer to http://www.click-tech.tk's tutorial section to see the actual images, since I'm right now too lazy to correct them. :P

[quote="Roy"]i want to know how to filter logo's(like the m2k2 logo)from its background,i know how to extract picture,but not logo's...[/quote]
It's the same basic principle. Let's take a look at how I extracted the M2k2 logo for the wallpapers...

(The original logo can be found in the [url=http://www.metroid2002.com/]main page[/url].)

Also, from this point on, you can click on the images to see them in real size.

Here we are:
[url=http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/extract/main01.jpg][img]http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/extract/extract01.jpg[/img][/url]

The first thing we do is increase the Canvas Size to have more room to work (don't worry, when the image is completely cleaned, we will extract the pic and paste it on a new image, so the size matches the cleaned area). You can also refrain from doing this in case you think you have enough room to work the cleaning job. ;) But I usually do increase my canvas, just to make sure. :P

Now, Zoom into your picture at a minimum of 500%, like this:
[url=http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/extract/main02.jpg][img]http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/extract/extract02.jpg[/img][/url]

Since we're so close, the pixels that form each image can be clearly seen. Pick the [b]Polygonal Lasso Tool[/b] ([img]http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/extract/lasso.gif[/img]) and get ready to spend a good while cleaning. ;)

Choose any area of your image, and make a small selection, going around the outlines of what you want to extract, like this:
[url=http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/extract/main03.jpg][img]http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/extract/extract03.jpg[/img][/url]
(The selection borders in the shrunken image had to be modified so the can be clearly noticed, but the full sized image has them clear enough.)

Now that you've made your selection, press Delete. You should come out with something like this:
[url=http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/extract/main04.jpg][img]http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/extract/extract04.jpg[/img][/url]

As you can clearly notice in the bigger image, the surrounding pixels become semitransparent, so you can easily put that image over something else, and it'll blend easily with the background behind it.

Now all you have to do is keep doing that until you have your image completely cleaned out. :)

Here's a quick job of extracting the text out of the M2k2 logo, done in about five minutes:
[img]http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/dzavatars/extract/m2k2.gif[/img]
It's not perfect, but you can clearly notice that with more time and dedication, it could have come out wonderfully.

You just have to practice it over and over, and you'll soon become better at it. :)

And here ends the first tutorial of the Metroid 2002 Photoshopping Academy. :D

EDIT: corrected a few minor typos, and added a random comment somewhere. :P

EDIT: Just noticed all the reference images were deleted by angelfire. :evil: Refer to [url]http://www.click-tech.tk[/url]'s tutorial section to see the actual images, since I'm right now too lazy to correct them. :P

-¤MaynardsTOOL¤-

2004-04-17 11:54:31 am

To add on to that, you can also consider image-matting after you're finished. As long as you have a good and smooth cut around your object, it makes it appear flawless. Due to the fact that the semi-transparent pixels around the image might not always match the background (or forum) color you're working with, matting makes the process easier. As long as you choose a color close enough to the original b/g (or just take a screenshot, then put it in ps, and eyedrop it), itll make the edges more crisp, and take most of the jagged lines out of angles. It puts a nice semi-transparent, and fully opaque border around the clear image. 8)

Phazon Eater

2004-04-17 01:20:52 pm

I almost always go with the magic eraser. If that doesn't work (for one of the many reasons) then I'll use the normal one while zoomed in. I've never tried that becuase if I mess up then I'll have to start tracing the whole thing over again. With the eraser I just hit Ctrl-Z (or Ctrl-Alt-Z for several mistakes).

Here is a basic lesson:

Close-ups:

If you are going to do a close up of something (like someone's face), first take the close up. Now change the opacity (on the layer selector) to around 60%. Now post the orignal image where you go the close-up from in front of it at 100% opacity.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about:

Thats a sig I made for someone at Samus.co.uk. Thus concludes Lesson 1 (from me). If you have any further questions feel free to ask. :)

The Link

2004-06-08 03:10:34 pm

400400

Errr. well I got Photoshop for free so I can't use it at all!

Aran Samus

2004-06-24 05:20:55 pm

:D thanks DominicanZero! now I know how people do that... saved me the trouble of PMing someone and asking. ^-^ now I can make nice siggies like below *points down*...thanks again!

-Aran Samus