Kaizoku Fansubs / Forums

I did an actually semi-good job with real people when bitsmart came to me to photoshop his friends.

Lesson Learned, don't mess with real people(much) in photoshop, you have better things to do with your life.

I realize this is off topic, but I am making colored One Piece manga, and started my own group. As for personal things from messing around, none of those yet. It's hard for me to do recreations by hand so alot of things won't work. I'll make sometihng pretty cool eventually.

Any idea how to get the cool shiny metallic effect?

Huzzar! Finally a topic I can skin my teeth into!

Well first and foremost, link.
Thats probably where most of my photoshop work goes at the moment.

Ive got a whole folder of stuff Ive done in photoshop. Ill pick to favs to show here.

--One--
is a site header I did. Problem is I don't have a web site so it's sorta lacking context and purpose.

---Two--
is impressive, but in all honesty im nowhere near the quality of the guy I got the original tut off.

Whats not there that I'm particularly proud of (I know, I pretty arrogant aren't I?) is photo manipulations. I have a whole series, but unforutantly they were created as a bullying technique (nothing lude, just paying out on a very stupid lie) thus I am loath to post them on account of the victims feelings. On the other hand, the chances of that person EVER coming here are slim to none, and they can be quite amusing...
I'll wait for a second opinion from weasleben - hes the only one who knows who I'm talking about.

DB - Yes, definently more than just rendered clouds. Unforutantley, I cant make any real suggestions for you cause I don't know the context of your piece . In the case that it HAS no context, then your really in trouble!! Going by size and layout, you could some OP characters in there perhaps (or any characters for that matter).

Mofoofoo - Shiny metallic effect eh? You need a gradient overlay. Its in the same place as what DB said, just a little lower. there are some pre-set metal gradients, but if you cant find them, they're usually Grey-White-Grey-White. For even better effect, do that, raterize (or merge with a blank layer), Filter Noise>Add Noise, Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Example ( - photobucket pixelation).

Hope that helped.

Last edited by Silk (2006-12-11 05:27:48)

I tried your suggestion Silk and threw in an anime character. Also I changed my logo to a little Red/Green box as a place holder, because I know theres not gonna be a logo in the final draft. I like the way it turned out but now the background looks too dark...

Well first get a picture, then open it in photoshop. If its already cut out just copy/paste it onto your other open .psd , if not you need to cut it out. The Magic Eraser tool is very useful for this, also there is some tool for cutting along edges but I can't remember its name right now...

Ah, a photoshop topic. Excellent!

I haven't touched photoshop in a few months, save for doing a DVD cover for my friend's school movie (which I don't really feel like posting here). Here's some of my older work. Dunno where my skill level would be at if I started again...perhaps the same, perhaps a little bit lower.

anyways:





















Banner
Sunrise
Sunrise 2

phew.

Last edited by Inferno (2006-12-11 16:24:35)

The isolating and copying anime characters comes up alot so I'm gonna basically lay it all out right here right now.

There are several methods of doing it. The most basic of which is the Magnetic lasso tool.
This tool uses the image contrast to figure out approximately where the edges are within an image. Just trace around the character you want and you will little anchor points form.
NB/ Pressing delete will remove the last created anchor point. This is an INVALUABLE tool. Once you have your selection, you can either copy/paste into a new image, simply drag and drop into a new image (make sure move tool selected keyboard - V), or invert the selection (Ctrl+Shift+I) and delete the background (NB/ You may need to make the background a layer. See below).

A more sophisticated and MUCH better way of doing this is the mask tool.

1)Make background a layer.
JPEG images will be locked onto one single highly un-editable layer. Definable as such:
To fix this, simply double click on the layer and hit OK. Done.
  -- Should your BG layer say Index, its probably a GIF. Go Image>Mode>RGB color, then continue.

2)Create the mask.
Easy a as pie. Hit this button here.
A mask is an invisible layer linked to the original on that uses shades of gray as a guide of the opacity level. White comes out 100% opace, and Black 100% transparent. Thats all the color you'll need for this guide.

3)Start masking.
With the mask selected (double outline on it in the layers pallet) get out your brush tool and start painting black around the edges of what you want. Use the zoom and change the brush size when needed. I also like to have the brush on this setting:

so the edge is not too hard yet far from soft.
The beauty of this method is that it is non-destructive. If you accidentally brush too much black, the switch the brush to white (keyboard - X) and instead of brushing transparency, you'll be brushing your image back. This is the ultimate in have complete control of your selection.

A completed mask:


So although it sounds complicated, trust me its worthwhile learning. At least be greatfull that your masking anime, which has a definite black outline around everything. Try doing the same thing with photos, and dont get me started on hair and leaves. Urrggh....

If you want a shortcut, combine the two techniques. Create a mask, select the layer (not the mask), create a magnetic lasso selection (don't be too particular), Invert selection, go back to the mask, fill selection with black, get out the 'ol brush and tidy up the edges. Hey Presto.

Thats all form me for now.

Last edited by Silk (2007-01-06 17:52:29)

Nahh, you wouldn't have to use it. It just gives a context for people to stick too.
I was thinking along the lines of monthly competition with limited entrants (to keep SPAM down) and a couple of judges, to add a bit of weight. I could elaborate more, but I'll wait to see if theres more interest first.

Just made a Trial sig. I don't intend to expand upon it, just made it to test my photoshop skill (If you coulden't tell I'm a bit new, I know the basics but...) anyways what do you all think?



EDIT: With this post I am a Renowned Pirate, Cheers!

Last edited by DistinctlyBenign (2006-12-11 21:43:20)

I tihkn your current one is better than that. not sure if I can do it though.

I was messing around with the brush tool trying to igure out how to change brushes and how the others work, and to my delight I figured it out, so I made a quick little photoshop portrait using only the paintbrush. I'll upload right now and the post them. I have 2, one used the filter tool and the other is just plain.

Original:



With the Filter:

I was trying to get it to look somewhat like it was really painted.

I jsut kidna picked a brush and went with it.

tablet?

what?

Inferno wrote:

liking the effect, but the pixelated edges on the text, and just the font itself, are pretty ugly. Always try to make the font match well with the overall image. Keep working at it

Well I tried again and came up with a better fitting font but I coulden't fix the pixalation. I was messing around with layer order since that seemed to help a little and I accedentaly did this:



Which I eventually wound up turning into this:



It makes the pixleation less noticable but its harder to read... thoughts?