Final evaluation

I am quite pleased with my final result, but I have a few criticisms. The first of which is there are a few rough edges on the coral, and a few on the plane. If I'd had time I would have worked to improve that. I like the way the light falls on the coral, I think that's realistic. I also like the blue of the background, it gives the picture a good depth of field. I also like the silhouettes of the fish against the light blue of the background.

I decided to create this image after my ideas generation as it appealed to me.I chose the used image of the plane rather than the other one in my research as I felt it would give a better impression of having been on the sea-floor for many years. The temple image I used as it was already ruined and had interesting textures and background.

I took my source images from the internet as they were readily available. However, I could also have scanned in images from books or gone to the aquarium and taken my own pictures.

Final outcome

For my final outcome I had to do a underwater scene. Below are some screenshots of my progress.

First, I used the photo of the Greek temple to provide a background, and used the pen tool to remove the sky.I used hue saturation and colour balance layers to change the colour to deep blue. I used free transform to rotate the background. Next I used photos of coral reefs to add in the fore-ground.

After feathering the edges of the coral I added the plane wreck, and more reef in the back to give the picture depth. The feathering removed the hard edges and artefacts from the original source photo. 

For this one I used the gradient tool to add the impression of water and I used the noise distortion to add little dots to give the impression of plankton. I feel the plankton adds realism to the image.

For the final step I added beams of light using the polygon lasso tool, added white and feathered the edges and altered the opacity. I also brought the blue gradient forward a few layers and added fish. I like that the light is shining on the bright parts of the aeroplane.

Type fonts

Today we discussed type fonts and how to use them. We talked about the different styles of fonts, these include serif (with 'tails'), sans serif (no tails) and script (similar to handwriting).

To do this I went into the window tab in photoshop and selected character which brought up a small task box where I could adjust the text according to my liking. To add the text I created a new layer and I went to the typing tool and clicked in the middle of the picture and added the type I required. Using the character window I could change the colour of the text, the size and the font. I could also adjust the spacing of the writing as demonstrated above.

We discussed how colour, composition, spacing and type font affect the image and are able to draw your attention to a poster, a magazine or similar.

I chose that particular font and colour of font as I felt it would fit in well with the image. I believe I was correct.

Leopardoscerous

For this picture I used two pictures and combined them one into the other, just like the lizard and the hippo, but this time I used the 'liquify' tool. While using this tool I moulded the picture of the leopard to fit the shape of the rhino. Next I used a mask layer to remove the superfluous parts of the leopard image. I also used the clone stamp to clean the texture up.

Here is the finished image below.

I'm happy with this image, apart from the remnants of the leopard's tail and feet.

Original image:

My proposal

My idea is to have a plane wreck, old ruins, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and a blue whale. In my picture I will use a ruined ancient Greek temple and place it underwater then I will use an old aeroplane wreck and I’m going to make it look as if the plane has crashed in front of the ruined temple many years ago. I'm planning to use a remotely operated vehicle or ROV to investigate the ruins and the plane crash.

In behind the ruins and the submarine I'm planning to include a blue whale far away in the ocean in the background to just swim around. I’m also going to add some minor details such as seaweed, lighting and bubbles to add more life and detail. The temple and the plane will be sitting on rocks to add depth and interest to the final image.

Hungry, Hungry Hippozid

Today in Photoshop we were combining a lizard with a hippo, this is how we did it;

First I used an image of a hippo from MOODLE, and one of a lizard. I shrunk the image of the hippo to line it up with the lizard's head.

Next I used an adjustment layer to alter the colour of the hippo to make it match with the lizard. I used a hue/saturation layer.

Afterwards I used another adjustment layer, this time it was a colour correction layer to adjust the lighting so it matches the photograph of the lizard.

With the colour correction layer selected I used a mask layer to get rid of tyhe green inside the hippo's mouth, eye and ear to reveal the flesh colour.

Then I used the clone stamp tool to cover over the lizard's nose with the texture of the tree trunk to make it authentic.

Finally I used the fill tool to cover the entire picture with a blue colour and then set it on overlay mode and lowered the opacity to 30% to give the image a blue tint.

And here is the final piece.

I am happy with the final image, I especially like how I've blended the head onto the neck in a realistic manner.

Here is one of the source images. 

Copyright issues

All the work you produce yourself is entirely your own, unless it features somebody else, in which case you need them to sign a release form.


If you want to use someone else's work you can either: write to the copyright owner to ask their permission to use their work, or you can use work in the public domain, but not until after 70 years when it becomes available for the public. If you are unsure whether the content in question is safe to use without legal recourse you can use copyright free websites, eg, sxc.hu or copyleft.

http://www.aviapedia.com/bombers/tu-95
http://www.mccullagh.org/photo/1ds-4/roman-city-ruins-dougga
http://www.anotherthink.com/contents/photography/20090222_out_of_the_ruins.html
http://componentsofenthusiasm.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/the-ruins-of-war/
http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/AirShows/Oshkosh2002/Samplers/PostWw2/index.html
http://www.wikiwak.com/image/Porch+of+Maidens.jpg
http://abcplanet.com/budget-travel/athens/
http://www.fws.gov/digitalmedia/FullRes/natdiglib/862D4ABA-9295-C8BF-705EF03C23426898.jpg
http://annette201.wordpress.com/
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/05arctic/logs/july23/media/dripping_rov.html
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spitfire.planform.arp.jpg

Gary Tonge research

http://www.visionafar.com/index.php?page=home

Raphael Lacoste research.

I have been looking at work by Raphael Lacoste, who has been an art director for Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia for Ubisoft. He is very skilful at using environments, lighting, composition and moods.

 I chose this picture above for its mood, environment and lighting. The lighting shines out of two places, one from a point source underwater and one coming down from the surface. The water has an opaque, granular feel which shows where the light’s going. One more thing I like about  this picture is the rock formation and the height of the rocks. The ‘rule of thirds’ comes into effect here as well. This means that your eye is drawn from the bottom left to the top right, which focuses your attention in the middle, giving a frame within a frame effect.

This one above uses the rule of thirds again, my attention was drawn to the bright light first, then looking in the direction of the light towards the waterfall, and then to the dark area in the bottom left.

http://www.raphael-lacoste.com/acceuil.html

Jerry N Uelsmann research

nI have been looking at some work by Jerry N Uelsmann, who is a photo-manipulator and surrealist. A lot of his work has both nature and synthetic elements in them. What I especially like about some of his work is that objects like doors are juxtaposed into a rock, a tree stump with a house morphed into it and a tree growing out of a desk. What I’ve also noticed is that he uses a lot of trees in his work, even if they’re not the main attraction they are either in the background or referred to in reflections in water.

Even though his work was before Photoshop the result is similar.

http://www.uelsmann.com/

Dylan Cole research

Today I'm writing about Dylan Cole, he uses Photoshop to create his paintings, he uses Cinema 4D for his 3D camera work and After-Effects for his composition and 2D motion work. He has worked on major films such as  Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Riddick and Superman Returns.He has also provided illustration for science fiction books.

A great amount Cole's work is made up of futuristic cityscapes which I find very interesting. This is because of the scale and the architecture and also the way they are populated with people and aircraft. There is a lot of life in his pictures, which gives them more immediate interest. The attention to detail really makes them stand out and makes them believable.

Apart from urban settings, Cole also depicts nature just as convincingly, for example, he has a lot of planets and stars, and also he excels in painting trees, rock formations and flowing water.

http://www.dylancolestudio.com/

Dylan Cole

I have been looking at a few pieces of digital art by Dylan Cole and this one below really caught my attention.

,

My attention was drawn mostly by the buildings and the swarms of ships flying around them. I also like the use of colour, the greens and blues give an impression of dusk. Even though it's a painting it uses the same rules of composition as photography uses, ie, the 'rule of thirds', the way the buildings zig-zag into the distance diagonally and the way the buildings' walkways create natural frames within frames.

The lighting is also a part of this picture that's caught my interest, I like the way the light shines down on the landing pads; it gives it more depth and authenticity, as if this city actually exists as it makes it more plausable.

There are many textures in ths piece, such as: water, grass, light reflecting off metal, cables supporting the walkways and the rock the buildings are made from. I especially like the waterfall, the reason being is that it provides a stark contrast between the natural elements and the man-made constructions.

Finally, I think the figures around the landing pads add a sense of perspective and scale which helps distinguish the scale of the ships and the buildings. The people in the picture also make you take a closer look at them which gives it more humanity.

Underwater

For this underwater scene I used a picture of a garden for a background , of which I adjusted the hue to give it an underwater -like effect. Next I used the gradient tool to cover up the top half of the garden where the trees were and to bring it down so you could only see the gravel. Afterwards I added another gradient which was brighter at the top and darker at the bottom, which I added distortion effect to make it look like the surface.

To create the beams of light I used used the polyagonal lasoo tool to make two triangle shapes which I then feathered tjhe edges of to smooth them out, then filled them with white and adjusted the opacity.

I added the plane next. I made an adjustment layer to select a small area of the picture and stretch it upwards so you don't see the edges of the picture. Finally I added the shark in which I used a masking layer to paint out the edges of the picture so I just got the shark. I made the shark brighter to coincide with the beams of light.

Source images.

Final

on the point of adjustment layers, At first I was a bit lost, but eventually I got the idea of it. The adjustment layers are good for adding seperate effects, for example: the black area around the edge of the photo, and the brighter area in the middle.
The most useful thing about adjustment layers is that youu can change then at a later time.

I like the green side of the image, but on the blue side the shadow and light lines are less convincing.

Here is the image I worked from

Bubbles

To create the bubbles I first had to make my own custom brush using shape dyamics and scattering; to find these tools I went into the windows tab and selected brush from the drop down menu. To give a natural light effect I lowered the opacity to 50% and I painted them around the brigther areas of the orb.