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How To Talk For Artists And Users (Photo-Manipulations)

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As Melissa noted there are other masks. The next picture shows L’ilSiss after I have used the freehand mask tool. I clicked around close to her backside and behind her legs then straight up the stipe. Then using the paint tool on power sprayer I filled in the mask with black. You can see some of the background peeking between Siss’ body and the black.
12.jpg


Next I used the paint method that I had used to outline her breasts and chest to eliminate any trace of the background between her body and the cross.

13.jpg



Another mask tool called (in Corel) is the magic wand and, no ladies and gents, it has nothing to do with Tree’s anatomy below the belt.

This mask lets you click on colors to build a mask. By using the ‘shift’ key you can add more areas to the mask by holding the key down and clicking on the same or a different color in the area you want to paint. Here I clicked on the yellows of the sky first then on the darker minaret. Then I painted the masked areas, turned off the mask and painted around Siss’ backside trying not to tickle the poor crucified wretch too much.
14.jpg

Either method took about the same time, around 10 minutes. On the mask tools there is a ‘sensitivity’ setting that shows up (in Corel) as a number by a feather. When I use the freehand mask I usually leave this on zero- it is either masked or not with a hard transition. When I use the magic wand I will choose a higher number (I did this on ‘8’) so it will take in variations of the color I selected. You will notice behind her shoulder some of the cross was included with the mask.

I’m ok with that for reasons you will see later but that is why you have to watch the sensitivity especially on the magic wand mask.

A couple of notes here:

I’m not trying to write ‘Corel for Dummies’. I found the manual so overwhelming I didn’t know where to start. I just want to show folks who are interested where to look and what it does.

Melissa mentioned the ‘Lasso mask’. I have never had a lot of luck with it but I encourage newbies to try. The Idea is to mask something so try it and see what works for you.

Finally before Prof. Tree retires to drinks and debauchery another useful tool is the “Mask Invert”. I’ll get to that soon…

tree
 
In Mermaidhunter’s thread he mentions some dissatisfaction with the cross itself. Bogoas offered some great tips. Hunter had issues with the textures. Tree agrees but also has issues with the size and shape of the cross.

First the size; since THT Inc. has to carry workmen’s compensation insurance on Gunner and his crew, the massive cross could become a liability if they get hurt trying to lift it with a squirming L’ilSiss nailed to it. L’ilSiss might also be offended that THT, Inc. would think such a heavy structure is needed to hold her body up. In addition the size of beams used would cost a fortune…

Second is the shape of the cross. We are viewing our condemned slut with our eyes somewhere between the level of knees and perhaps mid-thigh and to her front-left. The crossbar however stays dimensionally the same size from Siss’ left to right and appears equally long on both sides of the stipe. Even a fairly narrow crossbar would appear smaller and shorter on the side farther from the viewer.

So here is what I did…
15.jpg

Superimposed on the original crossbar is the shape of what L’ilSiss will hang from. Don’t worry about the color; it’s not going to be a metal cross. The light grey area was done using the freehand mask then filled with the airbrush paint tool. I couldn’t use the fill tool because it would have painted across her arms and face. Once the crossbar was painted I clicked the Mask Invert tool and cleaned up around her hands and head using black paint and the airbrush.

Next I used the freehand mask to do the bottom of the crossbar and again used the airbrush with a darker grey to paint in.

A couple of tips here…

This may only be a Corel thing but Corel likes to do a “mask float” whether you want it to or not. I was working this and sure as hell it had. In Corel you can check your work full screen by hitting ‘f9’. When you do this you see what you’ve done with all masks, grids, and whatever removed.

I fortunately did that before I saved the picture and saw that Siss had a grey bar running across Siss’ arms and face! To go back to your ‘work’ area click ‘f9’ again. I then hit edit on the tool bar and clicked ‘undo’ until Siss as back to her naked normal crucified self! Then I hit ‘save’!

One other thing to notice here when using masks and inverting them; it is very easy to get a ‘notch’ in the body lines if you are not careful while you paint. Pixels while erasable are finicky. Take care lining up but we will discuss later some solutions.

You may have noticed I kind of butchered the detail of her hair. In the final picture that will not be noticeable.

So why grey for a wood cross? When wood weathers it tends to grey. Visit THT’s saw mill and lumberyard sometime…

So using the paint tool with the magic wand mask I start with my darkest or most color contrasting areas. For the final picture I would not be taking these steps now because they won’t show up in the final picture. You will notice I haven’t added the stipe and that’s because I really like what Mermaidhunter did with the original picture and intend to use L’ilSiss in future pictures. But for the current set I need her on a taller cross…

I used the magic wand mask to capture the end of the crossbar then selected the custom art brush and ‘medium fine streaks’ in black to paint the end of the crossbar.

Then with the other two sections I repeated the process until I was happy with how it looked. I adjusted between ‘fine’ and ‘medium fine’ streaks with different colors and % of transparency. Next I’ll talk about shading…
16.jpg
tree
 
Tree actually got carried away with that last demonstration but had fortunately copied the picture when the cross was two shades of grey (wood does this to Tree).

Remember the commands I talk about are Corel terms and may differ with other software. The idea is the thing…

Also if Tree had bothered to learn “Layers” this next part may have been a moot point…

So going back to my solid greys I used the magic wand mask to capture the face of the wood and redid the grain.17.jpg18.jpg

But instead of moving on to the bottom and side of the wood I left the mask in place and added blood. I did this by using the eye drop tool to pick up the color of blood from the original render. Using the airbrush paint tool on size 3 I add the blood to the face of the cross. Notice the blood tracks are not straight. Unless the wood was well sanded and sealed the tracked would deflect as they cross the grain.

With the mask still in place I use the Hi-lite paint tool to add the shadows. You will need to experiment with what color to use. In this case I used the same color as the blood, set the hi-lite tool at 100% soft edge and 95% transparent.

I always do the shadows last because they will fall on wood and blood alike. The wood face is done so I remove the mask and ‘save’!

Next I treat L’ilSiss’ left wrist to a Genuine THT crux spike. Using the airbrush tool with a medium grey paint I do the base color of the spike’s head. Then with the magic wand mask I mask off the nail head.

Using the spray can paint tool with a spray rate of 45, a transparency of 92%, and 100% soft edge I paint the edged of the spike with black paint, adding a little extra at the bottom. Next with the same tool setting I spray the center of the head with a light grey where it would have been ‘polished’ by a few blows of the hammer.

Next I invert the mask tool and using the hi-lite paint tool with the same color as before but with only a 30% soft edge I add the spike’s shadow to her wrist. I use a ‘harder’ line because the nail head is so close to her wrist.
20 blood and shadows.jpg

All masks removed I took the Blend tool and smooth the side of her hand, the top of the wood, and side of her face closest to you and left the rest ‘unblended’ so you can see the difference. It really shows on top of her right arm.

You will notice that her hair still looks a bit blunt. I will fix that after the picture is merged with its new back ground.



Next time you she L’ilSiss will be the final rendering because if I show the step-by-step it will ruin the reveal. I’ll keep shots along the way to show how I did it…



Tree
 
mermaidhunter said:
Cool, I can hardly wait for the "reveal".
Click to expand...

Mermaidhunter has been most geenerous with his response to my work on his post. I only can say I hope it inspires others to try something and L'ilSiss to suffer greatly...

T

...yes, I meant that, Ulrika!!!!
 
thehangingtree said:
Mermaidhunter has been most geenerous with his response to my work on his post. I only can say I hope it inspires others to try something and L'ilSiss to suffer greatly...

T

...yes, I meant that, Ulrika!!!!
Click to expand...
Still, the sweat talker ... I blush! :oops:
 
L'ilSiss was brought to a hotel room where in a rare occurence Admi, Tree, and Ulrika were waiting for her. Tree was to the point and told her to strip. Standing naked before them Tree told L'ilSiss "I have good news and some bad news. You've been chosen to star in the winter festival, but you're going to do it hanging naked nailed to a cross infront of thousand drunk strangers."

"I understand" Li'lSiss replied "but what is the bad news?"

:confused:

L'ilSiss.jpg

Ulrika mutters something about never getting in on the fun...

final.jpg
Tree

as promised I'll go back and explain the steps, just not now...
 
and how about poor Siss?:confused: she is famous with her poster everywhere hanging as walldecoration
 
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Well worth the wait!!! I am inspired ! :)

Really, really nice!
flower3 and I'm learning!
 
glad this was well liked. One big challenge was the initial file size was 127kb and that included the background an cross. In Corel it grew to be over 10mb!!!

I've got some stuff going on now but tonight and over the next day I'll show some of what I did to get from L'ilSiss alone on a cross to her suffering before the drunken masses....

Tree
 
So here hangs L’ilSiss on her cross at the Winter Festival. It seems they hired a bunch of acts like fire dancers to entertain the crowd while Siss writhes in agony…

Beer and Liquor companies do that. It helps the profits and defrays the cost of a THT, Inc. crucifixion. It’s a cool night…

I’ll bet L’ilSiss wishes she was sacrificed for the summer fest!!!!

First thing I did was copy L’ilSiss to a taller picture (7x19 inches) by opening a new drawing the using the rectangle mask to transfer the ‘short’ picture. Using a series of rectangle masks I lengthened the cross, widened the face of it and narrowed the depth of it. It’s still a stout cross, as Gunner and Bull can attest!
21.jpg


After filling the background in black, I used the magic wand mask tool with the shift key to mask the black areas then with the ‘invert mask I copied my crucified Siss. The background I am using is an original picture of mine. The camera sees things a bit differently than we do. The untouched photo has the tops of the buildings leaning towards the center of the picture.
40 orig.jpg
I used the rectangle mask and masked the whole picture. Clicking on the picture I select “Object: copy selection”. Two more clicks on the picture and I have the ‘distort’ tool. This is seen as four double ended arrows, one at each corner of the picture. By dragging the top two arrows out I got the buildings pretty close. Ok, to be honest I went a bit too far, but all you horny bastards are looking at Siss, anyway…

Next I merged Siss on her cross with no shading or graining on the cross. I did it this way because of the varied lighting from street lights, theater lights, and fire dancers and wanted to work the shadows to fit the picture.
42.jpg
tree
 
Damn! I look good! And happily displayed! :)
 
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