Who uses gimp anyways ?

Tofu, i flipped the fountain head horizontally and it seemed to fit her body a little better.... Just an idea...

Well I worked on it a bit over lunch. It's far from finished but at least I've started. Already learned a few things in the blending options. Questions marked with a ""

Found a backdrop that I liked. Not sure I'm happy with the coloring I did to it. But it's only a layer effect so I can easily get rid of it.

The idea I'm headed for is either a witch-demon or demigod figure reaching out to the viewer (but to help or hurt that is the question?). I may add some power arcs coming from her hands? Something to denote magical power.



Next steps I'm working on

1. Finish isolating the woman from the original background. Shouldn't be too hard as I've seen the tut's on selecting with hair.

2. Color and lighting corrections with the woman and the horns. I think I need to remove the highlites on the horns?

3. I want to change her outfit to a period costume. This one will be a learning process for sure.

4. Perspective issues?

Link to the current .psd

Edit: Good call on the horn flip JT. I flipped it and I totally agree. Haven't updated the uploaded image or psd yet. Will hit that on the next update.

It looks awesome so far! ~ I suggest a little lightning in there somewhere" or a plasma crystal ball? I love the perspective of the church" ~ keep up the good work!

I found a tutorial on color matching a while ago... haven't been chopping very much to try it myself, but here's the link: http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/tt-cs2/match-color.html I don't know if it'll help or not in this case, but it might help someone somewhere sometime.

Great thread, Tofu!

Recent update. Not much done to it but I flipped the horns per JT's suggestion and finished masking out the woman. I'm not totally happy with the integration of the horns to the head.



Current version of the .psd

When i am blending images the first thing i do is get a background image. The subjects color intensity and shadows have to look as part of the environment. Then i de-saturate slowly and move settings around (Color Balance, Hue and curves). I also try to mach the shadows between layers with a soft air brush on a new layer. That way i can adjust it separately to get the right blending.

Looking good! ~ it would rock if you could make the hair flowing down some more" ~ but I think you have done a great job. ~

I was actually thinking along similar lines there mikey. I am contemplating making her hair flowing fire.

Don't let this thread die, Tofu!



Rey's started several good learning threads and they vanish within a day or two.


And, Mikey, maybe start a vector learning thread? Azi, FF and several others do some great vector stuff as well. I've been putting off learning that stuff for too long!
...just a suggestion.

Not to worry Eve! I'm doing this chop to the end. Just had a busy day today with my son. Hopefully I'll get to doing more tomorrow (I'm going sleepy now though).

If anyone else has any tips on how to proceed on how to make the horns look better (as far as being attached to the head). Or any of the other items I mentioned earlier would be cool to have direction on.

Work on the left horn a bit...see how the right one tends to blend in a little better where it meets that hair? Left one needs some shadowing...What about extending the hair slightly?

*bump*

DP is right, you should try blending the horns to the head better. Maybe put some of the hair behind the horn, it just doesn't quite look like it's attached yet...

Well the weekend was packed with activities. But hopefully today I'll be back at it with suggestions that have come in. I should be able to spend my lunch hour working on it.

Keep the suggestions and pointers coming. Things I need to figure out (in no particular order)

- Ways to incorporate more of the statue into the scene. Just the horns is not enough. I'm wondering if I should build a headdress for the woman instead of attaching the horns to the head?
- Integration of the horns (still).
- Matching the color and lighting between the elements.
- How to make the hair longer and flow more (thanks mikey)
- How to make the sense of magical power emanate from her (i.e. lighting arcs from her hands maybe?)
- How to change her clothes (I'm thinking dark velvet dress). Will I end up having to paint them in/on?