My first attempts at Colorization

[» Tagme]

I've never done this before, so there maybe alot of flaws. I used one of Scotty's busts from his website...
[url=http://www.brainbug.ca/gallery/sculpture/JINSEI_FINAL]
[/url]

and for the background I used one of Melo's photos.



This was the end result



Any tips would be greatly apreciated

[» meloyelo]

ha! that's fresh. Surely I'm not the one should be giving you tips on this sort of thing ...*cough cough
But it might be cool if the light filtering through the pink blossoms was reflected on the subject. Also I would go beyond the color layer approach, get nasty with it... should be close to a million layers when you're done.
Thanks for using the blossom pic btw, i'm honored

[» Tagme]

haha, yeah, I want to make the orange trim shiny, like silk or something, but I haven't figured that out quite yet. I just added in some textures. Hmmmm...

[» Tagme]

*achoo* excuse me i textured a little bit there.


still trying though

[» marc]

tagme it looks really good!
the textures are definitely a nice touch,
and the blurred background adds a perfect amount of depth.
is there a way for you to smooth the border around his head a bit?

ive never tried to do anything like this before.
maybe there are some other people out there *ahem*
that would like to use this opportunity to
post some helpful tips for the rest of us?

[» air]

Seek to reveal and enhance

Use more than one color for a face
Be careful how you use white in any piece
Push values and colors, use many layers,
experiment. The PSD will give you some ideas.

Download Layered PSD >> 3.4 mb zip

When using a texture overlay make sure to run a displacement filter on it.
This will cause the overlay to take on the shape of the object it covers.
First make a map of the area. Here's the one I used >> Displacement Map
Filter/Distort/Displace : Set both numbers to 3 or 4 (or to taste) and pick your map from your HD.
Use your Dodge and Burn tools to do some additional 2D scuplting on the piece.
Always use copies of layers when making major changes so you have a path back to where you started.
There are a bazillion things to mention and I think the PSD is a good starting point.
After you have pondered it you can ask specific quesions and I'll respond as time allows.

[» dmaniac]

It's ALIVE !!! I mean - he's alive!

[» Tagme]

WOW! I believe I've been put to shame. lol. Awesome, I'm gonna try that out right now.

[» jamberi]

im going to spend some time working through your PSD, i've been absent from doing much visual work and need to get my head in the right place for it.

Air- The "glamour" layer is pretty cool. Seems to be oversaturated and blurred--was there a particular method you use for this?

I remember b-man.dk used to have a tutorial for something similar that used Maximum filter and then Gaussian Blur
edit- found it http://www.b-man.dk/tutorials/ps_hightlights.asp

Also, on the coloring layer why use "color" instead of "overlay" for blending mode? What is the difference?

Thanks in advance

[» air]

Mister Jam ~

Select All - Copy All (control shift c) - Paste
Now you should have a layer that represents your entire piece.


Use Curves to adjust that layer and in so doing create a light map.


It should look something like this.


Make the layer a Screen layer.
This is what it looks like on top of all the other layers in the file.


Hit it with a Gaussian Blur filter, Radius 4 then set layer opacity
to 38. Both of these settings can be tweaked to provide varying
degrees of glam.



This whole process should take about 30 seconds.

I use Color to color because the words are the same...
that and Overlay affects value as well as color and I like
all elements controlled separately for maximum fluidity.

Mister Tag ~

Here's another thing I do when compositing...
Example: Using the lasso tool cut out the wise old man
and put him on his own layer. That we already have in common, yes?
Then, Control / Command click his layer thus loading his outline as a
selection. Select - Modify - Contract one pixel then feather the selection
at .5 (The point is important). Then invert the selection and delete.
Now you should have a very sexy non-pixelated outline. Sometimes you will want a
touch more feather. All settings I have mentioned should be adjusted to suit your taste.

[» sandbag]

The displacement map trick is valuable. Nicely done.