Firefly

[`Poet.]

Heya! Thanks so much for applying to be a student on Mayhem Studios - I look forward to working with you!

Just a quick introduction... I'm Poet, obviously, but you can call me anything you want xD I use Photoshop, but I do have GIMP downloaded so that I can reference it if I need to, when teaching :3 I'm very flexible on assignment due-dates. I'm very busy with schoolwork and such, so I completely understand if you don't finish your assignments right away.

If you're going to be absent for more than a few days, though, I would appreciate it if you could tell me, just so that I know you haven't fallen off the face of the earth xD

So, let's get started!

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I'd like you to cut out a horse, just so I can see how your technique is, what tools you know how to use, etc. This will also be the horse you'll be using for your first guided manipulation.

venomxbaby.deviantart.com/art/nico-andalusian-3-165191364?q=gallery%3Avenomxbaby%2F10248436&qo=96

If you want to paint your mane+tail, then don't bother cutting out the hair on the horse.

If you wish to smudge the mane and tail, then loosely cut the hair out :]

Also, make sure to save the image as a PSD as well as a JPG, so that you can go back and edit the PSD later if needed.

And put the cut-out horse on a colored background. Preferably of a purple color ;D

Please PM me if you have any questions!

Thanks <3

[firefly]

I'm Firefly - I also use Photoshop and I recently bought a wacom bamboo fun tablet, but I can't figure it out. I'd like to learn to do the painting, so I've done the horse with no mane/tail for now...

I'm 23 years old and I live in Japan right now, because I am stationed here with the Navy. I run the RPG Chaos (www.chaos-rpg.com) and would love to learn anything and everything that I can about photomanips.

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Here is the cut horse, on purple.
firenze-design.deviantart.com/art/Lesson-1-cutting-182939011
I used the Pen Tool to cut

[`Poet.]

Wow, beautiful job! Your cutting is fantastic. I love the pen tool - gives such smooth lines. Okay, so you're all good on cutting.

Now do you normally smudge horses?

I recommend taking the smudge tool on about 40 percent strength, and smudging all over the body. Make sure it's really smooth looking.

Here's a tutorial that you can use, just showing the technique and various directions to smudge in: i55.tinypic.com/2n060xu.jpg

Then after you're done, lower the opacity a bit so that it doesn't look so plasticy.

Please PM me if you have any questions! Thanks! <3

[firefly]

I wasn't sure if it was done the same way on a dappled horse, so I lowered the strength of the smudge tool (bc it was smearing the dapples into weird patterns)...

firenze-design.deviantart.com/art/Lesson-2-Smudging-184207256

[`Poet.]

Ack, I completely forgot we were working with a dappled horse. Anyway, yes, you're correct. It's a little bit different when working with dapples.

What I usually do is take the smudging tool and smudge every way possible, so that it DOES look like a plastic horse. Then I lower the opacity a ton. A lot of the time the opacity ends up being between 15 - 30%.

Now, it might seem like a waste to smudge if you're just going to lower the opacity so that you can hardly see it, BUT it really isn't. It still reduces the grain/noise of the original horse, but keeps the beautiful dapple pattern. So basically, it just makes the horse look softer and more painted (but keeps the realism.)

You did an amazing job, especially not knowing how to go about smudging with dapples! It looks perfect. It's exactly how I wanted you to do it!

All good on smudging.

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Now, here we come to a fork in the road. We can keep working on the horse (with eyes, lighting, highlighting/shadowing, defining, etc.) OR we can just do the mane and tail, and find the background.

I personally like to go the first way, because I feel that those touches really add to the horse's overall appearance. But it's your choice - if you want to start manes/tails/background, then I'm all for that.

Just let me know!

Thanks!

[firefly]

let's do the whole thing... I vote option A