Curse

Xenrath · Jul 12, 2006, 02:50 PM // 14:50

Note this is intended as an addition to Bethany's excellent guide.

I've stuck to Paintshop Pro as that's the more affordable software, easier to use (in my opinion) and free 30 day trial from Corel for those who don't have it yet.

With this guide you'll be able to go from this:

and this

into this:
http://www.fataliscombine.com/xenrath/cutoutfinal.jpg

It takes only a few minutes, depending on how much attention to detail you spend can take longer. I advise having your cutout character screenshot somewhere with a simple background to get a "blue screen" effect. You can cut out from complex backgrounds but it's slower. As this is a quick and dirty guide, I've not spent a lot of time tidying it up or retouching it; it's just to get people rolling

The main key difference from Bethany's guide is the use of Background Eraser, and then using Eraser to tidy the edges up.

Here's the video tutorial

- Download Here - DivX required.

Some things to note: no lighting or other manipulation applied. It's best to do that on a layer/mask basis, as described in Bethany's guide. Layers are your friend. Use them often! Once you're happy with your relocation you can go on and apply the filters and lighting to the background and/or the character layer, to help it merge better.

Enjoy! (best to post your result in Bethany's thread please, as this is just a tutorial thread - any questions on this technique only, please post in here)

bog boy · Jul 12, 2006, 02:58 PM // 14:58

lol thats actually really clever

Hidden in the Mist · Jul 12, 2006, 03:52 PM // 15:52

You can still tell that warrior originally wasn't in that picture from some of the pixels.

Xenrath · Jul 12, 2006, 04:17 PM // 16:17

Yep, hence quick and dirty guide

What you'd do after that is spend time retouching the layers, fixing stray pixels/edges, adjusting light levels, adding shadow/dodge/burn etc. so that the final result is one where the warrior looks like he's part of the screenshot.

I've not retouched it at all - just shown the start steps, as Bethany has given a tutorial on how to retouch it a bit

This should work fine in Photoshop too, just icons are in different places.

Edit: retouched it very quickly

It's just a matter of spending a bit of time adding shadow/highlight etc so the cutout merges better into the background. You can also adjust the background or both layers with various effects to merge them better. I just did that very quickly as a starter point

Nevin · Jul 12, 2006, 05:07 PM // 17:07

Its all about the lightning. The light sources are different in the darker enviorment. But I can see you adjusted it, although a bit exagerated. Also you had your settings changed in both pics. With the Ranger it was anti-alaising x4 with the Warrior it was x2 or nothing.

natus · Jul 12, 2006, 05:09 PM // 17:09

Thanks, maybe my eyes will stay for longer while i look at threads now.

Xenrath · Jul 12, 2006, 05:14 PM // 17:14

Don't think my settings were touched - warrior pic was taken at the guild hall, warrior isle, ranger was in some kurzick area I forget exactly. But yes, with careful attention to detail re: the lighting and adjustments (which I've not done too much for this tutorial) you can get it looking like a natural fit to the background picture.

That's the time consuming part, and is beyond the scope of this quick guide (as it is, it's an addition to Bethany's guide which goes into detail about burn/dodge etc.)

Bethany · Jul 13, 2006, 12:36 AM // 00:36

Cutting and pasting characters together is a tricky thing. As mentioned, if you do plan on making a paste-up of different characters together, you need to take those characters in the same environment at the same spot (as some lighting effects in maps can change drastically). The position of the camera is also a tricky thing as it needs to be on-level with the camera position of the previous shot. It's not easy but it can be done. I've dabbed into this only once as I was making a montage of the characters of my first account. Cutting the characters was a bit of a task but the camera positioning was easy as I made all my screencaps at the intro screen. Thanks Xenrath for your contribution to the image crafting train and your "wink" to the thread I made.

Eragon Dragonslayer · Jul 13, 2006, 01:57 AM // 01:57

^ daaaam....thats good u should be a graphic artist or something...

Ermac · Jul 13, 2006, 06:39 AM // 06:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eragon Dragonslayer

^ daaaam....thats good u should be a graphic artist or something...

err...why ?

Bar Fight · Jul 13, 2006, 11:46 AM // 11:46

Hey man shes a humble 1337 self tought photoshoper. Thats something you can turn into a career deffinatly (kidding and not kidding at the same time. you decide just dont take it person as im laughing as i write.)

Xenrath · Sep 06, 2006, 02:26 PM // 14:26

I've moved this tutorial video over to filefront, link updated

http://files.filefront.com/Xenrath_Q.../fileinfo.html