Hun Birodalom's Workshop

**Hun Birodalom** · March 31, 2009, 11:13 PM

Welcome to my little place in this awesome part of the big TWC Forums. I've been doing a little photoshoping for almost a year but only recently got more seriously into it. I've been a registered member of TWC since 2006 but I just couldn't find my place where I could get involved so I remained mostly a viewer. With the upcoming release of Empire Total War I started visiting the forums on a regular basis and found this great place, The Graphics Workshop. I started becoming a contributer here as well in the Discussion & Debate forums and now that I've gotten used to the way things work around here I thought it'd be a great opportunity to start a workshop to keep all my work posted so others can judge them and maybe help a few people with graphical problems/requests.

I decided to do something different so in addition to posting all my work for some of them, especially the ones I enter in completions I will post a "How I Made It" section. It's just to show anyone interested how my entries are made. I'll try to include such a section with most of my entries but until I work out a system it'll take some serious time. (Uploading all the screenshots is a pain.)
If you want, you can help me by making suggestions about improving my works or if the "How I Made It" sections can be improved in any way.

Signatures

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Avatars

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Videos

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GC #11 [Space] Winner

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GC #15 [Mystery]

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Entry:

Inspiration/Correspondent post : http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...65#post4829765

How I Made It

Let's begin with looking at the original images.
The background is a large resolution, excellent quality image titled "HyperNova".

The second image is an energy ball grasped by two hands.

The third picture used is an illustration of quantum mechanics.

First, the background image is cropped and resized to 500x200 pixels with the explosion in the center of the image.

In a separate layer, the energyball image is edited to get rid of the background areas and only leave the hands and the energyball. A lense flare is rendered into the center of the energyball to prepare the image for the third picture's place.

The energyball image is placed on top of the background and the blending mode for the layer is set to "Darken" to create a seamless fit.

Before the final image can be inserted, the coloring of the energyball needs some adjustment. In a separate layer on top of the energyball image, using a soft brush and a dark orange color, the energyball's color is enhanced where needed. The image blending mode is set to overlay. The result is a more defined orange/red color.

The third image is inserted and virtually all of the background color is removed with the background eraser tool. To remove the background around and within the rings the image must be zoomed in to the point where the actual pixels can be identified.

The quantum mechanics image looks excellent color wise but its orientation does not look right. So the image is rotated to the right and positioned in between the two fingers above and below it. (The fingers are holding the object.)

Now lets turn our attention to the background color. It seems that the original picture's background color is inconsistent. On the right it is a dark purple while on the left it a lighter "greenish" color. To improve the color consistency, a new layer is created on top of the image and using a soft brush and a dark purple color the coloring is improved. The image layer mode is set to soft light to maximize color consistency.

Text is added on the lower right corner. The font used is Vivaldi Italic. Now, the orange color of the energyball seems to fade quite heavily on its lower right corner. Instead of making a new layer and brushing it over with dark orange again, by enabling an outer glow effect in the text with a dark red color, 60% opacity and an overlay blending the same if not better color adjustment is made. Compare the previous and the following screenshots to see the changes.

To make a clear border with only the outline colored, two layers are made. One with a 2pixel black oustide stroke and the other with a 7 pixel black stroke as well as a 5 pixel white stroke. The second layer is set to overlay blending to complete the transparent effect.

And there it is, done and ready for submission. Please feel free to comment on this walkthrough and indicate any mistakes in spelling or grammar. Also, some steps may be hard to interpret because of ambiguous wording, if that be the case please ask for clarification.

Calendar Competition *MARCH*

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Calendar Competition (April)

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GC #16 [creative editing]

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**KnightCato** · April 01, 2009, 07:02 AM

Very nice work!

I especially like your space theme sig.

And your "How I made it" section is interesting and gave me some inspiration and ideas I will follow your progress

I would +rep you if I could (need to work on my postcount first)

A question though, did you know the outcome when you started or did it come to you on the way?

Anyway keep up the great work!

**LuckyNinja** · April 01, 2009, 07:11 AM

You have skill with photo manipulation, I'll give you that hands down. Very good. I do like your space one. Other than that, the same old same old that everyone else posts on this forum...the sigs burn my eyes

but I do like the animated cats

**Giovi** · April 01, 2009, 07:27 AM

really good work +rep

**Hun Birodalom** · April 01, 2009, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by KnightCato

Very nice work!

I especially like your space theme sig.

And your "How I made it" section is interesting and gave me some inspiration and ideas I will follow your progress

I would +rep you if I could (need to work on my postcount first)

A question though, did you know the outcome when you started or did it come to you on the way?

Anyway keep up the great work!

Thanks for the comment. I never know the exact outcome when I start, It would be incredibly hard to make the "How I Made It" section while I'm experimenting with blending styles, color adjustments, image orientations ... etc. So I just make the layers disappear when showing steps. if you look closely on some of the screenshots you can see that there some layers that isn't make the cut. I was initially gonna have God from that painting by Michaelangelo. It looked good but too simple.

Originally Posted by LuckyNinja

You have skill with photo manipulation, I'll give you that hands down. Very good. I do like your space one. Other than that, the same old same old that everyone else posts on this forum...the sigs burn my eyes

but I do like the animated cats

Can you make some suggestions to distinguish my work among all the others?
I've noticed that on CRT monitors my sigs and other stuff look different than on LCD. (I make them on an LCD) The colors appear darker and some lighter. Weird. Anyways I'll try to balance the colors more.

Originally Posted by Giovi

really good work +rep

Thank you. It's good to see you like my works. I'm trying to improve on anything I can.

**KnightCato** · April 01, 2009, 01:03 PM

Originally Posted by Hun Birodalom

Thanks for the comment. I never know the exact outcome when I start, It would be incredibly hard to make the "How I Made It" section while I'm experimenting with blending styles, color adjustments, image orientations ... etc. So I just make the layers disappear when showing steps. if you look closely on some of the screenshots you can see that there some layers that isn't make the cut. I was initially gonna have God from that painting by Michaelangelo. It looked good but too simple.

Yeah a "How I made it"-section would be quite hard to follow if it was 13 pages long to go through every experiment on the way

I was just wondering, cause I have really only seen me at work and that is pure chaos before the end, and maybe that was not the only way to go

**Hun Birodalom** · April 05, 2009, 11:22 PM

UPDATE

Requested Signatures

{BHC}Warman888+

GC #16 [creative editing] Entry

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**Giovi** · April 06, 2009, 07:08 AM

i love ur entry for creative editing very well done.+rep

Abot "the last citadel" the bleeding can be better for me just use a bit more the erase tool

**NONOPUST** · April 06, 2009, 03:08 PM

DAMN! Those sigs are some awesome eye candy man. The "Beyong Imagination" one makes me gasp. You got skill

**Hun Birodalom** · April 06, 2009, 03:43 PM

Thank you guys I appreciate the comments.

@Giovi

I can see what you mean but the image on the right wasn't large enough for a longer blending region. I had to shorten the transition area to get what I wanted from both images into the sig.

No one's voting for me in the creative editing competition.

Is it really that bad?

**sud commander** · April 07, 2009, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by Hun Birodalom

No one's voting for me in the creative editing competition.

Is it really that bad?

No. simply mine is better

Anyway,coming back serius, the entry is brilliantly make but in my humble opinion the sky doesn't fit well in the composition

**Worm** · April 07, 2009, 02:46 PM

Hun I think your entry is the best made, but since it's about the most creative one i voted for TAG. But otherwise you would have gotten my vote

**Hun Birodalom** · April 07, 2009, 03:04 PM

@sud commander

I'll post a "How I made it" as soon as it's done. It's gonna be a really long one. Maybe I can show you how I made the sky. It wasn't as simple as putting in a picture for background.

@Worm
I see what you mean. It's just that I put a lot of time and effort in it. I wouldn't mind if I didn't win because there are some really good entries. Not getting any votes is what bothers me a little bit. Next time I'll focus more on the creative side as opposed to the technical side. I'm better with realistic photo editing as opposed to the "fantasy" aspect of it.

If anyone's got some pointers to improve my chances of getting votes please post them. I may be alright with photoshopping but it doesn't look like I know what people want from me.

**sud commander** · April 07, 2009, 04:21 PM

Originally Posted by Hun Birodalom

@sud commander

I'll post a "How I made it" as soon as it's done. It's gonna be a really long one. Maybe I can show you how I made the sky. It wasn't as simple as putting in a picture for background.

The problem of all grapich artist is this, most of the people can't understand the work behind a sig, a banner or a wallpaper. I think I can undertand your disappointment, maybe you have worked 2 hours to made your entry and finallynobody vote fot you but maybe for another artist who spend 10 minutus to made his entry. It's a pity of course, but we have to accept this

**KnightCato** · April 07, 2009, 06:59 PM

sud commander makes a good point, you know what you did and what work you put into it but it doesnt meen that the viewer knows it, and even if they knew it would it really matter?

I dont know, but I always only goes with what I think (as that was really matters) if I think it is good then it is good, if I think it suck then I just bury it somewhere in my project folder and forget about it and go on. Thats how I work.

Then of course its great to get some appreciation for your work, but thats not why I do it.

Just my thoughts on the matter

**Hun Birodalom** · April 08, 2009, 12:28 AM

Thanks guys for the comments. If I came off sounding like I'm doing this work simply for votes, that's not what I meant. I was just wondering why I didn't get any votes. I thought maybe I did something wrong, something I didn't notice. But doesn't seem to be the case and that's fine.

I added a video section to the OP, I've got one video up on youtube at the moment. Please watch it and if you be so kind rate it. Post your comments under the video if you've got youtube account please. Maybe when I have time I will add some more. I think I'm getting a camera for my birthday.