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Posted on 04/11/05 09:24:45 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 6934 Reply  |
Re: Contest 69: Shopkeeping
An interesting week! Rarely have we seen such a mix of straightforward compositing and meticulously detailed montage. Oh, and thanks for keeping the number of entries down! Lexus got in first, with an artfully opened door (well done remembering to make that doorknob 3-dimensional again!) and a convincing estate agent's placard over the top. The view inside is perhaps a little over-saturated - but I do recognise that floor and wallpaper! nice work. Cleaning up walls is always a tricky matter, as mguyer found out here. I remember reading an interview with the special effects people on the movie Apollo 13, talking about how they had to make the rocket look dirty - even though the real thing was, of course, spotlessly clean - in order to make it look real, and not like a model. It's rather the same with walls; a flat, featureless fill always looks somehow unrealistic. Even adding a little Clouds filter, at a very low opacity, would greatly help this one. There's a certain satisfaction to be found in straightforward restoration work, as maiden has shown this week. The painted signs have been beautifully recreated - a fantastic job. A slightly curious reflection in the window, perhaps, but top marks for managing to read the original name! And that folding board covers the rusty bollard perfectly. Nice work! And I love the second entry, a really great gag. Welcome to the forum, Stian-j. What an intriguing name. A great recolouring job on that building, and the new sign fits perfectly (although I would take issue with the placing of the apostrophe). The only thing I'm really not sure about is the view through the window: remember, the perspective inside a rom needs to match the perspective outside! Far too high - there's really no way we'd be able to see the floor from here - and it should line up with at least one of the exterior angles. A great window frame, though, and a near-perfect fit. Dek_101's funky overhaul has really given this building a new lease of life. The night rendering is especially convincing, and the addition of elements such as the security camera and that ugly brute on the door are great touches. Good detail work, too: the camouflage bends convincingly around the profiles of the shutters, making them look more 3D when, in less competent hands, the effect could have simply flattened them out. What really makes this for me, though, is the reflection of the neon sign in the road surface - now that's the kind of detailing that gets top marks here! I'm always surprised be the extent to which a single word or phrase can trigger off a song memory. In Born2Run's entry, the door colour instantly brought Shakin' Stevens to mind. A great clean-up job here, managing to remove all the original text without flattening out the textures/ The only (tiny) thing I'd quibble with here is the thickness of the shutter - there's something not quite right there. I feel it needs to be a fraction wider. Oh, and when you include extra elements - such as SS himself - be sure to watch the saturation levels! A good piece of restoration work from Ben Bolton - welcome to the Forum, Ben. I see your shop has dropped Coloured Papers from its range of stationery, as well as undergoing a name change! Slightly odd distortion on the shop name - I don't think you needed to use Mesh Warp there, a simple Free Transform would have done the job well. But be careful with your typography! A sans serif font like this is rather at odds with the rest of the building! I still can't believe Glen hasn't upgraded to CS2 yet. (And still prefers to work in 5.5!) Distorting the shop front to fit that paper bag must have been a serious nightmare without Mesh Warp! But a really original take on the image, and another great gag. A complete overhaul from jwhite, with a really funny adaptation of the original image. The perspectives seem a little odd, though: both the lettering and the ATM machine should line up with the perspectives set by the wall panels. And I'm sure there's a better way of chopping a door in half! But it's such a good idea i'm prepared to forgive almost anything… And so we come to Neal's closing entry for the week. What a hoot! An absolutely stunning montage, with a huge range of detail and too many touches of genius to list. The expressions, the bodues, and especially that pile of bricks - absolutely fantastic, Neal. It's a dozen tutorials rolled into one! |
Posted on 04/11/05 7:28:54 PM |
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Glen
Montage Maestro Posts: 282 Reply  |
Re: Contest 69: Shopkeeping
[quoted] At 09:24:45 AM 04/11/05, Steve Caplin wrote: I still can't believe Glen hasn't upgraded to CS2 yet. (And still prefers to work in 5.5!) Believe it Steve. I haven't used 5.5 since the CS uprgrade a coupla years back (think Neal is your 5.5 man here) .... upgraded to CS2 back in July and the jury is still out as to whether it was worth the exrta pennies - apart from completely knackering Quark starting up and five phone calls to Adobe (aren't they lovely in the Netherlands?) to try and fix the fact that PS CS2 wouldn't open any files at all or save them either, I'm still only playing with it by mesh warping pictures onto paper bags. Once you see new entries from me with mesh warped animated buildings going ALL the way to the heavens in perfect perspective then you'll know I've finally got it working ! _________________ most of the lack of sunshine in our lives is caused by us standing in our own shadow |
Posted on 05/11/05 00:00:50 AM |
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Neal
Master Manipulator Posts: 322 Reply |
Re: Contest 69: Shopkeeping
Photoshop 5.5? Never, I'm a 5.0 man. You young Turks with all your warp tools this and your mesh tools that. What's going to happen if your stuck on a desert island with only Photoshop 2.51? How will your fancy-pants filters help you then? No layers, no History palette ... Christ, I'm a dinosaur. |
Posted on 05/11/05 03:49:23 AM |
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Ben Bolton
* Posts: 2 Reply  |
Re: Contest 69: Shopkeeping
"A good piece of restoration work from Ben Bolton - welcome to the Forum, Ben. I see your shop has dropped Coloured Papers from its range of stationery, as well as undergoing a name change! Slightly odd distortion on the shop name - I don't think you needed to use Mesh Warp there, a simple Free Transform would have done the job well. But be careful with your typography! A sans serif font like this is rather at odds with the rest of the building! " Coloured paper, who needs it. 
I admit I didn't even think of the font style and its contrasting with the rest of the scene... whoops... |
Posted on 05/11/05 05:07:56 AM |
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maiden
Golden Gif Gagster Posts: 471 Reply  |
Re: Contest 69: Shopkeeping
Actually Steve, the sign wasn't to hide the remains of the bollard as I had painstakenly removed the bolllard and restored the pavement anyway  _________________ mad as a badger and twice as furry |
Posted on 07/11/05 3:55:14 PM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 6934 Reply |
Re: Contest 69: Shopkeeping
Now that's what I call dedication! |
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