How to Cheat in Photoshop

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Posted on 17/05/07 12:32:54 PM

Dek_101
Apocalyptic Artisan
Posts: 175

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

LOL ... Cheers Wayne but that is my natural hair!!!!

Posted on 17/05/07 6:14:05 PM

Wayne
Printer’s Devil
Posts: 312

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

Time to consult the rug doctor, then?

Posted on 17/05/07 10:18:33 PM

michael sinclair
Off-Topic Opportunist
Posts: 1818

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

New update 17 5 007

No detail spared for poor old Rummy...

Posted on 18/05/07 08:43:56 AM

Steve Caplin
Administrator
Posts: 6935

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

Well, what a bloodthirsty lot you are this week. I mean, we all enjoy a good murder mystery, but there's been so much tomato ketchup/catsup sloshed around this week it's starting to look like the inside of a McDonalds trash can. So many bodies, so few detectives!

First on the scene was stefan, with a textural view that at once broke the conventions: the frame we're looking through is stained with blood, the victim's fingers still gripping the edge. A very evocative piece, this one really set the tone this week: very moody stuff indeed.

An artfully knocked-over table from 2bfree, who has seamlessly rebuilt the wall and floor behind it. Lots of extra derangement, too: the broken statue, the bowl of dried flowers... and, of course, a juicy body as well. Just noticed the way the tiers of the table have been reconstructed where the objects have fallen off them - very neat work.

A bit of a treehouse of horror from tooquilos, who has combined several Simpsons episodes in one. This must have taken a lot of research: all the characters are not only interested in the scene, but interact with each other and the envivonment. So many extra touches too: Smithers hiding under the lampshade, Grandpa crawling out of the cupboard, the pixellated Mr Burns in the portrait, the bloody Murder writing on the wall, the gun in Maggie's hand, Homer in full Jack Nicholson mode... thoroughly entertaining!

I'm still trying to read the scene in james' entry. James - for it appears to be him - has climbed up on a chair to remove a book from the top shelf, but in doing so removed a key pivot so the shelf has broken, and the heavy bronze ewer dropped off and fell on his head, killing him and breaking the leg of the chair in the process. Is this right? Foul play is not suspected. The animation in the second entry is very entertaining: needs to have a longer pause right at the end before starting again, perhaps.

I think Humphrey Bogart must have had a hand in Wayne's classy entry: not just an artfully placed and well chosen body and killer, but a poster that's stylistically and typographically well in tune with the period. Of course, those two tweaked expressions on my previously cheerful mugshot are really subtle! Very fine stuff, Wayne. Surprised you didn't make a cameo appearance yourself, in true Hitchcock mode!

A clearly recently deceased corpse from dave.cox, with some tasty blood and a hand reaching through the cupboard door for the dropped gun. I like the feel of this, as well as the murderer's ingenious escape route: but that opened door seems at a slightly dodgy angle to me. Shouldn't the top of the door be sloping up from the hinge, rather than down? I'd have to experiment with this one to get it right.

Bush meets Columbo? That's too hard a concept for even my detective-riddled brain to cope with. But Neal has given us a clever scene, in which Prince Charles is led away in handcuffs. Particularly appropriate, since Charles is usually seen with his hands behind his back (when he's not fiddling with his cuffs, that is). A great expression on Bush - and is that a demonic Ronald McDonald lurking in the background?

BigVern has taken up the carpet, and used it to roll up the body: a neat touch! But why the green floor? Did you run out of floorboards? The carving in the wall made with the bloody knife is a good touch here, and the blood on the floor does seep realistically towards the fireplace. The second entry, however, is a stunning piece of work, full of drama and action. This one really tells a great story, and is one of the most intricate and well planned GIF images I've seen in many years. So much detail as the torch sweeps over the room: the glint off the metal and the glass on the pictures, the writing on the wall, the blood dripping from the knife, and the excellent conclusion. This is truly fantastic work! Many congratulations, it's a brilliant job.

Plenty of mammals slaughtered in Philip Saunders' entry, with many heads adorning the walls - including Dubya's second appearance this week. A great roaring fire, and I like the idea of the empty plaque waiting above the mantlepiece. Great shadows on the walls, too: but I'm mystified at how a hippo came to be in the library in the first place, and indeed why he's sunk up to his midriff. A rare example of quickcarpet, perhaps?

A very well achieved night scene from Vicho, with stunning lighting that matches the Batman figure well. I like the overturned electric fire revealing the secret entrance to the Batcave: very good steps leading down, with a suggestion of the view beyond. A good gag, beautifully achieved.

Another good gag, this time from Eggbox: the over-zealous cleaner scrubbing away all trace of the murder. Fine attention to detail here, with the numbered placards identifying each item (and brushed aside to the fireplace). But what a tall policeman, reflected in the mirror! Is he on stilts? The simple way to fix this would have been to angle the mirror down slightly - although that would have entailed a rather more complex angle on the reflection. A very good choice of reflected scene!

I like the way Pierre has integrated the Cluedo/Clue board into the library (note the UK/US variants here), and the game of Hangman in the framed blackboard is a good touch. The angle of the board matches the perspective of the room perfectly: did you photograph this specially for us? I like the murder victim stuffed into the cupboard, too.

A lot of detail in vibeke's detailed post: the knocked-over table, displaced picture, a great fight scene, and the body who's cracked his head on the corner of the treasure box they're all fighting over. Plus the bloodstained hands on the wall, and the skeleton talking to the freshly killed roses: is that speech bubble in the shape of Australia? Nice work!

Well, there's no doubt the fellow's dead in Ben Mills' entry: stabbed, hanged, shot with an arrow and injected with something nasty. Plus he's probably also been bitten by the snake artfully coiled around the table legs, and hot with the discarded gun. But the real question is: what was this guy doing prowling around a library in an oversized T-shirt?

A beautifully moody scene from katew, with lighting that's positively cinematic and a most decorative corpse. And, of course, the flames that Kate seems to add whenever possible! A little confused by the circles in the fireplace, though. Lens Flare? Translucent flameproof basketballs? Or am I missing something obvious?

Tom's given himself a tricky challenge, with light from the window that has to wrap around the corner, and bend over the mantlepiece and the floor: but doesn't it work well! Very neat embers and smoke in the fireplace, a good bloody poker, and a couple of neatly replaced paintings. I recognize Whistler's mother, but is the other one one of yours?

Hmm. The victim in DirtDictor23's post has been hanged, and his hands and feet bound together. Makes me suspect this probably isn't suicide... mind you, he doesn't seem to bothered by it, so maybe we shouldn't be either! A good shadow that bends well over the mantlepiece: I'd have placed it a little lower, as light tends to come from above.

A great scene from Steve Mac, whose neatly filleted victim has clearly put up enough of a struggle to smear blood all over the place. Best things here, of course, are the displaced picture and clock, which has been beautifully removed and repositioned - and the wall behind where it once stood is artfully rebuilt, too. This is a factor of photomontage people over look: when you move something in a scene, you have to cover your tracks!

A really funny entry from celosia, with a literal interpretation of two of the chief characters in the British version of Cluedo. Are Colonel Mustard and Mrs Peacock present in the US game, Clue? Or have they been replaced with Colonel Sanders and Mrs Bald Eagle?

A cool change of lighting from Deborah Morley, who's given us several murder weapons to choose from - but the spanner, the knife, the candlesticks and that section of pipe taken from the opened cupboard all seem too blood-free to be considered here. My guess is that he choked on too big a mouthful of tomato sauce while trying to call for help using the bell rope. Shame the man standing outside the window, who's shadow we see on the carpet, wasn't able to get there in time to help.

Some of the images this week tell a full story: and Dek_101's explains everything. This man has taken a chair to stand on in order to place a picture on the wall, but the carpet has slipped (you can see the folds in it) and he's slipped off the chair, banging his head on the mantlepiece. Except that doesn't explain the bloody handprints on the wall... I'm obviously missing something here!

With all the blood, death and destruction this week, it would be hard to single out one image as being the most disgusting entry - until we see michael sinclair' gruesome post, of course. I mean, OK, maybe Donald Rumsfeld wasn't that great a military tactician, but does he really deserve this revolting treatment? I think I preferred it when you modelled trees for railroads, Michael!

Posted on 18/05/07 09:37:02 AM

katew
Virtual Virtuoso
Posts: 678

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

Thanks Steve! Umm .... lens flare I think!

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Posted on 18/05/07 10:09:13 AM

michael sinclair
Off-Topic Opportunist
Posts: 1818

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

An interesting moral and philosophical dilemma here, as I personally find murder "revolting"; and in this instance , I was unable to reconcile the "expected" lighthearted flippancy of murder with its brutal reality; hence, the "reality" checkup portrayed.

Posted on 18/05/07 12:18:28 PM

stefan
Detail Demon
Posts: 401

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

Cheers Steve.

Posted on 18/05/07 1:15:29 PM

BigVern
Q Quipper
Posts: 674

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

Thanks for the kind words, Steve and the other cheaters.

The green carpet evolved because I was having trouble with lighting and perspective in cloning the floor boards, so I gave up persisting and thought I would create a new floor covering instead to hide the original rug. At that point I also thought that being a carpet I could try and show the difference between blood soaking in and blood resting on the hearth.

I guess not cloning the floor boards could be considered cheating, but hey that is what this is all about, isn't it?!

Cheers Vern

Posted on 18/05/07 1:43:57 PM

dave.cox
Marquee Master
Posts: 518

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

Thanks for the kind comments, Steve. I'm sure that you are correct about the door, I kept fiddling with it, and never did seem to get it to look right. Finally I had to go with something.

Posted on 18/05/07 3:52:21 PM

Wayne
Printer’s Devil
Posts: 312

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

Steve Caplin wrote:
Surprised you didn't make a cameo appearance yourself, in true Hitchcock mode!

In all honesty I didn't think of that, Steve, and besides, I'm a bit camera-shy! Thanks for the kind words.

Posted on 18/05/07 4:57:52 PM

celosia
Wondrous Woolflower
Posts: 58

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

Steve Caplin wrote:
A really funny entry from celosia, with a literal interpretation of two of the chief characters in the British version of Cluedo. Are Colonel Mustard and Mrs Peacock present in the US game, Clue? Or have they been replaced with Colonel Sanders and Mrs Bald Eagle?

Thanks. That's actually the first time I've taken a shadow from an actual object, my previous go with shadows was a van in the evening and I darkened the ground where the wheels would be.

Posted on 18/05/07 8:32:13 PM

Philip Saunders
*
Posts: 18

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

Steve,

Thanks for your comments.

>A great roaring fire.
I used the instruction that you gave in reply to my 'arson' dilemma elsewhere on this site.

>I'm mystified at how a hippo came to be in the library in the first place, and indeed why he's sunk up to his midriff. A rare example of quickcarpet, perhaps?
Hmm. The hippo was the only dead-looking game that I had, unfortunately it was in a shallow mudbath. I thought that a good dark shadow would do the trick, but it you saw that.

Have finally got my head around using alpha channels as bump maps (pp242-245) so my next brass plate should look a whole lot more convincing.

Regards,

Philip

Posted on 18/05/07 8:38:41 PM

james
Surreal Spoofer
Posts: 1194

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Re: Contest 146: The body in the library

Yes Steve, you are correct, the scene depicts an accident, should have used steps. The body is a photo of yours truly (I hope to be ar
ound for awhile yet).
In the second entry, yes a delay would be better at the end.

Thank you for your comments.

Posted on 19/05/07 01:23:52 AM

Pierre
Constructional Confabulator
Posts: 637

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