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Posted on 12/07/07 06:23:26 AM |
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Babybiker
Shadow Spectaculator Posts: 151 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
I spent a long time reading back through the old postings on the FC's before I ever posted anything on here, and as far as I remember it, the issues regarding 2 postings a week were a) the fact that some members were posting lots of images, rather than one or two, thought out ones, and b) Steve's bandwidth was being used up by all these images. Steve is good enough to provide such an informative, educational forum, and every Friday, without fail, logs on and gives his guidance, crit and praise on what has been submitted. I am sure that everyone here appreciates this (I know I do), and I for one would hate to see this forum, and it's member's lose out. As I read it, and I might be wrong, the 2 post limit was to do with images submitted to the Friday Challenge, not to comments or praise etc, just to keep the website's bandwidth down to a manageable / affordable size, as is the attachment size limit. There are other sites out there that offer a 'similar' challenge, but none (that I have found) have either the opportunity of instant feedback, tutorials, or crits from the webmaster, and other members. This is something that sets this site well beyond all the others! Using other image hosts such as Photobucket or Imageshack might solve the issues of bandwidth on images uploaded on the site, but Steve still has the mammoth task of commenting on each image posted every week - a task that most of us wouldn't relish! I would be quite happy to load all my entries onto Imageshack if I could work out the code (any clues please?), just to save the bandwidth on this site, but would be happy to still limit myself to 2 entries a week for the reasons outlined above. And I am one of the members guilty of not posting feedback on the FC as it goes along, although there are plenty each week that I am impressed with... perhaps after this week I will do more of that! BB |
Posted on 12/07/07 06:28:59 AM |
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Babybiker
Shadow Spectaculator Posts: 151 Reply |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Just as an aside point (and at the risk of being flamed!)- as we are on Challenge 154 this week, does this mean that in two weeks time we are hitting the 3rd anniversary of the FC (No 156)? Is something special being planned? Just wondered 
BB |
Posted on 12/07/07 07:58:40 AM |
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Tabitha
Feline Foto Fanatic Posts: 221 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Babybiker and Steve Mac - Steve did clarify yesterday afternoon on the General Comments Thread.. I deleted my post at the same time! _________________ "There are only two things a child will share willingly; communicable diseases and its mother's age." Benjamin Spock. |
Posted on 12/07/07 1:16:10 PM |
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2bfree
Twilight Trickster Posts: 81 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
example in image shack scroll down to direct link to image (bottom listing) copy that address http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8295/pscs4awinceyx5.jpg on the left remove the http add to it a bracket [img and on the right after .jpg add the right bracket ] no spaces, as this below, I am using ( ) instead of brackets for demo purposes (img://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8295/pscs4awinceyx5.jpg) when you add the brackets in place of the parentheses ( ) it will display as 
Sorry about the extra picture post I felt it was needed for demonstration puropses |
Posted on 12/07/07 6:20:31 PM |
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michael sinclair
Off-Topic Opportunist Posts: 1818 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
On this one I created two layers ( both visible), and desaturated the second (now the active layer), next I used the "Find Edges" Filter, then I fiddled with the Levels adjustments and finally reduced opacity to around 52% for the Gif effect.  |
Posted on 12/07/07 8:12:13 PM |
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hi-liter
Pastiche Painter Posts: 108 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Wow... some of you guys can actually draw??? I thought that's why we used Photoshop because we couldn't... oh well... 
Well, seems I'm in 'graphic novel' mode! Just finished another project posted here: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/59650047/ If you scoll down to 'model' there's a link there to the original as well. _________________ Drawing attention to what otherwise might be overlooked... emphasizing things that matter. |
Posted on 13/07/07 05:36:01 AM |
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Tom
Texture Technologist Posts: 401 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Just time for a quickie;  |
Posted on 13/07/07 09:12:40 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 6935 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
I wasn't sure whether you'd all go for this week's Challenge - but what an extraordinary variety of styles, ideas and talent we've seen. First at the easel was zilwow, with a beautiful watercolour that's clearly hand painted. Great brushstrokes, subtle texturing, and an intelligent caricature - very fine work! And you've either got a very steady hand, or traced that signature laboriously with the Pen tool. A very stylized entry from stefan, using a minimum of line with well-chosen fills on a great textured background. It takes a discerning eye to get away with such simplicity: very well judged. An almost painting-by-numbers effect in the second entry: I think it would work better without the hard lines. But the Ghandi drawing in the third entry is beautiful - and the fourth entry is masterful! A convincing rendering of Paris Hilton, Simpsons style, from tooquilos: we have the skin colour and the hair, but where's the overbite? For once, though I have to agree with Nelson. Ha! ha! Good to see CWBasset back after a long absence, with a reworking of Superman from a photo back into a cartoon. The outline and posterize effects work well here, but there's a blockiness, particularly in the blue, that could be avoided. A bit of Median filter first would have helped to smooth this out. The technique works well in the second entry - is that Darth Vader extinguishing giant cigarettes? A well automated cartoon style from mguyer, but a convincing one: the outlines and posterization do their job well, and that beard is particularly convincing. I'd have lost some of the fussiness in the background, though, as it becomes too confusing in the final mix. It was steve hill who started this whole thing off, and he's turned in an intriguing entry: highly stylized, the combination of thick black shading contrasting well with the soft colouring. I like this one: how were the black lines created? Don't recognise the technique. And a neat cartoon-meets-almost-real-royal in the second entry. Best of all, though, is the reworked Gordon Brown in the third entry - perfect! Two approaches in one from Steve Mac: an expertly drawn cartoon figure against a treated photographic background. The combination is really effective, held together by the skill in the drawing: the folds in the clothing, the lack of detail in the hair complemented by the detail in the shoes, all make this a well considered, professional piece of work. Heads of state meet in 2bfree's entry, with the Queen (not the Queen Mum, Joe) and ex-PM Blair almost bumping into George and Laura Bush. But why aren't they together in the same scene? Come on, Joe, you can montage these two images together! I get the full soft focus movie star treatment from dave.cox - bleached out features rule here. A novel approach, but I think the total lack of tone in the face lets it down a little. Sometimes, you can't just leave it to filters and have to draw a little: a line defining the chin would have helped greatly. A very neat hand-drawn Robin Williams from Dirtdoctor23: good use of line here, Neil. But when drawing caricatures, you need to keep looking at the original: a striking feature of RW is his nose and the way it dips down towards his mouth; you've got it pointing the other way - which means we no longer recognize him as clearly. A really good Shrek effect in the second entry - have you shown this to the subject? Best of all is the Clinton drawing in the third entry. Classy work! I have to say, it embarrasses me that I haven't given you a title after all this time, Neil. Cartoon Contractor it is! A hugely skilled drawing from Wayne, who has produced a caricature of Cherie Blair (wife of our ex-Prime Minister) that any cartoonist would be proud of. THe enlargement of the eyes, stretching of the mouth and reshaped chin exaggerate the features perfectly. I'd be interested to know, Wayne, was there much hand drawing involved here? Under the chin, certainly, but hard to spot elsewhere. Ah - you've answered the question a couple of posts later. Very fine work! And the second entry is pure genius. Ben Mills has given us a treated Streisand that combines an automatic cartoon effect with thoughtful distortion. By exaggerating her most prominent features, Ben's created a cartoon of her before applying the filters - and this is definitely the right approach. There's a Marvel Comics feel to vibeke's entry - hard outlines, posterization, and a halftone pattern in the shaded areas. The good thing about this technique is that it can easily be replicated for multiple images. But it's also unpredictable: look how that seemingly plain background has spawned some curious artefacts in the bottom corners. A very neat technique in the second entry: I've often wondered, how on earth do those dresses stay up? Pure willpower? I really enjoy scenes of the type vicho has created - a great way to show off work. But you do have to watch the perspective: the photograph of Jacko doesn't conform to the scene, and it's particularly thrown out by the angle of the ruler on top of it. Also - surely it would be under the drawing, rather than on top of it? A great hand drawn effect from Meltonian, with a clearly recognisable Elisha Cuthbert. The stark outlines contrast nicely with the soft shading, to produce a convincing result. Just one point about the outlines: sometimes it's more appealing if they don't all complete. For example, a gap in the line around the lips, and especially before the chin meets the ear, would have prevented these elements from looking detached from the rest of the image, as well as softening the result. A striking Billy Connolly from Babybiker: highly stylized, great use of colour and line. I think I’d have outlined just the top of the eyes, though, leaving the colour change to do the rest. The subtle shading with two different blues in the face is an exceptionally good way of rendering the shadows. A first entry from a new member this week, and Abby-Helen Artfield has turned in a great combination of Dubya with a three dollar bill. Is that banknote for real? The treatment of Bush is well judged: there are minimal features here, but the nose, eyebrows and hair are enough to tell us clearly who he is, and the subtle shading complements the line work well. Love the hooves! I'd like to have seen some fingers holding the edges of the banknote, though. Welcome to the forum! An interesting technique from james - drawing over an existing photograph. The lines around the lips and eyes are a little strong, perhaps: but a great caricature in the second entry. A highly stylized portrait from char, with a beautiful animated version: the way those eyes open and close is ingenious. Good to see you back, Charo! Reworking a Spiderman photograph back into a drawing has worked perfectly for Tabitha: the result is a hugely convincing comic book panel, that really looks hand drawn. It's helped greatly by the shadows on MJ's face, together with the way the teeth and eyes are picked out in white: this is truly remarkable work, Tabitha. I'd never have guessed this started out as a photograph. I'd really value seeing a tutorial on this one! What makes Deborah Morley's entry work so well is the economical use of line: very sparse, used just where it's needed. I'd have added another line along the bottom of the mouth, just to delineate it more clearly - otherwise, this is fantastic. The variable thickness of the chin is especially appealing. A really funny Gwyneth Paltrow from BigVern - those huge eyes, the spiky hair, the overbite, all make this a really entertaining image. And anyone who names her child Apple deserves all she gets. Einstein in a kilt? I'm having enough trouble figuring out the original in Pierre's entry, let alone the treated version. Is that a face you've built up, or was he wearing a mask? I assume I'm not simply being rude about someone with a hideous deformity... An entirely hand drawn Victoria Beckham from katew - is that how she sees herself, do you think? Keeping the texture of the hair was a good idea here, not sure about the drunken European flag background! A bit of genius from Glen: Charlie Brown, Gordon Brown, what's the difference? The real cleverness here, of course, was making a recognizable Gordon with so few lines - while conforming to the head shape of the original. Astounding. And thanks so much for the excellent, simple tutorial that constitues the second entry: this isn't an approach I'd have thought of, but it certainly works well! It may not have been done for this forum, but hi-liter's entry shows a fantastic cartoon effect - and the angle of the buildings really adds to the power of the image. A whole raft of entries from michael sinclair - various treatments and filters, producing subtle variations. I think though, Michael, it's up to you to choose which one you want to submit, rather than showing us your musings! A really charming entry from josephine harvatt, beautifully judged: it's a cartoon that really sympathises with the original, rather than ridiculing it. No filters or special techniques, just pure skill here. Gorgeous. I've often wondered what goes on in Dek_101's head... Elton John, flying pianos, Liberty and lemons? But a great cartoon effect, fantastic shading on the face. A very coherent image altogether. Very tasty work from celosia this week: the hand-drawn hair goes perfectly with that face. When colouring skin, though, make sure you don't end up with a result that's too washed out: he needs more shading in this one. I'd duplicate the face layer, desaturate and change the mode to Hard Light to boost those shadows. A neat Bush stamp from Tom to finish the week off. I don't know why I like this one so much! ++++++++ There's been a lot of discussion about multiple entries this week, so I thought I'd just make my position clear on this. First, we don't have any hard and fast rules here. If you get a really good idea for another entry, then by all means post it. The old 'two post' rule was devised after some members were firing off half hearted, rushed attempts throughout the week, and that rarely applies these days. But I would urge you to consider whether an image is truly finished before sending it: it's not so much my bandwidth, as the couple of hours it takes me to write up the FC every Friday morning. But as to the subject comments and questions as we go along - yes, I know some feel it breaks up the flow a little, but all these points are valuable and I'd certainly want to keep comments in. The questions have generated many useful tutorials and explanations, and help us all to improve our Photoshop skills. If in doubt, I'd say send in your posts. I'd rather read a superfluous post than miss something of value. ++++++++ As Babybiker pointed out, we should be nearing our third anniversary. However, as I tend to do double week entries at Christmas, I thought I'd look back - and found that our first Friday Challenge was on July 2nd, 1994. So our anniversary was, in fact last week. Sorry to have missed it! Someone remind me next year... |
Posted on 13/07/07 09:56:02 AM |
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Deborah Morley
Makeover Magician Posts: 1319 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
1994?? Thanks as ever for the comments Steve. It was thanks to Babybikers instructions on the fade for brush that I managed to do the brush strokes. My 17 yr old nephew, who does a bit of basic photoshop at school was amazed that I had done my attempt in photoshop. It is nice to impress the 'young uns' with computer work; I suggested his teacher bought your book to show just how much can be done. |
Posted on 13/07/07 10:08:06 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 6935 Reply |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Oops! 2004! I seem to have lost a decade there... |
Posted on 13/07/07 10:09:52 AM |
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Tabitha
Feline Foto Fanatic Posts: 221 Reply |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
OMG was it really three years ago that I was trying to cook an egg or putting a goldfish inside a wine glass.. let alone making beans all gooey! Did you ever get your dining room re-decorated Steve?? Now I feel far too old 
Thanks for your comments about my Spidey pic... Unfortunatly I cant take the credit for it, I found a wonderful tutorial via Google (Edit- I did the step by step way as using the automated download wouldnt have taught me anything and I did enjoy playing with the settings as I went along) http://www.macmerc.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=209&page=1 Although I did need to tweak it here and there as some pics seemed to get a really bizarre effect! Also the colours needed re-touching afterwards as it did tend to fade them and make them a little wishy washy... So Im glad you mentioned MJ's face as that is 100% my own work
It certainly taught me alot about layer modes (something that had always bemused me in the past.. have I rushed and missed a chapter in your book Steve??), and combining filters to make different effects! I am currently in the process of making my own 'comic book' using this technique to help my son with his school work, Spiderman learns his THRASS!! (THRASS - New age way that kids are learning to read these days, really complicated for anyone over the age of 8!) _________________ "Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." Rich Cook. |
Posted on 13/07/07 10:22:19 AM |
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stefan
Detail Demon Posts: 401 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Thanks Steve and a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the Friday Challenge. |
Posted on 13/07/07 10:49:47 AM |
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katew
Virtual Virtuoso Posts: 678 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Thanks for your comments Steve. Helen (Celosia) is staying with me at the moment, and she's asked me to thank you from her as well. _________________ Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up ... |
Posted on 13/07/07 1:03:33 PM |
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dirtdoctor23
Guest Reply |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Steve, No I didn't show the subject his "shrek" picture yet!  . And no apologies necessary for my title. I just thought I didn't meet up to your expectations of me. (which was kind of a complement in itself)
As I had expressed before to a couple of the members here, it means a lot to be complimented by your peers. But it really is a wonderful feeling to be praised by your teacher. Thanks a bunch, Steve!! Neil _________________ "I haven't failed.... I've found 10,000 ways that don't work!" Thomas Edison |
Posted on 13/07/07 1:08:28 PM |
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BigVern
Q Quipper Posts: 674 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Thanks Steve. |
Posted on 13/07/07 1:12:59 PM |
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Steve Mac
Grunge Genie Posts: 539 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Thanks Steve. This weeks challenge was a great idea! _________________ Steve Mac |
Posted on 13/07/07 1:44:12 PM |
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dave.cox
Marquee Master Posts: 518 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
I agree completly with you Steve, that I needed to spend more time on this. But with processing wedding photos, and creating WBTs, I just didn't have enough time to give it its due this week. |
Posted on 13/07/07 2:47:10 PM |
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Wayne
Printer’s Devil Posts: 312 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Thank you Steve for the comments (and for clarifying the multiple posts situation) Congrats on your title Neil |
Posted on 13/07/07 5:52:18 PM |
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Pierre
Constructional Confabulator Posts: 637 Reply  |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Steve wrote;"...Einstein in a kilt? I'm having enough trouble figuring out the original in Pierre's entry, let alone the treated version. Is that a face you've built up, or was he wearing a mask? I assume I'm not simply being rude about someone with a hideous deformity..." Well, it was a 10 minute job. (A cartooned Mini was not appropriate this week ). The real guy was on the right (!) and he was wearing a mask. He was part of the "Shooting Barbarians" thing I had in the Reader's Gallery forum. Congrats to all! This was an amazing week! _________________ |
Posted on 13/07/07 8:47:57 PM |
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Abby-Helen Artfield
** Posts: 70 Reply |
Re: Contest 154: Cartoon faces
Thank you Steve for your encouraging words. The bank note is real. My dad gave it to me. He found it in an old chest of drawers he purchased some time in the 30s. Maybe it's a reproduction - a 'token' for a promo - the date on the bill is 1840 but it looks tampered. |
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