39 replies to this topic

[psiclops]

Hi everyone.
Just finished my first character portrait and thought I'd 'share with the group'.

Bit of background on me - I spend 14 hours a day looking at pictures of Angelina Jolie, and about 20 minutes playing the Baldur's Gate series. When I ran across the following picture I yelled, "Eureka! Finally I can combine both my interests into one pleasurable activity."




Now if there are any girls out there thinking, "I cannot stand watching that big-lipped, botox-heavy b**** getting turned into a portrait!" this sketch is for you...




OK. Obviously her armourless athletic frame screams Kensai-Mage when you add the necklace into the equation. Next stop katanas... (hi'ya...)




Yes, I think they'll do nicely. (2 hours pass without me being able to get them to look even remotely realistic...)

...

Hey presto, Angelina Jolie the Kensai-Mage:







Hope somebody likes her, and I'm all for suggestions on how I could make this better. This is my first proper potrait-type pic, and I discovered several issues to think about.

(The blade is a section of a katana tip I got from the same site as the earlier picture. To make it 'golden' was a simple matter of upping the contrast and dropping the brightness in that layer from the original settings, and sending it to the back).

In the next two posts you will find the 110x170 and 38x60 versions, which I had to crop to avoid narrowing her too much. (Sorry, but my picture-host won't allow me to up .bmps. Both are 24-bit, as 8-bit isn't working for me at the mo...)

Edited by psiclops, 31 August 2004 - 10:29 AM.

[psiclops]

Eyes of a fallen angel. Here are the final portraits as .jpgs.

Angel1L



Angel1s




NOTE - Because Angelina is so bright, she got a little blurry in the small pic. If this happens to any of your files, just sharpen them up separately.

If you actually want the .bmp to use, files are in the attached .zip file. B)

Attached Files

•  Angelbmp.zip   0bytes   6 downloads

Edited by psiclops, 07 September 2004 - 07:17 AM.

[hlidskialf]

Seeing as you're completely obscessed, you might want to check out this page: Here. Specifically, a couple lines down.

[psiclops]

Hi hlidskialf

I assume you meant the tutorial? Thanks for the link, that is very handy. I've got another 10 or so pics of her that I'm considering, and this help will make the others much more involved. So cheers heaps dude.

(LOL - now I think you mean the AJ portraits! So thank you even more for that!!)

Edited by psiclops, 31 August 2004 - 12:38 AM.

[Immortality]

How the hell does she carry the swords at her back if shes naked? Glue?

[psiclops]

I didn't think of her as naked... interesting possibility I had overlooked.

I imagined the katanas sliding through an X-shaped dual scabbard of some kind. I'm thinking strapless bra, tunic, scabbard combo - some kind of armoured high-backed corset. I thought there would be little weight consideration based on carrying two magical katanas. I did consider putting some kind of dark leather strapping on her, and you're probably right. I'll muck around with it and see how it turns out.

The pic was more meant for a solo-KM... so I didn't want to spoil her shoulders. I can see how it would be strange if you didn't imagine her wearing what I imagined...


<EDIT> Given recent misunderstandings here, I think I'd better point out that I don't look at Angelina Jolie photos 14 hours a day. In case that flew over your head! I had none on my HD at all yesterday, and went searching for about 10 minutes to find one I wanted to start on. This afternoon I gave it a bash and it looked shocking. I very nearly gave up, but decided to give it one more go from scratch. I am not AJ obsessed, though I obviously find her attractive. Sorry to any who got it first time. <EDIT>

Edited by psiclops, 31 August 2004 - 01:55 AM.

[wavingdragon]

How the hell does she carry the swords at her back if shes naked? Glue?

remember Bruce Willis in Die Hard? Duck Tapes!

[Bane]

That is actually a very nic pic of her, really to make the pic better you really should add some clothes considering Kensai's are not naked but just lightly dressed.

[psiclops]

Immortality, Felstorm. You are both right. I think that as the picture is nice, I sort of left her as a canvas. A strap over one shoulder at least as well as a bodice that's higher in the 'front' would make this much more finished.

The background's kind of blank too. This has now returned to work in progress!

If I can find something cool I'll splidge-fuddlemate it all together.

[GreyViper]

*shrugs* IMHO its pretty avarage.
There are probaly better pictures out there.

[khay]

Nice work, although I really really dislike Angelina Jolie (one of the few, I guess).

[psiclops]

There are probaly better pictures out there.

I would hope so!

Doing photoshop stuff with human subjects is still very new to me, as I said...

Nice work, although I really really dislike Angelina Jolie (one of the few, I guess).

I'm no huge fan of her myself, but she's (very) nice imo. She just sprang to mind as a first model (probably because of Tomb Raider) and I went with her. Thanks for the: :thumb:

Edited by psiclops, 31 August 2004 - 07:43 AM.

[psiclops]

OK... this topic's been pinned which I hope is something I didn't do by accident!

If it's because a mod thought it was useful, then I'd like to make it more useful for a beginner if I can. Because I'm sure someone will wonder how to do some of the basic stuff. This assumes you have photoshop or similar.

1. Obviously get good quality pics to start with. I was too lazy on the katanas, and it cost me in the end. The katanas were low-res, and very small compared to the background.

2. How do you cut them out? Magic wand tool then manually erasing stuff closer up (but roughly). Make sure you try to cut away the white background from around the swords. The swords contain too much colour variation to extract neatly or easily. Also, if you leave any white around the edges, it will look really bad when you paste it!

3. Consider the lighting on the weapons. One of the katanas had to be flipped 180 for this picture, but only the red katana looked right 'light-wise' when this was done. (Also, the butt of the black katana was better looking than the red one, so I cut the end off before ditching the black blade, and stuck it on the end of the red one).

4. Rotate the weapons an arbitrary number of degrees, not 90 degrees.

5. Deal with each katana as a seperate file pasted onto a transparent background. Alter the size to suit. If the pic needs sharpening or blurring don't do it when you're touching up the edges of this file! This will mean you get the horrible 'white-outline' effect when you paste it onto the background.

6. Put the weapon where you want, and then erase the parts of the layer that should be covered (by her shoulders in this case).

7. Fix any 'holes' in the new layers generated from all the cutting and pasting.

8. Now blur if necessary.

9. To fix that stripe on the left of the original picture, pluck some darker colour and use a huge brush to splodge great globs of the stuff on at a low opacity. If you try to darken the corners, you get a nicer shadowing effect.

10. I accidentally made her amulet, don't ask me how...

Edited by psiclops, 31 August 2004 - 05:00 AM.

[Plasmocat]

Now if there are any girls out there thinking, "I cannot stand watching that big-lipped, botox-heavy b**** getting turned into a portrait!"

Actually, from what I've seen she's one of those celebrities that a lot of women like. Either for her portrayal of strong characters, or because they also think she's hot, hot, hot (whether because the ordinarily like girls or because she's on their "if I were going to do a woman, she would be the one" list).

[SConrad]

OK... this topic's been pinned which I hope is something I didn't do by accident!

You can't do that.

[khay]

they also think she's hot, hot, hot

She`s not, not, not. By far.

[psiclops]

You can't do that.

You underestimate the strength of my superpowers young Jedi... (TYFTI)

She`s not, not, not. By far.

I think you make a charming couple!

[Plasmocat]

To quote the inestimable Dude: "Yeah, well, that's just, like,
your opinion, man."

Me? I have no like nor dislike of her either way. Just wanted to point out that she's kind of a sex symbol to a lot of women as well as to a lot of men ... there being exceptions on boths sides, of course.

[Xander77]

She`s not, not, not. By far.

Let's not get sidetracked, ok? She is, is, IS. :nana:

I just have to wonder what kind of women you do like?

Or is it a matter of the way you precieve her personality?

In which case... do you fancy a time trip back to the 50's?

[Seifer]

You can't do that.

You underestimate the strength of my superpowers young Jedi... (TYFTI)

She`s not, not, not. By far.

I think you make a charming couple!

You have n power!!

*Hint* I do though! *Hint*

I pinned it as I thought it might be worth new people looking at it.

Seif