Welcome To the Obsession Studios Academy!

[Riddle]

Hi!

Okies...just post the paperwork. Instead of the first assignment I have posted with the paperwork (I'm getting bored of it), we'll do something different.

First Assignment
Find any horse of your choice, in a full-body shot, and cut it out onto a dark red background. It can be any shade of dark red you like. ^_- Add your name in an attractive way. A link much be provided to the original image of the horse.

[xxmylastrefrain]

Yay, thanks for taking me, Riddle! I look forward to learning with you.

Form:

Your Name: Tori
AIM: CapnsBlackPearl
E-mail: CapnsBlackPearl@aim.com
Favorite Style: Realist. I prefer something that looks very natural and very subdued. Although I enjoy the fantasy styles that many people do and use, I am one to prefer something easier on the eyes. Looking at a horse by a quiet, surreal lake is soothing for me, especially when it looks as though it fits together very well. But I admire people who use various styles.
Favorite Subject: Horses are my ‘thing’ in terms of typical use, but I am willing to work with anything.


Assignment:



Tools Used:

Pen tool: feather = .05
Burn and Dodge: each on 20%, just to get rid of some green haze that bled into the black and white on the horse
Smudge: strength 100%, feathers varying but mostly either 1, 2, 3, 5 and 15 plus a few others just to mess with the tail
Eraser: Opacity 15%, feather 30, just for the hooves since they were mostly hidden in the grass
Motion Blur: for the font

Original Picture:

From my own stock, actually. I have it posted on my Webshots account.

Personal Critique: I'm not so keen on the tail, but her tail was a pain to work with, so that's what I'm blaming today. xD Otherwise, I'm fairly pleased since I haven't worked with manips for awhile. There are some random odds and ends but I won't go overboard just yet.

[Riddle]

Awesome job. Your cutting is flawless. *Now I want to go try using the pen tool.* I like the text as well. ^_-

Now, to smudge it. Here is a link to a smudging tutorial should you not know how to smudge at all.

http://altered-humanity.com/Expressions/fo...22&thread_id=21

Again, amazing job on the cutting. ^-^

[xxmylastrefrain]

-grins- Thanks! I love the pen tool - it's my hero.

Anyway, I'm not as pleased with the smudging. For some reason, I found her really difficult to smudge and not look...stupid. I don't know - she looks really blotchy and whatnot. I think it's the muddy whatnot that was on her fur and dried on there when I took the picture, but I think I did a crappy job smudging. Regardless, here it is.



-cowers- I swear, next smudging will be better. xD

[Riddle]

Very nicely done on the body. A litty blurry about the edges between brown/white, but not too bad. ^_- Go ahead and smudge out the tail, though. Here is my finished horse-on-red. When you are finished, post the completed image and move on to the next assignment.


He was a fuzzy little horse.

Assignment Two
Select and full-body horse and background to create as realistic an image as possible. Include the links to the original images in your post.

[xxmylastrefrain]

Hokie dokie, gonna finish her tail then move on to Assignment two. But, while I do that, I'm going to post my latest 'exercise' that was basically me meddling around because I got bored. xD

Clickie.

Just something I did to pass time - I have been trying to practice with splashes and the like.

edit #1:

Tail done!



I don't necessarily like the tail much, but I found it a bit hard to 'mudge. xD But there it is.

Okay, so here is the picture:



The horse was off the alamy website, royalty free. They don't really give "links" on Alamy to the specific pictures so ... yeah. Blah.

The background is credited on the picture, to a stock person off deviantart (a32bitwhore). I plan on showing him the product when it's fully complete and edited and all that, to see what he thinks.

I am not sure my thoughts, but I am terrible with grass. xD So any help is welcomed!
It was acutally done as a request for a friend, but I picked the background and horse and all that myself. But the lyrics and whatnot are from his picking.

[Riddle]

Sorry this took so long. Our internet has been down for .... four days? But it is all working again.

Okies, the bottom of the tail looks great. The top of the tail, on the underside and near the base, still looks all clumpy though, almost like it was forgotten about. Just do those areas the same as you did the bottom and you'll be good to go. ^-^

This is the same type of critique I give at my studio, and just about anywhere else I critique images. It is very generic, but covers most areas.

Image Choice: You used non-copyright, stock photography, so stars for that. I also like that you choose a horse that seems to fit perfectly with the background. So good job so far.

Extracting & Blending: Your cutting, as usual, is excellent. Very sharp, no leftovers -- except for between the horse's back legs. There is some distracting white there that should probably be cut out. As for blending it, I'm not so sure. You mentioned you are terrible with grass, so we'll make it very easy. Photoshop has two different "grass" brushes that you can select from the main brush menu when you are cutting. Make sure that you are at 100% opacity and select the appropriate grass brush. On is for long, plains-type grass. The other is your short, lawn-variety grass. Change the "size" of the brush so that the brush-grass is the same size as the background-grass.

Lighting & Shadows: The lighting looks pretty good. There isn't a very dominant light source in the image, and you made sure that the horse had no spotlights or anything on him. However, in addition to cutting the grass, you will need to add a bit of shadow-area where the horse's legs are in the grass. Create a new raster layer and move it down so that it is below the horse. Using your paintbrush, with the color black, create a bit of "splotchy" shadow area around the horse's legs. Then change the opacity of the new layer, and set it to "Overlay".

Color & Saturation: The colors are nice...very country-style with warm hues and shades.

Brightness & Contrast: I believe this could be fiddled with a bit. The image looks too light, and too low contrast, right now. Perhaps heighten the contrast just a touch, or darken the image just a bit, to give it more definition.

Elements & Aesthetics: The image itself is very pretty. Again, you chose a wonderful background and subject, and your lighting is great. There aren't many elements (such as water sprays) that can be added to this particular image.

Compilation: The eye is automatically drawn to the horse. Your text isn't overpowering, and the black at the bottom isn't too much. However, for that black, you may want to try creating a gradient rather than just erasing with a soft eraser. It will make the image look much smoother.

Text: The text is easy to read, which is very nice. However, as it is the only text on the image, I might have embellished it just a bit. Perhaps put it all together rather than serperated. The first thing I see when looking at the text is the right-corner text, then I look up. So it makes me wonder which lines are suppose to come first.

Additional Comments: I like it. Just adjust the brightness/contrast a bit, and fiddle around with some different fonts. Perhaps a serif font (like Times or Georgia rather than Tahoma or Verdana) would work better with the peaceful quality of the image.

I would like to see you adjust the contrast on it, in case you are wondering what to do next.

[xxmylastrefrain]

No worries about your time 'off'. I was being gnawed on by college. xD

Here's the first thing.



As for portion two, I was idiotic and don't have the PSD files precisely how I'd love for them to be saved, and things are missing, but I did the best I could with making it up. xD So here is it, with adjusted contrast. The only version of the pic I have has the horse flattened onto the background already, so I will mess with the grass eraser another time.



I kind of like the added contrast.

[Riddle]

Okies, sorry this took so long. There is an explanation on the chat board. :/

Assignment Two Review
I do like the added contrast, very nice. But, the legs going into the grass is still off. Even though you didn't save the layers, it can still be fixed. Use every tool the program offers. Here is a version I adjusted a bit, the fixed areas in red.

http://i15.tinypic.com/34dhbi9.jpg

1. I used the clone stamp tool to copy some of the grass and paste it over the legs and tail. Then I grabbed the burn tool and just added some shadowing beneath the horse, to give it depth.

2. I used the burn tool here to add a bit more shadow to the horse's head and forelock, as they are getting into the shadowed part of the image.

Assignment One Review
It is still kind of blobbish...

http://i15.tinypic.com/2ebhe7r.jpg

1 & 2. I used the smudge tool with the "Natural Brush #14" at an opacity of 66% to begin, then upped it to 73% for a while. Then I switched to a hard round #2 brush at 80% opacity. I finished with the hard round #1 at 80% opacity to give some flyaways.

Assignment Three
Okay, this is a request that I completed at my studio several weeks ago. It has a fair amount of detail, and can be inspiring. Go ahead and give it a try. Don't worry, it won't be given to the requester.

Character's Name: Letalis

Slogan/Short Poem: contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis (If possible, please include the translation underneath the Latin..like a shadow, I suppose. It translates to "There is no herb against the power of death". If that's too long, or looks bad, I have another one: hora incerta, mors certa. That means "hour uncertain, death certain"

Character's Appearance: Breed//Color//Markings//Build//Etc: Letalis is a svelte gray Arabian, looks quite young for her age (four), long mane and tail.

Character's Personality: Letalis' name means "mortal" in Latin. She is aloof, blunt and cynical. She has a sort of fixation with death, and can often be seen telling others that they will, inevitably, die. Letalis is antisocial, and she only speaks when she has something important to say; she isn't one for idle chatter. Often cryptic, and always mysterious. Not to say she's evil, or cruel; Letalis, if forced into a stereotype, would be 'neutral'. She is elegant, and hard to fluster. The color that best describes her is grey, and the weather, foggy. She is hard to pin down, and tends to wander, silent, through public areas. Letalis enjoys water, and she often ponders its brutal powers; when her mind wanders, she will often go to an available body of water and lounge.

Any images you wish us to use?: Not really, but I'd like it if you could incorporate water, and time (maybe an hourglass?) into the picture.

Any ideas you have for the image? Mysterious and eerie, but not evil.

[Riddle]

*Nods* Although, this place doesn't seem to...active. But yes, if you are still around.