Wylder's "Catch a Falling
Star" Tutorial
A nice lady named Linda asked
for some help creating an image she had in mind, so I made an image
like she was describing, then sent her a quick tutorial based on my
results. She was so grateful for the tut, I thought others might want a
similar tut, so here it is! It's a bit long, but I realized that not
everyone has worked with these filters before.
If you want to download this tutorial for use offline, click here.
What you will do in this tutorial:
Create a unique wallpaper for your own desktop, or one for
distribution/sale.
What you will need to complete this tutorial:
- Poser 4 (or ProPack) - I'm not sure how Poser 5 might differ for the
purposes of this tutorial
- Paint Shop Pro 7 (or 8), or a comparable imaging software
- Eyecandy 4000's Fur and Fire filters
- Basic knowledge of the software used, especially lights, cameras and
posing figures (or a willingness to try new things)
- Time
- Patience
Be sure to read through the instructions before starting the tutorial.
It should be simple enough for most anyone familiar with the software,
but you just never know...
Ready? Then let's get started!
1) Open Poser
2) If it automatically loads a figure, delete the figure (Figure:
Delete Figure).
3) Open the Libraries area (on the right side of the screen, or go to
Windows: Libraries (or Shift+Control+B))
4) Select the Figures library (see figure 1)
Figure 1
5) Directly below the "Figures" tab should be an item, like "People" -
Click on that to open the other choices. Click on the Additional
Figures item to open that library.
6) Use the scroll bar to view the items there. There should be an item
called "Hand Left" and another called "Hand Right" (along with some
heads, a mannequin, some skeletons and stick figures). Pick one and
click on the double check/tick to load it. (see figure 2)
Figure 2
7) Beneath the render window are two drop-down menus. Make sure the
left one reads "Figure One" and the right one should read "Body". Now,
arrange the hand to the image you want to produce by using the dials,
or by using the hand poses ("Hand" library). (see figures 3, 4 and 5)
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
8) Go to the menu item Display, and click on the Background Color item.
In the color picker screen, select a dark shade of blue. This will make
it easier to select the background in PSP. Click OK. (see figure 6)
Figure 6
9) Go to Render: Render Options on the top menu bar. Make sure that
"Antialias" is checked and "Render Over" "background color" is checked.
I also set it to render in a new window, size 1024 x 1024 for a 1024 x
768 wallpaper. Click OK. (If you want a larger wallpaper, adjust these
settings. I typically use a square window. Feel free to set up the
dimensions however you see fit (use the Window> Document Window
Size option). Better to set up the image too big than too small.) (see
figure 7)
Figure 7
10) The default lighting in Poser is terrible. Delete all but one
light, and make it a spot light (vs. infinite) aim it at the palm of
the hand. Change the color/intensity to suit. Alternatively, you can
adjust this in postwork. (see figure 8)
Figure 8
11) Render. (Render: Render or Ctrl+R) This may take a while, depending
on your system. If it's really slow, go get a cup of coffee, tea, soda,
wine or whatever floats your boat.
12) Save as a Tagged Image File Format (.tiff or .tif), and name it
"hand" (no quotes) (File> Save as...). Saving as a .tiff file
doesn't compress it like the .jpg file type does, so you retain far
more detail in your render. I only recently learned the benefit of this
myself. The downside of this option is that .tiff files are *huge*!
But, IMHO, it's worth every kb of disk space for the detail.
OK, we're done with the Poser portion of this tutorial. On to
PaintShopPro...
13) Open PSP.
14) Open your new hand.tif file.
15) Change Canvas Size to 1024 x 768 (or whatever you want the final
size to be). This assures that your final image will be the correct
size. You may have to mess with the placement of the hand, but it
should show up in the new canvas. We'll place it more exactly later.
(see figure 9)
Figure 9
16) Duplicate your image (background) layer. (Layers> Duplicate)
17) On the old (background) layer, flood fill with black.
18) On the new layer, using the "Magic Wand" tool, select all the dark
blue space by clicking anywhere in the background.
19) Invert the selection. (selections> Invert)
20) Contract the selection by 3 pixels (Selections>
Modify...> Contract...> Number of Pixels: 3). Click OK.
21) Feather the selection by 5 pixels (Selections>
Modify...> Feather...> Number of Pixels: 5). Click OK.
19) Promote the selection to a new layer. (Selections> Promote
Selection to Layer). Turn off selection (Ctrl+d or Selections>
Select None).
20) Switch to the mover tool, then move the hand to whatever position
suits your composition.
21) Go back to the still-visible copy of the background layer, and turn
off visibility.
22) Select the promoted selection layer. Right-click the name and
rename the layer as "hand" (no quotes).
23) Create a new layer. (Layers> New Raster Layer...>
Name = fireball / "Layer is visible" should be checked)
21) Change to the selection tool, set it to "Circle" and make a
circular selection of the appropriate size and shape for your desired
fireball.
22) Flood fill the circular selection with a fiery orange color. (see
figure 10)
Figure 10
23) This is where I got fancy. Instead of hand-painting flames on the
image, I used Eyecandy 4000's Fur filter, selected some fiery colors,
adjusted the dials till I got what I wanted, and applied to the image.
Did the same again, changing the "random seed" setting until I got
something I liked, reapplied. Do this a couple times until you get an
effect you like. (see figure 11)
Figure 11
24) With the original circle still selected, create a new layer. Call
it "tail" (no quotes).
25) Drag the new layer *behind* the flaming/furry circle. Layers should
now look something like this:
fireball
tail (selected)
hand
Copy of Background (invisible)
Background (should be all black)
26) Using Eyecandy 4000's "Fire" filter, select "Start from far side"
and adjust the dials until you get an effect you like. Hit the Random
Seed button a few times if you don't like the original effect. Apply.
(repeat if you like) Hint: try to make sure the direction angle of the
flame is close to the direction angle of the fur, otherwise it will
look weird if the fur is going in one direction and the tail is going
in a different direction. (see figure 12)
Figure 12
27) There are several ways to get a starfield. If you have Flaming
Pear's "Glitterato" I highly recommend it. Select the all-black
background layer (Selections> Select all or Ctrl+A or just use
the magic wand tool to select the whole layer) and apply the filter. If
you don't like the original effect, you can click on the dice for
random settings until you get something you like. If you don't have
this filter, try adding noise, or create a new layer just above the
background layer, and sprinkle with pale gray dots (try using custom
brushes for this to save time and effort).
Figure 13
28) Almost done.... If you used a black or gray background color
instead of my suggestion of dark blue, you may notice that your hand
may show areas of the background, like the starfield, where you deleted
the black areas that were shadows on the hand itself. This is easily
corrected by selecting your lasso selection tool and, on the starfield
layer, select an area that coincides with where the hand should be in
shadow. You don't have to be too careful with this; just approximate
the edge and circle around well within the lit area of the hand (the
hand will cover this part of the starfield layer anyway).
29) Flood fill the selection with black.
30) At this point, you can play with any other effects you like. I used
Illumination: Lights to improve/adjust the lighting here. I also did an
elliptical section around the hand, feathered to a desired amount,
inverted the selection and flood-filled with black, so the wrist was
more in shadow. Additionally, I applied a longer "Fur" filter effect to
the tail portion of the comet. Finally, I applied the Luce filter to
the fireball to make a stronger glow effect. (Unfortunately, this is
where I noticed the shadow thrown onto the palm of the hand by the
thumb. I would have scrapped the whole thing here, and gone back and
re-rendered the hand, but I left it for instructional purposes.)
Figure 14
31) Once you finally get the image just the way you want it, export to
.jpg optimizer (File: Export: JPG Optimizer). Save the image and you're
done!
Figure 15
There, now! That wasn't so hard, was it? (If you want the finished
wallpaper, you can download it here.
(1024 x 768, 140 kb)
For additional notes for newer users of PSP and the Eyecandy filters, click here.
These techniques can be applied to any image. I hope you have found
this tutorial interesting and informative. If you create an image using
this tut, I'd love to see it. Email me at wylder@wyldebrydes.com.
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