Pe eE Sg Techniques’ )y, in io mee ein using postwork v7 ‘ % PREEUIR MICS Quality Art Step by StepMaster Techniques for realism using postwork This Tutorial is going to show you how to transform a simple rendered image in a photo realistic image. I made it because people always ask me how I make my images so lifelike and most of the time they tend to believe my images are just photos, manipulated more of less in Photoshop. To make an image look realistic with some postwork is not that complicated :) You will see in the next pages how I do that. I'm not saying it's the only possible way to do it, i's just the way I paint. You are welcome to learn my techniques and use them in your future work :) The image I'm going to use as example was made with Poser 6 and Photoshop 6 for postwork. Why Photoshop 6 and not other versions? Because all you really need is a brush (airbrush) and an eraser, also the possibility to modify the colors or luminosity of the entire image. All that can be done in Photoshop 6, 7, 8, CS ... for sure :) So you can use the Photoshop version that suits you the best :) So you want to make a photo realistic portrait using Poser and Photoshop. First step is to make a rendered image that looks as close as possible to the person you want to portrait Open Poser, choose a character and play with the dials until you like the results. Don't use the poser characters just the way they are if you want to give your image some personality. Try to make them look like a real person even in Poser. Use a photo for reference because this helps a lot Also play with the lights. Try to learn from photos and from real life how to use the light sources in Poser so you can achieve the best resultsphotoshop postwork tutorial When you are happy with the way it looks save a large render (4000 X 4000 px). Saving an image this will help you in the postwork process because you will be able to see the details and eventually paint ang modify certain areas of the image. Open the rendered image in Photoshop. Duplicate it. Don't work on the initial image so you can always get back to it in case you don't like the wé it came out in the end This is our rendered image, no postwork. and this is how we want it to look in the end, You can notice the image is way too dark so the first thing you need to do is to change that. This is an easy process. Read the next page and find out how :)photoshop postwork tutorial So, open the image in Photoshop. Duplicate the layer. Always work on a new layer so you can get back to the previous state of the image you don't like the results. Use "Levels" to make the image (layer 1) brighter, bk CEPA P+ Pa |) A 3) Ben a 1 ’ Input Levels: A\A\A) Output Levels: Preview SSphotoshop postwork tutorial Don't merge yet the two layers. The darker one is still useful to us and you will see why :) Go back to the first page of the tutorial. Take a look at the rendered image and the final one. Notice the beard in both images. It's different. In the end the character has less hair on the cheeks. Now, how can th darker layer help us with this? Simple =) Seleet the layer 1 (the brighter one). Select the eraser tool. Erase the areas of the beard that in the end should have more hair. Do the same thing for the side whisker’ At the right moment you will also actually draw more hair in those areas but for now what I said above makes the image look closer to what we want it to be. It will also help you to know where to draw more hair because those areas will have a different nuance, =a ayers 0) Lock: Fb a|s = 3) (Bee Ey Details on the next page :)aoa AlHs Sc SS ‘Now take your time, look at the image so far and compare it with the final image (final image in our case in general it would be the photo reference or if you don't have one you would have to try and imagine how you would want your image to look in the end). You can notice the fact that our image so far doesn't have the right nuances and it's still a little too dark. The colors need to be warmer so you have to add more yellow and red and some more light. Don't paint over the image to get all that, duplicate the layer and use "Variations" like in the sample bellow: ‘ Merge the two layers and save. A Cece You can see the differences are very subtle. You have to take your time when you make an image, Don't rush, don't make drastic changes. One step at a time is the best way to go even if it's not spectacular. ‘The final image will be :)photoshop postwork tutorial Now we're going to draw a sketch of the hair and clothes because at this stage we need to have some idk how we want the image composition to look. Make three new layers: first one for the clothes (shirt in ou case), second one for the beard and third one for the hair. We can begin to take care of those details that will make our character "real" and as close as possible to the person we want to portrait. Make a new layer called details. You will work on it. Select the airbrush tool with an opacity and pressure smaller than 20%, small size too, somewhere around 5 px. Zoom in so you can see very welll the details you are about to change and begin to draw. For colors: use the eyedropper tool and from the original layer pick the nuances you need and eventually make them brighter or darker if necessary. Examples on the next page :)photoshop postwork tutorial How do we get from this shape of forehead to this one? Very simple :) First with the airbrush tool draw the shape you want the forehead to have. Then select the eyedropper tool, pick the background color and fill in this space. Use the same techniques to change the shape of the cheeks. AS you cai see the original render has a thin darker outline in some areas like this one. Make sure you draw it too when you change the shapes. More examples on the next pages :)Change the eyes shape a little to make your character life- like. ‘The eyes are very important and most of the time 3D characters have doll eyes and they are not as diffe as they are in real life this is why they need some small adjustments that can be done easily with a little patience and attention to details. So we want to go from this eye shape to this one. We will use the airbrush tool: small sizes between 2 px and Spx, pressure and opacity smaller than 10% and the eyedropper tool to pick the right color. What does it mean the right color? It is the color that you already have in a certain area of the image. You need to use those colors and if necessary change them a littl. For example You want to change shape 1a and make it look like shape 1b. You keep the original colors and change just the shape when you draw. Second situation is when you want to keep a certain shape but you need to change the colors a little, make them darker or brighter. Area 3a is a good example for that kind of situation. Use the eyedropper tool, pick the color in that area, make it brighter and paint over the original image until it looks like area 3b. Use this technique every time you need to make small adjustments in an image :)photoshop postwork tutorial Although we tried from the first steps in Poser to make our character look as close as possible to the person we want to portrait, at a closer look, we can see there are still some differences. The shape of the nose and lips is not exactly how we want it to be. It needs some minor adjustments but those are the litt details that can make all the difference and transform an ordinary 3D image into a photo reastic one, Use the airbrush and the eyedropper tool like in the examples before to change the shapes and colors. Pick this color and draw over this area with a small airbrush until it looks like this Use the same technique and what I told you so far in the previous pages to change the shape of the nose and lips. Look on the sample images to see where I made those changesphotoshop postwork tutorial Next step is to add more life and personality to our character. Also it needs more depth since at this poil its kind of flat, It already has some shadows but they are not enough to achieve the desired expression (a cheeky smile in our case). You can paint over the face skin and make more dark and bright areas and some more wrinkles but this is not the best solution because you have very good chances to destroy the skin texture. So we will use "Levels" again. Duplicate the layer. Open "Levels" (Image- Adjus Make the second layer brighter. Levels) Now you should have two layers: first one, darker (called background in the Photoshop layers list) and the second one, brighter. We will use the same technique that we used before for the beard and side whiskers but this time we need to have the darker layer above the brighter one and, so far, this is not how things are because if you did what I said the layers list should look like this So duplicate the first layer Cbackground), Layer list should look like this now: a Sa Move background copy layer on top of the brighter one and delete the background layer. Now you should have the brighter one beneath and it’s exactly what you need :) [ermal le] On the next page you will see why we did all this :)want to erase. Select the darker layer and use the eraser tool like an airbrush, same way you did for the beard and side whiskers (pa, Use a bigger airbrush, opacity and pressure 7% and erase the entire face area to make it brighter then, with a smaller one "draw" the details. Examples on the next pages :)UE photoshop postwork tutorial “3 ye the two layers and save the file. look "riThe eyes are maybe the most important piece of the puzzle called face :)... so if you get them right they! can reveal the personality of the person you want to portrait , his/ her thoughts, mood and feelings. Poser eyes, although pretty realistic looking lately. still look kind of dead and more than that they tend to have almost the same shape for all the characters which is mot the case in real life as I'm sure you already know :) So you will have to make little adjustments in postwork. A photo reference is more than useful in this process especially for those that don't have enough experience in drawing portraits, In our case the eyes have pretty much the right color and shape but they still look like doll eyes. The eyebrows are also very important. They alone can change the entire expression of the face. So you need to pay attention to the eyebrows too :) You will use the airbrush tool (size from 2px to maybe 5 or 7 px, pressure and opacity between 7 and 10%), the eyedropper tool and, if necessary, the eraser tool or the undo command (CTRL+Z) if you want to come back to the previous step and not to just erase a part of the stroke that you don't like. This is the image the way it is now and this is how we want it to be :) Details on the next page The examples on the next page are parts of the image the way I worked on it, its real size so you will see how much you need to zoom in if you want to be able to paint those details that make your image photo realistic :)You can notice the fact that the differences are not that big but they are still very important. What you need to do is to pick with the eyedropper tool a color from a certain area , modify it a little if necessary and paint on a new layer until the image looks right. Take your time and use the undo command every time you are not totally happy with a certain stroke or the eraser tool to erase just parts of that stroke. The changes are very subtle and at a first quick look you might think the image looks great but its not always like that. This is why it is useful to use a photo reference in case you are not very familiar with drawing portraits I can't tell you exactly what to do for each and every portrait you will ever draw because they are all different, lighting is different, the face shape is different, the tones of the skin, the mood, everything is always changed . What I can advice you is to work on very large renders, to zoom in as much as possible, to use a small to very small airbrush, the eyedropper tool so you can keep the colors of the original render and the eraser tool since nobody can draw perfect strokes always :)The eyebrows need a lot of attention like I already told you :) So, using the same tools, I changed them a little. Take a look at the images bellow to see the differences}For a better understanding of the way I changed the image I'll show you exactly what those changes are :) So, we have the layer with our image and the second layer (the one that has on it the changes- the strokes we just painted ). Between these two layers I'll make a grey one and what you can see now are exactly the strokes that made all the difference:We need to get rid now of those harsh shadows under the nose that usually appear in rendered images. We did that already but it's still not enough: the shadow under the nose is still too strong. but we can correct that with a little postwork. And since we are working on that area we can also correct the shape of the nose a little, make it look how we want :) Use the airbrush tool (pressure and size as before), the eyedropper tool (the way I taught you before) and of course the eraser tool if necesary :)photoshop postwork tutorial Now, since the main features of the face are done we should draw the beard. The Poser character already has a beard and this helps us but it doesn't look exactly how we want it to 10 so we need to draw it in postwork. We already have a layer for the beard, the one that has on it the beard sketch. We set the opacity of that layer to 20% and make a new layer and use it to actually draw the beard on it. ‘The beard sketch. ‘Same layer at 20% opacity. Byer Gea ene ;photoshop postwork tutorial In order to draw the strokes for the beard on the previous page and the ones you still need to draw from ‘now on, you have to use the airbrush, a very small size, 1 maybe 2px with a 20 to 25% opacity and pres and of course zoom in as much as you have to so you can see alll the details you are about to draw. Pay attention to the direction of the beard hair in the original rendered image and also keep in mind the way you want the beard to Look, Use the same technique to add even more hair as you can see in the image bellow: The jaw is too big. Even if I tried to make it exactly’the way it looks in my photo reference it's still a little different. This will most probably happen very time you want to portrait someone: you cannot make it exactly the way you want in Poser. There’ will always be smalll differences. If that is the case you can fix the problém in postwork. I'm talking about this area, Take a look on the next page to see how it should Look.To get rid of this harsh line (image 1.) and to modify the shape of the jaw you need to pick this color and then to select the airbrush tool ( 7 to 10% opacity and pressure, a small size somewhere between 7px and 10px) and paint over the dark harsh line until it looks like in the im: The beard (img 2.) needs more hair. Use the same color and the color of the skin, the airbrush tool, same size and pressure, the eraser tool, same settings as the airbrush and draw more hair (img 3.)photoshop postwork tutorial The beard is too monochrome and a little too flat. We need to add more depth to it It needs lighter shades in it. Because we don't want to break the color composition of the image we will pick a color from the image with the eyedropper tool and we will make it lighter, very close to white but not 100% white. This is the color we will use to paint the Last set of hair for the beard, the one that will make it look real :) After you got the right color use the airbrush: size 2px, different pressure and opacity from 7% to 25%, depending on how strong you want the strokes to be =) TCR SU eee mer fia RegencyThere are of course many differences but for now we will try to focus on the face. If you look carefully you can see that even if the beard looks good there is still one thing left to do. There is too much hair on the cheeks and we need to get rid of it :) Also the ear doesn’t have exactly the right shape and because of that it's in a cone of shade. We will change all that in postwork. Make a new layer. Pick this color ©) from the image. Select the airbrush tool (7% opacity and pressure, size 10px) Paint over the cheek and ear area. For the ear shape use a photo reference if you can't draw it from your imagination :) Use the colors you already have in your image and pick them with the eyedropper tool. Use a small airbrush (Spx ) and a opacity/pressure between 7 and 15%. On the next page you can see the way I painted, the direction of the strokes, exact color, opacity and pressure :)changes I made, the ones I was talking about on the previous age asThe Poser character I used for this image is a very realistic one made by one of the best Poser artists, one of my favorite vendors: Shahara (the character is Jose M3), So if this would be just a random male portrait the neck and chest would look perfect but since our intention is to make it look like a certain person we need to make some small adjustments. The neck has to look a bit different. The position is right but not exactly like in the photo reference So, pick with the eyedropper tool this color @) (area #1.) and select the airbrush tool (size 7px, opacity and pressure 10%) Make a new layer and paint over area #2. until you cover the dark line #3. Pick this eolor @) (area # 4.) and paint the new shape of the neck, the way it is in the photo reference. Merge the tiwodayers(aitdSave)Now we need to paint more hair on the chest. Zoom in until you can see very well the hair that it already exists on the chest. Since it looks so real we will use this and paint more hair like the one it's already there. With the eyedropper tool pick the color of the hair chest. Select the airbrush tool (size 2px, opacity and pressure 10%), make a new layer and paint more hair, Merge the two layers and save. First strokes I paintedphotoshop postwork tutorial We are done with the face and body :) Next thing is to add a background to the image, then the clothes and the hair. So at this point we have a layer for the character (face and body), one layer for the clothes and one fort hair, We will make a new layer for the background. Put it on top of the face/ body layer and beneath the clothes and hair layers. Paint the background on it. Use a photo reference or use your imagination :) Now that we have the background too we can start to paint the clothes and hair :) You can learn how to do that from my previous tutorials available in my store at renderosity.com: http://market.renderosity.com/mod/hes/index.php? vendor=addy - Amazing Hair - Paint Clothes like the Pros- Vol.1 - Paint Clothes like the Pros- Vol.2 ‘On the next pages you will have a little step by step preview on how I painted the clothes and hair for this particular image :) For details, techniques, tips and tricks though I advice you to read the tutorials.Oy ESN postwork tutorialphotoshop postwork tutorial The image is done now :) What I've taught you in this tutorial is not the only way you can make a photo realistic image. Of course’ there are many other ways to do that. Every artist over time will develop its own style, techniques and tricks but, what I told you in my tutorial is still useful for both beginner and advanced artists Basically what you have to remember are a couple of things and then you just exercise, play and adapt my suggestions to your own style of work. These are the main things you have to remember: 1, Try to find the best Poser characters for your images, the ones that look as realistic as possible (skin texture, skin color, eyes shape and color, face and body shape) and try to make them look even in Poser (with the help of the dials) like the person you want to portrait 2. Work on large to very large images (4000x 4000 px). This will help you when you want to zoom in to see/ paint certain details. 3. Use a small sized airbrush most of the time so you can paint carefully the details. When you will finally zoom out and save your image at a smaller size the results will be spectacular :) Also, keep the pressure and opacity of the airbrush under 50%, preferably somewhere between 7% and 25% and if necesary paint two or three times over the same area for more opacity.photoshop postwork tutorial 4, Use the eyedropper tool to pick the right color from the base rendered image or from the photo refere so you don't ruin the color composition if you are not an experienced painter :) 5. For the large areas of the image (the whole face, body, hair or the entire image): don't paint over those areas if you want to make them darker or brighter or to change the color nuance of the entire area. Use “Levels” or "Variations" the way I taught you in the tutorial and when you do that use the eraser tool as a brush, also the way you can read in the tutorial, 6. Finally, be patient, take your time and enjoy the whole process because art is a beautiful thing :) Contact: [email protected] Gallery: http://www.renderosity.com/gallery.ez?ByArtist=Yes& Artist=addy Store: http://market.renderosity.com/mod/bes/index.php?vendor-addy