Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
“Are We There Yet?” by Xaleria Starlight made me laugh out loud with the sempiternal question of childhood travelers. I can picture Moses hearing that question for forty years. Laura and Mary Ingalls probably asked that question hundreds of times from the Big Woods to the shores of silver Lake. Intergalactic travelers will ask that in the distant future. And of course, we have the contemporary car in a very strange place, sheltered under a giant skeleton.
The picture looks like handmade art and I was curious how Xaleria made it. She graciously uploaded her source photos and explained her method. But first, she had advice on software to use. She uses GNU Image Manipulation Program or GIMP for photo editing. “I highly recommend the G'MIC plugin for GIMP which provides tons of really fantastic predefined filters and effects. Like GIMP, it is open-source and free.”
“Another program I love to recommend is FastStone Image Viewer. It is excellent for organizing and accessing your saved images with large thumbnails. GIMP's file preview is not the greatest, but FastStone's is wonderful and you can drag and drop from it straight into GIMP. FastStone is also free.
Great tips from Xaleria to follow.
This is a photo of the subject taken in the native WindLight. However, Xaleria used the WindLight “Cassie’s Ad” in Firestorm to get a brighter photo. Xaleria explains it this way, “For purposes of creating a screen capture that looks like a drawing, the source photo should be very bright with as little in the background as possible. To achieve the best look, I most often use the WindLight "Cassie's Ad" in Firestorm (below). It brightens up the scene and washes out the background which is ideal.
She takes her screenshots in high resolution. “I use 6060x3210 - I don't know how or when I started using that size but that's my default - and always save as .PNG.”
When editing, I generally will first use an artistic filter - my preferred is Artistic > Illustration Look in G'MIC. This step ups the contrast and defines the edges. A similar effect can be achieved by simply increasing the contrast.
This is the photo with the Artistic-Illustration filter. From there, she advises a lot of experimentation.
“Next we add layers - this is where it gets more complicated and a lot depends on personal preference or trial and error. There are some amazing texture designers who provide their work on Flickr for use with attribution or creative commons license. Searching for "Photoshop Texture" on Flickr will return thousands of amazing textures that creators have shared. Start simple - find one texture you like and drop it as a new layer onto your source image, then scale the layer to match the size of the source and start experimenting with Modes in the layer tools.
“My favorite modes to use in layer tools are grain extract, grain merge, overlay and screen. Try them all. New layers will change the appearance of the layers underneath so you may need to adjust the contrast, saturation and/or brightness of the source photo or the layer itself.
“Some textures will do the exact opposite of what you expect them to do depending on the layer mode you select. I normally use at least five layers in an image, sometimes more. Each one you add can give the image a brand new look. Experiment with using the eraser tool or lighten tool to make adjustments to individual layers and how they affect the layer(s) underneath it. I don't have a method when it comes to layers, I just find some I like and start adding them one by one to the source image, push all the buttons in GIMP and see what happens. Like Bob Ross said, "There are no mistakes, only happy accidents." I have happy accidents all the time!
“My favorite textures to use are those that look like paper or cloth - with tearing, stains, frayed edges, wrinkles, patterns, grain or interesting borders. Sometimes it is appropriate to use one that has its own detail such as a sun, moon or clouds which can add interest to the source photo. Adjust the opacity, brightness, hue or saturation of each layer independently to achieve the look and color you want.
“More important than anything is just experiment. Start simple - find one interesting layer and drop it on one of your images, then try all the layer modes and see how each mode affects the image differently. Use things that look like they would never work with your source image and play around with it, you might be surprised!
See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog.
Don't tell NiranV Dean, the creator of the Blackdragon viewer you edit your images, you'll never hear the end of ;-)
Brilliant work BTW
Posted by: Lusus | Thursday, October 01, 2020 at 01:40 PM