Photoshop Tutorial: Adding Lightning

I decided to play around with a photo taken by my friend at mosaika. The pose is supposedly from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, from Kamina. "Your drill will be the one that pierces the heavens" or something like that. The lightning has nothing to do with anything, but I just made it anyway.

The steps aren't that difficult. I remember doing something similar to this back in grade 10 highschool. So I roughly remembered how to do it.

I started with a photo like this one (resized).

"Your drill will be the one that pierces the heavens" (Kamina)

- First, open the photo in photoshop.
- Then start a new layer so you could work without impacting the original image.
- Set your colours to black and white
- Make a gradient of black to white horizontally (left to right) or diagonally
- Basically the line where the colour changes is where your lightning will be
- Go to filters -> render -> difference cloud
- Go to adjustment -> levels
- Move the black triangle to the right or adjust the triangles to get a crisp lightning shape
- Go to adjustment -> hue/saturation
- Check the "colourize" box, this will give it a colour
- Change the hue to the colour you would like
- Now change the layer type from normal to screen, the lightning should appear on top of your original image
- Move the lightning via "free transform" to where you want it to be, rotate if needed
- Using the eraser, remove any unwanted lights in the lightning layer
- Take the smudge tool and go to the end of the lightning and smudge it so it doesn't look like it was cropped, smudge tool is the finger icon, in the same place as the sharpen tool or blurr tool

- Now I added a lens flare to the start of the lightning at the finger of the image, it makes it fit a bit better than without
- To do that, make a new layer, paint it black
- Go to adjustment -> render -> lens flare
- Set the size to a small size, this can always be changed later with the free transform adjustment
- Change the layer type to screen
- Move the lens flare to where it should be
- Readjust size with free transform if needed

And voila, you're done !

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With that, my final coop term ends.

The goodbye was a sad one, lots of tears were had. Except they were all held inside.

"Good luck in school and your future career"
"Thanks, take care of yourself too"
...


With that marked the finale of the past 8 months of work at National Research Council (NRC).

Without a doubt, it was at this place I learned the most out of all my previous workterms. The people were educated and helpful. The tasks were intriguing and challenging. NRC had it all.

Aside from all the technical skills learned, great memories were carved there also. The times with these special people would be remembered forever. Atleast it will be written on this blog so even if I may ever forget, I shall remember once again when I read this passage.

I couldn't say these things when we parted because I am bad with giving speeches. So let me write it out here after I had to time to think and compose myself.

Thank you Martin for the wonderful guidance,
for without you, I would have sat in silence.
Also thanks to Cameron for helping me fit in,
it made asking questions not feel like a sin.
The wonderful solutions Alex suggested,
were so brilliant when I had tested.
Your abilities made me felt kind of weak,
but Pier's kindness showed up when I had seek,
turned my feelings upside down,
for there was a grin from a frown.
Lets not forget about Malgosia,
without you, there would be no fire.
You are the soul of our department,
with years of experience and commitment.
Thank you Lisette for the useful email,
keeping us in check so we don't fail.
It keeps us aware of our situation,
even if that means no more vacation.
The people there are always working,
but its all work and no singing.
That was why I started a noise,
it was called "delicious and moist".
I hope you enjoyed reading this script,
I had a tough time, my paper's all ripped.
Too many mistakes during compilation,
but now its nearing the completion.
With that I bid you all farewell,
we'll meet again, I swear upon my spell.

*staring*
*spell coujuring*
*spell conjured*

On a completely different note, my landlady also requested a poem, so I wrote this one here.

Oh where, where, where do I live?
Work at NRC starts on the fifth.
Without a shelter, death is certain,
but Marina had an open curtain.
She took me in, like a kind mother,
of a lost cat, when others didn't bother.
I felt for once there was warmth,
it was then, that I had sworn,
I would pay back her good deed,
500 monthly, if she need.
Thank goodness she accepted,
or else I would feel neglected.
Thus began my new life,
including home cooking with a knife.
There was a cat, her name was Cannelle,
around her cuteness, my composure fell.
I wanted to hug her so many times,
if it cost money, I'd have lost many dimes.
Eventually we became close, but now we must part,
my heart just froze, then pierced by a dart.
It pained me much, to have to separate,
but don't worry, I'll come another date.
Thats what I told myself when I moved on,
this memory shall never be gone.
Let us part for now, but its not the last,
we'll see in no time, since time moves very fast.

Unless someone wants to tell me, I suck at this, I think I might have a knack for writing poems. Atleast rhyming ones, all the other ones, I got no clue.

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Photoshop Tutorial: Changing Daylight Conditions

I found a picture of Reisen Udongein Inaba on Danbooru (NSFW) the other day. I quite liked it, however, to be shrunk and used as a MSN avatar was quite poor. The reason being, it would end up too small and dark that no one could see what was what.

So I ended up doing some photoshop on my own. I have never learned photoshop from a professor. Everything I did was purely through intuition.

The first picture above was what I had editted it to. The picture below was the original.


This picture was trying to make a sunset colour background however things didn't seem to be working out. So I just dumped the yellow background all together.


As for what exactly I did.
- First, I applied a curve adjustment layer to the whole picture to light it up.
- Then I had to select the background (I used the polygon lasso to select) since I wanted to change the background colour and brightness.
- I had 3 adjustment layers (probably 2 is sufficient though). Brightness/Contrast, Hue/Saturation, and Curves. Select the checkbox for "Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask".
*Note: I could not find out how to attach a clipping mask to an adjustment layer, but I know its possible.
*Note2: I had never really learned the difference between Levels and Curves. From experience, they seem to do pretty similar things, but in Curves, you can also adjust the RGB colours individually. So I never use Levels anymore.
- Start adjusting. I started with Hue/Saturation, then Curves, and finally Brightness/Contrast
- Finally, I made 2 additional layers (without clipping masks, but you can add it if you like) for the gradient for the sky. Bright in the top right corner, darker in the bottom left corner.

On a closing note, I know I called this a tutorial but I personally don't have too much knowledge in photoshop. I only consider myself a man who likes art so I post what I think looks right. Please take this tutorial with a grain of salt.

Should you have any questions about anything or perhaps you are indeed an artist who can provide some sort of advice for future work, I'll gladly hear it in the comments.

Source: Here.

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Motivational Poster: Pride doesn't give you FOOD!

My first time making one of these. Theres probably too much black space and the border is too thick. I'll try to make it better in future work. Image source after the jump.

I made it because I saw a funny video on youtube. So I took a snapshot and editted it in photoshop.

Source: Here

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FIXED !

Bawahahaha !

I still don't know a piece of html, other than the span codes to make the stuff hidden (maybe theres more uses for it but I don't know about them). But using some thinking, I was successful in adding the picture to the blog. As shown to the right side above the search bar.

Basically what I did was, take a look at the html from one of the posts which had an image added. Copy that code to the search gadget, then replace all the URLs of the image with the new image.

Of course, that image is still hosted at tinypic, and it may one day be brought down. Should that happen, I shall upload it on picasa and change the URL to there. So its here to stay!

Unless of course, something comes up and I feel a need to change it. Although, with my art skills, odds of making something better are slim. But dear readers are free to submit an art for the cause! Of course, your name/pen name/nickname/(whatever you choose) will be included so you may get internet fame ! LOL !

On another note, heres something I found. Shocking as it may be.

Video: Here (Possibly NSFW)

The download link is in that video's description. Though what the video shows you have more features than the one you download.

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Aww...

Today, I spent a long time drawing something I wanted to implement in the blog. I wanted to include a logo in the search bar to the right side of the blog (where all the gadgets are). However, google restricts the size to 100x100 or the height no more than 50 pixels, depending on the 2 possible choices. The image is below.

Hinanai Tenshi from Touhou Project 10.5, Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, final boss.

I'm not an artist, I acknowledge it. You and I both can probably point out millions of flaws. But the effort is what counts! Right now, its hosted on tinypic (Here). I don't know how long it'll stay for.

But right now, if you do a search using the search bar gadget, you should see the 100x100 pixel version of that picture, clicking on it will turn it into the original size.

As for those rare people who wants to save it or manipulate it. You may do as you please.

Oh. If you like, please do send some advice on how to draw. Although I can't see myself doing much in the near future. It is one thing I would like to learn.

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Mascot Implementation Complete!

A job well done.. is what I would like to say. It has been alot of work. Since I have had tons to do in the past little while. But I'm glad I'm done. It does look better than before too!

As you can see, the banner is updated to include the mascot.

Also ads can be seen on the side and the search bar is also an ad by google. Personally, I would probably never click the banner ads, but the search bar might be of some use to people.

It only searches
nekomagic, hobbysearch, benippon, and this site, springscalling.

Although I don't expect it, money can supposedly be generated from these. Well, I'll post something about it, if it ever gets close to the payout amount ($10).

Until then, pretend theres no banner and no money making and just use it as normal.

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Mascot Implementation Nearly Complete

Hello, everyone. Remember the mascot thing I asked my friend to do for me? I finally finished adding it to something I always thought about making after seeing nekomagic's website.

So this is the new idea for the future posts.
There will be three backgrounds for the banners at the beginning of each post.
Brown will represent the past.
Green will represent the present.
Finally, blue will represent the future.

Think of it as a tree or flower. It first has to make its way out of the Earth, to see the surface. Then it grows taller as if reaching for the sky.

So if the post will be mentioning something that has happened, the banner background would be brown, etc.

Also, I will also include the mascot face in each banner, signifying whether that event was happy, sad, angry, etc.

Here are some example banners.
This banner would indicate the blog post is of the past and it was a sad event. (such as wanting to buy some figurine which had sold out)


This banner would indicate the post is current and causes me to be angry. (such as attending an anime convention which had a delayed opening)

So this is the scheme I hope I can start using (as long as bandwidth permits and I remember to add these banners).

Also, I am also thinking of how to implement the mascot to the banner at the very top. I was only provided with 1 image, perhaps I'll have to edit it or something. Or post it as is. I need to think...

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Banner at the Ready ! >=O !

Because I received an email from E2046, to exchange banners, I thought I had to create one. Their banner can be found on the side of the blog under advertisement (since they are a retailer).

Since I like working with photoshop, I had some fun with the project. I had a few friends give me constructive criticism. Which was the "unfun" and hard part. It really is hard to satisfy other people ^^;;;. With that said, I'm not 100% happy with it either. I always think theres room for improvement, but theres no point just spending years just to try perfecting it (since it'll be futile anyway).

468x60 Banner
Version 1

<br /><a href="http://www.springscalling.blogspot.com" title="SpringsCalling"><img style="width: 468; height: 60; border: 0;" alt="Text Description" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0lc0AL3PqN1W-cf9c5h1FxYKtobg-mS9dIJLYXr1I4tSH3s44DTJtVde9NjkRxb_txfQj3-_k00rTi1Ot2flhmCRO5fmuieo1RmxCg6gVgcRiOITRPdx_UJvfbOvh0mR-6kjNbj1wfAQ/s1600/SpringsCalling+Promotion+Banner+468x60.jpg" /></a><br />

Version 2

<br /><a href="http://www.springscalling.blogspot.com" title="SpringsCalling"><img style="width: 468; height: 60; border: 0;" alt="Text Description" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVGU5XjRxhFZCb35fs66n_DsN6yTAj8ee6Ipl4fMZdNg0vwDxgXcmYuoV0Cy6xeaMrF0a2GECamqJreOjj9ldg_se85X2_jxCzEaeomTEeTckZONvS0-6SaDXDubz_Fstf6B45qapc23g/s1600/SpringsCalling+Promotion+Banner+468x60v2.jpg" /></a><br />

Version 3

<br /><a href="http://www.springscalling.blogspot.com" title="SpringsCalling"><img style="width: 468; height: 60; border: 0;" alt="Text Description" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Q8zJzOK42aHpcvA1xYf29d3WFLH1pLcqnrvW32MPrAHzeOpk811HyYYfUz4HGOM4n_qClukn_zkvdQZJrg5T8ynETdIfzE_MbOSphknydjOGbdq9Kc08g78_-xhAYoIIv2Qb5Ca2x2g/s1600/SpringsCalling+Promotion+Banner+468x60v3.jpg" /></a><br />

Version 4

<br /><a href="http://www.springscalling.blogspot.com" title="SpringsCalling"><img style="width: 468; height: 60; border: 0;" alt="Text Description" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiELAs6XRRNaO0fFNpj27hY7ZpIhPQYQmgIwrj4T6xnDM1JP31RoI1fqZpsby4HjBw7CjgM3ljR4llOMPqV2REXT9JedsOi_a9kZOWpJeY0h6n-3Ydg8-Z62tWe6Yf9p9veUd4eiRYViKc/s1600/SpringsCalling+Promotion+Banner+468x60v4.jpg" /></a><br />

105x55 Banner

<br /><a href="http://www.springscalling.blogspot.com" title="SpringsCalling"><img style="width: 468; height: 60; border: 0;" alt="Text Description" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIaudxsJ8SfGaj3LDD1vLlwBsnmPREVTgnVt5E9eeZM-GKR7Rn-T_ZfVwTwdUA41YxR7oCXghX851PwxZOCkyXOKbnGT4W6mbsF51fTWHGXVq8Xv8tazemOVIeNVAVxkE4RDZ2pQmVREo/s1600/SpringsCalling+Promotional+Banner+105x55.jpg" /></a><br />


I personally like the 4th version of the 468x60 banner most, but I heard other answers, so I might as well put up all 4, since I made them anyway.

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One of my Hobbies, Photoshop!

On top of collecting figurines/gundam models and looking at new release information/reviews of them, in my spare time, I would also use photoshop to edit pictures into wallpapers or digitally store tangible images (ie posters).

As promised, I will talk about the wallpaper of Cirno which I editted. First a vector was needed, a vector is the picture of focus, I would say (usually a person, in our case, an anime girl).

I might not know much about art, but being someone who enjoys it, I have a basic understanding. I also took traditional art and computer art in highschool. Computer art was the best and worst course at the same time. D: Basically, we were given tasks to do, but the teacher didn't teach us how to do it, we just looked for tutorials. So it was really it DIY course. Worst course ever... is what I want to say, but the freedom given because the course was layed out that way was kinda fun... It was a good experience nonetheless.

Basically, when I edit a work, first thing to do is find a vector, and here is the one I used.
So now that you have a picture, you need to crop out all the unnecessary bits, ie background. This part takes probably the most time for me, using the polygon lasso. Some people prefer magnetic lasso, so try different tools and do what fits. Beware though, from experience, I think magic wand isn't a very good tool for this kind of jobs, but if you wish to use it, its up to you.

After the vector picture is fully cropped out, ie the background is now transparent, its time to make the background !

Some people likes to make abstract backgrounds, in that case, you would probably go to google and find an abstract tutorial and use it. I on the other hand prefer something more fitting with correspondence to the vector. Since Cirno is a snow fairy, I decided that a snowy background was in order... Then came the hardest part of the whole work...

As I mentioned before in my first post, I CAN'T DRAW!
So how would I go around making snow? I went searching for tutorials on snow, but the only results were falling snow (which I also added to the picture, I'll cover that next). After loads of searching and couldn't find any good tutorials, I had to go another route.

It was a good thing I kept a folder of pictures I liked from various artists (random web browsing). And I found this previously.
Lucky! A snowy background which is somewhat anime-like. I couldn't use real snow photographs either because anime and reality doesn't mix well. So apologies for using other people's work, I hope I have their approval.

This message speaks for both images that I've used, because I found the images at imageboards, I don't have the source for them, so even though I wish I could put in the artist's homepage, but I can't... Sorry. >_< href="http://touhou.wikia.com/wiki/Flandre_Scarlet">Flandre above, then enlarged it into the new wallpaper with Cirno. Because of the available room, the section I took had a tree in it, I had to remove it. Why? Personal taste, I guess. So I took out the cloning tool, and made it disappear that way. For cloning, just try to make colours of the adjacent snow look similar to what you're working on. Though I was taught in computer art that when you clone you should actually clone from an area further away from where you're working, I find it easier to just clone from someplace closeby, since the colour differences will be lesser also.

Finally, I wanted to add some snowfall. That could be done by following simple photoshop tutorials, like this one.

I also drew in white circular dots for another type of snow. Using a brush with gradual fading edge of different size.

On top of the snowfall, I also added fog, which is just from using clouds with black and white, setting the opacity to something less than 100% and setting the layer type to screen.

When you're done, you'll have something like this. I made the resolution to 1680x1050 because thats my window resolution.
At this point, I would say it looks about done. But I wasn't satisfied with the wings not being transparent, so I did the last step to select the wings, cut them from the vector layer, paste it on another layer, then set the opacity down from 100%. Then I tested out my new tablet and signed my name on it. (Fun, but not as fun as using a real pen and signing it on a piece of paper). Haha...

This was what the final product looked like.
I will include a download link for the psd file of what I did, I hope it serves as a decent starting point for people who are interested in photoshopping. I am in no way a professional at this work but I have atleast done it a couple of times.
DL

Some other work.
Banner:




Colouring:

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