playing around

[piranha]

my RSI was bothering me, so i stopped cleaning manga. but i wasn't ready to go to bed yet, and ended up playing around with photoshop, doing algorithmic things instead of pixel tweaking (which isn't as rough on the hands).

the outcome looks sorta cool. i'll probably use the technique for techno backgrounds.


you gotta look at the full size images to see the actual funky detail.

ETA: how-to is in reply to first comment.

Comments

[1ginko.livejournal.com]

Am I reading correctly? You did this from writing algorithmic? Way cool. The detail in the eye is amazing.

algorithmic, urm, well...

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i think you're under the impression i did way more than i actually did, possibly misled by me using "algorithmic". :) i didn't write a photoshop plugin that creates eyes and lips and the like out of thin air. both images are based on photographs, and i just manipulated them to get the funky box-and-circle textures. any detail is there because the original photo had it, in fact my playing around results in less detail because the texture distorts.

i used "algorithmic" because it felt more like programming than like drawing/painting. see, these are most of the steps:

first i futzed around some to clean the image and prep it (changed levels of shadow and highlights, changed the iris colour from an uninspiring gray to this bright violet-blue, in the second image isolated the orange lips, added in an obscured corner on the right, removed other lips and sticks, and added the blue gradient -- those were lollipops originally).

then i created tiny patterns of dots and boxes (20x20 cells each in this case, and 6 different size dots inside that cell) to use for masking later (i actually created these as i went along, but in the future i'll probably make them first); they look like this:

1. open prepped image with suitable photo or graphic
   
2. copy layer, name it dots1
   
3. filter -> mosaic on dots1, with same cell size as the dot masks from first step, 20.
   
4. add layer mask to dots1
   
5. fill dots1 layer mask with largest size box pattern
   
6. copy dots1 layer, name it dots2
   
7. fill dots2 layer mask with next size smaller circle pattern
   
8. create adjustment layer for dots2, brightness/contrast, change brightness to +8, contrast to +15 (pick whatever numbers you want in those adjustments)
   
9. copy dots1 layer once again, name it dots3
   
10. fill dots3 layer mask with next size smaller circle pattern
    
11. create adjustment layer for dots3, hue/saturation, change saturation to +20, lightness to -7
    
12. create another copy of dots1 layer, and so on for one or two more steps.
    
13. run a slight blur or median filter on the original layer to blend it a bit more. or make it invisible and put a white (or flat colour) background layer underneath everything; that looks cool too; very pop-art

that's the basic "algorithm". for the lips i changed the cell size in the last couple steps so i would get the offset circles (i used cells of 14x14 from the very first experiment). i could have as well made offset circles in the 20x20 cells.

it's also algorithmic in the sense that i can record this on one image, and then replay it on any other one, just sitting back and watching it; once the image is prepped and the masks are created there is nothing per se left to be done manually to create the actual texture. the biggest change comes from the shape of the dot mask patterns, but just playing with the adjustment layers can result in really cool effects.

i love adjustment layers. photoshop was good before them, but it's totally awesome now, because they give such huge flexibility (if you don't know: they affect the layer with which they are associated without changing the image in the layer itself, so the original always stays around, you just tweak sliders in the adjustment layer to make the layer brighter or darker, change the hue or saturation, colour balance, etc). completely non-destructive and if you don't like the result you can tweak some more, or remove the adjustment layer, or put another type on top.

[firecat]

Nifty!

something you might like

[crazed-lynn.livejournal.com]

My friend, Aeire, left this in a comment on my journal. It is WAY cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-SSu3tJ3ns

Re: something you might like

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

ah, the seam-carving stuff. yes, that is awesome! dean just found that a couple days ago. thanks for showing me though; that's exactly the sort of thing that gets my heart throbbing, *heh*.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Very cool.

Pretty!

[eagle]

Yeah, those are rather cool. I particularly like the eye.