Jabba 12" Image Thread

[JGouse0498]

Photoshopping is much easier when the character is HUGE, lol, not like others where they don't always cover up the background image well, Jabba pretty much covers up the film still, not to much clean up in the background with him, so I can crank these out faster, but still with good results, at least I think he's fitting into the scenes nicely anway.

Yeah, that can be a real pain in the rear!! Took me a few months of practice to get good at erasing parts of characters and rebuilding backgrounds enough to sell the illusion. Most times, I only rebuild as much as I need and cover the rest with the figure.

And he is fitting in pretty good. You can still tell it's a collectible, but the quality of the photograph and lighting is absolutely stunning as always!!

 

[MaulFan]

Yeah, that can be a real pain in the rear!! Took me a few months of practice to get good at erasing parts of characters and rebuilding backgrounds enough to sell the illusion. Most times, I only rebuild as much as I need and cover the rest with the figure.

And he is fitting in pretty good. You can still tell it's a collectible, but the quality of the photograph and lighting is absolutely stunning as always!!

I don't know if it's what you use to clean up backgrounds, but the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop is a great thing, trick with it though, even though it works like a brush where you can hold down the moust button and drag, best method is to clone an area, dab little spots here and there, then clone a new region, looks smoother that way, sorry if that isn't a good enough explanation, you could spend hours going over that tool, luckily I had school to train me.

 

[MaulFan]

The weird thing with Photoshopping Jabba is, if you pay attention to Jedi carefully, the lighting goes from a source to the right side of his face to one from the left and back and forth like that, and because you never see where the light sources are in the throne room, you're left to speculate as to why that happens.

 

[JGouse0498]

I don't know if it's what you use to clean up backgrounds, but the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop is a great thing, trick with it though, even though it works like a brush where you can hold down the moust button and drag, best method is to clone an area, dab little spots here and there, then clone a new region, looks smoother that way, sorry if that isn't a good enough explanation, you could spend hours going over that tool, luckily I had school to train me.

I use a combination of techniques. Clone stamp is definitely a key tool. Also, I will use an alternate frame where the character is in a different position and extrapolate segments of the background from one image to the other. Also, I will copy and paste different areas within the target image. In both cases, I use the Feather Selection option to improve blending as well as color adjustment tools.

To everyone else, sorry if I keep derailing the thread, but I hope our back and forth discussion helps some of you looking to make these kinds of pics!!

The weird thing with Photoshopping Jabba is, if you pay attention to Jedi carefully, the lighting goes from a source to the right side of his face to one from the left and back and forth like that, and because you never see where the light sources are in the throne room, you're left to speculate as to why that happens.

That's because the image has been flipped. Lucas does that often in the films, but I never figured out why. Here are some examples.

Episode I: When Obi-Wan says "...we've picked up another pathetic life form", look at his braid. It's on the wrong side because the image was flipped.

Episode III Trailer: The shot of Anakin turning his head toward Dooku right before the execution, his scar is on the wrong side. The image was unflipped in the actual film.

 

[MaulFan]

I don't think they'll mind SL. Be careful with the feathering, at least when you're working with film stills, sometimes too much makes it look off, it's a fine line working with what size, but luckily with undo that's not an issue, over time you'll get good enough you'll just be able to sense what feather ammount is right. I've got my lightsaber blades pretty much down to a science for how to make them come out right to me, but I went through a lot of trial and error. I'm in the midst of my next Jabba image right now so the IMAGE thread will get back on track shortly.

 

[JGouse0498]

I don't think they'll mind SL. Be careful with the feathering, at least when you're working with film stills, sometimes too much makes it look off, it's a fine line working with what size, but luckily with undo that's not an issue, over time you'll get good enough you'll just be able to sense what feather ammount is right. I've got my lightsaber blades pretty much down to a science for how to make them come out right to me, but I went through a lot of trial and error. I'm in the midst of my next Jabba image right now so the IMAGE thread will get back on track shortly.

I do trial and error with it. That's why I'll typically use only small areas and vary the sources. Also using the adjustments options in conjunction with opacity settings helps the blend. And there are times where I'll try to make other areas more dynamic and attention-getting to draw the viewers' eyes toward those and make the flaws fade away unnoticed.

Here's an early example of what I'm describing. In fact, this was the first large-scale, complex pic I tackled. Both images are my composites, but the top one is full-size and diagrammed.

Again, sorry for the derailing. Consider this Photoshop 101

 

[MaulFan]

Looks good SL, I wish I could get a better idea of it, but I've never seen Robocop.

 

[JohnyBoo]

I tried using my Koto Leia with Jabba, it looks OK. I am waiting for my GG slave Leia to really look nice.

 

[Batty]

Sadly, I know very little about Photoshop... Just the basics. I wouldn't mind if you guys started a tutorial thread to show us how you do it.

 

[JohnyBoo]

Two more shots of the Koto Leia and Jabba:

 

[MaulFan]

Sadly, I know very little about Photoshop... Just the basics. I wouldn't mind if you guys started a tutorial thread to show us how you do it.

It took me 4 years of college and 6 years of playing to get what's in my brain, I'm open to specific questions, but a lot of it is instinctive, I don't even think about what things I do I just know to do em.

 

[MaulFan]

Johny, nice use of Koto Leia, this piece really needs a great Slave Leia or even Oola to compliment it, would really round out the piece very nicely.

 

[DarthNeil]

Two more shots of the Koto Leia and Jabba:

Thank you thank you thank you--- I was going to post a request for anyone to take a pick of their Jabba with a Koto Leia... After seeing yours (although I'm sure that GG would be much better) I think I'll go ahead and hunt a Koto down for my display.

Thanks once again.

 

[JGouse0498]

Looks good SL, I wish I could get a better idea of it, but I've never seen Robocop.

Blasphemy!!!!

Seriously though, you should watch it. It's a much deeper movie than it appears to be. Quite emotional if you try to conceive how you would feel in the situation Robocop finds himself. Lot of human spirit and identity themes.

Basically, the Robocop in the film still was blocking the lower right face on the TV screen, the lower left of the female cop's face, and about 75% of the white paneling. I used earlier frames to get the detail and blended it back into the picture where I erased Robo and inserted the Hot Toys figure.

I tried using my Koto Leia with Jabba, it looks OK. I am waiting for my GG slave Leia to really look nice.

That looks really good. I think the GG Leia would be great, but you can't disconnect her from the base. Gentle Giant clarified that several months ago. Hopefully, that will change, but I doubt it.

Sadly, I know very little about Photoshop... Just the basics. I wouldn't mind if you guys started a tutorial thread to show us how you do it.

That actually might be a good idea. One of these days when I have a lot of time, I'll see about putting together a few tutorials. That would've been a great project for these past few days. I work in various public schools and live in Northeastern Pennsylvania, so that blizzard gave me a six-day vacation!!

At least I got quite a big amount of other Photoshop work done for Yodasnews, the SW fansite where I do graphic design work. I'm in the process of overhauling most of their graphics.

It took me 4 years of college and 6 years of playing to get what's in my brain, I'm open to specific questions, but a lot of it is instinctive, I don't even think about what things I do I just know to do em.

I agree. It can be VERY instinctual. I haven't had any formal training (my BS is in Secondary Education), but I learned everything through fearless tinkering, experimenting, using what I know of movie visual FX, and just learning how the tools interact and affect images.

The biggest thing is that you have to learn to have an eye for these images. You need to get an overall picture in your mind of what you want to achieve and then trained your eye and mind to break apart that vision into the layers that are the heart of Photoshop.

 

[The Josh]

Dang! I'm gona for a bit and a WWE PPV breaks out. I've seen plenty of my shots end up on ebay and even an auction site from some place in Mexico. So it happens.

 

[DarthRamuk]

Dang! I'm gona for a bit and a WWE PPV breaks out. I've seen plenty of my shots end up on ebay and even an auction site from some place in Mexico. So it happens.

Strange......I would have recognised your doily shots if I ever come across them......no one has so much love for them as much as you!

 

[anakin1138]

I tried using my Koto Leia with Jabba, it looks OK. I am waiting for my GG slave Leia to really look nice.

Yes but how to put GG Slave Leia on Jabba's throne... Is there enough space?... what you think?

 

[anakin1138]

Dang! I'm gona for a bit and a WWE PPV breaks out. I've seen plenty of my shots end up on ebay and even an auction site from some place in Mexico. So it happens.

NO WAY OUT!!! AND THAT'S COOL!

 

[MaulFan]

The biggest thing is that you have to learn to have an eye for these images. You need to get an overall picture in your mind of what you want to achieve and then trained your eye and mind to break apart that vision into the layers that are the heart of Photoshop.

That's basically the key to anything with computers, you have to have the drive to experiment and learn, instructions can take you so far but unless you have the passion and drive behind it, it'll only go so far. People have asked me about teaching them things I do with Photoshop at my job and I've told them what it takes for the knowledge to stay and it usually results in, well that's ok you can keep doing it then. My education gave me a strong foundation, but my excelling came from walking out of class, sitting down on my computer, and taking the days lessons and playing with them and expanding on them, and those in class who didn't get far were the ones who only did things in class and didn't put passion into it. I love graphic design, I love Star Wars and SW collecting, this is a nice marriage of all of that, but in addition, it's a nice exercise to keep up my skills as well as improve them both with photoshop and photography, so even though it's playing around, I approach it with the same attitude I would a pay job.

Here's my latest:

 

[JGouse0498]

Dang! I'm gona for a bit and a WWE PPV breaks out. I've seen plenty of my shots end up on ebay and even an auction site from some place in Mexico. So it happens.

I had that happen once (that I know of at least). The guy used my shots from my Yodasnews review and Dave Myatt's photo archive shots on Rebelscum. Both of us e-mailed the seller separately and just asked him to remove them, which he prompted did to his credit.