Tutorial Thread.

[Pun-3X]

Okay, I posted this how-to in my own thread, but Chaos Incarnate reminded me this tutorial sticky was here. So here we go: a quick explosion how-to.

I'm doing this on a blue background so it's easier to see. First, I do a simple airbrush that's a super-bright yellow. I'll adjust the opacity depending how strong I want it to be. Then, I make a white center for the explosion:


Now the fun part. Open a new layer. As shown below, I open the BRUSH box at the top left, opening the brush-type menu. Scroll down towards the bottom until you see the brush effects shown:


Now, just go to town. Best thing to remember is that explosions are not symmetrical. Offset some of the stuff until you're happy with it:


Yeh, looking at that image, maybe it's a bit TOO symmetrical? Eheh! But you get the idea. Now, two things you can do. Blurring the particals down makes them seem more cloud like:




Or, you can do the radial blurr effect found in filters...


...and in the RADIAL BLUR menu, click zoom to get this look:


Or, some combination thereof.

Okay, for my purposes today, I'll be going with the blur effect--mostly to point out one other thing. This next pic isn't as blurred as above, and for a reason. Depending on the background, you can use your blending options and choose 'outer glow:'


I tend to play around with the opacity, color, size and range to get the effects that I want. This is the same technique often used for laser effects. It tends to beef up elements of the explosion:


At this point, or even before the outer-glow, you can often stop and be satisfied. In fact, that was about as far as I would take my first explosions on this comic. (maybe more of that splotch brush wherever I felt it was needed) But then comes another fun element: smoke effects!

First, use the same splotchy brush on a new layer. I'd open this one behind the first two. This time use black, and start splotching around the outer portion of the explosion. Going with the assymetrical idea, one way to make it more realistic is by painting up one side, or at least doing one side heavier than the other. But you can play around however you want until you're happy, as there is no particular rule:


And, blur:


And now, for a smoke trail. Same brush tool, but much smaller. Draw a trail away from the explosion. I tend to run it a bit crooked, to give the smoke that 'blown around in the air' look:


And blur


Now, sometimes I'll add a bit of fiery debris. Simple enough--new layer, switch your brush to the usual airbrush circle style (that fades out around the edges) and paint in whites and yellows, making a trail back into the smoke:


A final step would be to switch back to the 'blotch' brush for the smoke effect, and on a new layer above the fiery debris, splotch just a bit of that black smoke effect on the trail's tail end. That'll make it seem more like it's shooting out of the smoke. (shown below)

Now finally, do the same smoke technique as we did on the outside of the explosion, but on the inside! Curve it a little to make it feel more three-dimensional, and blur:


At this point, you can add more debris on top, or add splotches and use the radial/zoom blur, add bright white fire spots or whatever combination you want. But here you have a pretty good concept for making a pleasantly detailed explosion.

[puppylove]

1. find yourself a picture of sparks. i like to pick ones with the most contrast, or the easiest to erase a background for. make sure to resize your image for a web safe size, since the in all likelihood an image you are borrowing from the internet will be lower resolution.



2. make sure you have white selected as your foreground color. then use the tool in the selection palette that says "color range...".



3. set it to the top, at 200. then say okay.



4. once selected, pull the sparks onto your image.



5. next, change the layer attributes from normal to something else. i usually try 'screen' first, if that doesn't look quite right i will try another one.



6. for this image, i actually put it on vivid light.



7. then i zoom in, lower the opacity so i can see what i am doing and then erase around the item making the sparks. in this case i only erased the lower part of the ax and left the rest of the sparks.



8. then restore the opacity.

that's it!

[puppylove]

this is a trick that chaos incarnate actually taught me...

1. first! when you are taking your pictures, have your camera totally stationary. like on a tripod if possible. set up your figure that is flying. sometimes i use the stand for the toys like the figmas & shinkis, or else i will hold a transformer from behind as still as possible. then snap a picture. then *without moving your camera* move your figure out the frame, then snap another picture without the figure.





2. open up your 2 pictures in photoshop.



3. drag the picture with the flying figure onto the image without it.



4. lower the opacity of the figure layer.



5. zoom in, and carefully erase around the figure and remove the stand set up.





6. then restore the opacity of the top layer, and then flatten image.



7. then grab your burn tool, and put a little shadow underneath. voila!

flying figure!

[Sage o' G-fruit]

Originally Posted by Otispq

Comic Life

I have a tutorial on how to make a lazer in Comic Life.

Merely drag a "lettering" to the photo.

The text should be - - - - as much as needed. You can drag the lettering sideways if you're doing a long beam.

[Sage o' G-fruit]

In case you don't know, every effect can be done with lettering in Comic Life.

To make guns seem like they're glowing, do another lettering. Have the text be a period ( . )
Once you get to the image, size the dot to fix the gun barrel.

Cheap portals can be done by making the text @.

EDIT: Eye glow effects can be made by creating a : using the lettering tool, then size for the eyes, and turn it around to fit.

[Zherbus]

Working with Backgrounds in GIMP. I usually have about 120-130 backdrops saved on my PC for my semi-realistic comic. If I see one that looks awesome while browsing around the internet, I save it. Sometimes it inspires scenes, other times I just figure I can use it along the line at some point.

This tutorial is a basic way of working transformers into the scene.

Here, well start with a night time city picture I found somewhere.



It'll be your base background layer and for the most part will remain untouched.

Next, we want the subject inserted. Here, I blatantly stole someones awesome picture of Superion including some sword I wish I had. We'll put this awesome picture within the city, not just OVER the city.



Next, we have the hard part about cropping the bot from the background. Using an eraser sucks and leads to messy lines. You could use the background to transparency method, but then you get translucent bots. The best method is to use the Path tool in GIMP. Simply zoom in to about 500% and start tracing a path.



I do mine in chunks because sometimes the path gets messed up and you end up having to start all over again.



Once finished, you now have just the bot over the base background layer. Simply use the move tool to place him where you want. Here, I placed him right "on" the building, because I plan on having him stand on the street below.



Now create another layer that's an exact duplicate of the background. Your layers should be stacked thusly:

Copy of background (foreground)
Subject (Superion here)
Background



Go ahead and cut out a huge chunk of whatever isn't needed. Here, I cut all the way down to just above the building tops so I can take care of that in better detail.



Using a similiar Path tool method as we did on Superion, the foreground building rests nicely over Superions feet giving him the appearance of standing behind the build (but towering the heck over it).



Now you have some obvious stuff around the border of the bot. I like to merge all of the layers at this point and then gently blur the edges of the bot into the background. It gives it the more natural appearance. Don't use too big of a tool or over-do it, otherwise you'll have a blurry bot with a clear center.



Finally, add some effects. There's tutorials in this thread for nice eyes and weapons glows. It's pretty easy. All I did here was feather the sword tip, then do a smaller feather inside with blue to give it that glow look. I used a lighting effect to give it that Voltron-esque feeling of right after "...and I'll form the head!"



Some clean up and cropping and you get a decent representation of a giant robot combiner just chillen in the city on a Saturday night.

[Zherbus]

Colored Hue Effects (in GIMP), as requested.

Ok, as I always do, I painstakenly trim the backgrounds from my figures.



I drop the background in and move it to fit. Some effects sit on the background layer, the figures layer, or another transparent layer.



Now find the Super Nova effect in GIMP. Make sure you are in the correct layer first. In this case, I'm doing it on the figures layer just for the light to look better.



Select your central point. In this case, Sunstreakers firearm barrel.



Adjust the spokes and random hue sliders until you get the right sizing and coloration that you desire.



Apply it and check it out for awkwardness in the main image view.



Clean up your edges and do other effects like eyes and there you go.

[DilaZirK]

Upon request, dust/smoke/cloud FX as seen in Fun-ness, using Photoshop.

Now in dead simple (aka lazy) format:
(Pictures are linked as its size will stretch forum)
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...irK00/001a.jpg
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...ZirK00/002.jpg
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...ZirK00/004.jpg
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...ZirK00/005.jpg
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...ZirK00/006.jpg
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...ZirK00/007.jpg

[Sage o' G-fruit]

Alright, I'm going to teach you guys how to do the missile effect I did in my comic thread. Going to have to click the little black bar if you want to see what you need to do.

First, we'll start here with the picture raw.



Nice, huh? Make sure you pose them as if the figure is getting hit by the missile. Now, we zoom in on the missile.



We're then going to the paths tool, and trace the missle's outline. It's OK that some of the missile is in it's launcher. The hit enter to select the missile.



Got it now, eh? Now copy the selection, and it will appear as a brush.



From here, you've got two options. Have a large amount of missiles hit the foe, which you can do by holding down the missile brush and tracing a path. You get something like this:



Or, you can place a copy of the missile where you want the missile to hit, and then add a smoke effect, like Coolhand showed us in his fire effect tutorial, or Chaos' smoke effect tutorial.





Once you're all finished messing around with the smoke, if you want, add some sparks, then blur them, to show that the missile had an effect.




That's my lazy missile technique. Next time, I'll show you how to bring back a Transformer from the dead.

[Chaos Incarnate]

Photoshop Index

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Weapon Materialization Effect

Video tutorial! \o/

YouTube - Weapon Trace Effect