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  • Subject: Luke, I like my steaks medium rare.
Subject: Luke, I like my steaks medium rare.

Xbox Live Gamertag: RogueWolf I77V (Halo 2, Halo 3)
Xbox Connect Gamertag: RogueWolf_I77V (Halo, Halo 2)
Xfire Gamertag: roguewolfi77v (Halo PC)

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g259/7thACRogueWolf/BungieD ayGreg.jpg

7/7/11 We're coming for you Bungie!


I am a student starting to work with Photoshop and showing some support for Bungie; any suggestions for improving effects/technique are welcome.

Total time spent on photo: 10 min

[Edited on 07.04.2011 4:04 PM PDT]

  • 07.04.2011 4:02 PM PDT

The tide is turning, brothers! Let us take our kingdom back!

Oh, snap. I'd watch out if I were Bungie.

  • 07.05.2011 2:36 AM PDT

How I got mine: Frank Helsing

As a graphic designer and VFX enthusiast, I would say that minor effects like adding fire to images is a great way to get familiar with tools and techniques. One thing you can do to improve the overall believability of the effect is use lighting and color correction to really sell it. For example, you could lower the brightness of the room to really make your flame "pop" and give everything a slight blue tint. Colored light sources always cast a bit of their color on whatever they illuminate. Also, things like the plasma rifle that are reflective could use a "hot spot" or an area of intense lighting to help sell the effect that there is indeed a bright blue flame on your head that is being reflected on the rifle material. Overall though nice work. Keep it up.

  • 07.05.2011 3:50 AM PDT

Let's be honest, it could be a lot worse.

On behalf of the OP, Prepared to get steaked Bungie!

  • 07.05.2011 9:41 AM PDT

Xbox Live Gamertag: RogueWolf I77V (Halo 2, Halo 3)
Xbox Connect Gamertag: RogueWolf_I77V (Halo, Halo 2)
Xfire Gamertag: roguewolfi77v (Halo PC)


Posted by: x Awal x
As a graphic designer and VFX enthusiast, I would say that minor effects like adding fire to images is a great way to get familiar with tools and techniques. One thing you can do to improve the overall believability of the effect is use lighting and color correction to really sell it. For example, you could lower the brightness of the room to really make your flame "pop" and give everything a slight blue tint. Colored light sources always cast a bit of their color on whatever they illuminate. Also, things like the plasma rifle that are reflective could use a "hot spot" or an area of intense lighting to help sell the effect that there is indeed a bright blue flame on your head that is being reflected on the rifle material. Overall though nice work. Keep it up.


Thanks for the great input. I actually had that in mind, but I was in a rush lol. Any tool suggestions for getting a nice lighting effect?

  • 07.06.2011 12:40 AM PDT

How I got mine: Frank Helsing


Posted by: RogueWolf I77V
Thanks for the great input. I actually had that in mind, but I was in a rush lol. Any tool suggestions for getting a nice lighting effect?


I recommend using a combination of tools overall. I am not sure how extensive your knowledge of Photoshop is but I would use a combination of Gradients, Layer Masks, Air Brushing, and Blending modes. Blending modes are a very powerful tool if you can master their use.

For example, Blending modes are broken up into sections and in each section their is a blending mode that sort of represents that section the best. These main blending modes are; Multiply, Screen, and Overlay. In Multiply, anything that is black will appear transparent but anything that is white will be opaque. For Screen it's the opposite. Anything black is transparent and anything white is opaque. Overlay is sort of a combination of both. It makes blacks darker and whites brighter but anything that is 50% gray will be transparent.

Knowing this, you can use a technique I use frequently while retouching images. I make a new layer on top and fill it with 50% gray [Edit>Fill]. Then, I set the blending mode to Overlay to make it transparent. Next, I use the Burn and Dodge Tool to add shading/highights to the image below. Since the shading layer is transparent you can see exactly where on the image below you want your shading/highlights. This method is known as a "Non-Destructive" method.

Non-Destructive methods of editing are preferred because there is no change to your original image. For example, if I changed my mind and didn't want the shading on my image I can simply turn off the shading layer or delete it and I still have my original image intact versus painting shading directly on the original image, which is destructive.

Hope some of that made sense to you lol, it's always difficult understanding stuff like this when you can't see what I'm talking about.

Also, I recommend looking up Scott Kelby. He's the president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and is the best selling Photoshop Tutorial author for his "Down & Dirty" Photoshop books. I have every single one of his books and I have to say they are all awesome. I learned a ton from his books.
Hope this helps with your endeavors. Keep 'Shopping my friend!

[Edited on 07.06.2011 4:21 AM PDT]

  • 07.06.2011 4:18 AM PDT