How to Cheat in Photoshop

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Posted on 05/01/06 10:09:57 AM

maiden
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Re: Contest 77: Modding Lexus' PC

Haha mikewheatie, the only problem with that computer is that you'd never leave it - well except to go to the bathroom

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Posted on 05/01/06 9:09:56 PM

chris
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Re: Contest 77: Modding Lexus' PC

Oh dear I used the term masterpiece at the beggining of the thread didn't I? Oh well not quite but I'm fairly happy with it. G.E Sutton and Maiden hope you don't mind but I sneaked a couple of your images from previous challenges as I thought they were extemely good. Right enough waffle so below is my weeks labours.

Posted on 05/01/06 9:11:57 PM

chris
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Re: Contest 77: Modding Lexus' PC

Posted on 05/01/06 10:05:39 PM

mikewheatie
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Posts: 8

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Re: Contest 77: Modding Lexus' PC

Man, forget toasters and coffee when you have a whole server rack in your office! Nicely done Chris. Great lighting, and the colors work well together.

P.S. I notice your Sun workstation is running XP. Must be the AMD 64 bit Opteron Sun has been sticking in their boxes. If only Adobe would release Photoshop for Solaris...

Posted on 05/01/06 10:12:27 PM

chris
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Posts: 138

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Re: Contest 77: Modding Lexus' PC

Ah i was hoping no one would notice that, but yes must be one of the new opteron blades. Yeah wouldn't it be nice to have a server rack in the office? Don't think the missus would be to happy. A Wacom Cintiq wouldn't go a miss either. In fact come to think of it my own office would be nice.

Posted on 05/01/06 10:34:40 PM

chris
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Posts: 138

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Re: Contest 77: Modding Lexus' PC

Just a thought though, in the earlier 3d modeled films (Toy Story etc) the animation and images were indeed rendered on powerfull Sun server systems. Just wondered if any happened to know what graphic apps were used if not especially written. The ironic thing is that at the time the MD of Nvidia announced that within ten years it would be able to be done on pc's, to which the films design team scoffed and sniggered. And yet the latest batch of 3d animated films are indeed rendered on pc's, sorry all you Mac'ers out there. Blimey being a Sun engineer I may be out of a job soon

Posted on 05/01/06 11:07:35 PM

trinityofone
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Re: Contest 77: Modding Lexus' PC

That's not far fetched at all. The original series of Babylon 5 was created on (rather a lot of) Amigas using an early version of Lightwave. The graphic capability is certainly present in PCs and Macs, it's time that causes the problem. From memory of a behind the scenes programme, each frame of animation for Toy Story took 4 hours to render. Admittedly, that was a few years ago but it'd still take a while, even on a Quad Mac.

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Posted on 06/01/06 03:06:13 AM

G. E. Sutton
Visual Virtuoso
Posts: 35

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Re: Contest 77: Modding Lexus' PC

Well I am afraid that I have an advantage over most of you. Working in the IT industry, I know a lot of hardware hackers to pump for tips on modding the PC (they call it "pimping" the PC here in the States).

After asking them about the ultimate graphic artist's setup, I give you the following:

The PC itself is over clocked and bulging with RAM; for extas, we have a 21" Monitor (even bigger in metric I bet), an external RAID array, wireless hub, optical mouse, graphics tablet, and I even through in an iPod.

They also said a should throw in a large power conditioner to protect everything (not sure why).

Enjoy Lexus!

Click here for the high res version.

Posted on 06/01/06 03:33:22 AM

G. E. Sutton
Visual Virtuoso
Posts: 35

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Re: Contest 77: Modding Lexus' PC

Chris I am flattered; thank you and nice workstation. I do question the ergonomics of that keyboard position though

Posted on 06/01/06 08:19:01 AM

chris
Photo Parodist
Posts: 138

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Re: Contest 77: Modding Lexus' PC

lol great image G.E Sutton, love the monitor! hehe!

"I do question the ergonomics of that keyboard position though"

Ah perhaps that explains my wrist sprain at least thats my excuse

Posted on 06/01/06 09:43:24 AM

Steve Caplin
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Posts: 7021

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Re: Contest 77: Modding Lexus' PC

Happy new year, everyone. Great to come back after the break and find so much activity on the forum!

Lexus got in first this week, with a great parody of the Maplins site - maybe I should adopt that as my logo! But it's certainly a funky modded PC, although of course if you used a Mac it would be gorgeous to start with. A few perspective issues on the big picture, and the shadow from the CD tray should be going at more of an angle - otherwise, a great job. And I love the mouse.

A fantastic piece of work from maiden, and as ever it's the technique of hiding montaged elements behind real objects in the scene - the building, and especially the tree - that really makes this one work. The tonal range is just right, although there's a light awkwardness of placing where the leg goes straight into the head of the man in the foreground - but we can forgive that for a good gag!

Some neat wood panelling in WilliamGallagher's entry, with good shading on the side of the tower. Getting the wood grain to follow the angles of the perspective is a good idea, but I wonder if the grain on the monitor sides shouldn't be going the other way. Now, how would you distort the wood texture to wrap around the mouse as well?

Fine flames from Rs, with a very neatly lifted side panel and great shading throughout. I'd like to have seen a little more destruction here: perhaps the flames could be leaping out of the CD cover and floppy disk slot, as well. Overall, though, a great entry!

Is that a photograph of your own setup, mguyer? serious speakers! Still, interesting to see that you're left handed. Can't you get keyboards with the number pad on the left, as well? Hmm… I can feel another Friday Challenge bubbling through…

An expert piece of destruction from Tom, with a PC that's bursting into flames all over the place. Great distortion on the front of the tower, the keyboard, and especially the top left corner of the monitor - and, as you know, I'm a real sucker for firework spark effects. Best of all here is the lighting, with a realistic glow from the monitor and a thoroughly convincing shadow behind. Combined with the wispy smoke and the subtle staining, this is really a great piece of work! It's really worth checking out Tom's home page to see more fantastic montages.

A great first Challenge entry from Whaler, who's taken the Lexus moniker to a new level. A dynamic, evocative image with a really fresh approach - nice work! And welcome to the forum!

And what a fantastic gag in mikewheatie's first Challenge entry. How to eat in Photoshop is a great title, with some great PC modding to match. A couple of perspective issues here: the coffee cup is at a slightly dodgy angle, and I feel the toast should be popping out in line with the tower, rather than at an upwards angle - but these are minor criticisms of what is overall a really cute montage. Just one more comment: watch those inconsistent shadows!

There's a great, moody feel to chris's entry, in a hand-built room (love the window!) with an interesting new ergonomic approach to computing. Excellent lighting, and a great composition! The keyboard stand is the perfect solution to where you put the keyboard when using a tablet screen - does Wacom know about this? Seems they could do with one of those to accompany their Cintiq tablets!

Beautiful work from G. E. Sutton, who continues to give us a barrel full of ideas in each montage. Can you spot all the gags in here? There's the cuneiform tablet, complete with stylus; the 'overclocked' (ha ha) PC with extra RAM; the RAID array; the optical mouse; the hub; the eye pod; the monitor lizard… fantastic! What a fabulous collection of ideas! Love it! And what a great way to end this week's Challenge.

Posted on 06/01/06 10:26:30 AM

chris
Photo Parodist
Posts: 138

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Re: Contest 77: Modding Lexus' PC

Happy new year to you Steve. Phew I bet your glad to get out of that Santas outfit?. Thanks for the comments, I have to say I'm chuffed to bits as you've not pointed out any errors, so I guess I got it all right

As for the keyboard solution I might write to Wacom and make the suggestion, maybe just maybe I'll get a free Cintiq out of it

Posted on 07/01/06 00:10:50 AM

Tom
Texture Technologist
Posts: 401

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