How to Cheat in Photoshop

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Posted on 06/09/13 07:47:04 AM

joeysala
Perfect Palmist
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Re: Challenge 469: The museum floor

This is one of the hardest ones for me - almost gave up on it. I think what made it so difficult is the distortion of the large statue.......so I "straightened" it out, and that seemed to make a big difference. Steve, I hope you show us what your solution would be???

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Posted on 06/09/13 08:08:16 AM

Steve Caplin
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Re: Challenge 469: The museum floor

First to polish the floor this week was GKB - and what a highly polished floor it is, too. THe reflections are very artfully constructed, those bases fitting neatly onto the columns, and I like the way you've placed the floor polisher to cover up the tricky business of reflecting the statue on the right. There's a small problem with your angles: where a column appears to be leaning backwards, you've made the reflection lean backwards as well, since you've flipped it vertically. But the columns are truly vertical, in the real world: so the line needs to translate directly through the floor in a straight line:

I like Ant Snell's subtle marble - but don’t make the reflected columns shorter than the originals! A good classical burglar, as well, although perhaps his torch beam could do with a little softening. And, last time I looked, laser beams tended to be red...

An impressive image from ahmedalij, who has moved all the sculptures to make a vast mythical landscape - the scale given by that tiny ship floating amongst the statues. A fantastic idea, well executed. Good work.

A subtle floor from Frank, with just the suggestion of a shine, neatly avoiding the tricky issue of the reflection of the statue on the right. If the columns are reflecting a couple of feet down into the floor, though, surely the walls - and especially that white marble skirting board - should reflect an equal distance? And do you think the woman is perhaps just a little low in the scene?

I like the exuberance of maricliff's entry, with paint covering not just the floor but splashed over the walls and statues as well. Now that's one way of not having to deal with reflections! And I see you're running into trouble in the second entry... the key to doing this is to disassemble the parts of the columns and then drag without flipping vertically, as described in the spread Complex reflections in chapter 9 of the book.

A strong entry from Garfield72, with well reflected columns. The sculptures are particularly tricky: as you found out from the one on the right, you can't just flip them vertically. And don't make them too short, as you have with the middle one! The solution is often to cheat - as GKB did, by placing the floor polisher to cover up that awkward problem on the right.

A homage to Night at the Museum from Ben Boardman, with a collection of historical characters surrounding Ben Stiller. And what good reflections in the background: a great new floor surface, and even the tricky sculpture on the far right has a convincing reflection. But why have you made its plinth so short?

A new set of sculptures from tooquilos, each neatly spotlit. I like the intricacy of Medusa's hair! I enjoyed the animated version, with a great audio counterpart between the Handel soundtrack that switches to Yakkity Sax when the guard isn't watching... brilliant, so cleverly done! And good to see a Fullmontage character as the guard!

A fine new floor from Ben Mills, with a great wood grain and polish. Why are your reflected columns tapering away like that? Imagine if they showed that kind of perspective diminishment: as the columns got smaller, then the space between them would get larger, and that doesn't really make sense. Otherwise good!

Very strong work from brewell, with good reflections of the columns on the left. But beware of tapering the central column, or of shortening that one and the tricky one on the right: the reflections should be as long as the originals.

I like the way the statues appear one by one in James's entry - and particularly good work patching the background to remove them all for the first frame. A couple of slightly skewed angles on the plinth decoration, particularly the top (bottom) of the one on the far right. Incidentally, you know you can embed images from your site here directly, rather than just linking to the whole page?

I liked Josephine Harvatt's tribute to David Frost, the veteran British broadcaster who died this week. And what a great idea to give the three statues on the left the voices of Cleese, Barker and Corbett - now if only you'd turned their heads to marble as well...

A wealth of new texture from Mariner, who has really gone to town on the marble. Well executed reflections in that parquet floor, too. Not sure about the lime green skirting board!

As Vibeke found, this really was a tricky Challenge. The secret here is to break the background into multiple parts as you reflect it, so you can treat each column and statue separately.

I was very taken with Linda Eckert's chandelier, which adds a certain sparkle to the proceedings - although I'm not sure the pink floor would get the curators' approval. Good angles on the reflections, but why have you made them all so short? Reflections need to be as long as the originals!

A strong entry from Deborah Morley, with good angles on the plinths and a neatly rebuilt plinth on the right - although the reflected top could be slanted down a little more to match the angle of the original (follow the vanishing point). As you say, a tricky one!

When in doubt, call in the troops... that's michael sinclair's customary response to a Friday Challenge, and here's Napoleon to the rescue once more. I know he was short, but were all his men dwarves as well? Surely the statues are life size?

This was a difficult technical challenge, as you discovered. But it's good to give those brain cells a thorough workout every now and again.

Posted on 06/09/13 08:24:47 AM

josephine harvatt
Gag Gadgeteer
Posts: 2603

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Re: Challenge 469: The museum floor

Ha! I never thought of that!

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Posted on 06/09/13 08:36:05 AM

Ben Boardman
Printing Pro
Posts: 646

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Re: Challenge 469: The museum floor

Whoops - left a layer switched off. Great challenge Steve!

Posted on 06/09/13 08:58:04 AM

GKB
Magical Montagist
Posts: 4033

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Re: Challenge 469: The museum floor

Thanks Steve.

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Posted on 06/09/13 09:27:53 AM

james
Surreal Spoofer
Posts: 1194

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Re: Challenge 469: The museum floor

Thank you Steve. Removing the image from the page is beyond my knowledge. I agree it would be better.

Posted on 06/09/13 10:15:22 AM

joeysala
Perfect Palmist
Posts: 604

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Re: Challenge 469: The museum floor

ooops Steve, you missed mine........

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Posted on 06/09/13 10:39:47 AM

brewell
Pixel Pentagrammarian
Posts: 752

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Re: Challenge 469: The museum floor

I started on the right and erased so many times I almost wore a hole in my screen. By the time I got to the fourth statue, I had a technique. Thanks for clearing up the problem of how long a reflection should be.

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Posted on 06/09/13 12:34:25 PM

Steve Caplin
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Re: Challenge 469: The museum floor

And I forgot to add:

Very true reflections from joeysala, although the plinth on the right does seem just a little short. I think adding some additional texture to the floor, such as a faint marble or wood, would help it to look less artificial.

Sorry for the omission!

Posted on 06/09/13 12:37:59 PM

Steve Caplin
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Posts: 7052

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Re: Challenge 469: The museum floor

james wrote:
Thank you Steve. Removing the image from the page is beyond my knowledge. I agree it would be better.

All you do is right click or control-click on the image on your own website to copy the address, then type (img: followed by the image address,
followed by a closing bracket ). You have to use square brackets rather than curved ones, but I can't show them here or the forum would interpret them as a command.

So you type this:

(img://jabus-ps.me.uk/museumfloor2.gif)