| » Forum Index » The Friday Challenge » Topic: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride |
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Posted on 17/09/26 1:01:38 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3821 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
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Posted on 17/09/26 2:04:29 PM |
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dwindt
Realism Realiser Posts: 1229 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
Lol Loyd. Hate to think of what a service would be like there. _________________ The grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there is more $hit there. |
Posted on 17/09/26 2:11:16 PM |
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dwindt
Realism Realiser Posts: 1229 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
Thanks David and Loyd. I see my many flies turned into flying debris. I was too aggressive on the texture emboss. Does anybody still use that technique? I use it on most of my images. One of the many useful tips from Steve. You ' define pattern' and use the image to emboss with 'texture.' It embosses the image texture to. Useful trick. Thanks Steve. Been using it for years. _________________ The grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there is more $hit there. |
Posted on 17/09/26 5:16:18 PM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3454 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
This particular St Mick has wings. Why does he need a sleigh? According to Wikipedia: In Roman Catholicism, Saint Michael has four distinct roles. First, he is the Enemy of Satan and the fallen angels. He defeated Satan and ejected him from Paradise and will achieve victory at the hour of the final battle with Satan. Secondly, he is the Christian angel of death: at the hour of death, Saint Michael descends and gives each person the chance to redeem oneself before passing. Saint Michael's third role is weighing peoples' merits (hence the saint is often depicted holding scales) on Judgment Day. And finally, Saint Michael is the Guardian of the Church. I could have spent many more hours on this crazy image but I was out of time.  |
Posted on 18/09/26 08:24:00 AM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6619 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
Yes. So much so I have created an action that creates the clipped duplicate Overlay emboss layer and opens the emboss dialogue all in one click. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 18/09/26 08:45:02 AM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6619 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
Lots of lovely detail here Michael. There's a wonderful crisp clear morning feeling to it. Here's one really picky detail. This is one of those situations where you have strong sunlight shadows on a pale neutral surface. It is a situation where shadows have a marked blue tint, (snow is the most extreme). We all of us are accustomed to create our shadows by using black in multiply mode and adjusting transparency. I do it almost all the time but, in these situations, it's better to fill the shadow with 50% grey in multiply mode and use a hue/saturation layer to colourise this to match the existing natural shadows. The rest is just impeccable including the very difficult shadow shapes. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 18/09/26 08:50:34 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7237 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
First to take to the skies this week was lwc, whose sleigh is pulled by a… gryphon? And there’s a more traditional St Michael standing in the back. I like the swirling clouds, and the angle of the claws. It fits well in the back of that truck, although the dog running in front of it is rather too square-on to the camera. It’s cute in the back of the toy tractor – is there something odd about that girl’s face? The shading looks wrong. The animated dragons work well, the two layers of cloud giving a real sense of depth. Of course, we had to have Minions, although I didn’t expect them to be ecclesiastical. An aerial battle from dwindt, with the sleigh being attached by a rather fine dragon. Does the horse have wings? It’s hard to see, although it could have a malfunctioning Elvis wig. Surely you didn’t model the sleigh, though – Rotate Object, perhaps? The celestial battle with the two temples is an astonishing piece of work, full of drama, action and detail. My only small criticism: one temple would have been enough. The animation test is really good – finish it! The labyrinth version is very fine, the minotaur just visible in the shadows, and the three-headed dogs look suitably aggressive. The hole in the ceiling lets the light in perfectly. Tremendous. A distinctly Chinese dragon from Ben Boardman, perfectly in harness (and a splendid harness it is, too). Tom Cruise fits really well. The angles are exactly right, and you’ve unified the tones of the sleigh and dragon perfectly.. I like replacing the sword with a whip. And the dragon food is a nice detail. That’s very odd snow, of course, but being Australian you’ve probably never seen the real thing. The ski slope is remarkable, with its splendid flag. Is that a real slope? With all those lanterns? Hard to believe. Splendid images, Ben, as always. A helmeted St Michael from DavidMac, now carrying the slain dragon, his sleigh pulled by a quartet of brooches. The image seems rather static, though; could it all be a question of angles? 
There’s fun in the Green Dragon entry, with its toy police – influenced by the black and yellow crime scene tape, no doubt. And there’s St Michael, who really needs a beer glass in that hand. That’s a very American street sign for a very English pub! Has St Michael turned witch hunter? An intriguing image from Mariner, with a couple of bronze dogs (and like St Michael, I always carry a spare dog in the boot). I expect rebuilding the sleigh from a different angle must have taken a lot off time, but the results are impressive. One point: given the strong visible light source, the shading on St Michael’s head doesn’t quite work. |
Posted on 18/09/26 09:26:35 AM |
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Ben Boardman
Printing Pro Posts: 880 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
Is that a real slope? Nordic Ski Ishpeming, Michigan. I originally thought it was in Germany. I un-modified the lighting |
Posted on 18/09/26 09:31:43 AM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3454 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
David, in the original photograph the tree has a shadow which seem to me to be light grey in colour. My shadows are black with the blend mode 'Average' which works well nine tiimes out of ten (sometimes needs a little fading). I did have some trouble with the shadows, it's true, because it was very difficult (for me) to guess what their their shape should be. |
Posted on 18/09/26 09:34:48 AM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3454 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
Thanks Steve, I ran out of time. |
Posted on 18/09/26 4:17:44 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3821 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
Agreed, but it's the only fully animated running dog that I have. Thanks! |
Posted on 18/09/26 9:35:00 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6619 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
Yes it could! That's a huge improvement Steve! That must have taken quite a lot of work on your part ..... thank you!!.
In the twenty five years since I left England much has changed. Signage styles, I think, have undergone huge modernisation. I have absolutely no idea what the sign should really look like nowadays. I went for something that seemed neutral. Thank you Steve and thank you Gordon for the intriguing original. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 18/09/26 10:13:07 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6619 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
As I said in my original comment I think you have done a really good job with the shape, and that's difficult!!! My comment was purely with the colour. When the ground is pale and neutral and the sky is a strong blue, the shadows, lit by the reflection from the blue sky also become distinctively blue tinged instead of neutral grey. You can see this clearly here in the natural shadow. It's picky of me but I think it helps to try and match created shadows with the natural shadows. It's not a criticism, just an observation, because shadow colour is something that trips us all up from time to time. 
 _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 21/09/26 5:07:07 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6619 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1122: The sleigh ride
Removed. Silly mistake. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
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