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Posted on 28/10/26 8:57:17 PM |
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dwindt
Realism Realiser Posts: 1220 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
Compliments of MinimaxH3 r2v; a very long prompt, lots of trial and error and an afternoon splicing clips together with multiple clips and sound files in Capcut. _________________ The grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there is more $hit there. |
Posted on 28/10/26 9:36:02 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6608 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
Two prompt driven apps. You've managed to talk them both into excellent first class results but, somehow, I found the original still image more compelling and far stronger - it left more unstated ........ and that was its strength. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 28/10/26 10:47:13 PM |
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dwindt
Realism Realiser Posts: 1220 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
Thanks David. I've got the free version of Capcut so use it only for splicing of clips and adding sound or font. Minimax in Comfyui local, is where all the prompting happens. _________________ The grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there is more $hit there. |
Posted on 29/10/26 4:24:41 PM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3453 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
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Posted on 29/10/26 6:30:29 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6608 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
I could pick a few little holes in this technically Michael, but I'm not going to because there's something very compelling about it. Obviously everything is dominated by the flawlessly androgynous face with its almost luminescent green eyes. I'm not sure if it's strangely beautiful or beautifully strange. Now I'm going to take a wild guess ...... 
Andrew de Leon - America’s Got Talent 2012 _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 29/10/26 9:38:45 PM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3453 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
I am damned if I can remember, David. She has a beautiful face I found on the net a couple of years ageo and always like to see again. "Strangely beautiful" or "beautifully strange" can be wways of saying "spooky". |
Posted on 30/10/26 08:31:17 AM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3453 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
Here is the original. I think she models clothes. 
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Posted on 30/10/26 09:38:59 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7237 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
First to brave the graveyard this week was lwc, with a grisly subhuman creature. Where did you find such a thing? The jaw motion is particularly impressive. The animated zombie is suitably ghoulish. I don’t think Waldo (Wally, in the UK) has ever been quite so visible, even if he has turned into a zombie. I like your clutch of grave robbers, with some splendid lighting from that lantern. What I don’t see, though, is the grave they’ve supposedly dug. Plenty going on in the slideshow; the one with all the hands is my favourite. It’s been a long time since I read Tales from the Crypt, so thanks for bringing back a slice of my childhood. Very entertaining. I have a thing about spiders, it gave me the creeps. But the zombie Moomins really cheered me up! A spectral camera from Ben Boardman, capturing invisible ghosts – and dancing ghosts, at that. I really like the highlights on the gravestones, and their shadows, but what is the light source? Given the angles of the shadows it would have to be a lamp placed behind the camera. Relight is very good! The lighting is indeed better in the second version, especially on the man. A good improvement. I like Ant Snell’s satire on emergency supplies, but your man sitting on the log is very much out of step with the background. At the very least, rotate and enlarge him – and if you’ve downloaded the latest Photoshop beta try Relight. Skeletal exuberance from GKB in a Ukraine-themed cemetery. I couldn’t quite read the text on the gravestone, does it explain the flaming grave? A touch of smudge on the nearside edge would make it look more like grass. Some glorious grave robbers from DavidMac, watched over by their patron leaning idle against a gravestone. Beautiful lighting, although wouldn’t bats be more appropriate than birds? Very atmospheric. Of course, I should have realised it was the Grateful Dead; but you have to admit that the Macs by Graves album would have been even more appropriate, coming from you. I assume the dragon entry is a reference to Game Of Thrones, so is that the Hand of the King in the shroud? Very pretty lighting. A magnificent rebuilt church from dwindt, perfectly matching the architecture of the ruin. This must have taken a while to put together! It’s a terrific piece of work. The first burial is expertly realised, with a fine cast of clerics and assorted mourners. Where did you find all these people? The overgrown grass image is indeed appealing, although as usual ChatGPT has taken it upon itself to tinker with other areas of the image. Its stonework is good, but the whole image now has an HDR feel that’s rather overwhelming. Too much detail, not enough focus! I really like the torch-wielding skeleton, dragging his chains behind him. The animated version is very fine: is the figure 3D modelled? It works really well. Great visual effects and soundtrack. No idea what comfyui is, I’ll have to check it out. A mischievous entry from Mariner, based on a dreadful pun – but a cute image. The tonsure on the putting monk looks a little like a hole in his head, and realistically I think they were further back. The monk wielding the flag seems to have no shading on the top half of his habit, is that intentional? I see you resisted the temptation to rebuild the church. A very atmospheric emo witch, complete with pointy hat and star-spangled pyjamas. A very nicely composed image, the dogs neatly integrated by placing them partly behind her. The lighting on her face and the trees needs a bit of attention, but overall I like this. Much spookiness from Frank, with a fun-packed cemetery that’s really come to life (or, rather, death). I counted eleven ghouls in this image, and can’t help thinking it would have been stronger if they were all in the same style. The topless woman (or is that just my imagination?) dragging the two bodies looks more like a statue than a ghost. A jump into classical mythology from tooquilos, with a red-eyed Cerberus snarling angrily (although with such a huge stack of bones he should be happier). Just the single-headed beast in the animated version, a truly spooky video until the comedy pumpkin-head rises out of his grave. Fabulous soundtrack! |
Posted on 30/10/26 10:04:47 AM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6608 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
The resemblance between her and the young Goth man I posted is truly uncanny. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 30/10/26 10:07:01 AM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 4233 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
Sorry Steve the resolution is too low to read the headstone properly: it says ‘HERE LIES Владимир Владимирович Путин.’ ; Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Nice work everyone. _________________ Why is it that all the contestants in the ‘Miss Universe’ contest are all from Earth? |
Posted on 30/10/26 10:09:29 AM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3453 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
Thanks, Steve. Yes, my monks look a bit odd, don't they? I had run out of ideas at this point. On starting the night time entry I realized its potential and did my best. Those are wolves there Steve, not dogs. As for the witch, it is not easy, as I am sure you know, to create a moonlit human body from scratch, but I think I did OK. Spookiness was my aim and I succeeded in that. |
Posted on 30/10/26 10:35:34 AM |
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dwindt
Realism Realiser Posts: 1220 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
Thank you, Steve. The re-build of the church was a challenge. You can deliver on what you see but the filling in requires imagination. Once I'd completed the first burial image and wanted to see what ai would produce from my image, I feed it through Qwen image describer. I do this to get a description of the scene so I can manipulate it for a prompt for Flux dev. Within Qwen's description was the similarity to the gothic style of St Mary's church. Quite remarkable that it recognised this from my build. This made me more comfortable that I was on the right track...lol. The first burial characters where part of a medieval painting that I stumbled upon and used those characters to extend the crowd more, with a few tweaks. The monk is a genesis8 character and the skeleton a rigged skeleton for genesis8. Comfyui is a platform that you can install on your pc. You can then run most of the other packages privately on your own system. Paid packages included. I use the many useful and powerful free packages. As you know, PS thrives on any images, good or bad. Its up to the designer to align the shadows, light, reflection, tone and the many other items that marry an image together. I began using 3D for my PS images because the light and shadows were more accurate. Match this to my PS background and with less tweaking than before, I had a more convincing item to blend into my PS scene. I learnt that you can manipulate the light direction in Sketchfab to. Now there's ai that I can use. Bring them on. It's only improving my PS work. So yes, I have so many tools at my disposal, I would be a fool not to use them and I use a multitude of techniques now to complete an image. Effective - yes. Easy - if it was, everybody would be doing it but it's an advantage to stick with the tides. Hopefully I can continue to learn new trick until it becomes overwhelming. _________________ The grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there is more $hit there. |
Posted on 30/10/26 10:45:30 AM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6608 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
It sounds a bit odd for such an image, but I was going for a pragmatic absolute realism. I did start with bats but I felt it was taking me a it too far towards fantasy.
Yes very smart ...... an extremely clever connection ...... and one I had never heard of!
Right on all counts, with Deanerys in the foreground. Both images were tailor made for my signature photoshop backlighting (which was also always the case in reality with my physical lighting). I have started playing with Relight Layer. I am reluctantly obliged to admit that it is quite extraordinary, however miffed I might be at having fifty years of acquired skills and experience replaced by a 'thng'. However it's not a one click solution and I can see it getting very insensitively used. It's perfect for single portraits or dominant objects but in complex images it will need separation of elements on to multiple Relight Layers which will get costly. The image quality gets softened and bit degraded but that's just technical and will undoubtedly quickly improve. For now, you can sharpen with Topaz (more credits). In the right hands it will open a whole new horizon. I'm going to have a proper play with it next week. On re-readng I should point out that the last two sentences are not supposed to be connected. Ooooops! _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 30/10/26 4:41:18 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3816 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
An image from a 'ghoul' search. Sorry about so many, I always get carried away at Halloween. Thanks Steve. |
Posted on 01/11/26 11:36:47 PM |
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Frank
Eager Beaver Posts: 1899 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1128: Spooky time
Thanks Steve, not your imagination , that one is a statue. |
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