My 1st photochop -- advice on editing the wheels?

[Kenny C]

My brother just got PS CS2, so he gave me his copy of PS 7. I bought this book called The Photoshoo 7 WOW! Book, and it has lots good tutorials in it. Anyways< I think I did ok for this being my 1st time to ever use PS. Here is a before and after. Any tips or advice?

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e352/KDCarrollJR/beforeandafter.jpg

Kenny

[CamaroGuy87132]

doesnt look too bad for a first time.. the tires could use some work

[Chuggs]

Definitely not bad for a first chop :cool: Here are a few tips to help get you going.


If you are using the eraser tool along a straight edge, click once at one end of the run and then hold the shift key as you click at the opposite end of the run. This will erase a straight line between the two points. If you zoom in, you can use a bunch of short lengths to erase around a radiused edge like your wheels. The same technique also works for the paintbrush and a few other tools.
It's tedious, but here's a pretty effective way of making your wheels look right. First, make a duplicate layer for both the front and rear wheels that are currently on the truck. Turn off the background layer and erase the excess from the new layers so that you only have the wheels themselves. Set the transparency of the front wheel layer to 50%, then right click and go to free transform. Up at the top of the workspace, increase the height and width percentages proportionally (ie, if the existing are 20's and you want 22's, set both height and width to 110%.) Repeat for the rear layer. Now, two copies of the new wheel on separate layers between the background and your resized original wheel layers. Erase the background of the new wheels. Right click on the new front wheel layer, free transform and click and drag the grip points to match the resized wheel. If need be, you can right click again to distort or skew if the wheel angle is off. Repeat for the rear wheel, then turn off the duplicate layers you made of the original wheels and you're set. :cool:


If you have any particular questions, feel free to post up.

[Kenny C]

Thanks for info Chugg. I am gonna have to read and practice...alot. I did the best I could with the tires using clone stamp tool. Are there any good books or tutorial type programs that you would recommend?
Kenny

[Chuggs]

The only tutorials that I've dealt with firsthand are those in The Photoshop Bible (http://www.digimods.co.uk/tutorials/tutorials.htm) (<<Clickable link) Everything else that I've picked up was either by asking others or through lots of trial and error.

[Kenny C]

The only tutorials that I've dealt with firsthand are those in The Photoshop Bible (http://www.digimods.co.uk/tutorials/tutorials.htm) (<<Clickable link) Everything else that I've picked up was either by asking others or through lots of trial and error.

Thanks for the link, that site is awesome!
Kenny

[Kenny C]

My brother just got PS CS2, so he gave me his copy of PS 7. I bought this book called The Photoshoo 7 WOW! Book, and it has lots good tutorials in it. Anyways< I think I did ok for this being my 1st time to ever use PS. Here is a before and after. Any tips or advice?

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e352/KDCarrollJR/beforeandafter.jpg

Kenny

Here is my second attempt, perfect by no means...but I think it looks better.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e352/KDCarrollJR/ongoingtruckmodscopy.jpg

Kenny

[CamaroGuy87132]

looks much better straighter bottom and tires are rounded better.. but there is somethin up with the back roll pan or fender.. still looks good and much better :D

[Kenny C]

Here is my third attempt...the wheels still do not look right to me. I enlarged them to better fill the wheel wells.

Original
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e352/KDCarrollJR/P3060004.jpg

Photoshop
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e352/KDCarrollJR/baggedbodydropped.jpg

Thanks again for link Chugg. As you can see it helped.
Kenny

[Chuggs]

Here is my third attempt...the wheels still do not look right to me. I enlarged them to better fill the wheel wells.

Original
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e352/KDCarrollJR/P3060004.jpg

Photoshop
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e352/KDCarrollJR/baggedbodydropped.jpg

Thanks again for link Chugg. As you can see it helped.
Kenny


No problem, man. I think I see why your wheels don't look right. For one, you used the resized front wheel for both the front and rear of the truck. Do yourself a favor in your next attempt and resize both the front and the rear individually so that you don't lose your perspective. Second, in the real world, typically when you change wheel size, you don't change the overall tire diameter. Obviously, this isn't true for 4x4's, but it's pretty common for the street trucks, especially the daily driven ones. With that having been said, try resizing the wheels alone and not the tires. Combine the new low profile look of this part of the edit with a lowered body and you'll be well on your way. :cool:


BTW -- I'm moving this thread to the new Digital Dreams Tech area and renaming it so that it'll be easier for other PS newbies to find as a reference.

[Kenny C]

No problem, man. I think I see why your wheels don't look right. For one, you used the resized front wheel for both the front and rear of the truck. Do yourself a favor in your next attempt and resize both the front and the rear individually so that you don't lose your perspective. Second, in the real world, typically when you change wheel size, you don't change the overall tire diameter. Obviously, this isn't true for 4x4's, but it's pretty common for the street trucks, especially the daily driven ones. With that having been said, try resizing the wheels alone and not the tires. Combine the new low profile look of this part of the edit with a lowered body and you'll be well on your way.

Your exactly right about how and what I did with the wheels. I guess the main problem is that I am not working with a good high res photo. I am going to take a few pictures today, but not compress them until after I edit them. I did have another question for you though. How can perform what in PowerPoint is called "Free Rotate"? When I right click and click rotate, it's like the image snaps to grid. I wanted to rotate the truck in order to level it out. Is there a better way to do that? Thanks again.
Kenny

[gmccsierra]

Also, when you lower the truck (as in the last picture) it helps to add a shadow of the truck itself to the ground. When the body is lowered it covers up the ground with the original shadow on it. Your original picture doesn't have a defined light source (one of the few problems with taking pictures in overcast weather) so it may be hard to start practicing with that specific one.

[Chuggs]

Your exactly right about how and what I did with the wheels. I guess the main problem is that I am not working with a good high res photo. I am going to take a few pictures today, but not compress them until after I edit them. I did have another question for you though. How can perform what in PowerPoint is called "Free Rotate"? When I right click and click rotate, it's like the image snaps to grid. I wanted to rotate the truck in order to level it out. Is there a better way to do that? Thanks again.
Kenny
When you goto free transform --> rotate, it should rotate freely just like in powerpoint. :think: Unless maybe you're holding the shift key as you do it -- then it snaps in 15-degree increments.