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Creatures 2 Creatures 3 Tutorials FAQs My Stuff Other |
Here's where the bulk of the work lies. We'll be using a lot of different tools, primarily the Paintbrush, Lasso, Line, Smudge, and possibly a few others. First thing we do is use the Lasso to alter a few things. Right off the bat, I know I want the face to be a bit longer, so I use the Lasso to select the upper face. While holding down the ctrl and alt keys, I move the snout out a bit. Ctrl + alt while moving a selected object will give you a copy of what is selected... perfect for duplication and elongation. After pulling the selection out a bit, I use the Smudge tool with a small brush (with the options set to about 75% pressure) to clean up any inconsistancies. We want it all to blend nicely. Now the tail, I want that to curve down like it does on a real wolf, we use the Lasso again to select the tail (be somewhat precise, we don't want to catch any of wolfie's bottom in the selection) and now we'll need to rotate it. Under the Edit tab, there's an option called "Transform", go to that and select "Rotate". Now your selection will have a box around it that you can turn to your heart's content. Rotate the tail counter clockways a it until it swings low. Once you have it where you want it.. mesh it up as best as you can with the norn's bottom, and use the Smudge tool to repair anything out of place.
Now we'll have to do something about that ear, it's just not Wolfie looking! This is a little tricky, as there's no real way for me to explain how to do it. Remember that Lasso tool? You'll need it to trace carefully around the edge of the ear. Under the Edit tab, go back to "Transform" and select "Distort". Use that to change the shape of the ear to something you can work with. What I got wasn't the greatest, but it's at least workable. I'll likely be changing it some more later on, but for now, do what you can. You'll need to go back in with that wonderful Smudge tool to fix it up so the head looks nice with the new ear. (He's looking more like a Kangaroo so far, but we'll fix that.) You'll also notice I lightened the edge of the eyebrow... easy enough to to, I used the Lighten tool to do it. This lovely tool, when set to a low opacity in the options window, can do wonders.... it also shouldn't harm your black background.
Moving on, most of the rest of this involves the Line tool and the Smudge tool. In this minor step, we'll be working a little more with this ear. Using the Eyedropper, select one of the light browns fron the norn's face hair. Now, select the line tool, set the opacity to 50% or less, make sure Anti-alias is on, and choose 1 pixel for the line size. Now, gently put some lines inside the ears to indicate that there's hair here. If the lines seem too strong, you can always lower the opacity on them. Make sure you have the consistancy you actually want before putting them in place. Now, using the Smudge tool on a very low pressure, smooth over the lines. If you don't like how it looks, you can always use the history eraser to erase the ear back to its previous save.
So now we want fur, right? We need to set down the ground work. Using the Smudge tool with a fine brush (Maybe the second one on the top) we're going to smudge the actual norn head. See how with a little creative smudging, he already is starting to look like he has hair? You'll want to do the same for his back, to give him a nice, fuzzy ridge.
Now we, again, select a nice, light brown from the face fur and select the Line tool. We'll want to give it a nice hair/fur consistancy, so you'll draw in some light lines for texture. We'll need to use the blur tool to blend them in so it looks nice. Using the burn tool (on a light pressure) you can gently add in some shading inside the ear, and along the outside of the ear. I've also taken the liberty of adding some fine line detailing to seperate the eyebrow and the ear from the hair. Using the line tool on light opacity with a dark brown will accomplish this trick.
Now that we have our basis, it's time to make it look like a wolf rather than a really hairy norn. I lengthened the nose a bit more using the Lasso and the ctrl+alt trick. Once I had the nose at the length I wanted, I used the Line tool on 100% opacity with 0,0,0 black to edge the upper lip back inward towards the lower lip. I added in a nose by using the Line tool on 50% opacity with a dark brown, and then I used the Lighten (Dodge) tool on the tip to give it a softer, more lifelike feel. Finally, I gave more volume to the tail by Lassoing the underside of it and holding ctrl+tab while inching it down with the arrow keys. I've also used the Line tool to add a dark brown rim around the eye for character, not necessary, but I though it'd look nice.
Now to start adding in the final touches. You'll notice I've used Burn again to add more depth to the ear and hair... that's fairly easy enough. I've used the Smudge tool to add "fur" to the wrist and ankle areas as well. However, the white fur I've added to the shoulders and chest could be annoying. I've been trying to keep this really simple, but I'd like you to try out Layers for this. In the menu, under the Layer tab, select "New" and then "Layer". This layer will show up as "Layer 1" in the Layers window. Anything you do in that layer will not affect the picture under it. Now, select an off white from the ankle area. Using the Paint Brush, while on Layer 1, paint in the rough shape of your fur, if you need to use the eraser.. be sure to take it off "Erase to History" first, as you won't need that on this layer. To add detail, use the Line tool with various light browns and use Smudge to meld them so they look nice. Once you have your shoulder and chest fur the way you like it... go back to the Layers tab, go down to "flatten" and select it. Now your layer is gone and you picture is in one piece.
So far, so good.. almost done here! Did a little more detailing, I used Lighten to add a bit more shine to the ridge of the nose and eyebrow. I also airbrushed in a very light yellow over the white fur bits (Pressure 15%). You'll also see the little whisker dots I've added to the lip... I'd add some whiskers, but then it might start looking more like a cat.
Now we finish off the picture. See how that foot in the back isn't touching the ground? That's been bugging me all night. It's an error I made when I originally posed the Norn, but I'm going to use it to my advantage. Grabbing a brown off our wolf (A dark one) I drew in a brown hill under his feet. With Burn on 80%, I added in some shading to give it depth. after that, I selected a nice green for the grass and, using the Line tool, I drew in some quicky blades. Again, burn provided my shading in this instance.
And there you go, start to finish. Not too hard, eh? = ) Be sure to save your picture now, close it, and reopen it. I'm going to show you one last trick. Let's say you don't like the brown. I've decided I want a grey wolf norn instead.. easy enough! Now that you have your picture done and saved, be sure your eraser is set to "Erase to History" once again. Now, go to the Image tab and under "Adjustments" choose "Hue/Saturation". This is a wonderful little tool! It should automatically be set to "Master" so all you need to do is move the arrow up and down in "Hues" to change the colour, you may want to play with Saturation and Lightness as well to get a feel for how they work. The grey I got here was around 140 in Hue. Now, once you find the colour you like for fur, go back in with the history Eraser and erase out the hands, feet, face, eyes, and grass. Now you have a new colour!
Hope some of you found this at least to be a little useful.. it's really the best I can do without standing over your shoulder and directing you personally. ^_^
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