Thursday, September 6, 2012

Tutorial: Adding A Photo Background


I was playing with this image the other day and thought I'd make a little tutorial to show how easy it is to add a photo for the background. Sometimes you might not need much storytelling in the background but you also don't want a flat color. If you watch the video you will see that if you paint your foreground image as a silhouette you can easily try different photo backgrounds.

Oh - and the meaning behind the image is up to your interpretation but for me it was inspired by the fact that most of us have much more in common that we might outwardly think at first glance.




15 comments:

  1. Great tutorial. I love the two characters...a Will Terry version of beauty and the Beast!

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    1. Thanks Tami! I never thought of it that way but you're right! :)

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  2. Great tutorial! The background gives it some wonderful dimension. Since I've found your blog I've really admired your use of lighting, color and texture. For the skin texture (wrinkles/lines) on your monster, do you paint those in or have you used a texture?

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    1. Thanks April - I used a photo of an old brief case I found at a thrift store. Then I just picked out a few highlights to make it look like it belonged...

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    2. That's great! I was thinking it looked a lot like a leather texture!

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  3. Wonderful illustration and a great tutorial!

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  4. Thanks for the tutorial! Great rendering in the dragon looks very cool.

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  5. Thanks Will, I always enjoy yr tutorials and blogs.

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  6. I love your tutorials. Thanks for sharing this!

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  7. Great tutorial as usual Will. Nice work.

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  8. Nice composition... I enjoyed the inspiration

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  9. What a very helpful tutorial.. I have learned another useful info. today.. Thank You .. -Aura backdrops

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