Blending With Gradient Maps

[chauronity]

Ok, .:TDK:. asked me how to blend properly, so here's a one way.
Brings out GODLIKE results in blending if used properly, and this is the method i *always* use in my sigs. Using real persons cos they're often the hardest to blend.

Comments and critique is welcomed, and you can also say thanks if you find this one useful.



Blending With Gradient Maps

Preparations:

Sig background or textures done, no colors needed.

Demanded skills:

Minimal skills needed - mediocre sig making skills recommended - Expert.

Textures by tre-xture: [ link (http://www.ofthesky.net/tre-xture.html)]
Stock: [ link (http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=ncf9s5) ]

---


Step 01:

Enter the stock into the background, or texture. I'm using texture cos i dont have time to do the background into this one.

http://i1.tinypic.com/ncf33d.jpg

Step 02:

Use an eraser around stock, select something less thick @ sides and put the opacity to something between 60-80%.

http://i1.tinypic.com/ncf34i.jpg

Step 03:

Select the duotone/monotone map you want to use for blending. I personally prefer the B&W in this phase, but others will go as well... try em ;-)
(brush over the map to cancel the effects)

http://i1.tinypic.com/ncf385.jpg (http://tinypic.com)

You can also end it here, if you wanna do a monochomed tag.

Step 04:

Dublicate the stock and put it above the map, put the blending mode as overlay and erase the rest from the surroundings. Lower the opacity to ~70-80% IF needed. Dublicate the stock and put the blending mode to "color burning" and find a proper value for opacities using the eyes for ruler.

http://i1.tinypic.com/ncf38o.jpg



After that:

Continue brushing the colors OR, dublicate the texture and put it @ color too 2 get the old colors of the textures back. Use the eraser in too highly contrasted spots and go on as usual, use the color balances e.t.c and so on =)

Finished sig using the "tutorial":

Made this in ~8-10 minutes, and havent used textures as background for SO long time xD ... and it may look like it too. But, hopefully you got the idea, i just had to make something for example.. didnt even use all of my basic tricks like lighten layering, etc xD

http://i1.tinypic.com/ncf6dc.jpg

PSD: *.psd (http://s6.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=28L73AKDQJU7A3O72GQKMJG0RX)

Another example:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b131/chauronity/ayumi2.jpg

- http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b131/chauronity/ulqu.png

[Konata Izumi]

Sweet, i have been having a hard time blending realperson stocks so i will def give this one a try. Editing in result later.

[Mineko-Iwasa]

it sounds so easy when you explain it.

i will try it out and show you my result.

[blacklusterseph004]

Is there no end to your photoshop skillz? Thanks for this, it is very helpful...

[BushidoPunk]

Okay I followed your example, even though it wasn't very clear at times. So I had to figure things out on my own and this is what I got:

http://img282.imageshack.us/img282/4108/blendingtest7wg.jpg

[Konata Izumi]

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/245/wipugress0jg.png

My result.

[.Naptha]

very helpful but if i had one critisism it would be the after that section. any way you could lengthen your explanation of what the hell to do from there on in? otherwise, fantastic though :)

[Twisted.Angel]

=) thankyou for this chaur I will try it in a bit

[chauronity]

@bushidopunk:

Looks like you got that right, some bad spots (like the saturation) but all-in-all, that's pretty ok. All you have to do now, is to add some colors to the background itself and it'll be ok. (this is not part of this tutorial).

Using a better photo as a reference might bring out better results, i know that's a bad one. So, it's not a necessarity to use it, since it's already pretty bad by default.

@fluffier:

Nice blending, looks proper and so on, but (doenst kinda belong to this tut,) i'd use some better color @ stock, OR move the original stock to toppermost and put it as "color" or "hue", whichever looks best. AND, if the stock itself is kinda... unnaturally shaded (or something), brush some beige over it and put the blending mode to "soft light".

very helpful but if i had one critisism it would be the after that section. any way you could lengthen your explanation of what the hell to do from there on in? otherwise, fantastic though :)

Yeah, i might have to make full-sig tut to explain this completely :/
And i might actually do it ... i just need some time for it.

[Remy LeBeau]

Awesome tut Chauronity :thumbs

Here's what i got out of it :)
http://i1.tinypic.com/nfiaki.jpg

[Tonza]

Nice tut Chauronity. And this indeed does work nicely usually.
Although I knew this method before I figured something new from the last bits.
=)

[BushidoPunk]

[QUOTE=Chauronity]@bushidopunk:

Looks like you got that right, some bad spots (like the saturation) but all-in-all, that's pretty ok. All you have to do now, is to add some colors to the background itself and it'll be ok. (this is not part of this tutorial).

Using a better photo as a reference might bring out better results, i know that's a bad one. So, it's not a necessarity to use it, since it's already pretty bad by default.QUOTE]
Yes! I feel special because I can do something that Chauronity can do :dance

[~Akuma]

Great Tut chauronity, I tryed it, it confused me sometime but i kept goin, so check the results


http://i1.tinypic.com/nl9xrn.png

http://i1.tinypic.com/nl9y0j.png

http://i1.tinypic.com/nl9y77.png

http://i1.tinypic.com/nl9ycw.png

[chauronity]

Looking very good, i like those ^^
-- nice job (i know those are old like hell XD )

And the more you use em, the better you'll see where to fix and stuff, so keep on doing em