Photoshopping a body into a scene

ManicMatt · Sat 02/09/2006 23:37:18

Hello all!

I'm making a mini game for a bit of fun, and using photos taken with my mobile phone. Now here I've put a body (me) into the scene, but it still looks really fake. Can you think of any photoshop methods I could employ to make him look like he's there more so?

MarVelo · Sun 03/09/2006 00:01:43

I cant suggest much, because thats about as good as it looks in pro games with real life images.

Candall · Sun 03/09/2006 00:05:35

At a glance, I'd say that you need to do the following:

Drop in a shadow. Look at the tree's shadow to see the light direction.

You need to match up the grain in the superimposed image to the grain in the source image. Experiment with noise in the overlay's layer.

One last thing... you need to match the saturation in the overlay to the background. You really need to take it down a notch... pay special attention to the red and green levels. You may want to boost the blue a bit.

Other than that, you seem to have done a very nice job of smoothing the edges. Well done!

sergiocornaga · Sun 03/09/2006 00:15:37

The phone photo is of a low quality, and the photo of you is not. This makes them clash quite a bit. Also I think you're just a bit too large...

Chicky · Sun 03/09/2006 00:25:06

Well here's my attempt, i thought the image of you was too large but there wasn't really anything i could do about it.

Changed the brightness/contrast of some things.
Sharpened the body.
Cut the body and used mode-indexed colour to pixelate it to the standard of the bg image.
Did a good deal of hand pixeling.
Tried to add the harsh white light that is on the other two people to the body.
Tried to add a slight shadow.

Duno if that'll help but it was good fun.

*edit

At a second glance, mine looks shit.

ManicMatt · Sun 03/09/2006 00:37:25

Hows this, based on advice by Candall?

Chicky, yeah... you made it worse. Sorry to say. I do like the lighting you did there though. Glad you had fun on it!

I did everything Candall said except the lighting and shadows. How would I do shadows?

I'd resize me but.. I got excited and flattened it and saved it as a PNG. Whoops.

EDIT: Jesus, it doesnt look like I did anything??

Chicky · Sun 03/09/2006 00:40:59

lol i overdid everything. Now i feel very, very small.

BunnyMilk · Sun 03/09/2006 00:45:48

I think Chicky's one looks very good!

Chicky · Sun 03/09/2006 00:48:57

Heh, thanks bunny.

Here, check this out. It's a bit of a middle ground:

ManicMatt · Sun 03/09/2006 01:04:32

ooh much better! I might just nick that, if you don't mind!

Maybe I'll make that shadow under the head less.. um.. whats the word? well make it more subtle anyway.

Thanks!

EDIT: Or, perhaps for me to learn something, how did you do the lighting on the top of the body?

Chicky · Sun 03/09/2006 01:11:20

Feel free to use it, if you need anymore help give me a shout. It's good fun.

For the light hitting the top of the body i used the dodge tool on photoshop to make slight lighting marks and then used the 1px paintbrush tool set to white to make the top brighter.

Haddas · Sun 03/09/2006 01:22:54

It might be too late for crits now, but I've acentuated what I think makes it stand out so much.

If nobody understands me then I'll put it into words but I think it's quite clear.

ManicMatt · Sun 03/09/2006 01:34:31

It took me a whole minute just to figure out what the images were of, Haddas!

I.. don't know what you're getting at. Was the same effect applied to both images? Is that it? And why?? What for? Me confused, again!

nihilyst · Sun 03/09/2006 01:41:26

Hm, I (over)did some things. Hope it's the right way.

cheers
nihilyst

Haddas · Sun 03/09/2006 02:21:53

Quote from: ManicMatt on Sun 03/09/2006 01:34:31
It took me a whole minute just to figure out what the images were of, Haddas!

I.. don't know what you're getting at. Was the same effect applied to both images? Is that it? And why?? What for? Me confused, again!

I increased the contrast of the leg area equally with the not so leg area (the people standing). Notice that I surrounded the two images with a glowing border to accentuate that the area of you that is being lit by sunlight, is green, while the people have a cyan aura. Eg. Everything has a slight blue glow, except you.

ManicMatt · Sun 03/09/2006 13:53:21

Ahh I see!

Well.. I'm torn between Chicky's and Nihilyst's! Chicky managed to edit it without having to darken the whole location though, but oh I dunno... I'll see them in game and see which looks better.

(And I learnt to use the dodge tool on another photo!

)

MadReizka · Mon 04/09/2006 13:33:28

I think that the body needs some highlights and some blue tone, since the whitebalance in the background is bit "blueish".