art - ars gratia artis

im looking to learn how to do this for some lainzine projects. Any help is much appreciated. willing to pay btc for tutoring

1. get a good render or vector
2. play around with curves/levels, saturation, color casts and masks to fit the background
3. ???
4. PROFIT

send btc to 1PC9aZC4hNX2rmmrt7uHTfYAS3hRbph4UN
kthx

>>1535
In short yes - in reality, its a long journy... unless you ask somthing very spacific (i.e. like a job brief). So many ways to go about imaging.

But I doubt I can tutor you as such, it's a learn by doing thing for a lot of it. But ask hear anything and I will try my best to help no matter how "easy" or "trivial" the question. Or if I can't answer I will try and point you the right direction.

Few things first, right software for right job... all these are HUGE programs if you really get to know them so don't wast time learning an app that is a daed end (lightwave, quark express, pagemaker, freehand - sure some good usfull transfurable skills but all have taken a part of me - you can bring some skills but ultimatly it will represent some lost time.

Now days there is only 2 (well 2,5) real paths to tread...
1) Adobe - they are pro, so got job prospects and I got to admit they got some bad ass product. But now days its rental software and even before that it was expencive. (you might be able to ask your waifu about getting a cheaper source tho?).

2)FOSS - I am trying to retrain (as a side project) in all the FOSS alternatives to Adobe as a) its FOSS, b) its Free, c) its the future. Yeh sure adobe is way superior for now but 10yr and why would you pay for somthing that is near public domain? And currently its not bad software, it will do what you need for now.

2.5) Corel or similar... very good software, waaay cheaper - but no cunt in the industry uses it beyond stuff for the office. And will only make way for FOSS in the long run.

So now what apps for what job?
Looking at posted images/samples on /w/ this is a job for photoshop/illustrator or GIMP/inkscape.

Adobe FOSS
Photoshop = GIMP
Illustrator = Inkscape
Indesign = Scribus
Premiere = Kdenlive
AfterFX = No substitute!

3D Studio MAX = Blender

Photoshoop is for dealing with still bitmap images.
Illustrator is for Vector artwork.
Indesign for page layout (books n leaflets)
Premiere is for video editing.
AfterFX is for postproduction effects and video compositing.
3D Studio MAX is for 3D polygon moddling, texturing (although photoshop can do), animation and rendering. It is ideal for games, films, stills and 3D printer project modles. Of all the FOSS apps blender is probably the closest to the comercial equivelent!

For now stay away from video and 3D - big apps, big time, big disk space requirments. Start with photoshop, then illustrator.

>>1547
So looking at your image samples:
They are photos with vector images in them.

Several stages in this. Although seems obvious the photo is the stating point! - you need to think what you want to show, do you want image of lain kneeling on floor or sititng at chair - then think of light, got window? got desk light? do you realy want main light on or somthing more directional and moody?

Think of the pose you will set them in, make the photo from the right height and give it a little extrta wide than you want in the final image - this will give you space to recompose or crop at the end. (don't make it an ultra wide photo, keep it about what you want lens wize just go slightly wide with framing - as lenses/zooms give different perspective and you don't want to change the cropping too much.

>>1548
Now you have your background plate in photoshop you need some pic of Lain to composite it with.

This is where illustrator would come in - drawing from scratch with vectors - in other words, smooth lines of infinate resolution.

But I will stop you here - as it will get SLOW at this point.
So my suggestion to start off with and get your photoshop skills in shape, is to use a pic already drawn on the web and bring that into photoshop to composite - rather than draw your own at this stage.

This will alow you to work with some of the basics in photoshop - i.e. masking/cutting out, use of alpha channels, shading, lighting, colour correcting and tone. As well as covering some basic compositing tricks like adding noise and bluring for a "dramatic" depth of field.

Once you have a good image for your background plate and a nice pic from the web of some charicter you want to place in the image repot back and we will go down the masking route. (when you post back - please include the images so I can see what you are going to face and the best way to do it). - remember select background and charicter with care to match well in position - this will be 70% of the magic, if the images are from totaly diffrent perspectives its gonna look shit! (don't worry about having them the same lighting - set the mood lighting with your background image - we will light the graphic accordingly later).

N.B. let me know if you go Adobe or FOSS... I'll try and tailor accordingly... although I am way better at chipshop than GIMP, it will be good for me!

Catch you around - Peace!

>>1549
N.B. no Bitcoin wanted.
Pass all knowledge forwards.

I might need to ask about router or some crap some day and I suspect it will be a shwaaay Lain who helps me out!

>>1549
Tell me, good friend. Where do I find Photoshop as free as GIMP?
All these torrents looks suspicious...

>>1607
cgpersia is quite reliable

>>1607
Other than "normal (TPB)" place to gets... not sure. - Supprizingly i run kosher adobe!

My suggestion is test in VM (https://www.virtualbox.org/) or at least sandboxie it! (http://www.sandboxie.com/)