Fathom
 Squedge  2003/12/15 14:28
 4479  4
*updated production notes*
If I keep getting all these compliments, I'll get a big head! (Not that I mind...)
I keep getting asked the question, so here's a pretty basic answer:
How did I do the Fathom pic? Well... I'll try to explain it. I started with the concept. I wanted to do a Fathom pic that both showed her body and her powers in an interesting way, so I settled on the concept of her in water form swimming in the ocean.
I went into Poser and used the Poser 4 Nude Female model, and played until I was happy with her positioning. I relaized pretty early on that I wanted a real face. There are some things you can cheat away with poser, the face isn't really one of those... I wanted the clear lines and a definite pose, though, so scrounging through hours of source pics didn't appeal to me. For some reason, whenever I see a Fathom comic, I think of Claire Forlani, so she was my first (only, really) choice for the facial model. I scrounged up a decent pic of her and went searching for a base pic for the background. I ended up grabbing a pic that someone rendered in a 3d program of the sea bed.
Next, I set about attaching Claire's lovely face to the poser body, both of which I had desaturated. I matched the greys as closely as I could and then inverted the image to a photo negative. I applied the "plastic wrap" filter to the image with a fairly high highlight strangth, a medium level of detail, and a low level of smothness, to give the "watery" appearance. I duplicated the layer, and set one layer to a "hard light" setting with an opacity of 36%, and the other to a "luminosity" setting at the same opacity. The low opacity and layer settings allow the figure to seem transparent but solid at the same time.
Then I created a new, empty layer with the following effects: drop shadow, inner glow, inner shadow, bevel and emboss. I played with the seetings on the layer, changed the opacity to 74%, the fill to 3% and painted hair on her with a small paint brush using the color white. Unhappy with the lack of "motion" of the piece, I did another layer, similar to the hair layer, but with an outer glow, as well, and the opacity and fill set to 100%.
In this layer, I used a specail brush made of lots of individual dots. I "painted" the air bubles around her in white with it, staying roughly around the frame of her body, deleting or undoing any I didn't like.
I added a bit of grain (noise filter) to the background, to make it more photo-real, and then did the logo and signature.
Yes, there are an infinite number of little tweaks I gave the pic all the way through the process, but I can't remember them all without going through each saved version of the image (I save A LOT so that I can remember how I did a particular effect, or go back a step if necessary. Repeating your successes is much easier that way, as is avoiding repeating those elements which are particularly unsuccessful.) This is just the bare bones of how I did the pic.
Whaddya think? |
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The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
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| Dragondack |
Posted: 2004/5/16 4:40 Updated: 2004/5/16 4:40 |
The Great Eternal Dragon   Joined: 2004/2/9 From: Edmonton,Alberta,Canada Posts: 11277 |
 Re: Fathom |
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| Jover |
Posted: 2003/12/15 13:05 Updated: 2003/12/15 13:05 |
mutant   Joined: 2003/8/18 From: Posts: 116 |
Re: Fathom Absolutely amazing work! So good that I have to echo Brick's post how the heck did you do it?  |
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| BadDog69 |
Posted: 2003/12/15 8:10 Updated: 2003/12/15 8:10 |
superhero   Joined: 2003/8/15 From: Posts: 311 |
Re: Fathom Nice...I've been kicking around a simliar idea for a while now. you've given me an idea to take my Fathom in a whole different direction (tricky to do with out seeming like I'm copying style)
well done!
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| Daruma |
Posted: 2003/12/15 0:17 Updated: 2003/12/15 0:17 |
Off the hook   Joined: 2003/10/20 From: Cleveland Posts: 1726 |
Re: Fathom Squedge, seriously, posting stuff like this is gonna give newbies like me unrealistic expectations. That water looks so real it's making me have to pee! I always thought Denise Richards was a natural for Aspen, but Claire is absolutely perfect. My only suggestion is to maybe add some vegetation on the sea floor. Great stuff!! Keep it coming!
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| Brick |
Posted: 2003/12/14 21:46 Updated: 2003/12/14 21:46 |
Technophobic   Joined: 2003/10/23 From: Pacific North West Posts: 455 |
Re: Fathom I agree with winter.
Im reather new so I'm going to ask questions of you if
thats ok?
I would like more details, cuz' I enjoyed them on the
last post.
for instace... how the hell did you do this? and where
do you feel you took shortcuts and where did you ooz
blood sweat and tears?
Please keep posting!
-b
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| Winterhawk |
Posted: 2003/12/14 16:14 Updated: 2003/12/14 16:14 |
Guardian of the Great White North (Webmaster)   Joined: 2003/8/17 From: Canada Posts: 6812 |
Re: Fathom WOW.
Now that is good.
I love it. Great transparency & water effects.
Top Notch.
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! Manip !
Other Comics
This truly is a awsome picture!
