Work Text:
I promised you a wee explanation/tutorial thingy on how I make my manips. So while working on the newest one, I took tons of screenshots mid-editing and wrote this text bit by bit, following the different steps I took. Of course it's still a rather highly compressed account of what I do, I don't want to bore you into oblivion (it's a puzzle, basically, and while doing it is fun, watching somebody else do it isn't quite as exciting XD).
This is the manip I will 'take apart':
I should probably issue a warning here: Reading this might seriously ruin the magic of manips for you. It's a bit like knowing what and how the magician does something and it's not magic anymore. Or like spoilers XD I don't have any problems with that, I'm a curious person, but if it's more important for you to keep the illusion intact rather than understand how it works, then you might want to think twice before looking at this. It's impossible to unsee things, after all, and there'll be a lot of body parts randomly floating around in Photoshop and it's quite comical, really, before it's all merged to one perfect illusion of reality. But if you're all the more curious now, come in and enjoy! ^_^
I'll set the key points in bold letters so that for those of you who're not that interested in the detailed description, it'll be easy to skim the text end still get the gist of it ^_^ I don't consider what I do a trade secret or anything, so I'm going to be as clear as I can about what I do and how I do it. If you feel like trying it yourself, all the better! I'm always open to questions, whether you'd like to try something or are just curious, doesn't matter. I'll do my best to answer ^_^
To make you curious and to give you an idea of what you can look forward too, here's the rundown of the manip's 'construction' as a gif. It had over 70 layers - yep, it turned out to be a complicated one - and here I switch them on one after another so you can see what the manip is made of, and how it developed:
Now, first off, my equipment: I work with an almost historical Wacom graphic tablet (it's more than 10 years old) and Photoshop 7 (CS2), which is probably regarded as ancient by a lot of people, but it's still one of the best versions of Photoshop in my humble opinion. I'm by no means an expert, I just know those parts of the programme that I use for manipping - and that's probably not even 15 % of what Photoshop can do XD
First thing I do is getting inspired. I usually see a picture and it gives me ideas. I can be a face (like Tony's expression in DUM-E/Special-Memory_3014/Workshop-Action) or a body part or position (*cough* Steve's butt *cough*) or whatever else picks my Muse's fancy at the moment (she's dangerous, let me tell you that XD). I then look for the right heads first, they're the most important thing in every manip. Therefore, as you might have guessed, I have huge picture collections for different purposes (and I mean HUGE, as in my Avengers manips folder is 4 GB): I have one for Steve, one for Tony, one for bodies in general (yep, there are some p0rn pics in there XD), one for backgrounds/equipment/places/other characters etc. Let's just hope nobody unfamiliar with fandom ever raids my laptop, they'd probably think I'm a mixture of a stalker and a pervert... XD
Most of my pictures come either from the internet or are screenshots I made. I always go for the highest quality pictures I can find (as in, if I search via google, I set the image size on 'large', anything below won't do). I'll tell you later why I do that (Yes, I do have a reason besides wanting to ogle the boys XD).
I usually work on a DIN A 4 at 300 dpi, that's worked out for the best in the past. I'm creating pics for online usage, after all, not for printing posters for cinemas (although that would be cool, seeing Steve and Tony all cuddly on a huge poster in cinema... XD). Also, I've always worked from a teeny tiny laptop, and while they're relatively high-performance now, they most certainly weren't in 2009 when I started manipping. And believe me, watching your computer die and taking all your unsaved changes with it is something you don't want to experience on a regular basis. Fortunately that's not something that happens often anymore with today's laptops ^^
I usually open a new file (A 4, 300 dpi) and then gather the pieces I want to use in that psd-file (that's the standard photoshop format that allows you to work on your pieces as layers, so they're basically single pieces you can edit without impacting the others, unless you decide to merge them to one piece). Before I throw my pictures into the psd-file, I set the image size of each pic to 300 dpi as well, otherwise you'll get very awkward differences in size and quality.
Now, here are the pictures that I used for Steve. I marked the part of each picture that I took for the manip.
These are the pictures I used for Tony:
And this served as the background:
For those who're not familiar with Photoshop, its basic principle is working with layers. Imagine it as one paper lying on top of another lying on top of another etc, just that those paper are the pieces of the pictures I use. So the rule applies (usually, except when I change it), that the upper layer covers the one underneath. That's very important, because I use that effect as one of my main tools: I only work on the areas of the layer that are visible. What's hidden behind another layer (i.e. behind a piece of a picture) is usually a huge mess that I don't pay attention to, you won't see it in the final manip anyway. Makes life easier XD When I show you how I work, you will get to see that chaos, though, because I'll be switching layers off and then you can see the mess underneath. That often quite funny - the serious note of the atmosphere I aim for is totally undermined by that mess XD
So, once I've thrown my pics in the psd-file, I scale the body parts I want to use to their approximate size, then I begin cutting them out. Here's the tools I'll be mentioning from now on:
First I use the polygonal lasso to cut off the big chunks that I don't need.
I don't use the magic wand tool because it's way too imprecise and leaves messy edges. Instead I do it the old-fashioned way by using the eraser around every piece I cut out (yes, that does take time and patience, but it looks better ^^).
I use a soft brush, usually between 15 - 21 px, which leaves a slightly fuzzy edge behind. I don't use the sharp brush because there are almost never ever clear edges in photos of people, so it looks off and very weird when you suddenly have them on the body part you're working on. Here you can see the difference between the two brush types:
Proportion is another one of the important things I pay close attention to when I assemble body parts from various different photos. Often I have a model to scale by, for example when I replace the head in the original picture with another head, I scale it to the size of the original one before erasing it. If I don't have a model, I use such helpful rules like: the span of your hand from wrist to the tip of your middle finger equals the distance from your chin to almost the top of your forehead and stuff like that. They're basic proportion rules you learn in every drawing course (which is how I know them - well, not a drawing course per se, but drawing in general ^_^ )
A very very important thing that I can't stress enough is naming the layers - immediately, not half an hour later when you already can't tell anymore what is on which layer because you've got so many. Happens quickly, especially when you start working on the lighting. I will later on show you the layer list I had assembled when I was done with the general outline of the manip, and you'll understand why I think naming layers is essential XD
So after scaling and cutting out the parts of the photos I want to use, I then go on with blending the single pieces. It's usually a mixture of erasing and using the stamp tool (copies the layer you're on wherever you put your pen) along with changing lightness (i.e. makes everything in the picture go lighter or darker), brightness (i.e. makes only the light parts lighter or the dark parts darker)/contrast and colour balance to make them look similar (usually in that order, too). I'm going to show you on the example of Steve's butt and front leg, because they consist of pieces from three different pictures. You can clearly see them here, what they looked like before blending:
Now I went over them with the aforementioned tools and made them look like they were one piece. I heavily used the eraser and the stamp tool, especially on the side pocket on Steve's leg. Here's the before-and-after:
And here's the single, blended pieces that make up the final leg. Remember that it's just blending, I haven't actually done any lighting yet. I always first blend all the pieces before I begin to work on lighting, otherwise I'd just have to do the work twice. I'm lazy like that XD
Another thing in blending is to adapt the colour and its clarity. I do that by using the brightness/contrast palette. The effect is as follows: If you increase the contrast, edges and colours are going to be clearer - as long as you don't overdo it. In order not to lose the already light parts, I usually decrease the lightness first and then in a second step increase the contrast, maybe a tiny bit of brightness, too. This is a learning-by-doing-thing, only experience will make you pick the right degree of change. Try and learn what looks best - you can always undo the step in the history ^_^
When I first decreased the lightness and than upped the contrast, I usually need to adapt the colour balance afterwards, because the lightness makes things look grey/blackish. In that case I usually increase the red and yellow in the colour balance palette by just a tiny bit as you can see here (along with the lightness):
Piece of advice: When you have several layers that need to be changed by the same value, note down those values (i.e. for lightness, brightness/contrast, colour balance etc) the first time you do it. If the pieces come from the same original photo, then you want to change them identically so that they blend perfectly. Photoshop doesn't remember the values, though, so you're going to be off when adapting by feeling and not by number.
So here's what it looks like when I work with 1 - lightness, 2- brightness/contrast and 3 - colour balance. We're taking Tony's body as an example, it's quite clear to see what I was talking about. I first give you a gif and then the single steps as pics so you can get a closer look:
Fun Interlude: Want something hilarious? That's what the manip looked like before the pieces of Tony's head were in place XD Steve making out with the helmet... XD I told you it ruins the seriousness of the actual result when you see things like this... :D
Okay, back to business. Lighting is one of the last things I do. Since I achieve the different lighting effects by copying the original piece/layer and then adjusting lightness/brightness/contrast/colour/blending/opacity, I need the piece to be otherwise done, or I'd copy the wrong parts, too. It's basically a loooooong period of adding shadows and highlights. I'd say it's one of the longest steps in creating a manip. Usually you don't have pieces that already match in where the light comes from, so you have to work on it.
Lighting is very very important. We're instinctively aware when it's off, even people who have no conscious knowledge whatsoever about lighting and how it works. They just feel it because they experience it constantly in their life - pretty much every second their eyes are open. That's why manips are so easily perceived as 'bad' - if there's even the slightest mistake in lighting, the viewer has an immediate feeling that the picture is off and therefore fake. Hence the bad reputation of manips, because I have come across very few people who make manips that don't provoke that effect. And let me tell you, pasting a character's head on a hot stud's shoulders is not going to make it feel real if you don't put in the effort to make sure that the light actually comes from the same side for both the body and the head... XD
So here's an example of how many different layers it takes to create the lighting. We'll use Tony again to show one layer added after another in a gif, shadows as well as highlights:
I create shadows by duplicating the layer I want to add the shadow to (for example Tony's body). Then I decrease the lightness by more than looks good and afterwards I erase the areas that I don't want shaded. I use the soft erase brush, usually on a pretty big brush (far above 100 px). That way the transition looks smooth and natural. I only use a small brush when I want to create cast shadows. Once I'm satisfied with the shape of the shadow, I make it look real by adjusting the colour balance so that it doesn't look all blackish from the decreased lightness. Afterwards I adapt the blending mode of the layer: Often I use 'multiply', which basically makes the layer transparent. It first seems entirely black, but once I start decreasing the opacity, it begins to look like an actual shadow. I usually have several layers of shadows overlaying each other to create the proper shadow effect: a smaller but darker shadow close to the body part that actually causes the shadow, a wider and not so dark shadow around that.
Highlights work pretty much the same way. I copy the piece I want to highlight and augment the lightness. Then I erase the areas I don't want highlighted and set the layer on the blending mode 'screen'. It becomes brighter and somewhat transparent - and very white. I usually want it in a specific colour, though (like reddish from fire or blueish from the arc reactor), so I use the colour balance and experiment as long as it takes until the colour fits. If I feel it's not bright enough, I increase the brightness, maybe a wee bit of contrast. Later I can play with the opacity to make the highlighted area blend in just like I want it to. Always remember that if you duplicate a layer that's set on 'multiply' or 'screen', it doubles the original effect (i.e. becomes darker or lighter). That's a nice and easy way to achieve the shadow or highlight you're going for.
Once I'm done with all the single pieces, I merge those that belong together and that I can merge (depending on their position in the layer hierarchy, I can't). I always merge them before adjusting the quality because I usually have literally tons of layers that make up one piece due to all the highlighting and shading, and it's just a pain in the butt to adjust them one by one. It's easier when they're one piece again, so for example all the layers that make up Tony's body get merged into one layer, than I have to tweak the quality just once instead of 24 times.
So here's what my layer list looked like before merging and afterwards:
Makes quite a difference, doesn't it? ^_^
Aside: I save in regular intervals in new files so that I have the option to return to an earlier stage if things don't develop quite like I want. I absolutely always do it before I merge a major amount of layers, because that's irreversible once it's done and you've progressed too far to undo the action in the programme's history.
A last, very important step when making a manip is to make sure that the aforementioned quality of the pieces actually matches. It's especially obvious when you look at Steve's body compared to Tony's body, or even Tony's body and his hands: They match neither in quality nor in lighting. The pics I used for Steve's body are much better in quality than Tony's body, and Tony's hands are sharper and clearer than his body.
You're bound to have varying degrees of quality, and in order to make something look like it belongs together, the pieces have to look the same. Nothing is worse than a seam in the person you're putting together where the head is clear and sharp and the body is all fuzzy and pixaleted. It's difficult to impossible to augment the quality, so you're usually going to have to adapt everything to the worst piece you used. That's why I mentioned going for high quality pictures when you start your collection.
I work mainly with two filters: Noise and Blur. I use them on one hand to adjust the quality of the pieces and on the other hand to give the manip a bit of a artsy feeling to make it clear that it's not a photo. I first apply the 'add noise' option followed by the 'Gaussian blur'. What values to apply is mostly experience, or rather a looooooong period of trial and error. I do the noise filter by feeling and the preview it offers. The Gaussian blur is usually something between 0,5 - 2 on the faces and bodies, and about 3-7 on the background. One wee trick I use is that I apply less noise and blur to the faces. Not noticeably less, but subtle, enough to make viewers focus on the faces, while the background gets more blurry. It's a common technique you'll find in everything from photography to painting.
Here you can see the process of adapting the quality of Steve's helmet to that of the other pieces I used. The helmet is far too clear and the edges far too sharp, it looks entirely out of place. So I first add noise, then I blur it in this gif:
I basically go over the different pieces with both filters until I'm satisfied. Sometimes that's after the first round, sometimes I edit the same piece multiple times. I have to admit that I'm not very organised when I work on the single tasks, I just randomly do the one thing that happens to catch my eye. Works fine for me XD So I spend a lot of time hopping from one piece to the next and back, do some shading here, some adapting here, some blending here and whatever else I notice needs to be done. That's why a progress vid would only be very very confusing, so I decided to go with the text and pics approach that I can at least make resemble an orderly approach XD
The last thing I do is add my signature to the manip. It always contains the date because I want to be able to see when I made the piece. I have that rule that I never rework a manip so that I can actually see my progress over the years. Let's just say that there was a lot of progress and the early manips are quite painful... XD I also try to blend my signature so that it doesn't disturb the picture while still making sure it can't be cut off easily but would have to be edited out (which has happened to me before, but I still refuse to slap a huge watermark over the manip because that ruins it).
Before posting the manip I usually downsize it for online usage. Large files aren't always convenient, after all, especially if people look at stuff on their phones. So yes, I have a hig res version for every manip - in case you want a better quality than the one I posted ^_^
Oh my, this got longer than expected.... I hope I didn't bore you to death! I got a bit technical in some places and still tried not to go into too much detail, but I'm not sure that worked out all right... *wonders* I only now noticed how much I learned in Photoshop in those past few years. Believe me, it was an enlightenment when I discovered the stamp tool a few years back - you can tell immediately from the look of the manips when that happened XD
Now you probably also understand why I don't sell anything or offer it for printing via deviantart, for example, although I do post my stuff there. I basically gather my puzzle pieces all over the internet and from the movies themselves, so I muddle deeply in copyright issues. My guess is that I'd have tons of lawsuits hanging over my head the moment I tried to make money with this. And hey, I make this for fun, anyway, I don't have to earn money with everything I do. That's what I have my job for XD
I really hope you liked this wee insight and that maybe I could inspire one or two of you to go for it, too. I'd love to get some more people into manipping - there are so few of us and we need reinforcement! Just think about all the Steve/Tony hotness we could create! ^_____^
Thank you very much for reading through all of this and bearing with me. It might have turned out a bit more detailed than I first expected... ^^