Post by Christie on Aug 20, 2004 15:25:49 GMT
Well, I am basically going to give you some small tips and ideas on blending... First, we are going to start with this image
and we will blend that monkey into this iamge
Now, the first thing you want to do is get the monkey onto your image...try and place it in the relative area that you want it to be at when you are done blending and making it look good
the next thing we are going to want to do is recolor the image so that it matched the background a bit. My suggestion is to use the eye dropper and get the foreground color to the most prominent color in your banner, for me it is 1F225A...now press CTRL+U and hit the tick box for colorize and then mess with it until it has the same bg and looks the same colors
Starting to look "blended" eh?
Anyways, now the next step....there are many different ways you could go about this, I choose vector masks...click the add layer vector mask tool on the layer pallette
Now rpess G (gradient tool) and set the mode to foreground to transparent and the type to linear...
Okay, now you are going to gradually want to cut away at the monkey using gradients....just figure out which way you have to drag to start cutting away...dont worry if you mess up...go to the history pallette and erase that step....but anyways...this is what I have thus far
See how it kind of fades into the background now? No need to cut it out...there is a lazy way around everything..
But we still have to add some finishing touches....you are going to want to go around all the outlines of the monkey with the smudge tool...the easiest way to find the outlines is disable the layer mask for now and then go to the straight, outer edges...
to disable the layer mask, right click it and then go to the bottom most opption on the menu....Disable Layer Mask
After smudging it, Enable the Layer Mask by doing the above again....and now click the main layer on the layer pallete and send the opacity to...65%
You should have something like this now
Quite a change from the first image, right?
Keep in mind there are many more options in blending and it all comes down to what kind of effect you want the outcome to look like
and we will blend that monkey into this iamge
Now, the first thing you want to do is get the monkey onto your image...try and place it in the relative area that you want it to be at when you are done blending and making it look good
the next thing we are going to want to do is recolor the image so that it matched the background a bit. My suggestion is to use the eye dropper and get the foreground color to the most prominent color in your banner, for me it is 1F225A...now press CTRL+U and hit the tick box for colorize and then mess with it until it has the same bg and looks the same colors
Starting to look "blended" eh?
Anyways, now the next step....there are many different ways you could go about this, I choose vector masks...click the add layer vector mask tool on the layer pallette
Now rpess G (gradient tool) and set the mode to foreground to transparent and the type to linear...
Okay, now you are going to gradually want to cut away at the monkey using gradients....just figure out which way you have to drag to start cutting away...dont worry if you mess up...go to the history pallette and erase that step
....but anyways...this is what I have thus farSee how it kind of fades into the background now? No need to cut it out
...there is a lazy way around everything..But we still have to add some finishing touches....you are going to want to go around all the outlines of the monkey with the smudge tool...the easiest way to find the outlines is disable the layer mask for now and then go to the straight, outer edges...
to disable the layer mask, right click it and then go to the bottom most opption on the menu....Disable Layer Mask
After smudging it, Enable the Layer Mask by doing the above again....and now click the main layer on the layer pallete and send the opacity to...65%
You should have something like this now
Quite a change from the first image, right?
Keep in mind there are many more options in blending and it all comes down to what kind of effect you want the outcome to look like
..... 'nuff said (thats a good thing) 
