[Rufus]

Since, (well, during really), the Blackbird thread, I have been trying to present the image of a model plane as flying.
As a newbie Ps twiddler, I'm struggling.
Here are the facts.
1/ The model isnt mine, though I have about 10 RAWS of it.
2/ The BG was complex. Isolating plane from extraneous garbage in just ONE RAW took me ages.
3/ I cant see how to spin the props. Radial blur isnt a suitable option.
4/ I'm too impatient DAMN IT.

Here's the current state-of-play.

Any suggestions???

[Petographer]

Can you supply a photo of the plane so we can play with it and then tell you how we did it?

[Rufus]

Absolutely, but how big? What format? With or without rice-pudding?

[guerito]

Why is radial blur not an option? I tried with one prop and it seems ok to me...



What I did:

1) Copied the background
2) In the new layer, deleted everything except the prop
3) Duplicated the prop layer
4) In the background, cloned out the prop
5) Radial blur in the first prop layer, strength 25
6) Radial blur in the second prop layer, strength 50

Left the other prop for you to try...

Can I have one of these biscuits now?

[Petographer]

Absolutely, but how big? What format? With or without rice-pudding?

Yuck! I'm not much of a rice pudding fan. Just e-mail me a larg jpg.

[Kombisaurus]

ooo.. nicely done G!

Rufus, G seems to have the moving prop side of things sorted, but here are some other tips I can think of:

1. Use a real photo for the background so it doesn't look like it is flying 3" above a wall covered in green carpet :p
2. Match the camera angle and perspective to suit how the image would be seen in real life. How many times do you get to look down at a plane? Even looking straight on would be rare I'd imagine. Almost always you'd be looking up at it. Also the perspective (ie distance from object and focal length) will affect the apparent size of the image. For a plane I'd suggest perhaps being further away and using a long focal length to "flatten" the image - as this is how most plane photos would appear in real life I'd think. The moon really is never that big!
3. Match the light sources and shadows. Also remember that there are many types and qualities of light. You may need to adjust contrast/brightness/hue/saturation of the images to suit each other and look more natural together.
4. Try to get some element(s) in the image to overlap - this will more tightly integrate the two images. For example, the plane might be flying in front of a mountain, but be paritally obscured by a tree. With planes in the sky this can be difficult I guess, and an "emergency device" I use is a lens flare effect which can reflect off an object and the resulting trail goes over other elements in the image - although this device can be easily over-done and over-used, it does help an image lose its "cut and paste" look. See example below.
5. Try introducing motion blur and/or DOF blur where appropriate. Imagine if you had taken the scene as a single photo, would everything still be in focus? Sometimes by losing some detail, you gain some realism.
6. Don't be afraid to crop something. See in the example below how I cropped the tail off both choppers. I did this deliberately - partly because the tail rotors were being difficult and wouldn't render properly, and partly because it adds realism and extends the superimposed elements outside the image frame, making it part of the scene, not just part of the image.

Here is an example of a little project I did last year as the loading screen for a custom map for the game "Battlefield: Vietnam". I did all this stuff in Corel Photo-Paint, not Photoshop... so there is no point me giving you specific instructions, just the rough steps.
The background is a photo my cousin took when we were on the east coast of Tasmania the previous Christmas, and the foreground objects are rendered 3D images I made in 3D Studio Max using the actual chopper models used in the game.
I rendered the objects with a blank background, but made sure the camera angle and light sources would suit the final image - I wanted the effect of two choppers sweeping close to the viewers head and then continuing down the side of the mountain towards the bay and mountain in the distance.
I then pasted them over the top of the background. I masked out the windows of the choppers (which were just light grey), and applied a blue/white gradient/pattern fill that roughly resembled reflected clouds. I then played with darkening/smudging/tone-curve tools to give the windows a more natural appearance, but adding the lens flare to the window on the right-hand chopper really helped the image for lots of reasons.
I cheated with the main rotor (which wouldn't render in 3D properly), and simply drew a grey ellipse with a gradient effect in it, applied a bit of a gaussian blur and set its transparency - and then placed this layer between the chopper and the background. I just copied and resized the rotor for the 2nd chopper and made it a bit darker. I totally wimped out with the tail rotors, but I think it helps the image being cropped the way it is.



I wish I had those prop blurs of G's on my choppers though - they look great!

Let us know how you go.. and if you manage to post the RAW files somewhere (this forum has a 150kb file size limit doesn't it?)

Cheers
Adrian

[Rufus]

Use a real photo for the background so it doesn't look like it is flying 3" above a wall covered in green carpet :p



The rest I need to absorb. It may take a while!!!


Conk:
Just looking for your e-mail, hang on....................................

[Rufus]

Ok, having some luck on the props.............

[shuttertalk]

Nicely done, guys!

(By the way, I'm moving this thread to post-processing talk).

[Toad]

I love these recreations of old military aircraft photos. When I was a boy I would spend hours pouring over the semi-realistic paintings of world aircraft and when I got so I could do it myself in Photoshop - I did. Reminds me of the stuff that I see hanging the Legion (old Canadian miltitary boy's club)...

I have done a couple myself...



and...

[Petographer]

Conk:
Just looking for your e-mail, hang on....................................

It's on the bottom left of the post window.

[Rufus]

Mr Toad.

I knew I'd seen a Tripe somewhere, but couldnt remember where. Now I know!

Was it posted here once, or was it ADI?? It's a cracker wherever you last put it!

Mr C:

Hope those images came down the pipe ok? :/

[Toad]

I have posted it a couple places - maybe ADI - maybe here - can't recall. I know it is also on my website. Thanks Ruf.

The prop on the triplane has radial blur. I also have motion blurred the background in the area directly "behind" the plane to leave the impression that the air is being disturbed by the motion of the passing plane (note: I said the background and not the plane - that looked awful). These are quite subtle effects but I think they help on this kind of recreation.

The buzz bomb was a very early attempt at this look - I am much happier with the triplane.

[Don Schaeffer]

The grass is too fake looking.
--don

[Rufus]

Indeed it is.