[doodle_dude]

Hi there!
Been a long time since I last posted. Plus my old account got lost somehow and I had trouble signing up for a new one...
anyhow, take a look at the picture at www.merscher.de.vu/forum/face3.jpg and tell me what you think.
The picture is completely computer generated, although it kinda looks traditional like pencil or graphite on paper. This is what I intended to do, but it's supposed to look as real as possible. Had some trouble with the black hair (fixed it on a separate layer so the black background came in later). How can I add more highlights without making it look greyish as it almost does now?
And yes, I am aware that the eyes need some more work (speaking of the iris and such) and that there seems to be a bright border towards the hair on the lower part.

As a reference I only got a couple of crappy webcam pictures so a lot of the attributes are actually fantasy

[Inspector Lee]

Not really sure what you're asking. This is a greyscale image, all the highlights would have to appear light gray to white??
_________________
Smokey, this is not 'Nam this is bowling. There are rules.

[doodle_dude]

Since the image is a grey-scale image (16-bit color though), I want to make the hair look black. In order to make it look real as well, I need highlights, right? So... my current practice of highlighting makes the hair look like it's intended to look grey (as in grey on the model), not black! How can I fix that?

any other suggestions welcome

[proper fuel]

the background can make a huge difference, try changing the background to something else than black, but still subtle, to give the hair some kind of edge, so you get some feel for it's size and mass... and make the highlights fewer, and maybe brighter to add more contrast...

[Inspector Lee]

Proper fuel is exactly right, you can't show the form of black hair against a black background, because you cant discern where the hair ends and the background begins. Also when you show black hair, usually only the core shadow and the darkest parts of the hair go pure black. The rest of the hair will be reflecting some light. Here's an overpaint. It's fast and loose (not the photo-real look you going for) but you get the idea. I really like the creepy feel her expression has. Also her eyes are kind of crooked (if that's not the problem you spoke of earlier). Her mouth, bottom of her nose, and cheekbones are only slightly tilted, while her eyes, eye sockets and eye brows are tilted much more (not physically possible). Anway hope this helps, and keep working on it. It's a cool image.


_________________
Smokey, this is not 'Nam this is bowling. There are rules.

[doodle_dude]

Okay here it is, version 2.0

www.merscher.de.vu/forum/inbalx6.jpg


see the first one to compare: www.merscher.de.vu/forum/face3.jpg

As you can see I spent some time on the highlights. I made the entire face darker so the highlights become more plastic ro suggest the contour of the cheeks for example. Also, I worked out the eyes (darker as well, plus I fixed that odd angle).
As for the background I'll probvably go for grey. the hair needs to be redone anyway (too far up, now that the eye's fixed lol), but I don't know how to do it without starting from scratch.

Some advice about a more plastic look with those highlights would be appreciated! Plus I need to fix the shading around the eyes, but I don't see how just yet...

The plan for the final picture is to get some creepy look on it (although the nice girl's okay now, maybe I'll save the current look for another pic), fill an A4-format picture and have it digitally printed. First print ever

I hope you have a peaceful new year!

[Inspector Lee]

Nice fix on the eye. I hope you don't get rid of the dark around her eyes cause it adds to the creepy (Wednesday Adams) kind of look. If that's not what you're going for though, then don't listen to me. Anyway I hope you finish it. It's looking cool.
_________________
Smokey, this is not 'Nam this is bowling. There are rules.