[How to Paint] Paintings, Canvases, Sketches, etc.

[Artisanix]

Let's say I somehow "promised" to create such a thread for Tamira ;]

Anyway, have no idea whether it's a good section to place it here...

This thread is for sharing various techniques which can be used to make decent textures for paintings, canvases or sketches for your mods. To make all these things as simple as possible let's start with how I see this:

Three methods in which someone can make the good texture for any painting:

I. fully automated

II. semi automated

III. fully "manual"

Ad.I

- the simplest way is to use two layers, one with canvas texture, and one with actual screenshot (picture), then use various blending modes to mix these two layers together

pros: the quickest and easiest way

cons: final result looks far more like photo than painting

Ad.III

- here are various techniques that may use smudge (in case of converting photos to paintings) or various brushes to paint on different layers with different blend modes

pros: these are really outstanding in the end

cons: may take many hours of even days to complete

Ad. II

- the way I woul like to discuss a bit more, as this is a method I usually prefer recently as far as making paintings for games is concerned

pros: relatively fast (usually no more than 10 minutes for painting)

cons: not as outstanding as fully manual approach, but far better (imho) than any automated methods as it gives more satisfaction and no painting is the same

simplified workflow:

1. first layer is with texture of the canvas

2. second layer is with actual screenshot (usually lightened when actual "painting" with smudge occurs)

3. third layer is a duplicate of the screenshot (converted to "sketch", for recovering back some of those lost details)

Ad.1

here I usually desaturete canvas texture if it has any colour

Ad.2

usually screenshots need to have reduced contrast, in PS it can be done with Shadows/Highlights adjustment, it is the best when picture doesn't have any extensive black areas

after this I "paint" on the whole picture with very short strokes with smudge tool at low strength

then I use one of the blend modes to mix this layer with canvas texture below

Ad.3

this is the duplicate of the original screenshots, and with adjusted shadows/highlights too (pic can't be too dark)

and then I convert it to "sketch" with various techniques (photocopy filter for example)

finally mix this with layers below with one of the blend modes and various opacity

All this shown at sample picture with one of possible workflows: here.

Questions? Opinions? Your methods?

[WillieSea]

I find it best to use a screenshot for the painting.dds.

I then have a canvas that I use for the painting_n.dds. There is nothing of the painting in the normal map, just the canvas texture.

Its easy, fast, and the paintings turn out awesome. Check Levelers Tower for examples of this technique.

[Arion]

Willie had the process changed any from the painting tutorial we have on here from Oblivion?

[WillieSea]

I don't know, not sure I have looked at any tutorials on it.

But I do it the same way I did in Oblivion.

[Arion]

For anyone interested IS made this really easy to use tutorial on making paintings.

Painting Tutorial

[Artisanix]

Well, I may see my "mistake" in thread's name... it should be rather not [how to make] but [how to "paint"] instead ;-]

Both techniques posted here (Willie's and IS' tutorial) fit into fully automated methods of paintings creation. And this is good primarily if you either have dozens of screenshots and want quickly to convert them to "paintings", or you are simply happy with everything your throw there into the frame ;-] (in other words if you just discovered texturing and how fun this process really may be)

While such "photos" may be acceptable from our point of view, but on the other hand, just think about the people of Tamriel ;] How they could achieve such photorealistic prints of their surroundings? Some sophisticated Dwemer Digital Cameras perhaps? ;D

Anyway, what I would like to point here, is that there are some other ways few clicks of the mouse away that being relatively easy to use, can "personalize" each painting and make it more unique, as it was made by a creature rather than a robot ;-]

And here I made a quick example (less than 10 minutes overall) and messed with Willie's painting a bit punching it with smudge tool (I can only hope he won't mind that I used this as an example).

It is not necessarily a better result but definitely a different outcome. And may put these things in perspective for some of you and maybe push towards searching your own simple ways of making the paintings slightly less "artificial" ;-]

Edited April 11, 2012 by Artisanix

[Tamira]

Thank you Trollf / Artisanix for keeping your promise you made in the shouty to start a thread about advanced techniques to make better paintings.

I know that you know that I know how to "make paintings" the quick and easy way, as I showed this pic of the shadowgreen cavern in the shouty

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0MWkwW5_Wf7qt5v5l1s_JtMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

I learnt how to do this from a friend four years ago and my method is similar to what is described in Insanity's tutorial ( I am not using layers).

I think my "painting" of the shadowgreen cavern is already a bit smudged due to the mist in the screenshot. But I am going to try out the smudge tool (as well as several others) with other screenies to make them look less "photorealistic". I already found a good tutorial in my own language and will start on it as soon as possible, I hope I can show some good results here.

I have to learn more about layers (working with Gimp), my first encounter with layers was here in the Graphic arts lesson and it had been kind of trial and error then.

[Artisanix]

I know that old habits sometimes die hard, so you may want to stick with Trollf if you like, I don't mind ;]

As for the starting material I agree that it all depends on particular screenshot. In Willie's case the painting is very dark, so you can hardly notice what's really going on there as far as only the texture is concerned, though it may look better in game. Anyway it makes a nice composition with the frame, and as a "background" painting* does the job well (* I mean that's it's more like one of those clutter items and provides additional details to the interior as a whole, and not being the prominent feature by itself at the same time).

And good that you posted the link to that painting of yours, Tam. As in this case we can discuss a canvas-frame composition ;]

Actullay here it's usually one of those scenarios:

1. discreet frame + "generic" canvas = the two make one object (like in Willie's example, where both these things are quite and equally dark)

2. discreet simple frame + very nice canvas = here clearly one can see who's the boss of these two ;]

3. very detailed or complex frame + "generic" canvas = frame steals the show, painting is no more than just some backgorund...

4. detailed/complex frame + nice canvas = tough decision, it's very hard to focus on one element, as everything "fights" for our attention...

and the last scenario is present in your "shadowgreen" example ;]

You have interesting picture there, but at the same time its frame is quite bright with very vivid colour and with plenty of details - and this makes it harder to "fully focus" on the canvas itself.

Here's a quick example how your painting looks with darkened frame and its shifted colour (well, those shadowgreen vistas deserve to be better exposed, don't you think?) ;] ->

Edited April 11, 2012 by Artisanix

[Tamira]

Thanks for the tip with the frame.

I found a sketch filter for gimp and tried out your painting method 3.

I duplicated the original layer, smudged the first layer then applied the sketch filter to the second.

"finally mix this with layers below with one of the blend modes and various opacity"

Now what does that mean exactly? I only know the methods "merge visible layers" "merge down" and "combine image". When I choose merge visible layers only the upmost layer is visible so I tried to set the opacity slider down to 50% to get the effect of the sketch underneath but then also the colours are reduced to 50%, which looks not so great.

Any tips for a noob?

[Artisanix]

so I tried to set the opacity slider down to 50% to get the effect of the sketch underneath but then also the colours are reduced to 50%, which looks not so great.

If I understand correctly you have smudge layer on top and sketch on bottom?

Well, it should be otherwise :] Just move the layers to correct positions.

At the bottom is the layer you smudge, and at the top layer with sketch. And then you can set sketch layer blending mode to something different than normal (multiply works good) and then play with layer opacity when the effect is too strong.

Here are GIMP blending modes.

[Tamira]

o. k. So I took an old Oblivion screenshot (my avatar)

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dvRhn1nAXIOhwlPHvGv1JdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink and tried to apply what you suggested.

Here my first result (with a simple vanilla frame) https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/gzzxWEXll7GJQIHanB5KGsPrtvMIsBCnarRlj-VdDU8?feat=directlink

There is so much stuff that's all new to me, so much to learn ....

Cookies for you

Edited April 12, 2012 by Tamira