«

This is a multipost, I also posted this to
comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro. I would have cross-posted, but I only
thought of posting here some 10 minutes after I'd already made the original
post. Hope this doesn't upset anyone unduly.

I'm using Paint Shop Pro, but the techniques used should be analogous to any
decent image editor.

I am trying to knock up a sign with grass around its base to go on a white
background.

Here is what I've done so far:
http://www.nrkn.com/sign/

The sign was easy, used vectors, gradient and texture fills. I am quite
happy with it.

I then found a picture of a tree with grass around it to use as a base for
the grass around the bottom of the sign.

So far so good.

I'm just struggling with getting the grass to sit on top of the white
background and look natural (or even reasonable). I pretty much stuck the
grass both under and over the sign, then used the eraser to get rid of all
of it except for a patch around the sign base. I then used the push tool to
move grass around the edges of the base in order to get rid of the smooth
edges from the eraser and to introduce a little randomness.

I'm not happy with the result at all.

Any ideas on how I could go about doing this?

TIA!

--
"Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million
typewriters, and the Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare!" - Blair Houghton
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
http://www.nrkn.com/
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Nik Coughin wrote:
> Any ideas on how I could go about doing this?

make fake grass?

--
Dave Hall
http://www.dave.net.nz
http://www.karyn.net.nz

Nik Coughin wrote:

[snip]

> I'm not happy with the result at all.
>
> Any ideas on how I could go about doing this?

I think the reason the final image still looks fake is not because of the
grass but because the pole for the sign looks too fake. What about using
the tree in the "reality" image for the pole?

Allistar.

On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 13:50:32 +1200, "Nik Coughin" <nrkn!no-spam!@woosh.co.nz>
wrote:


>Any ideas on how I could go about doing this?

The light on the pole and the grass are different. The grass is too dark for
the bright pole. Darken the pole or lighten the grass.

But then again, I suck at graphics so I could be totally wrong

Nik Coughin wrote:
> This is a multipost, I also posted this to
> comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro. I would have cross-posted, but I only
> thought of posting here some 10 minutes after I'd already made the original
> post. Hope this doesn't upset anyone unduly.
>
> I'm using Paint Shop Pro, but the techniques used should be analogous to any
> decent image editor.
>
> I am trying to knock up a sign with grass around its base to go on a white
> background.
>
> Here is what I've done so far:
> http://www.nrkn.com/sign/
>
> The sign was easy, used vectors, gradient and texture fills. I am quite
> happy with it.
>
> I then found a picture of a tree with grass around it to use as a base for
> the grass around the bottom of the sign.
>
> So far so good.
>
> I'm just struggling with getting the grass to sit on top of the white
> background and look natural (or even reasonable). I pretty much stuck the
> grass both under and over the sign, then used the eraser to get rid of all
> of it except for a patch around the sign base. I then used the push tool to
> move grass around the edges of the base in order to get rid of the smooth
> edges from the eraser and to introduce a little randomness.
>
> I'm not happy with the result at all.
>
> Any ideas on how I could go about doing this?
>
> TIA!
>
Looks pretty good to me. I think you have been working on it for too
long. You begin to see defects that arent really there. Leave it alone
for a few hours, when you come back to it later it may look better.

On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 22:19:39 +1200, K T T <>
wrote:

>> I'm not happy with the result at all.
>>
>> Any ideas on how I could go about doing this?
>>
>> TIA!
>>
>Looks pretty good to me. I think you have been working on it for too
>long. You begin to see defects that arent really there. Leave it alone
>for a few hours, when you come back to it later it may look better.

That's a good comment - these things often look better when you leave
them alone for a while.

That said, there are a few things that might help: The light source
for the grass and the pole and sign is coming from different
directions. In the tree picture it is above and slightly behind the
tree. In the final it is in front of the pole and sign. Take a
picture of the grass and tree when the light angle matches the pole.

The pole is not real world - either use a real pole or use fake grass.

The grass area is too small. Make it quite a bit wider and feather
the bottom off over about a quarter of the grass height from the
bottom, rather than hard-edging it as you've done.

The sign moves away from the viewer on the right, yet it has no
perspective to show this. I suggest you add this perspective after
you've applied the text, so that you can flatten the image and take
the text to the same perspective. Not too much perspective - just
enough to convince the eye.

JJD

On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 08:14:38 +1200, JJD <> wrote:

>On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 22:19:39 +1200, K T T <>
>wrote:
>
>>> I'm not happy with the result at all.
>>>
>>> Any ideas on how I could go about doing this?
>>>
>>> TIA!
>>>
>>Looks pretty good to me. I think you have been working on it for too
>>long. You begin to see defects that arent really there. Leave it alone
>>for a few hours, when you come back to it later it may look better.
>
>That's a good comment - these things often look better when you leave
>them alone for a while.
>
>That said, there are a few things that might help: The light source
>for the grass and the pole and sign is coming from different
>directions. In the tree picture it is above and slightly behind the
>tree. In the final it is in front of the pole and sign. Take a
>picture of the grass and tree when the light angle matches the pole.
>
>The pole is not real world - either use a real pole or use fake grass.
>
>The grass area is too small. Make it quite a bit wider and feather
>the bottom off over about a quarter of the grass height from the
>bottom, rather than hard-edging it as you've done.
>
>The sign moves away from the viewer on the right, yet it has no
>perspective to show this. I suggest you add this perspective after
>you've applied the text, so that you can flatten the image and take
>the text to the same perspective. Not too much perspective - just
>enough to convince the eye.
>
I changed my mind. Don't feather the bottom of the grass. Just make
it wider and the add the same amount of perspective to it as you do to
the sign. Part of the oddness you have is the mismatch of
perspectives and angles between the grass and the sign.

JJD

It seems like Mon, 27 Sep 2004 13:50:32 +1200 was when "Nik Coughin"
<nrkn!no-spam!@woosh.co.nz> said Blah blah blah...

>I'm just struggling with getting the grass to sit on top of the white
>background and look natural (or even reasonable). I pretty much stuck the
>grass both under and over the sign, then used the eraser to get rid of all
>of it except for a patch around the sign base. I then used the push tool to
>move grass around the edges of the base in order to get rid of the smooth
>edges from the eraser and to introduce a little randomness.

Perhaps it's because the grass is real? I think because the sign looks
drawn, perhaps the grass should be too, so there's a continuity in
style.

Here's a quick (like 20 second) example of what I did with Paint Shop
Pro's default Picture Tube, using the grass picture
http://www.attesa.org/sign.jpg
--
Regards,
Waylon Kenning.

1st Year B.I.T. WelTec

Waylon Kenning wrote:
> Here's a quick (like 20 second) example of what I did with Paint Shop
> Pro's default Picture Tube, using the grass picture
> http://www.attesa.org/sign.jpg

heh, I prefer this to the OPs one.

--
Dave Hall
http://www.dave.net.nz
http://www.karyn.net.nz

Nik Coughin wrote:
>
> I am trying to knock up a sign with grass around its base to go on a
> white background.
>

Thanks everyone. Got more help here than I did in the PSP group

Taking a number of suggestions into account (mainly, using fake instead of
real grass, perspective etc.) I came up with this:

http://www.nrkn.com/sign/signWithLawn.jpg

Looks heaps better, cheers.