The Christmas card...how I did it!
Dec. 24th, 2011 05:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crysania4First of all, I am SO GLAD so many folks liked my Christmas card! I was thrilled with how it came out. I had more than one person asking if that was really Dahlia on the card (yes it was!) and if so, how on earth I did that. Well, now that most people have gotten it, let me step you through my process because it was so much fun to make!
So the first thing I had to do was get a picture of Dahlia! So you take one aviator hat, one pair of Doggles, one scarf, one dog, and three people. You dress the dog in the hat, doggles, and scarf. And then you have one person (David) hold the dog's attention with a treat while another person (Brandon) holds the scarf up while a third person (me) takes a photo. And you end up with this:
Then you:
1. Edit out Brandon's hand and the end of the scarf.
2. Edit out Dahlia's collar.
3. Turn the white parts of the scarf red through the cloning tool.
4. Add fringe to the end of the scarf (also through the cloning tool).
5. Remove the entire background (a lot harder than it looks).
6. Make a sad attempt at fixing her feet because they were buried in grass (my bad!). Since it was going to be much smaller AND cartoony, I figured the feet didn't matter too terribly much. If I could have gone back and done it again, I would have taken the picture with her sitting on the sidewalk where her feet were all visible.
So you get this (only with a transparent instead of a green background!):
So now you've got the basic Dahlia as Red Baron look. Now you need something to put it into. Like this!
Which you take and edit snoopy out and extend the top part a bit to fit a taller dog in. And get rid of the signature and stuff.
Now, you notice that it's angled and the original picture of Dahlia is not. So you have to figure out about the angle to tilt the picture of Dahlia as. As it turns out it's about 15 degrees.
So then you realize it's from a cartoon and Dahlia better look a little more cartoony and less like a photo. So you use the "poster edges" filter and mess around to get her to look like a cartoon.
And then you cut and paste the final image onto the one you edited Snoopy out of and drag it into its proper place and exclaim with glee over how awesome it came out because you didn't imagine for a moment you would pull this shit off. And tada! Here's the final product!
For those not familiar with the song, the quotation on the card comes from the Snoopy vs. Red Baron song. It's one of my favourites and once I saw Dahlia in Doggles it HAD to be done. I'm not sure I can top it next year!
So the first thing I had to do was get a picture of Dahlia! So you take one aviator hat, one pair of Doggles, one scarf, one dog, and three people. You dress the dog in the hat, doggles, and scarf. And then you have one person (David) hold the dog's attention with a treat while another person (Brandon) holds the scarf up while a third person (me) takes a photo. And you end up with this:
Then you:
1. Edit out Brandon's hand and the end of the scarf.
2. Edit out Dahlia's collar.
3. Turn the white parts of the scarf red through the cloning tool.
4. Add fringe to the end of the scarf (also through the cloning tool).
5. Remove the entire background (a lot harder than it looks).
6. Make a sad attempt at fixing her feet because they were buried in grass (my bad!). Since it was going to be much smaller AND cartoony, I figured the feet didn't matter too terribly much. If I could have gone back and done it again, I would have taken the picture with her sitting on the sidewalk where her feet were all visible.
So you get this (only with a transparent instead of a green background!):
So now you've got the basic Dahlia as Red Baron look. Now you need something to put it into. Like this!
Which you take and edit snoopy out and extend the top part a bit to fit a taller dog in. And get rid of the signature and stuff.
Now, you notice that it's angled and the original picture of Dahlia is not. So you have to figure out about the angle to tilt the picture of Dahlia as. As it turns out it's about 15 degrees.
So then you realize it's from a cartoon and Dahlia better look a little more cartoony and less like a photo. So you use the "poster edges" filter and mess around to get her to look like a cartoon.
And then you cut and paste the final image onto the one you edited Snoopy out of and drag it into its proper place and exclaim with glee over how awesome it came out because you didn't imagine for a moment you would pull this shit off. And tada! Here's the final product!
For those not familiar with the song, the quotation on the card comes from the Snoopy vs. Red Baron song. It's one of my favourites and once I saw Dahlia in Doggles it HAD to be done. I'm not sure I can top it next year!
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-24 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-24 11:58 pm (UTC)I love your version, though!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-25 03:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-25 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-25 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-25 05:24 pm (UTC)I had great plans for Christmas cards this year, but it didn't happen :( Hopefully next year!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-25 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-26 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-11 04:03 am (UTC)