The Art of Poser and Photoshop: The Official e-frontier Guide

489 Pages·2008·43.641 MB·English

by  Stephen Burns

The Art of Poser® and Photoshop®: © 2009 Course Technology, a part of Cengage Learning.
The Official Guide
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright
Stephen M. Burns
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Photoshop is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in
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Lee Kohse
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Printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 12 11 10 09
This book is dedicated to memory of my
mom for all of her loving support, and to
my dad for inspiring me to always excel at
what I do. They are excellent parents.
Acknowledgments
Without the support of so many others, this book would not have been possible.
I would like to thank Jenifer Niles, Jennifer Blaney, Kezia Endsley, and Lee Kohse for
their patience and professionalism in seeing this book to fruition properly.
I would like to thank Roger Cotton for being a willing model and giving advice on great
posing concepts.
Thanks to the entire Smith Micro team, especially Steve Yatson, Sarina DuPont, Colin
Gerbode, and Steve Rathmann for their patience and ever-growing encouragement and
support. Also, thanks to Daryl Wise, who helped promote the idea of a Poser and
Photoshop book. Great job guys on producing a fantastic 3D package!
In addition, I feel it is only appropriate to thank Adobe for creating one of the most sig-
nificant upgrades that now includes 3D. I think that you guys are on the right track. A
special thanks to the following Adobe team members: John Knack, Zorane Gee, Pete
Falco, and Vishal Khandpur. Thank you for your support and knowledge.
Thanks to the entire Wacom team for creating an excellent interface to the computer
from which artists can create intuitively. Special thanks goes to Steve Smith, Scott
Gustass, Peter Dietrich, Doug Little, and Joseph Sliger.
Also, I would like to thank the members of the San Diego Photoshop Users Group
(www.sdphotoshopusers.com) for their dedication and support in helping me build a
strong network of digital artists from whom I draw inspiration always.
About the Author
Stephen Burns has discovered the same passion for the digital medium as he has for
photography as an art form. His background began as a photographer 28 years ago,
when he specialized in creating special effects photography using a 4×5 camera. His
studies led him to discover painting, where he embraced the works of the great
Abstractionists and the Surrealists, including Jackson Pollock, Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo
Picasso, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Mark Tobey, Francis Bacon, Willem De Kooning,
and Leonor Fini, to name a few.
In time he progressed toward the digital medium to discover Paint Shop Pro, Aldus
PhotoStyler, Painter, and finally Photoshop. He settled on Photoshop as his program of
choice.
Digital Involvement
In addition to being the president of the prestigious San Diego Photoshop Users Group
(www.sdphotoshopusers.com), of which there are currently 3,000 members strong and
growing, Stephen Burns has been an instructor and a lecturer in the application of dig-
ital art and design for the past 13 years. His teaching style comes from his ability to
share an understanding of Photoshop so that his students can intuitively apply it to their
creations. You can find his online classes at www.xtrain.com/stephen.
Published Works
Stephen has authored several books and written numerous articles. He is the author
of Advanced Photoshop CS3 Trickery & FX, Advanced Photoshop CS2 Trickery &
FX, and Photoshop CS Trickery & FX. He writes articles for HDRI 3D magazine
(www.hdri3d.com), where the articles are based on creative digital techniques using
Photoshop and 3D applications.
Exhibitions
Artistically, Stephen has been exhibiting digital fine art internationally at galleries such
as Durban Art Museum in South Africa, Citizens Gallery in Yokahama, Japan, and
CECUT Museum of Mexico, to name a few.
You can see more of Stephen’s works at www.chromeallusion.com.
Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Chapter 1
Poser and Photoshop Interface Overview 1
System Requirements for Poser and Photoshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Understanding the Photoshop CS4 Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Tools Bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Drop-Down Menus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The New Adjustment Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
CS4 3D Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Modifying Textures in Photoshop CS4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3D Lighting Capabilities in CS4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
A Quick Look at Bridge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The Poser Pro Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Poser’s Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Material Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Camera Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Character Display Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Camera Views for Selected Body Parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Basic Posing Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Posing with Inverse Kinematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Posing with Presets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Basic Poser Lighting Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Various Helpful Poser Presets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Body Morphs in Poser Pro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
What You Have Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Chapter 2
Creating a Profile Carved in Stone 92
Creating the 3D Head in Poser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Integrating the Head into the Digital Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Setting Up Lights in Photoshop’s 3D Layers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Contents vii
Completing the Landscape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Creating Moss with a Paintbrush. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Applying the Moss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Adding the Finishing Touches to the Scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
What You Have Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Chapter 3
Posing and Perspective 132
Creating the Initial Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Creating the Light Goddess in Poser Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Adding Texture to the Figure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
The Camera’s Focal Length…A Brief Description of Perspective . . . . . . 155
The Camera’s Focal Length: Its Vanishing Point and
Perspective Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
The Camera’s Focal Length in Poser Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Integrating Poser and Photoshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Adding More Lighting to the Light Goddess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Give the Goddess Wings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Adding the Finishing Touches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
What You Have Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Chapter 4
Using the Nodal Texture Engine 180
Creating the Initial Poser Figure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Editing Textures via Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Exporting the Poser Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Creating the Environment in Photoshop CS4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Import the 3D Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Creating the Chiseled Out Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Creating the Foreground Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
What You Have Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Chapter 5
Advanced Nodal Texturing in Poser 218
Creating the Landscape and Chamber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Making Further Modifications to the Glass Tube. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Creating a Character in Poser Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Saving Your Poses for Future Use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Poser Pro’s Advanced Nodal Texture Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Adding Other Nodes to Selected Channels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
viii The Art of Poser and Photoshop: The Official Guide
Applying Photographic Images to Individual Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Using the Nodes to Create Bump and Luminosity Effects . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Adding the Finishing Touches in Photoshop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Fine-Tuning the Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Fine-Tuning the Backdrop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
What You Have Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Chapter 6
Image Based Lighting in Poser Pro 284
Creating the Basic Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Understanding How Image Based Lighting Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Applying IBL to a More Practical Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Creating the Landscape in CS4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Finalizing the Detail in the Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
What You Have Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Chapter 7
UV Mapping in Poser Pro 328
Creating the Basic Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
The Face Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Integrating the Side View Into the UV Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Adding Detail Back Into the Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Creating the Bump and Diffuse Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
What You Have Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Chapter 8
HDRI Lighting 388
Sculpting the Head. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
HDR and Photoshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Matching the Focal Length of the Lens in Poser and Adding
HDR Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Creating the Scene in Photoshop Using an HDR Image . . . . . . . . . . 401
Editing the Texture Maps in Photoshop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Adding Some Finishing Details. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Altering the Texture on the Clothing to Look More Futuristic. . . . . 437
Fine-Tuning the Clothing in CS4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Adjusting the Surface Quality and Painting on the 3D Object . . . . . 447
What You Have Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Index 454
Foreword
Stephen Burns’ art looks nothing like mine. I work in the entertainment industry cre-
ating art for film, television, and comic books. I design the look of futuristic cities,
drooling zombie cyborgs, or drawing cute funny kids in my webcomic
(www.kindergoth.com). All of my income comes from the creation of art that is meant
to entertain. Stephen’s background is in photography, and he teaches digital art. I am
talking about myself only because I want you to understand how different Stephen and
I are artistically and how important this next sentence is. Even though I will most likely
never create a piece of art similar to Stephen Burns, I love his books.
Every time a new version of Photoshop or Poser is released, you will find Stephen in his
office playing with all the new features trying to figure out how they work or where he
can use them. He needs to know. He needs to learn. Every time I see Stephen, he shows
me his latest work and describes how he created it. Then he does something amazing—
he asks how I would have done it. Most artists of Stephen’s caliber are egos with legs
and gaping maws starving for praise. Not Stephen; he wants to improve, learn, and then
share what he learned with anyone willing to listen. You’ll find him combing over the
development notes from the engineers, constantly trying to figure out new ways to
improve his workflow and add new, creative effects to his art. With the new 3D layers
features in Photoshop CS4, Stephen was happy as a child who inherited a toy store. He
spent months testing it for Adobe and Smith Micro, trying to get the two programs to
play nice with each other and create stunning images. All along he was taking notes and
learning.
The book you are holding is full of what Stephen learned. All those months of practice,
experimentation, conversations with software developers and engineers, others artists,
and, of course, his notes have culminated into this book. His step-by-step instruction,
with lessons that build upon lessons, are amazingly easy to follow and incredibly in-
depth. And, best of all for me, they’re practical. Just last week I was commissioned to
do two major pieces,and I will do them using techniques I learned from this book.
Stephen Burns’ art looks nothing like mine. However, I always learn something new
from his books. Stephen is an educator. His enthusiasm for learning new techniques is
surpassed only by his passion for sharing what he has learned. If you are not lucky
enough to be one of his students, you can rest assured that this book is almost as good
as being one. Whether you are a seasoned veteran of digital art or a novice, you will find
something new and inspiring in the following pages.
Lee Kohse
Pixel Defiler, Creative Director, BloodFire Studios
www.kohse.com (www.bloodfire.com)