Editing SL snapshots - before and after

[Tamara Artis]

Showing you one raw snapshot taken in front of a white screen. I prefer white because it doesn't hurt my eyes:) as you can see the model had really great look! Quality skin, nice hair and jewelry fits good. She was asked to remove a facelight and eyelashes but the look was really promising! She asked for this kind of a pose bc there was a photo I did before which she really liked. She wanted same one and I really had plan to make it look same, but they always take their own direction! Weird lol

Anyway, take a look and decide for yourself, what is it that you would like to fix on the avatar, and does it give you any idea on how to do the photo? Then read further and see what I've done.

 

 

For me, her shoulder was to sit and cry, I really try to edit avatars bodies and make them look more natural. So I take alot of time and observe real human bodies, either rl or on stock photos. Its easy bc everywhere you look, there are beautiful models smiling at you, all you have to do is look. Carefully:) Take the liquify tool and reshape that shoulder! Zoom in, go through every part of her avatar and fix every edge, they should be round, not square.

OK, then I had to fix that shoulder strap. Take the pen tool, make few anchor points, and start to create a new shape, new path. Ctrl+j to make a new, separate layer from the path, with just the strap on it. I do it because I want to create shadows and lights on the strap and I also want to edit the skin around it so its easier when its on separate layers.

Now we focus on her pearl necklace. Same thing as with the strap, select every single pearl and create a new layer with just this necklace. Then do same with other, heart necklace. If you look closer, you can see that every tiny part of the necklace casts its own shadow on her skin. 

Then we move on to the skin, I didn't want to smooth it too much and make it look plastic so I left the original avi texture and just smoothed the areas on her shoulder, below shoulder, neck, around lips and nose, and the eyes. 

For eyes I spent some more time, reshaping them a bit, creating new lashes, adding lines and shadow that falls from the lashes. And some light too. 

Next is dodge and burn. I do this on separate layers and each part of the body has its own layer. So i have dodge for nose, cheecks dodge, eyes, lips, neck, shoulder etc. Same goes for burn. This way I have the full control, in case I make a mess and want to redo, which happens pretty often. 

Then I edit hair. This needed a whole new group of layers. Same as for lips! 

Now the avatar started to live its own life, and asked for a nice background. In this case I had pretty light model, her skin was kinda tanned but in general the colors were bright, so I wanted something darker and more colorful but again silent, because I wanted to focus attention on the avatar. The background is there only to compliment her look. My first idea was a black back with some light gradient but it looked too dramatic, so I went with colors. 

For the end, I took a sparkle brush and added one on her earring and one tiny on her eye. And final touch was some blur. Just to add some rhytm or something, it looked boring without it lol.

Ok  now look at the final pic, which is almost done and tell me would you like to change or add some things? 

 

Thanks for reading my post:) 

[Codewarrior Congrejo]

It looks great so far.

 

Just a few things you could maybe advance / retouch:

(might depend on personal preferences but you asked so you will get an answer : ) )

The nasal cavities:
Your image continues using them as they were on the screenshot. As a very harsh and sharp line.
 in reality the shadows on that spot go rather soft from a dark into the fleshtone where more of the inside is to see.

Example 1 
Example 2

It  totally falls out of the image and pokes (at least my artistic eye) because it has those rather comic style sharp rimshadows, but then the cavities are all lit and bright.

The cavity between upper lip and nose:
has gotten a tad too much into red (maybe too much screen / colordodge values)
It almost looks like she could have smeared a bit of that lipgloss up there =) Would take that a bit down in the tone.

The Lips:
I personally think the border of the lipgloss is a bit too sharp and noticeable. It should have that slight blurring out to the skin
Example
Because I rather dislike looks like this: 
Example
(not the same color but I guess you get the idea)
But its apparently stronger to see on the lower lip. I would soften that a bit. To make it look less like she had a too harsh lipliner and was overdrawing at the borders.

Okay those were my 2 cents on it =).
Keep up the good work, Cheers! Code

[Tamara Artis]

mhm great stuff! Thank you. And I noticed I forgot to add the inner eye corners, don't know how you call those spots in english. Thanks for showing me photo examples, this is exactly what I needed!

Now, since I don't have anyone to give me this kind of advices, I have to ask is it possible to get more tips like this from you?

[moniq Salamander]

oh... so people still use facelights...

you did great work witht that photo, but wouldn't it have been easier to do shadows in SL than recreate them in PS all over? (just asking, to me it saves hours when editing)

[Tamara Artis]

LOL here is still big amount of people who walk around all lightened:p 

And yes it would be easier in a way, for example if I'm taking in-world snapshot without the blank screen, or when avatars body is not too much distorted. But when I take it this way, I decide about the light source after I choose a background, its how I'm used to do stuff and it works fine for me.

[Codewarrior Congrejo]

Now, since I don't have anyone to give me this kind of advices, I have to ask is it possible to get more tips like this from you?

you sure can ! =) feel free to poke me when you want an input on something

And I noticed I forgot to add the inner eye corners don't know how you call those spots in english

maybe u mean the 'tearducts'. Which, yes after a second look,  you kinda forgot to implement.

LOL here is still big amount of people who walk around all lightened

i know right? i still keep feeling buffled when i see on a nighttime scene that one generic female standing in the corner of a sim throwing light across half of the region ground.

[moniq Salamander]

You got a point there, because white background and no shadows give you more freedom for editing a photo.

And on the facelight thing... my slife got a lot better when i discovered that i can uncheck the "render attached lights" feature

[Tamara Artis]

lol tearducts, reminds me of ducks! Thanks I'll bother you for sure

[Tamara Artis]

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moniq Salamander wrote:

...my slife got a lot better when i discovered that i can uncheck the "render attached lights" feature

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ok I am going to log now and ask everyone about this feature! 

[Codewarrior Congrejo]

lol ! (even though i prolly shoulnd't laugh on this one.. i tend to mistype it that way: tearduckt or tearduck.. a crying duck ??? i have no clue why i make that typo ... )

And sure, bother me..  ^^ 

[moniq Salamander]

It's in the Develop menu/ Rendering / Render Attached Lights (on the bottom part of the menu). Close to Render Attached Particles, which can also be unchecked for a better and more lag-free sl )

[Tamara Artis]

I found it and unchecked, thanks! 

[Sidnella Riler]

the gold necklace, lips and shoulder work is the highlight for me, greatly done

[Kristin Burner]

mew mew ma mewping mew :matte-motes-bashful:

I really like what you did with that picture.

If you want more pictures to practice i would gladly let you take one of me , i have zero ability to edit a picture beyond cropping it.

[Heart Brimmer]

That is an incredible picture! If you need someone else to practice on, I volunteer myself! Would love to have a professional picture done of my avie. IM me inworld and let me know how much you charge, please?

[Coby Foden]

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Codewarrior Congrejo wrote:

 

maybe u mean the '

tearducts

'. Which, yes after a second look,  you kinda forgot to implement.

---

In http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacrimal_caruncle , the thing in the inner eye corner, is defined as:

 

"The caruncula lachrymalis or lacrimal caruncle is the small, pink, globe-like nodule at the inner corner of the eye."

 

The tear ducts:

 

"On each side of the lacrimal caruncle are two tiny openings called lacrimal puncti that suction tears by vacuum each time the blinking motion of the upper eyelid has ended."

 

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-lacrimal-caruncle.htm

 

Tamara: Great work on the picture.

Codewarrior: Excellent hints.

:smileyhappy:

[Tamara Artis]

Thank you Sid

Kristin and Heart fell free to check my inworld profile - I have all infos there on how and where to find me!

And yeah great tips I am still learning to do these details (same as hair) and hopefully next one will be better! I published this one as it was LOL. The problem with them is that they are never finished and at some point I have to let it go bc people are waiting patiently to get the pics done. 

What I appreciate here is that every person has a different point of view and each can give some unique approach and advice on how to look at the things:)

[Heart Brimmer]

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Tamara Artis wrote:

Kristin and Heart fell free to check my inworld profile - I have all infos there on how and where to find me!

 

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Thanks Tamara! Will check your profile the next time I am inworld. 

[veva Galicia]

could you explain how you did the hair!? OMG...I would love to know how to do that...

[Tamara Artis]

These were hair brushes and if you plan to use any I would advise you to make yourself a Deviantart account and use only free ones or ones that ask for credits. And always give credits where you can (it happens that after many months you find yourself with folder full of brushes not knowing from where you got them lol).

And then choose the color of her hair, go work on a new layer and don't forget to distort/dodge/burn/blur/sharpen/mask out and whatever it needs to make it look pretty:) If you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask!