AffinityJules

That would have been useful to know from the outset.

You've completely changed it again. Why?

What a grand title for such a simple picture concept! All photo's sourced at Unsplash. Visualisation created using Affinity Photo.

Getting better but now the girl's colour is off when compared to the 2 boys. It looks like she's in a completely different scene. When making adjustments always check what effect it has had on the rest of the composite and adjust accordingly. Update: did a quick edit to show what I mean. I used the central boy as the colour model and shifted the colours toward it. Both left and right characters have been slightly modified.

I like it too. Very Daliesque, don't you know!

I know who Pennywise is but who is the figure on the left meant to be? All I can make out is green!! 🤔

That looks good. But I still have visual issues with the green casting. Another suggestion I will venture to make, and this is purely my own preference visually speaking. I would not allow the green and yellow casting at the top of the picture to fall on the children. As it's behind them, it looks a little odd that the front of them are green and yellow. To my eyes it would look better if the children were back-lit by the colours as suggested by the picture layout. A small amount of inner glow, or a blurred layer behind the kids, or use a new child layer to highlight the edges (there's hundreds of ways to do it) would give good results. I attempted it but as I was working on a flattened image rather then a layered composite so it was too problematic.

Did a few mods with this one. 1. Moved the left boy to the left. 2. Changed the shrubs and tree. 3. Altered the buildings to a more uniform colour. 4. Added some mist to the bottom of the picture. 5. Did some colour grading. Just some quick ideas of how I would approach such a picture.

It doesn't really matter what I like best or dislike the most, this is your composite and anything that looks good to you, or sits well with your own artistic creativity is all that matters. I only commented because the first thing that drew my attention with your latest update was the fact that everything looked as though it was wrapped in a plastic film. If that's the look you really want then go for it, it's not the thing I would do, but hey, don't mind me. There is one thing you might want to consider - and this is purely from my own point of view and is of no real importance: I would match up the 3 buildings with light, colour, hue, etc, so that they all look like they belong in the same space that they occupy within the picture.

Oh dear.....now everything's wrapped in a plastic film.

You're not alone puheOU. I constantly lose track of where the cursor is - especially when working with grey tones. Zooming in has no effect on the cursor at all. I have looked at all the available options but have found nothing to change the colour of the cursor, or, to make it more user friendly. But you never know.....someone in here might have a good solution to the problem.

I am at a loss to understand why some people find it so hard to follow a simple, clear instruction.

Very nice.

Very compelling to watch, I was waiting for something glorious to happen!? Now I'm a bit depressed.

Well....for someone trying to get to grips with Blender, you did pretty good. Out of curiosity, a few months back, I actually downloaded Blender just to see what it was all about. All I could do was make basic shapes from the presets - and that was it! After a few moments looking at my screen, I thought "nope," uninstalled it, and never gave it another moments thought.

Hey StuartRc! Just checking out your rather fine asset library, and it always leaves me wondering whether or not the brush sets you create are vector only? I know 'jack' about vector brushes and their usage, so my real wonder is: do you create raster brushes (is that what they're called?) which can be used in Affinity Photo?

Thank you....really having fun with these series of pictures.

....Swirling sands, driven by gentle winds slowly clear to reveal a Metropolis. The research team stop to take a moment and absorb the magnificent sight ahead of them.

.....Discovery by the research team of an energy sphere which they have coined, "The Power Marble." Apart from 4 base photographs, desert sands, distant rock structure, tourists, well hole, all concept designs created entirely within Affinity Photo using shapes and texture samples.

This, by rights, should've been picture 4 in the series, but due to a major computer malfunction I lost the version (3) I was working on. Hey-ho. # I don't trust technology.

You must be subtle when simulating rain in a composite; gray smudges will not sell the concept and will look like exactly what they are. A few comments on previous pages I mentioned whether or not what you're doing looked real enough to sell a concept to a viewer, or indeed yourself? I don't wish to keep repeating myself, but you and I both know what rain looks like out there in the real world, and when we do composites we are trying to approximate the visual aspect of what we know rain looks like. The picture attached is another quick/rough example of what you should aim for. You have chosen quite a difficult subject to portray in a composite, rain is never easy - apart from applying a block rain layer, there are all the little details that help to sell the concept. This is where you will have to decide how far you wish to take it in regards to realism. If you're not able to apply the subtle effects needed then you might consider rapping up the image and move on to something else. Personally, I haven't got the time to keep making these quick examples for your consideration, quick or not it does take up a lot of my time, but with dedicated practice, trial and error, you will slowly learn and get better with your composites. I am no expert, I draw upon what I have learned over the years along with some tricks I picked up. The best teacher of all is nature, study that in all aspects, light and dark, wet or dry, cold or hot, etc.. and then think about how it should look in your composite. And to reiterate, both you and I know if something looks realistic or not when creating a composite.

Using Levels Adjustment/HSL/Channel, you can single out the water to use against any background.

In my view those pictures are totally unsuitable for rain in a night scene. Both pictures look like they have been taken during the day and are far too white to sit properly against a dark background without sticking out like a sore thumb. Look for pictures of rain/splashes, etc, against a dark background, it will make it easier to extract. Another thing to consider is the angle of the picture itself, does it match the eye-level view of your composite, or is it higher or lower? And while I'm at it, do you know how to extract elements from a photograph using channels? I ask this because I don't know anything about your knowledge base level when using Affinity Photo.

In all honesty this could be improved. The rain on the umbrella and ambulance is far too blurry and smudgy, it does not look natural. Does it look natural to you?

When applying special effects to a composite, ask yourself if what you've done sells the concept in your own mind? If the answer to this question is yes, then there is no problem so carry on with what you are doing. If the answer is no, then revisit the composite and consider if what you've done would look like it does in reality - real world application, etc. The picture attached is a rough example of trying to sell/portray a rainy scene concept from a 'dry' photograph. Does it sell the concept? You decide.