affinity photo Completing my fanfiction composite - Creating a rain/storm Effect, adding a vehicle

[iconoclast]

2 hours ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

@carl123 @v_kyr @iconoclast Here is a new preview, I've got the head started, got to finish the outfit/

In my opinion,, there is still too much light on the foreground related to the whole scene. And the dog doesn't fit because of the lighting angle. Think about the light sorces. What and where do you think they should be be. Another important point is the lighting intensity. And even if it is diffuse, wide spread light (e.g. daylight) or spotlight. The lighting is very important for the atmosphere and the suspense.

[SolidSnake2003]

2 minutes ago, iconoclast said:

In my opinion,, there is still too much light on the foreground related to the whole scene. And the dog doesn't fit because of the lighting angle. Think about the light sorces. What and where do you think they should be be. Another important point is the lighting intensity. And even if it is diffuse, wide spread light (e.g. daylight) or spotlight. The lighting is very important for the atmosphere and the suspense.

I haven't yet started working on the lighting, just getting the characters into place before adding the shadows and lighting into each character. Plus not sure how to do the light coming out of the windows since there is bushes/leaves and not knowing how to create the light rays coming out of the windows.

[SolidSnake2003]

This is the source image I used for replacing the head turning the kid into Georgie:

This a screenshot from the movie IT from 2017. Screenshots from his projects are my best source for photos of his actor, Jackson Robert Scott.

[SolidSnake2003]

@v_kyr @iconoclast @carl123 Is there any advice on how to make the image blend into the composite?

[carl123]

You could try starting with a Brightness and Contrast adjustment and lower the brightness of the image. Tweaking the contrast if necessary

[v_kyr]

1 minute ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

Is there any advice on how to make the image blend into the composite?

Usually you always again adapt all the techniques you've already used before for the images here. You have to look/urge then, if the result sattisfies light & composition wise what you had in mind and if all looks neatless and realistic to your expectations. - So it's mostly always a repetition of what you've done before in terms of image altering.

[SolidSnake2003]

On 10/2/2023 at 6:18 AM, carl123 said:

You could try starting with a Brightness and Contrast adjustment and lower the brightness of the image. Tweaking the contrast if necessary

 

On 10/2/2023 at 6:18 AM, v_kyr said:

Usually you always again adapt all the techniques you've already used before for the images here. You have to look/urge then, if the result sattisfies light & composition wise what you had in mind and if all looks neatless and realistic to your expectations. - So it's mostly always a repetition of what you've done before in terms of image altering.

@carl123 @v_kyr @iconoclastHere is a new preview where I added an exposure effect where I increased it to make it look brighter:

One of the biggest parts I'm not sure if I should try to do is alter the outfit on the kid, but there isn't a lot of photos of Jackson in that outfit from that angle. The closest was that other image from this scene that was posted by Entertainment Weekly when they showed the first set of pics from the movie back in 2016/2017. It's the photo I posted a few posts back in this topic.

[carl123]

22 minutes ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

Here is a new preview where I added an exposure effect where I increased it to make it look brighter:

 

Sorry I don't understand why you made it brighter?

I would think making it less bright would better blend in with the rest of the image. Like adding a brightness & Contrast adjustment and effectively lowering the brightness

I include a quick example where I have done this to one of your earlier uploads

PS Don't worry about the radioactive dog, he would be done separately using the same technique

 

[iconoclast]

The intensity of light is better in this last example, but the problem is still the lighting angle. The brightest light sources in this scene are the lightnings and the lights inside the ambulance. But those lights don't have any effect on the people in the foreground of this picture. They are lighted by something somewhere on top left in front of the scene, that only affects them, but nothing around them. That's irritating. I think, at least the light inside the ambulance must be regarded in form of thin reflections on the edges of the silhouettes of the paramedics. And on the back of the guy on the left side, there should be a reflection, caused by the lightning. But you could only paint them. That's not easy.

[SolidSnake2003]

11 hours ago, carl123 said:

Sorry I don't understand why you made it brighter?

I would think making it less bright would better blend in with the rest of the image. Like adding a brightness & Contrast adjustment and effectively lowering the brightness

I include a quick example where I have done this to one of your earlier uploads

PS Don't worry about the radioactive dog, he would be done separately using the same technique

 

@carl123 Sorry, don't know what I was thinking. It is better to take something brighter, then make it darker than to take something darker and make it brighter, Making it darker makes it easier to see the edges of the blanket to help with the outfit if I can manipulate it to fit,

 

3 hours ago, iconoclast said:

The intensity of light is better in this last example, but the problem is still the lighting angle. The brightest light sources in this scene are the lightnings and the lights inside the ambulance. But those lights don't have any effect on the people in the foreground of this picture. They are lighted by something somewhere on top left in front of the scene, that only affects them, but nothing around them. That's irritating. I think, at least the light inside the ambulance must be regarded in form of thin reflections on the edges of the silhouettes of the paramedics. And on the back of the guy on the left side, there should be a reflection, caused by the lightning. But you could only paint them. That's not easy.

@iconoclast Some of the people are going to be replaced with different people that match actors cast for different roles from the story. Like the female paramedic I'm gonna change her to the mother who I cast as Darby Stanchfield who played Jackson's mom in the show Locke & Key instead of Pip Dwyer from the film. The biggest reason for the recast is there was only 2-4 scenes total with either her and/or the actor that played the father. Plus I'm gonna add another paramedic/firefighter in front of the boy's arms cause Georgie's right arm is supposed to have an injury. Plus not sure if I could adjust the hand to look like the mother's hand holding his hand instead of a paramedic.

I've never drawn light rims before. Like I said before, I don't have any kind of drawing tablet, all I use is a mouse. What are you meaning by "reflection caused by the lightning"? Are you meaning a shadow on the guy's back like the bolt, or something else. Sorry just confused on what you mean.

[SolidSnake2003]

@carl123 @v_kyr @iconoclast Here is a new preview where I have updated the brightness to be darker on the ambulance people and adjusted the brightness of the new head of Georgie to match it more with the ambulance photo:

Hope you like it, and welcome feedback on how to improve it.

[v_kyr]

Better than the one before, but light and shadow have still to be reworked for this scene. - Think about this: how much light is coming out of the ambulance lights here and in which angle is it distributed, meaning how much light is thrown on the boy and people around, who in this scene is partly in shadow here. Further the left flash, the most brightest one, should also have some effect/impact on the left part of the house side and lawn (probably also the dog etc.) from behind top left.

What might can help here in order to get a better feeling and understanding for oneself of how light & shadow plays in such a scene would maybe, to recreate (just for fun) such a scene in miniature by using some model car where you can open the doors at the back and insert a small lamp and place a few toy figures in front of it. Aka a small setup as often used in product photography, which shows how light & shadow do overall flow.

[SolidSnake2003]

16 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Better than the one before, but light and shadow have still to be reworked for this scene. - Think about this: how much light is coming out of the ambulance lights here and in which angle is it distributed, meaning how much light is thrown on the boy and people around, who in this scene is partly in shadow here. Further the left flash, the most brightest one, should also have some effect/impact on the left part of the house side and lawn (probably also the dog etc.) from behind top left.

What might can help here in order to get a better feeling and understanding for oneself of how light & shadow plays in such a scene would maybe, to recreate (just for fun) such a scene in miniature by using some model car where you can open the doors at the back and insert a small lamp and place a few toy figures in front of it. Aka a small setup as often used in product photography, which shows how light & shadow do overall flow.

@v_kyr Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately I don't have any models to try to recreate it. I did find this image on google search and it does show how the light falls out from an open ambulance. I know it's not at the right angle, but at least I can see how far the light goes out.

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2021/protecting-consumers-surprise-ambulance-bills

[v_kyr]

38 minutes ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

but unfortunately I don't have any models to try to recreate it

You can also try out to simulate things here with the APh Lighting effect. That might also show and give some angle related lighting flow overview.

[SolidSnake2003]

28 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

You can also try out to simulate things here with the APh Lighting effect. That might also show and give some angle related lighting flow overview.

@v_kyr Here is a preview of what I did using the lighting live filter with a spot light setting;

Should I just not bother not leaving the ambulance open and just try to create something with the doors closed?

[v_kyr]

8 minutes ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

Should I just not bother not leaving the ambulance open and just try to create something with the doors closed?

Can't tell, as I don't know that movie you're doing fanfiction for either way and so also don't know if you had some concrete scene from that in mind, or if you have some own scenes story wise here mind to create. - Somebody who knows that movie well can probably tell you better than I.

[SolidSnake2003]

2 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Can't tell, as I don't know that movie you're doing fanfiction for either way and so also don't know if you had some concrete scene from that in mind, or if you have some own scenes story wise here mind to create. - Somebody who knows that movie well can probably tell you better than I.

Sorry if I am being too much of a bother about my creation. Like I said before most of the composite is not even really from the movie itself other than the screenshot of Georgie's head. I also use another screenshot for reference to try to recreate the look of the opening 10 minutes since this part of the story takes place during that time. Don't know if you like horror movies or not since that is what IT is. If you saw the 1990 made for TV mini-series with Tim Curry, it's the same base story taken from Stephen King's novel IT.

[v_kyr]

46 minutes ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

Don't know if you like horror movies or not since that is what IT is.

No, I'm more the SciFi and special effects (aka MCU, StarWars Universe ... etc.) or good action movie guy, beside common classical & valuable old school cult movies.

[SolidSnake2003]

9 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

No, I'm more the SciFi and special effects (aka MCU, StarWars Universe ... etc.) or good action movie guy, beside common classical & valueble old school cult movies.

I'm normally not into horror myself. The only real horror movie I am more of a connoisseur of is werewolf movies. I like the transformation effects. My favorite one being Bad Moon which is why I chose a German Shepherd as the dog that is Georgie's ultimate protector, the one thing that IT/Pennywise can't intimidate. There is no real scene that directly inspired how I've written Georgie being saved other than the same general idea from another fanfiction online. Georgie is only really alive in the first 10 minutes of the movie before he's killed. After that, he's only seen as pictures and IT disguised as Georgie since it's a shapeshifter. Most photos I use of Jackson comes from other films and TV shows he's in.

[v_kyr]

4 hours ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

My favorite one being Bad Moon ...

I just know a few here, like "Wolf - with Jack Nicholsen", "Wolfman - with Anthony Hopkins", "Van Helsing - with Hugh Jackman", "Underworld - with Kate Beckinsale" and "American Werwolf".

[iconoclast]

I love the horror genre, but in relation to other genres, there exist only a few very good horror movies. That's at least my opinion. My all time favorite is "Alien" (Ridley Scott), that offers the ultimate horror vision - in my opinion. Another very good one is "The Descent" (Neil Marshall), which is possibly the most frightening movie for me that I have ever seen. Already as I was a little child, I crept out off my bed furtive at night to watch "The Thing from Another World" (1951, Christian Nyby/Howard Hawks), one of the most fascinating movies of my childhood. Don't know what went wrong with me. 😄

To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed by the new "It"-movies. Possibly because I read the book already thirty years ago or so, and I was definitely hooked. Not so this movies. But some aspects of this movies are really good anyway. Especially the child-actors. Werewolf- and Vampire-movies aren't my favorite kinds of horror movies. These topics are a little bit worn, I think. Almost the same with Zombies. My favorite Werewolf-movie is "The Company of the Wolfs" (Neil Jordan),  I think. My favorite Vampire-movie is "The Fearless Vampire Killers" (Roman Polanski), followed by "Interview with a Vampire" (Neil Jordan). But it's of course all a matter of taste.

Edit: I liked the old TV-filmizations of "It" as I first saw them, and I have them on DVD, but it's not easy for me to watch them today. They lost a lot of their fascination since then. Especially the second part, with the spider etc. looks  a little bit ridiculous. But Tim Curry as Pennywise was great.

[SolidSnake2003]

@carl123 @v_kyr @iconoclast Should i just leave the image like this, and just add lights to the ambulance instead of trying to add characters?

None of this composite is from the IT movie, its just a combination of a picture from a filming location post, a set preview image from the production designer, and a couple of free stock images I found.

[v_kyr]

14 minutes ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

Should i just leave the image like this, and just add lights to the ambulance instead of trying to add characters?

This is actually something that you have to decide for yourself, i.e. no one else can really tell you who is not involved in your project, its plot and sequence. - All I can say is that it is of course easier to handle and less work then.

[SolidSnake2003]

1 hour ago, v_kyr said:

This is actually something that you have to decide for yourself, i.e. no one else can really tell you who is not involved in your project, its plot and sequence. - All I can say is that it is of course easier to handle and less work then.

@v_kyr Sorry if I am being a pain. I do love the idea of having the characters. Its just tricky finding images to work with where I can alter the lighting unlike that para!Eric image I've been alterimg

[v_kyr]

2 hours ago, SolidSnake2003 said:

Sorry if I am being a pain. I do love the idea of having the characters. Its just tricky finding images to work with where I can alter the lighting unlike that para!Eric image I've been alterimg

Then tryout some AI image generators (do a Google search after those), there are a bunch of those nowadays, even free to use ones. You have to prompt (describe exactly) what you want as a scene and those will then generate an image for you. - If an image is close of what you had in mind as a scene but isn't perfect, you can then modify and alter it to be more the way you had in mind.