ZBrush Character Creation - Advanced Digital Sculpting 2nd Edition

■ Photoshop Compositing 289

Background

At this stage the character head is simply floating in space. We want
to give it a neutral background so the silhouette of the character reads
clearly. By using a neutral background you also ensure the color tempera-
ture and value ranges in your painting read accurately. The following
steps will show you how to create a neutral background with some atmo-
spherics for the character design.

1. Isolate the background of the image by selecting it in the matte
   layer with the Magic Wand (Figure 8.47). Delete the background
   from the collapsed composite layer.


2. Create a new empty layer behind the character head layer. Select the
   gradient tool and create a gradient from dark to lighter gray in this
   layer. We want a nice middle value to help show off the silhouette of
   the character head. If this background is too dark, it may cause the
   viewer to lose the outline of the character, and therefore the design.
   Noise overlays and clouds help create a sense of randomness and
   chaos in the image and add to its realism. This is a way of approximat-
   ing the grain in photography: the chemical granules of silver are random
   and are part of what gives photographic images their life compared to
   the harsh perfection of digital or video images.

Noise

From the accompanying DVD load the noise.psd image. Paste it as a layer between the head
and the gradient layer. Set the blending mode to Overlay, and dial back the opacity as needed.

Clouds

We will now create a cloud layer to help break up the
ordered 3D graphics look of the image.

1. Create a new layer on top of the stack. Fill the
   layer with a color by pressing Ctrl+A, then
   Alt+Delete. At the top of the screen, click
   Filter → Render → Clouds to generate a layer
   of cloud noise (Figure 8.48).

I usually find the scale of the clouds to be too small,
so I will select the layer by pressing Ctrl+A and then
scale it up by pressing Ctrl+T or choosing Edit → Free
Transform. I will often scale the cloud layer by 300% to
get a soft, undulating layer of value changes.

2. Set the blending mode to Overlay. You may
   also want to erase the clouds from the center
   of interest area of the face. This keeps the focal

Figure 8.47 Isolating the background

Figure 8.48 Adding a cloud layer