Preserved Topic: Nice "curves" Doc

Nice effect on your new banner image...I like it...<P>

He had a couple of others up before this one that looked like they had been wrapped in plastic wrap, those were really neat. I sat here and reloaded the page for a while to see if any more were going to change.<P>

The first one that I saw was a little too "out there" for my taste. I like this one....subtle...I like subtle...very tasteful...looks like candy <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/biggrin.gif"><P>

Yeah that second one was a little more jittery. The first one was nice, not as subtle as this one. This one kind of reminds me of a throat lozenge. It seems almost too smooth for the glow. <P><P>

I like it -- reminds me of the shin gaurds I wore in junior high playing soccer! <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/biggrin.gif"><P>

Anyone care to post a link so i can see what youre talking about??
thnx<P>Never Pet a Burning Dog
Rend

Ahhhhhh...they're talking about the pic that always appears at the top left of the page that says 'Ozone' in that funky lettering.<P><P>
Lepricosa...The Leprosy Ointment. For when your not half the man you used to be.

Doc OZ.........you ought to have that image change everytime you refresh the page..ya know like the MTV logo.............yea we could all design a OZONE logo .......then you could wip up a banner rotation script that just kept those variations comin.............or you could spend the next 6 months in your PS dungeon creating a slew of mad OZONE images for our entertain-ment............ok so its late and my brain cell did a brain freeze...or was i talking out loud and my fingers herd me...i dont know ....hey it was a thought.....ever get one of those and not know how to handle its energy....hehehehehe......######====================>>>>>>>>>>>>><P>

http://www.ozones.com/forum/ozone1.bak.jpeg
http://www.ozones.com/forum/ozone1.bak2.jpeg
http://www.ozones.com/forum/ozone1.bak3.jpeg
http://www.ozones.com/forum/ozone1.bak4.jpeg
http://www.ozones.com/forum/ozone1.jpeg <P>Just a little play, based off Phong's tutes. Can't say the whole 'curves' thing works for me, I like the tight control I get from placing each and every line just where I want them. The last (current) one is more my basic style, more reminiscent of Phongs *early* work, back when he only used POV-ray, anyone remember that? I like this kind of image, slick and slippery, just like a wet bar of soap! Zing!<P>Your pal, -doc-<P> <p>[This message has been edited by DocOzone (edited 02-06-2000).]

Didn't mean to imply that you used curves for this. I can see how you did it. It was just "slang" as to how sleek it looks...<P>

Really? The 'curves' effect was way too obvious to me! I like the accidental addition of new curved lines you get with it, but I'm still integrating it more into my own work. Really, I *never* used the curves control before, it is cool, but different. Always neat to me to discover yet another area of Photoshop I haven't explored fully, I love this app because of that. Malin's working with them right now, in a way that isn't based on the glass effect at all, it looks cool. Yet another creative tool, woo-hoo!<P>Your pal, -doc-<P>

I find curves extremely frustrating to use....it seems an extremely sensetive filter, and reproducing the same effect consistently seems inpossible , even if you do use the save feature.
It just takes hours and hours of tweaking, and even then your not gauranteed a good result.
I wonder if Adobe have tweaked this filter in v6......

It actually looks more like a contracted and offset beveled layer above the original layer. <P>Now, your other tweaked out one looked definitely like curves to me LOL!<P>Curves are hard to get around.....they ought to have a caution sign! <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif"><P>

Am I hearing what I think I'm hearing? Or did I miss something. How do you guys color correct files if not with curves? I'd give up nearly any single feature of PS, but not curves! Maybe you e-illustrators don't run into the problem, but photographers sure do and I know Dr.O has mentioned prepping photos for ecommerce sites. Curves are THE TOOL for color correcting in my life. Not yours? Granted as a step in an illustration the way phong does it it's maybe not real repeatable (but then how "repeatable" is the airbrush!), but as a production tool in color correction and targeting it's the industry standard tool.
r@m - curves aren't very intuitive at first, but if you use a curves adjustment layer at least you can tweak repeatedly without trashing image data. It's a good good feature. You can also set it to an "opacity" like any layer and further fine tune it. Not that I'm ever smart enough to actually DO this in real life, but I should.

[This message has been edited by Steve (edited 04-06-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Steve (edited 04-06-2000).]

Your comments notwithstanding, we're talking effects here not color correction.

Peace

I certainly wasn't knocking curves and i agree it definately takes time to understand and master, but for this "effect" it's damn tricky <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/frown.gif">
I will definately be trying the adjustment layer approach <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

I've very rarely played with curves still -- something I really would like to get a better grasp of.

Doc, nice logo! It looks likes candy to me...I wanna lick it!



[This message has been edited by Boudga (edited 06-06-2000).]

Now I know where I saw that image or one very similar....it was on one of your interfaces about a year back that moved up and down on mouseover....

It was similar, but not quite the same. You're talking about the SplatterPages, at http://www.ozones.com/splatter/ . You can see the improvement in my technique, the highlights on that one are kind of muddy, this one is much better IMHO.

That was my very first DHTML page, and you can tell, the movements are a bit klunky, not to mention it sucks CPU like nobody's business!

Hmm, curves for color correction, eh? That makes sense. I usually used a combination of Levels (the best for normalizing a low contrast digital camera image), and Color Balance. YMMV!

Your pal, -doc-<P>

Curves lets you do it in one step instead of 2. Big advantage to levels is the histogram. Big advantage to curves is unlimited number of points instead of a measly three. I generally start looking for something in a photo that should be neutral, and adjust individual color channel curves until R=G=B. The new eyedropper tool that locks a point in the Info window is killer for this. Setting black/white points is a snap using the composite RGB curve. Image a little cool? Pull down the blue or pull up the red, whatever. Most of my day is not spent doing illustration or effects - it's making photos look good, and curves are THE way. Like any powerful Photoshop feature, it takes time to wrap the brain cells around the concept. Part of the problem is that when you call up the Curves dialog you don't see a curve, you see a straight line!!! But it's all about re-mapping tonal values to different values; once you "get it" and it starts to make sense it's fast and efficient. Plus the PS engineers do a lot to help. Want to know where on the curve a particular value lies? Click in the inage window and a maarker shows up on the curve! Too cool.

Yes I made note that they were similar but not exactly the same....I happen to like your new one much better.

Thanks Steve for your tips on color correction. I for one will give her a go and I'm sure we'll be posting questions for you since you are the "resident expert" in this area....heh.

Hey -
Check out Deke using wacky curves at www.adobe.com/web/tips/totalphs8/main.html
I watched the movie a couple of days ago, thought about it for a while, tried doing it without reviewing the movie again and, though it didn't look *anything* like chrome, neither did it look anything like anything I'd ever done before! Beautiful, and so flexible as far as making changes. So I watched the movie again today and it still doesn't look like chrome when I do it, but it's still beautiful. Check it out.

BTW - since this is apparently a section from a training video he sells, the Adobe site doesn't have the curve pre-set he uses in the demo. That's proably why mine didn't look like his! Watch the screen shots carefully when he shows the curves for the color channels and try cooking up one similar yourself. Try using the pencil tool in the curves dialog instead of the default tool to get more abrupt changes. I think the earliest versions of PS called these Arb Maps. The gradient transitions can get pretty choppy if the changes are too abrupt. That's why, when using the pencil tool in te curves dialog, the "smooth" button becomes available. Go Deke!
Since mine looks more like "gummy worms" when I do it, I decided to go with it and add another step. I copied the text layer with effects, rendered it, ran the plastic wrap filter and put it at the top of the pile, set to overlay. Gave some extra highlight interest.

[This message has been edited by Steve (edited 17-06-2000).]