Preserved Topic: Aging a face.

'lo all, Asylum newbie reporting in. I've been playing with Photoshop for a few months now and doing an okay job teaching myself stuff I guess.

I'd like some advice for my next project though, it seems pretty complicated, and I'm not sure I can even do it at all. My job is to take a photo of someone's face and make 'em look older. Like 10-20 years or something. Need suggestions on how to go about this. Also, if anyone knows of an already made tutorial on the topic, I'd appreciate pointing me towards it.

Input welcome, and I'm easier to reach on ICQ if you use that; # = 57786850. (Please don't abuse that if you're just a lonely person looking for someone to chat with.)

Thanks.

Study the looks of old and young faces (or whatever) and look at the diffrences. You could probably actually take an old face and fix it up better than if you took a young face and made it look old.

mm... kind of an interesting topic.....
i don't think we've had this one before..

perhaps you could provide us with a picture.... and after some of us take a stab at it... and post the results... we can all compare methods?... and see what works best, and what doesn't work so well?

just a thought.... it's up to you.


edit: welcome to the asylum.

[This message has been edited by Michael (edited 11-04-2002).]

and another thing....
are you looking to maintain picture quality?... i'm assuming you are, but i figured we'd get the facts straight.
depending on your answer... i suppose it could lead to more flexibility with working it.

Good idea Michael. Yes, I'm looking for picture quality, although, size in the end result doesn't have to be very big. Think about 1.5-2x the size of a picture of someone in a newspaper or something. (Not those huge photos, the ones that get stuck next to column articles.) And I'm not looking to go straight from baby to geezer, either. I'll get an image posted up in less than 24 hours if I can. Also, just for the record, I've made an amateurish attempt at using "morphing" software (merges two pics to get something in the middle.) and the result was quite sloppy. I wouldn't recommend bothering with that again, unless someone has some really high-tech software for that. I certainly don't.

if the pic is going to be that small... that benefits you.
Post a large picture for everyone to mess with. When it's altered.. and then shrunk... some of the "not-so-picture-like" qualities will hide.

You could always blend pictures of an older person with the picture of the younger one.
Take small pieces of the older person photo, and transform them so they fit over the younger persons photo (will probably take some work), and then use the stamp and brush tools to blend them in. Repeat with other pieces of the face.

Only my two eurocents ...

at the site http://www.computerarts.co.uk

if you're going to Tutorials >> 2D you'll find a full tutorial on this topic, very interesting indeed.

Hhmm.. instersting this about an aged face. I think spasquini is right pionting you to computer arts magzine, I remmber a little tutorail on how to make a face look old. Have a look here!!

Still I haven't had a go at it yet, so I might have a go when I get home. If I do have a go I'll post it and explian what I did if it turns out okey

COPEY

It also depends on the face you are going to age. Aging an adult's face would invovle those tricks and tips that SP and DS point you towards (nice resources there guys) but working on a child's face and aging it is a more complex matter - the face gets longer and various proprotions change (the chin possible).

You might actually want to dig around in forensic/police sites to see if they have anything worth digging out as athey have done the most work into this kind of thing - looking for missing people, etc. I know on TV shows they have some fancy piece of software that morphs the image at a few presses of the button but the basic principles are the same for pen and paper. Also try searches for ontogeny (sp?) which is the study of the skeleton with aging (just did a quick check and although ontogeny is broader than that looking for human ontogenic changes could help).

As Michael said - interesting topic that doesn't come up very often (I feel an FAQ coming on).

Now I think we have examples of old faces around here somewhere....

~runs off before he gets crucified~

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

See things like this:
http://www.graphic-design.com/Waldron/AgingPhotos.html

[edit2: Also Dr, Waldron has a site here:
www.dlynnwaldron.com/ageprogression.html ]

[edit: and looking for forensic age progression brings up a few things:
www.crimelibrary.com/forensics/art/6.htm

Some examples (some do seem a little scary though):
www.forartist.com/forensic/modification/modificationpg.htm
www.forensicartclasses.com/age.asp
www.forensicis.com/ageprog.html
www.forensicartist.com/agepro.html

and this is a very interesting photo series which demonstrates nicely the changes as people age:
www.zonezero.com/magazine/essays/diegotime/time.html ]

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

great links Emps! thanks

Yea nice links there emp, I live dlynnwaldron.com & forensicartclasses.com, all very instersting.

Now where my computer arts mag with that tut....

~ runs off to find it and have try!! ¬

COPEY

Agh, jeez. Overflow of links. Okay, I'll check this multitude of links out, in the mean time, anyone who feels like messing with this, see what you wanna do with this image. I honestly could care less about the results, I just wanna know *how* to do it.

It's the biggest and highest quality I could get. (And no, that isn't me, thankfully.) The kid is like 17 years old or something and the lighting isn't real great, so... Heh, yeah.
http://xel.puddleby.info/young3.jpg

Well done Emps. You have a direct mind link to the net, don`t you ?

*unplugs*

Not anymore.

Xel: I think we'd be most interested to see what you come up with using those techniques - it seems like quite a bit of work (Dr. Waldron claims it can take 25 hours) although I'm sure some enthusiastic souls might have a play.

We could grab a few pictures of inmates and age them - now where did those pictures of docilebob and vp go (they are really teenagers you know it is only due to the power of Photoshop that we have worked such wonders with their images)?

Raptor: I can't quite pin it down but something is wrong but urmmm...... I dunno....

~wanders of scratching head, walks into wall and sits on the floor chewing his shoe laces and drooling on himself~

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Well, Emps, if your intellect comes from the web, then you're better off unplugged. Otherwise, your posts would all look like this:

newbie: Hey, how do I make a dog in Photoshop?

emperor: Just the other day, my 18-year-old cheerleader girlfriends and I were working on a similar problem... you won't believe how we solved it! If this message is flashing, you've won! First, select the Pen tool, then click here for "natural male enhancement" like you've never had before! After inverting the layer mask, open the Levels dialog to see XXX virginal teens showing it all off for you! They're young, they're innocent, but they love to play with their Wacom tablets. Remember: observe, study, practice, make $3000 per month in your spare time. I'm telling you nicely before DL-44 gets here.

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Not MLM

I ressemble that remark Emps!

PT: Do you mean they don't look like?? They do when I type them There must be some kind of filter in place - do you mean my answers don't have big popups appearing with them?? Damn.

vp: LOL

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Well, to me, the entire Asylum looks like this...

Perfect Thunder : We definately heed to adjust your meds...

Makin old people is fun. great links, Emps.



<edit> for Emps

This is the pic Xel posted a link to : ( reduced in size)



</edit>

[This message has been edited by docilebob (edited 11-05-2002).]

LOL PT nice Mr T'inator there !!

Bob: Nice work there.

COPEY

db: Could we see the original picture so we can compare the two? Not that I'm accusing you of cheating but someone less talented could just post a picture of an old person (hold on I have no talent for this!! Now that gives me a few ideas ).

And I believe you have at least one other aged photo up your sleeve somewhere (a little bird told me...) so why not share that

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

*kills bird*

And that's the end of that chapter.

*dusts hands*

Thanks, synax. Stupid bird.

Emps : see above for the original ^^

For the record, this is not an accurate depiction of this person at an older age. To do it properly, you would need family photos for reference, as genetics has alot ot do with this, as well as a dozen other factors. But it was fun.

db: Damn:

first because I am a dumbass for not spotting that it was based on the picture;

second because that is some really nice work - an awful lot of examples I've seen have been pretty bad but that is a very believable likeness. You are right that the more info you have the better likeness you can achieve (esp. if the family tended to fat or not in later life) but that is great. Any tips for people trying this?

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

hehe. Thanks Emps.

Tips ?
Ummm..read the tutorials at the links you posted. That`s what I did..



<edit> Three freakin lines without misspelling something. Is that too much to ask ? Sheesh</edit>

[This message has been edited by docilebob (edited 11-06-2002).]

db & Xel can I drop those images into the FAQ? I've updated it and that would be a great addition.

db: By the way - how long did it take you?

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Emps, The FAQ thing is Ok with me, anytime. If I post it and you like it, feel free to save it.

This one only took about 45 minutes. There are 7 layers with masks ( besides the original) and LOTS of room for improvement in blending and color. Wiht some more time it might turn out nice..

Sure Emp, go right ahead for the FAQ or whatever.
And by the way, db, if your final product is just a B&W pic, those blending problems really don't matter a whole lot. I'm trying to attempt this myself. (also having some similar problems, heh.)
I might also try a different face. If it turns out decent I'll post it. (I'm slow, give me a break!)

db & Xel: Thanks - FAQ updated.

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Emp: np

Bleh, I take back what I said earlier about thinking I was "decent" at photoshop, this is a bit much for me.

I think I'll pass on trying to get this to work for awhile, heh. *goes and works on something else* ;p

Ah well, looks like I at least got some other people interested in it, eheh.

shoot i been workin with photoshop for about ... 2-3 months now and i know for a fact there is absolutly NO way i could pull that one off, good work on it though

Good Lord... *stabs Draco's sig*