Topic awaiting preservation: Displacement map ?

Please forgive me if i dont explain this too well.

Picture the scene: I take a face on picture of someones head, i want to make a displacement map from this face in order to create an image that shows the face coming out of a sandstone wall ?

Understand so far ?

Now, if i am correct, the best way to do this would be to convert the face in to greyscale ? then use it as a displacement map. In theory, i think this may work, but am having problems with the conversion. i want to keep the face looking as real as possible.

Does this make any sense ? Can someone please explain how i might do this, or maybe an easier way.

Many many thanks

I think its image > adjust > desaturate.

That will make the current layer Black and White.

You may want to run levels to make the darks darker and the lights lighter... and you may want to gauss. Blur it a bit. Save that as the displace map... and displace with that.

Also, you can use the desaturated face layer ontop of the sandstone to make the face pop a bit more. Don?t blur this layer... Play with blend modes, multiply might do something nice... also play with that layers transparency, and if you wish, levels.

Heh? just play.

Then post the pic and maybe the PSD and we will play too.




[This message has been edited by eyezaer (edited 09-01-2003).]

you can probably tweak the face some and make a decent displace map. I've done similar things in order to bend a texture around a face. Perhaps smuding the edges of the face out to the sides to smooth the transition. However, you're still going to have to create the shading over the sandstone. Otherwise it will just look like flat, distorted sandstone. You won't get a sense of depth. One way this can be done is using tweaked grayscale versions of the face set to various blending modes (multiply, sceen and dodge especially). Maybe you already knew all this. Just figured i'd chime in. Good luck. I'd love to see an example of what you have so far.


edit -- dang, izzy posted as i was posting and said most of what i was saying. Gotta be quicker next time i guess




[This message has been edited by sharma (edited 09-01-2003).]

Thanks guys, this is the pic if you would like to work on it.

Head.psd

I'm currently trying different lighting effects using channels to see how that looks.



[This message has been edited by axleclarkeuk (edited 09-01-2003).]

This is a big can of worms that I have been avoiding for a long time. Too much to say, so I'll keep it short.

I've done a lot of playing with deriving a D-Map from a photo of a face. The closest I've come to being satisfied with the results is using Base Relief in R and B. Basically like double Emboss, but with Base Relief instead. Of course, manually pumping up the contrast with Curves before Base Relief, or maybe even Channel Mixer if the channels are conducive.

Axle, I'll play with the PSD later to see what I can come up with. For now, Super Mario World 64 is calling my name - gotta have priorities.

Mmm.

It is a problematic issue - with such a photo, you aredealing with the *result* of the depth, and what you're trying to use it for is the *cause* of the depth. It's most likely not going to work the way you're thinking.

WJ's train of thought is more where you want to go for a d-map, but a little out of my understanding.

Painting a d-map by hand would probably be a very viable solution...

DL-44 - I feared as much, my understnding of displacement maps is shady ( excuse pun ) at the best of times and i am kinda using this as an exercise.

You see i had this image in my head, and try as i might i cannot recreate it without probably having to do a bit more in depth research into the best way to go about it.

The comments so far have been great, and i have actually understood what i am trying to do a bit more, but its going to take time and patience, so i hope you guys are comfortable.

Late again, as usual....

But yeah - you got good advice above. Sharma in particular expressed it well. The dmap will distort the background, a necessary step, but by itself will provide none of the shading clues to suggest depth.

Try putting the grayscale image over the distorted background layer in overlay mode (or hard light, or soft light), or try using it as a height map for filter>render>lighting effects.

Might get you on your way. I've messed around with this and never quite took it to a point I was thrilled with. Plug away at it and keep showing us stuff!

I'm trying to visualize what your objective is, I keep on seeing that face in a film comming out of the sands in egypt (can't remember the name of the film). Anyhow,, I just used a generic sand image I had to try to get the effect.

I'm not really happy with this, but I thought I'd post it up as an example.
I converted to RGB, copied the layer, copied the head to a new channel and increased the contrast in levels. Made a new layer and filled it with the image of the sandstone, and set it to vivid light. Then I used lighting effects with the new channel with the amount set to 100% a light yellow colour above and a dark brown below. Then I copied that layer and set it to darken. Then I think I adjusted the Hue/Saturation.
[opps] typo [/opps]

[This message has been edited by Taobaybee (edited 09-01-2003).]

Blah! Yucky!
edit: Not you, Tao, but his one-channel vs. two-channel thing.

Start with something like this:



Hopefully you can see that some of the motion has to go in several directions. This means a two-channel D-Map. A one-channel D-Map just won't cut it, although you may be able to mirror invert R down the middle if you do just one side of the face.

To test how well the face will work as is, feel free to try it on a grid to see if you can get the lines anywhere near the red lines that I drew over his face. Try it several times with various percentages. Probably best to start with rather low percentages.

Back later with more junk.



[This message has been edited by warjournal (edited 09-01-2003).]

Tao: You'd probably be thinking of The Mummy...the Brendan Fraiser version.

Ok, i have been toying around with a few bits and bobs to see how things work and came up with this. I took another pic with a little bit more expression this time.



Now its not quite was i was looking for, but the effect is in the right direction. It involved a hell of a lot of mucking about and to be honest i am not entirely sure how i got to this point.

I really wanted something a bit more clean looking.

Here`s one. Is this anything like what you`re looking for ?

Yes DB, but perhaps a little bit more defined. BTW. The image is of Pink's little boy Oliver, apparently you have freaked her out with your pic, as it looks very ghostly !!!



[This message has been edited by axleclarkeuk (edited 09-01-2003).]

well, i gave it a go... not totally thrilled with it...
i only used lighting effects as i can't seem to get the whole d-map thing


__________________________
Cell 1007::

Ahhhh... thats more like the idea i had in mind lacuna, now do you mind explaining the process for me, so i may try and improve upon it ? I too am struggling with the displacement maps, and am starting to think that perhaps it is not the best method.

Thanks everyone

Hey, i don't know what really you had in mind, but i made something else.
really got chalenged!!!!!

Armen, you hit the nail on the head, those are great examples. Please please can you explain your process.

hmmmm....well, hopefully i can remember most of what i did. it really wasn't much.

1. i dup'ed the head and then adjusted the brightness/contrast a few times til the white was pretty white.
2. i selected all the white, put that on a new channel and filled it with white then gaus. blured at 5 i believe.
3. then i went back and selected all the dark stuff....put that on another new channel and filled it with grey and gaus. blured that at 5 as well.
4. new layer, filled with one of the generic stone patterns and did the lighting effects using the alpha 2 (the grey one)
5. then new layer filled with the same generic pattern and did lighting effects again, with the alpha 1 channel (the white one) but i turned the "white is high" down into the 30's.
then i messed with the opacity of the top layer until it looked ok. i did have to go in and dodge and burn a few places by hand...just to get the curve of the head a lil better.
6. then i dup'ed the face again, and moved that to the top and overlaid it and then erased some bits with a soft low opacity eraser.
7. then threw a hue/sat. adj. level above that for the color.

here's the .PSD for it. though i quite like Armen's example much better. Mine only took about 15 min of messin around, though, i'm sure with a lil more time you could do something much better.

__________________________
Cell 1007::

"The Mummy" Thanks Skaarjj, 'twas buggin' me
Ah! axleclarkeuk. Do you mean a face streching out of the background like eyezaer's sig?

[edit] will I ever complete a post without spleening errors [/edit]
Tao

[This message has been edited by Taobaybee (edited 09-02-2003).]

{{edit - and silly me, kept the page here for 20 minutes and posted without checking to see if anyone had replied in the mean time guess me and lacuna didn't do as similar a mthod as I though }}

I did quick example myself. I can't see Armen's images, so I don't know what he did, but here's this -



It seems that Lacuna and I probably did some similar things.

For starters, I ran a curves adjustment on the face to get the contrast good and high (but not too high...)

Then I copied the layer into a chanel, and blurred it, then inverted it.

Then I made a quick cheap generic sandy/stony texture and ran lighting effects on it with the new channel.

Then I grabbed the original image again and put it above the render, in Hard Light mode at about 35% opacity or so.

Used the smudge tool to blend into the background a little.

With more time and effort, I think that method would pay off.



[This message has been edited by DL-44 (edited 09-02-2003).]

if you didnt see the picture, heres another link.... http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/users/3f543faf_5291/bc/Yahoo!+Photo+Album/disor tmap2---1.jpg?pfzDEV_Ars9JeCNX

i'll write the whole process , later with tutorail style....

[This message has been edited by Armen (edited 09-02-2003).]


[This message has been edited by Armen (edited 09-02-2003).]

For those that canno see Armens image, here it is:





[This message has been edited by axleclarkeuk (edited 09-02-2003).]

Axle, could you repost your head.psd as a jpg? I can't seem to access the picture and I would like to take a whack at this.

axle, here's what i've done...
1. i took a picture of myself shouting but any picture will do "but it has to be from the front view"
2. extract the face from the other parts of the image " get rid of the hair too"
3. ok, you can use the smudge tool for this but i used kia's goo . simple pull the outer parts of the face " the edges" so it will look like a flower
4. create an sand like wall ((for that create a new file-add noise to a new layer-then copy the whole image using marquee tool-create a new layer in the channel box - paste it there - then create a new layer in the layer box fill it with a sand color - use the render>lighting effect tool on the sandcolored layer and in the texture channel chose the layer you created- walla))
5. drag the face layer under the sandwall layer
6. now play with it till you get a grip _ I added a black layer on top of all with an overlay mode
7. then i added some colors, i played with the adjastments i added the contrast, tried to make the face's color same as the sand's wall.

hope i've been usefull

Many thanks Armen.

Here's another image for you to try Moth



Damn, i asked him for a scary face, sure looks to me as if he's trying to squeeze one off !!



[This message has been edited by axleclarkeuk (edited 09-02-2003).]

I realize this was done a couple of weeks ago, but I thought I'd give it a shot.