Project2.No Swimming After a Meal


Project 2. No Swimming After a Meal

One of the many sights of Los Angeles is the La Brea Tar Pit, where thousands of prehistoric fossils have been discovered. Not trusting our imagination, the fine caretakers of the tar pit have erected models of a mammoth family, two of whom are watching from the shore as the third gets sucked into the tar. The image would be far more realistic without the museum and other buildings in the background, but it's still rather striking.

Earlier in the day I visited the La Brea Tar Pit; I'd also gone to the beach and snapped an image of a lifeguard tower. Upon capturing those images, one right after the other on my digital camera, I pondered whether the mammoth would have drowned if a lifeguard had been on duty. Okay, it had been a long day, and I was a bit punchy. But it would still make for an interesting image.

If you want to follow along with this project, you can download the images of the La Brea Tar Pit and the lifeguard tower from the book's website, named labrea.tif and guardtow.tif. As you can see in Figure 7.10, there's room for a lifeguard tower between the drowning mammoth and the two onlookers. Figure 7.11 shows that I photographed the lifeguard tower from just the right angle to put it where I want in the tar pit image.

Figure 7.10. The La Brea Tar Pit in Los Angeles.


Figure 7.11. A lifeguard tower on Venice Beach.


1.

Click the title bar of the lifeguard tower image to make it active; then use one of the selection tools to capture the lifeguard tower. Because the tower primarily consists of straight lines, the Edge Seeker mode of the Freehand Selection tool works particularly well here.

2.

Copy the selection to a new layer by clicking Selections, Promote Selection to Layer. Hide the visibility of the beach layer by clicking the eyeball icon for that layer on the Layers palette.

3.

Use the Freehand Selection tool to select any areas of sand showing through and around the legs of the tower. Then press the Delete button on your keyboard (see Figure 7.12). You can also use the Eraser tool to clean up the selection.

Figure 7.12. Cleaning up the sand at the base of the tower.


4.

Use the Magic Wand tool to select the transparent background around the lifeguard tower. Use the Add mode so you can click between the legs of the base.

5.

Click Selections, Invert to select the lifeguard tower instead of the transparent background.

6.

Select Edit, Copy. Activate the image of the tar pit, and then select Edit, Paste As New Layer to place the lifeguard tower into the image (see Figure 7.13).

Figure 7.13. A levitating lifeguard tower.


We now have a lifeguard tower levitating over the La Brea Tar Pit. The next step is getting it into position.

Sometimes you can get away with copying or moving an entire layer, whereas other times you need to specifically select the object, even if it's against a transparent background. How do you know which method to choose? The answer is in what you intend to do with the new layer. If you know the pasted layer will be positioned exactly as you like in the new image, you can get away with copying or moving the whole thingtransparent background and all. But if you're going to be moving the object around, such as we're doing with the lifeguard tower, you're best off selecting only what you need. This will save you a step down the road when you need to apply the Pick tool to the object to move and scale it.


Tip

After you've moved the lifeguard tower onto the tar pit image, you can close the lifeguard file. This will speed up response as you complete this project.

Scaling to Size

Mammoths were large creatures. If there were a lifeguard in the tower as it's currently sized, he would be comparable to the size of the mammoths, and that wouldn't look right at all.

7.

Click the Pick tool and set it to the Scale mode. Click the tower and move it to the edge of the tar pit, set back just a bit on the shore.

8.

Click a corner of the Pick tool boundary box and drag it inward to scale down the size of the tower somewhat (see Figure 7.14).

Figure 7.14. Putting the tower in position.


Mammoth Reproduction

The best position for the tower is on the flat area on the shore, behind the land-based mammoths. To make that position work, we're going to need more mammoths.

9.

Turn off the visibility of the lifeguard tower layer for now by clicking the eyeball icon for this layer in the Layers palette. This will give you a good view of the mammoths.

10.

Use your favorite selection tools to select the mammoths; then paste them into a new layer (see Figure 7.15).

Figure 7.15. Putting a copy of the mammoths on their own layer.


11.

I also want to use a bit of the grasses on the shore to cover the front edge of the tower ramp, just to make it look more integrated into the environment. You can select an area of grass and paste it into the same layer as the mammoths, just to save time (see Figure 7.16).

Figure 7.16. Adding a bit of grass to the mammoth layer.


12.

To position the grass properly, turn on the visibility of the lifeguard tower layer (see Figure 7.17). You can use the Pick tool to move the grass a bit, if necessary.

Figure 7.17. Using the lifeguard tower as a guide to artfully arrange a tuft of grass.


If you turn on the visibility of the background layer, you can now see the lifeguard tower scaled to an appropriate size on the shore of the tar pit. The mammoths appear to be in front of the tower, still waiting helplessly for someone to rescue their unfortunate companion (see Figure 7.18).

Figure 7.18. Everyone in position except, apparently, the lifeguard.


Unwanted Anachronisms

Having a lifeguard on duty at the shore of the tar pit makes perfect sense, especially after wandering around Los Angeles in the heat all day. But having all those buildings and other trappings of modern life surrounding our display pulls us right out of history and into the present. So, let's get rid of them!

We're fortunate because this image has a lot of foliage and sky with which to hide things. By the time we're done, you'd never guess there'd been a museum, information kiosk, fencing, or other modern conveniences in the photo.

13.

Click the Clone Brush. Set the brush fairly large to start so you can get the big areas out of the way. Right-click an area of blue sky, and then click and paint the sky over the tops of the buildings (see Figure 7.19).

Figure 7.19. Using the sky as camouflage.


14.

Use the Clone Brush over the grass and trees to cover the rest of the buildings, the path and people, and the fencing around the tar pit. Resize the brush as needed to get into the tighter areas, such as between the drowning mammoth's tusks. Resample the Clone Brush frequently to blend in the trees and grass for a more natural, less repetitive look.

15.

Finally, use the Clone Brush in the tar pit itself to hide the soda can and other debris, as well as the shadows from the now nonexistent buildings.

Figure 7.20 shows the final result. With just the Clone Brush, we were able to hide all traces of modern civilizationother than our lifeguard towerand completely change the landscape.

Figure 7.20. Won't anyone save this poor beast?




Corel Paint Shop Pro X Digital Darkroom
Corel Paint Shop Pro X Digital Darkroom
ISBN: 0672328607
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 109

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net