The
techniques used to produce the hair in this tutorial will be quite simple from
a technical standpoint. Only the simplest brushes in Photoshop will be used so
that anyone can follow along using any program supporting some form of layers
which is the one needed function. The other important tools are the smoothing
tools: blurring and smudging, tonal tools: dodging and burning, and of course
the paint tool using the normal, multiply and rarely, hue functions. Last but
not least a graphics tablet of some type is most important both to create the
smooth curves of the hair strands and in order to exploit the pressure sensitivity
of this tool.
In
the above image we see the Poser render imported into Photoshop. What may not
be obvious is that there are already two additional layers at this time. I rendered
the Poser figure against the default grey background so that even if we're not
using Photoshop, and consequently not able to retrieve the embedded alpha channel
Poser adds by default to photoshop documents, we could easily make a mask of only
the figure. Consequently, the first layer (called the 'background' in Photoshop)
would be the Poser render, then above it in additional layers would be first,
the imported background photo and secondly, above both, the extracted figure by
itself. One could also render the figure over the backgound photo in Poser, but
in cases where we would like the hair to exist behind the figure, things would
become unnecessarily complicated. Also with this scenario it's possible to pop
in various background photos as tryouts and make a quick decision without struggling
in Poser, importing and clearing background photos.
So
at this point we have three layers, stacked one over the other with the figure
on top. You will see on the right of the screen, a box containing a large group
of small swatches of colors. Copy it from this page since it is at it's true size
only in this image. This is the palette which will be used to create the hair.
It's a group of colors for a medium blond hair type lit in natural light. The
upper half in this image corresponds to the cooler tones with the warmer tones
grouped below it. Instead of using an Adobe swatch collection, I've created this
simple graphic since anyone viewing this tuturial can copy and extract it and
not need Photoshop in order to use it and last but not least, it meant one less
page in this tutorial. :)
Here
we'll begin by adding a new layer, calling it Hair 01. We'll choose a medium tone
with good saturation from the swatches and begin by blocking in the color about
where the hair will be, using a rather large round brush with soft edges at approximately
50% opacity ( a 45 pixel brush for a 600x800 image).
Now
we begin to add some long strokes to define the movement and character of the
hair using a soft brush again. This time it is about 9 pixels in size using a
darker color set to either normal or multiply if available, both work, at again
about 50% to 75% opacity.
At
this stage we add two colors above the previous layers calling this layer Hair
03. A rather strong and warm tone on the right toward the major light source and
a cooler one on the left in the shaded side. This is with a 5 and 9 pixel brush
using the normal setting with some transparency too.
On
this layer we add some warmer tones all over with the 3 and 5 pixel brushes with
some transparency. If available, use both the normal and multiply modes.
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We
just keep adding tones in the same manner as before, adding into new layers to
allow a controlled application of the color and as a simple undo. If we don't
like what we see, we can simply delete the layer. The brush size ranges from 3
to 7 pixels. Experiment with the opacity settings and the normal and multiply
modes if available. Remember these brush sizes are for working on a rather small
file, 600 x 800 pixels. If you're working on a much larger file, the brushes must
be correspondingly larger.
Now
we add lighter tones to further define the form, sense of light and natural movement
of the hair in another new layer; Hair 06 here. Notice on the right a light spot
on the hair is being built to correspond to the principal light source. Brush
sizes still at 3 to 6 pixels.
