Twilight Render User Forum

Do you just contract your selection by a few pixels after the initial masking?

No. Even contracting by 1 pixel is too much.

The masking isn't really accurate....it's not completely honest to the original image....there is lots of simplifying to make it work better.

I will roughly delete all the white. this leaves the horrible halos around the leaves. I will then use clone stamp to just cover up the halo affected areas...kinda like reconstructing the tree line with a leaf brush. and then I use the original image as a reference to 'punch' little gaps everywhere so you can see through the tree line. it takes long time but it's worth it. using the default photoshop leaf brush with lots of scatter helped A LOT.

its not an exact science just lots of clone stamping really!! The 6th tree line was the hardest to mask it took ages!!

this type of Masking in Photoshop can be fascinating and fun... yet killer tedious if you don't know a few key tricks.

Try reviewing these different techniques and tutorials.

READ HERE the best Tutorial for this I've ever read - it's the technique I use when creating difficult masks in Photoshop for leaves/vegetation/even longneedle pine trees! All credits go to the original creator!

http://www.layersmagazine.com/masking-h ... p-cs3.html <-- VIDEO VERY GOOD!
http://www.creativepro.com/files/story_ ... ctHair.pdf <-- A PDF by diff. artist
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/element ... orial.html

cheers fletch!

hopefully i won't have to do it again!! I wish there was a simple way!!

Thanks for the info on workflow Oli, and the nice links Fletch.

I'll share a favorite of mine as well, great for masking out skies!

UPDATE: Fletch, that first link you posted (to Adobe.com) is amazing. Using dodge and burn to refine a masking-channel is sheer brilliance
Letting my creation cook while I go out and get a haircut, will post the results when I get back

flipya wrote:
Why isn't there a *bow down to king OLI* smiley?

Thank you Oli!

My $0,02 :

Download here (hope that works)...

thats sweet mate!!

really sweet!!

Thanks mate! Mind if I spam a few more here over the next couple of days?

looks great!
flipya, you need to turn the treeline into a component, then copy the treeline around in a circle 360degrees. Then you will get proper reflections in your windows.
I have a treeline ring like this that I've used for a long time.

I actually made it with 3 layers and put three "rings" like a target... one at 500' (150m) away from center, one at 1000'(300m) away, one at 1500'(500m) away. This way, depending on the scene, I could just turn off the layers of trees I didn't need.

Thanks Oli, for sharing, the links have been updated to maintain forum continuity in the future.