Khorne's Eternal Hunt - KrautScientist's chaotic WIP thread: Fine-tuning Eightbound...

[HighGothic]

Really nice fluff, I like that he isn't just a crazed madman like most other khorne warlords. The hatred for Khârn is also very cool, something that I would like to see developed upon. 

 

Plus, a lovely model!

[Kythnos]

Cheers, guys!

 

@ Kythnos: Hmm, I'd be willing to give it a try, although I would need a very good photo of your Warsmith, taken against a neutral (white or black or beige) background.

 

Thanks! I'll try to take some really good pictures tomorrow and PM you :)

[Augustus b'Raass]

@ Auggie: Urgh, what is it with your likes? I told you to keep saving some in case I updated my thread Thanks for the kind words, though!

Hey, I liked the post as soon as I could, dude! And I got you another for calling me Auggie. 

[KrautScientist]

Again, thanks a lot, guys! :)

 

I went back to the Lorimar photo montage and played around with it a bit more. I came up with a slightly improved version that may be even better than the last one (I'm not sure, really):

 

 

Seeing how some of you seem pretty interested in these, maybe I should write up a little tutorial...?

[Augustus b'Raass]

 

Seeing how some of you seem pretty interested in these, maybe I should write up a little tutorial...?

YES, YES, YES!

 

(Also, that power weapon glow and the filter look awesome, but I believe you gathered as much from my enthused reaction to your proposal of making a tutorial.)

[GhostMalone]

Yes please I love these pics

[KrautScientist]

Alright guys, here goes: A small tutorial about creating suitably dramatic and garish "glamour shots" for your models I'll give you the short version (for now), although we may actually revisit parts of this in more detail at some point. Anyway, before we start, a disclaimer of sorts:

 

• This doesn't represent THE way of creating images like this, but just one way that has worked reasonably well for me. I am 100% sure that there are far more elegant and/or accomplished ways for going about this, and people who are more knowledgeable about Photoshop will probably laugh about my fumbling efforts -- fair enough, I say. I am absolutely not claiming to be a professional here, and this is therefore a very "quick and dirty" approach.
• I am also definitely not the first person to do a tutorial on this, but have been very lucky to find some excellent tutorials by other people: A brief but excellent writeup by Tyler Mengel got me started, and fellow German hobbyist Talarion introduced my to Pixlr, making my life much easier in the process. So thanks must go to them as well.
• When it comes to procuring suitable backdrops for your photos, there's a big temptation to just steal everything you need from the interent -- and to be honest, I am guilty of the same crime. However, I try to go for pictures that are (or at least that I consider) fair game, i.e. stuff that is freely available. I will occasionally use material from GW or FW themselves, but as I have no plan of using any of this commercially, I hope this constitutes fair use (bottom line, please don't sue me, GW!). But please don't just go stealing other people's work left and right, and even if you do, mangle it up enough that it merely becomes a very small part of your image and not the star of the show, alright?
• Finally, I will be using Photoshop for the first part of this tutorial. Similar software is freely available (GIMP would be one example, and there is also the web-based version of Pixlr). Most big functions are fairly similar across various programs, and I am not going into the details here: Using this tutorial will require some (very) basic knowledge of image editing.

With that out of the way, here goes:

 

 

What you will need:

 

• a photo of your model(s) in suitable quality, taken against a neutral background (preferrably white, grey or beige). The photo needs to be sharp, in focus and bright enough
• some kind of image editing software, i.e. Photoshop, GIMP or Pixlr
• I will be using the desktop version of Autodesk's Pixlr during the second half of this tutorial, in order to add effects and certain colour hues. This isn't a necessary step, but Pixlr will make your life much easier here, especially if you have little knowledge about Photoshop, and the software is free, so I recommend you download it.

And with that, we're off:

 

First up, I am going to use a picture of Biohazard's Lord Malek Deimos -- both because Biohazard probably won't mind, and because I like the idea that he'll end up with a cool picture of his Chaos Lord, because he's my buddy So here's the picture I chose:

 

 

The picture is a bit more grainy than it should be, but it'll work. It's against a white background, which is great, because it will make cutting out the model far easier. If you want, you can play around with brightness, contrast and the levels a bit at this stage, in order to make the photo a bit more crisp and rich in contrast.

 

The first thing you want to do is to duplicate the layer on which your image is, so that you have the background layer (the original image) and another layer above it (also your original image, but that will change shortly). Select this layer.

 

Now Photoshop (or any software like Photoshop) does have a selection tool usually called the "magic wand". What this does is to select a particular colour -- which is why you want the background to be in a neutral colour. So select the magic wand tool and click on a part of the white background. It'll create a selection. If you press Shift while selecting additional white areas, they will be added to your selection. The selection will be marked by a blinking border:

 

 

Don't forget any white areas! There is also a way of having Photoshop auto-select every bit of white on the canvas, but that would mean all the white that's on the actual model as well, and we don't want that. So make sure to select all the bits of white background, until it looks like the picture above. Then invert your selection (this function can normally has its own tab, or it can be found under "Edit". Once you have done this, the border will be running around your model rather than around the entire canvas.

 

If you want the photo montage to look convincing, we'll have to get rid of the last remnants of white background, reflections etc. So reduce your selection by one or two pixels. If you want to make it look even more believable, you can also add a slightly blurry edge to the selection (so the model won't look quite as much like a cutout). Once you're happy, copy the selection and add it into a new layer. At this point, you should have the original image in the background, the layer above (with the original photo's background, but minus the actual model) and a third layer with the model as a cutout on top. Delete the middle layer, as we won't be needing it any longer. And you should set the bottom (background) layer to invisible as well, so the canvas looks like this:

 

 

The little checkerboard pattern in the back shows that this area is transparent. To make things easier for you, you can fill the background layer with a solid colour (or create a new layer for that), because it will make the model's edges easier to see. Like so:

 

 

Not bad, eh? But some remnants of the orignal background and some reflections remain. In the above picture, it's very obvious on the arm holding the sword.

Now if you're just in for the quick and dirty version, you can simply ignore this, but your model will probably end up looking like it has a halo in the finished picture. So in order to get rid of this, you select the eraser tool and choose a paintbrush with slightly blurry edges...

 

 

...then set it to a size you are comfortable with and carefully work away at those edges that look like they are glowing. Be careful not to take away too much and rather work in multiple increments! If you make a mistake, you can always undo your last couple of steps!

 

In the end, you will have a cleaned up version of your model:

 

 

It's a subtle difference, to be fair, but it'll be worth it in the end -- trust me

 

Next step: the background. Find a suitable background image you would like to use (I chose a promo image for the Armageddon PC game, showing a hive that seems to have been mashed together using Google Images results for "gothic architecture" . Copy it into your picture so it will end up in a separate layer:

 

 

You will probably have to move the model around a bit at this stage, in order to make it fit the background. I also made an extra step here and blended in some additional ground texture (I used a suitable photo, copied it into my canvas and just erased all the areas I didn't need). Here's the finished pose:

 

 

I also cleaned away the parts of the base that didn't work -- especially the black rim.

 

Okay, time for some colour correction: You can now bring up a menu to control the pictures colour hue and saturation with CTRL-U (for Photoshop at least). Try to make the model's hue and saturation fit the background:

 

 

In this case, I wanted the model to look a bit more desaturated. Just play around with this -- if you don't like the outcome, you can always undo your actions.

 

The next thing that's important is to use blur: In the above picture, the hive in the back is very sharp and crisp, while the model seems a bit fuzzy. So we need to blur the background. Select your background layer and select the "Blur" function (under "Filter", normally). There's a very handy tool called the "Gaussian Blur" that will let you select how strong you want the blurring to be:

 

 

Once you're happy with the background, give the layer with the model the same treatment -- although with much less blur applied. This should only make the entire picture seem a bit more realistic. Make sure not to obscure any important detail on the model during this step!

 

Once this is done, all that remains is to make some final adjustments to the picture's contrast and levels:

 

 

As an optional step, I wanted Deimos to have a glowing daemonsword in the finished picture. I won't go into too much detail about the effect for now. Suffice it to say that I basically duplicated the model's sword, copied it into a new layer and changed the colour. Like this:

 

 

And since I wanted the glow to be pretty noticeable, the colour needed to be even louder:

 

 

Since the blade rests on its own layer, I can safely play around with it without it affecting the rest of the image. When I was happy with the colour, I once again added the Gaussian Blur effect, and...

 

 

It ended up looking pretty cool. Now I duplicated this layer several times, changed the transpareny around and messed around with it, until it looked like this:

 

 

Like I said, I might detail those steps further in the future. But since it's an entirely nonessential step, let's move on for now: One last adjustment of contrast and levels, and we are basically done in Photoshop. Here's the end result:

 

 

Not bad, not bad at all! We could even call it finished at this point!

In any case, whatever you do, you should definitely save a copy of this picture, once you like the result. And you should always keep a separate copy of this version for future use:

 

 

Now while it would be possible to do everything else in Photoshop as well, you can make your life a bit easier by switching to Pixlr for the next steps. Pixlr is a bit of a one-trick pony in that it's been designed in order to add various effects and colour hues to photos and little else. While this would also be possible in Photoshop, Pixlr makes it really easy for you because it does most of the thinking for you.

 

So let's open up our picture in Pixlr.

 

And from here on out, the world's your oyster, really: You can add any combination of pre-set colour effects. Like this:

 

 

As you can see, I've gone for a fiery, reddish hue in this case. But most of the colour effects look awesome in their own way, so just play around with them until you're happy. This is what my picture looked like after this step:

 

 

What's really great, though, is that Pixlr also lets you add some Filters and borders. Some of them are downright horrible, some are pretty situational, but some - especially the various grungy borders - will make some of your earlier errors and inaccuracies in the picture disappear:

 

 

 

So layer some of these on top, and your picture will instantly look grittier and more realistic. Of course this is cheating: We are covering up our mistakes here. But as long as it looks cool...

 

So here's the finished picture, with one of my favourite borders added to top things off:

 

 

What's really cool is that the picture could have looked completely different with a couple of different effect employed. Here I created a much more somber atmoshphere by using a different colour effect and a rain filter:

 

 

As long as you keep a copy of your original photoshop version of the picture, you can always go back and create new variants

 

So yeah, so much for the ultra-fast version Thanks to Biohazard for - unwittingly - providing the material for this: Cheers, buddy!

 

As always, let me know what you think!

Edited April 10, 2015 by KrautScientist

[Barraka]

Love the 2nd green tinted one ^____^

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, Barraka! ;)

[Augustus b'Raass]

All hail K-Sci for doing this.

 

HAIL

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

KrautScientist - Have you ever though of useing the Night Lord Terror squad helmet for any of your Chaos Marine?  If not, could be great for a unit of Chosen (make sure read Khârn: Eater of World for the Blood Born unit, around page 80)

 

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/The_Horus_Heresy/Legiones_Astartes/Night_Lords/NIGHT_LORDS_LEGION_TERROR_SQUAD_HEADS.html

[KrautScientist]

All hail K-Sci for doing this.

 

HAIL

 

Yes, well, I do hope that it will be useful to you at least, since it doesn't seem to have provoked much of a response at all. Bummer... ;)

 

@ Insane Psychopath: Hmm, to be honest, I am not a big fan of the NL helmets, mate. They do admittedly look pretty cool on your IW berzerkers, but I think there are other heads that I would much rather use for my own models -- I am constantly squirreling away cool helmets and bare heads, to be honest, so I'll never get to use them all anyway ;) Right now, though, I think that the Wrathmonger helmets might just be the coolest Khornate helmets in existence...

 

Aaaanyway, a small update today: Here's a small project I started yesterday: Barras Ergha, the 4th assault company's Master of Signal:

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2015/4/12/704264-Champion%2C%20Chaos%2C%20Chaos%20Space%20Marines%2C%20Khorne%2C%20Khorne%27s%20Eternal%20Hunt%2C%20Master%20Of%20Signal.JPG

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2015/4/12/704265-Champion%2C%20Chaos%2C%20Chaos%20Space%20Marines%2C%20Khorne%2C%20Khorne%27s%20Eternal%20Hunt%2C%20Master%20Of%20Signal.JPG

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2015/4/12/704266-Champion%2C%20Chaos%2C%20Chaos%20Space%20Marines%2C%20Khorne%2C%20Khorne%27s%20Eternal%20Hunt%2C%20Master%20Of%20Signal.JPG

 

Granted, Master of Signal may not be the most obvious battlefield role for a World Eaters, but seeing how I imagine the 4th to be a bit more disciplined and focused than your average force of bloodcrazed madmen, I thought it was fun to have them retain some of the command structure of a Pre-Heresy legion, including the various specialists. At the same time, this guy is still a World Eater, so he needed to look like a true warrior. I think I've managed a pretty good balance.

 

Oh, the right arm, head and legs came from that sweet stash of bitz Commissar Molotov recently sent me -- credit where credit is due ;)

 

As always, let me know what you think! ;)

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

 

 

 

 

Oh, the right arm, head and legs came from that sweet stash of bitz Commissar Molotov recently sent me -- credit where credit is due

 

As always, let me know what you think!

 

 

Just to ask - What kit do those Marine legs come from? 

 

Master of Signal look cool.

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, mate! According to Molotov, they are from one of the web-exclusive Space Marine Captains -- which is why I had to use them for some kind of special character, as I will probably never own another set of these ;)

[Kriegsmacht]

I don't have any use for photoshop but it was an interesting read on how you make those pictures.

 

I still really like your terminators. If the rules ever matched these guys then the other armies would be trembling.

[Forté]

Nice Photoshop tutorial. Think I may be having a play with some glamour pics due to this :tu:

[Daemon2027]

Will have to save that tutorial thanks. I love the background for your commander, inspires me to get writing some stuff down for the models I have planned.

[KrautScientist]

Thanks, guys!

 

A small update on the Master of Signal: I tidied up some parts of the conversion, especially the cabling on his backpack.

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2015/4/12/704285-Champion%2C%20Chaos%2C%20Chaos%20Space%20Marines%2C%20Khorne%2C%20Khorne%27s%20Eternal%20Hunt%2C%20Master%20Of%20Signal.JPG

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2015/4/12/704286-Champion%2C%20Chaos%2C%20Chaos%20Space%20Marines%2C%20Khorne%2C%20Khorne%27s%20Eternal%20Hunt%2C%20Master%20Of%20Signal.JPG

 

Some of you may have noticed the helmet mag-locked to his belt. I added it because, even though I am a huge fan of bareheaded Marines, it seemed sensible for a comms-officer to have the option of donning a helmet that certainly has some additional sensors and communications functionality. Speaking of which, I lost my marbles a bit and obsessively added some comms-equipment and additional sensors to the helmet to make it look more plausible:

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2015/4/12/704287-Champion%2C%20Chaos%2C%20Chaos%20Space%20Marines%2C%20Khorne%2C%20Khorne%27s%20Eternal%20Hunt%2C%20Master%20Of%20Signal.JPG

[Pearson73]

Looking good, love the extra details!

[Daemon2027]

I kind of want to see that helm on him, looks really good.

[Biohazard]

Been away for the weekend with the family so only seeing this now. I love the rain image of Deimos. Two thumbs WAY up for that mini tut as well buddy. I really like the additions to the Skull crusher head I added some stuff like that to my havoc champ so know it's not easy, the simple way you've added the chain loincloth thingy to that torso is inspired. I will be using that at some point I think. Great work mate.

[Commissar Molotov]

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, the right arm, head and legs came from that sweet stash of bitz Commissar Molotov recently sent me -- credit where credit is due

 

As always, let me know what you think!

 

 

Just to ask - What kit do those Marine legs come from? 

 

Master of Signal look cool.

 

 

 

Yeah, the Web Exclusive Captain 2:

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5dBskpiNMWk/U1JpgxvS7LI/AAAAAAAAE94/9vXaPt9CrH4/s1600/SAM_1630.JPG

 

 

Looking good, Kraut! 

[KrautScientist]

Thanks for the kind feedback, guys! :)

 

@ The Hydra: The problem with that particular helmet is that the faceplate seems kinda "expressionless", for lack of a better word. Which made it perfect to be worn at the model's belt ;) Plus I really wanted to use that beautiful Chapter Master head, both because its implants are a great fit for a World Eater, and because of the speaker unit which works great for a Master of Signal -- in fact, the entire conversion was basically planned around the head, legs and the antenna bit from the new AdMech Skitarii ;)

 

@ Biohazard: So glad you like the picture of Deimos, buddy! Consider it a small way of repaying all the inspiration I get to steal from your thread!

 

@ Mol: Thanks again for your generosity! One thing worthy of notice for those of you looking for those legs is that the backside of the part is flattened down (probably to accept the cape on top). Which means I had to rebuild that area -- but that offered me the chance to add all kinds of gear to his belt, turning the legs' shortcoming into an actual strength of the model ;)

[Flint13]

That little technical helm with some of the more Chaosy inclined details is my favorite part, hands down. Which is saying something, b/c he's a pretty awesome conversion all together. The websclusive captain bits are also pretty interesting. It's neat to see that traditionally chaos/renegade style of armor trim on a loyalist... well a loyalist before you got your hands on him at least!

 

Masters of Signal don't (typically) seem to inspire folks to much work beyond painting them appropriate legion colors, so I'm glad to see you didn't just phone it in (HA!) with this one :D

[Daemon2027]

Oh I agree with you the model looks ace with out the helm on, I just like the detail a lot.