ArmA photography - Questions&Comments

[mrcash2009 0]

After linking further the laughter in this one get to me  

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MzFzpLKDuEg&feature=related

   .... the slow motion parts funnier.

** sorry Off topic **

[Rommel 2]

Ahahaha!

Modul that picture made me laugh hard, but the watching of the video just re-instilled that even harder.

Great work mate!

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=f1XAi9wVatA

[topas 1]

MODUL -> Screen of the decade at least! Had a hard time hiding under the desk with my laughter at the office

PARVUS -> Nice, kinda looks like made on Granada

[MODUL 3]

If my screen has caused at many though a smile it means work is done

[Binkowski 26]

BloodNGuts, your a freaking beast.

epic hxc.

[Macadam Cow 1]

thank you

[vilas 477]

BloodNGuts, very very impressive, like from World Press Photo

[Macadam Cow 1]

thank you vilas I'll post some with your units soon

[bravo 6 0]

Looks very nice Opteryx

keep it up

edit: does the terrain have a specific name?

[ArmaVidz 0]

BloodNGuts, you should get yourself onboard with a few mod teams to do loading screens, MOD desktop wallpaper and other types of promotional media.

Fantastic creativity with the pic editing.

[Macadam Cow 1]

 thanks you very much ArmaVidz, actually Im already doing it with my team (OFCRA), Project Reality and shoud do some pics for the XAM.

Any request is  

Thanks again mate

[opteryx 1562]

Looks very nice Opteryx

keep it up

edit: does the terrain have a specific name?

Yeah, Afghan Village

lol

[Vultar 0]

BloodnGuts... I don't know what to say... I want to be you

[Macadam Cow 1]

Not sure about that, you know, it's not every day easy to have 2 penises

k sorry for that crappy joke, see nobody's perfect

But thank you, always nice to have that kind of comment

[xhorst 0]

Realy excelent pictures BloodnGuts...

Very atmospherical and great impression...

Salute!

Any chance to have them in beter res, say something like 1920x1200

[Macadam Cow 1]

Thank you xHorst,

Sorry but the max size is 1024x768

If you want you can find most of them in better res on armaholic (screens section)

cya

[mattxr 9]

Nice pics BloodnGuts..

[xhorst 0]

Thank you xHorst,

Sorry but the max size is 1024x768

If you want you can find most of them in better res on armaholic (screens section)

cya

RGR & Thx

will look there for some nice wallpapers;)

[Macadam Cow 1]

Thank you Matt,

Im also pretty honored that you choose one of my pic for your signature but pleeeease next time just send a PM for warning me. I know its my fault I've never said those pics could not be used, its just that I already have that kind of problem with teams Im workin with. You guys are free to use my pics all I ask is a small PM warning me.

Thanks

Cya

[Average Joe 0]

I would also like to say nice pics blood, very atmospheric.

[icebreakr 3157]

BloodnGuts: nice shots, I bet Queens Gambit authors would be glad to have you on their team =P

[Macadam Cow 1]

Thanks guys

[william1 0]

hey BloodnGuts , awesome pictures you got there , the one with the chopppers and the blue sky is really beautiful

[max power 21]

Reading Albert Schweisser's post on DOF inspired me to do some experiments in photoshop.  For those who are interested, this is what I found:

Extreme DOF effects are a function of object distance to the camera.  While your blur takes into account camera distance along the plane of the ground, it neglects the fact that the tower is at a 90 degree angle to that plane.  For a more sophisticated effect, you'll need to make layers for the fore, middle and background, and use layer masks.  I'll do a short demonstration for you.

original image:

http://www.thongtinnhatban.net/photo....ada.jpg

Final image:

Layers:

In retrospect this is a poor choice for an image, but it will do.

1.  So take your raw image and duplicate that layer twice.  Name these layers Foreground, Midground, and Background.  I like to keep an extra duplicate around just in case I make a mistake.

Order these layers Foreground, Background, Midground.  You can order them in whatever way you like, I just think this makes for the simplest layer mask manipulation.  You can order them in any way you like, but the rest of the demo will assume this configuration.

Create layer masks for the foreground and background layers.  Uncheck the link icon between the layer and the layer mask.  This allows you to manipulate the layer and the mask separately.  

Now select the layer mask for the foreground and select the gradient fill tool.  Fill from the bottom up to about 1/3rd up the image.  Now select the foreground layer.  Select Filter \ Blur \ Gaussian Blur from the toolbar, and blur about ten pixels or whatever works for your image.  Do the same for the background, only fill from the top to about 1/3 down the page.  

Now, to fine tune where you want the focused midground to be, you can use the free transform tool on the layers masks by pressing ctrl + t with the layer mask selected, and scaling the gradient vertically.  You can also fine tune the progression of the blurriness by using image \ adjustments \ levels on the layer masks.  To view the layer masks directly, alt + click on them.

Now, locate any structures in the foreground into the midground (and from the midground into the background).  Although these structures (like the CN tower in my pic) take up a great deal of the height of the photograph, they are on a single plane.  In this case, the foreground.  Take a paintbrush or a polygon lasso (I used the magnetic lasso tool) and choose the foreground layer mask.  Now paint or select then fill the outline of the object that is intruding from the foreground into the midground white.  If you're using a paintbrush you'll want to use a soft brush.  If you're select / filling, you'll want to feather the selection before filling.

For structures that are intruding from the midground into the background, select the background layer, and fill / paint their outline black on the background layer mask.  For these items you'll want to use a sharper tool, like a sharp brush or a selection with little or no feathering.

For the CN tower in my photo, it was just way too big and close to the camera to get away with the small amount of blur I put on the foreground.  I used my selection (without feathering) to cut and paste the outline of the cn tower on a blank layer, blurred the crap out of it, then enlarged it a bit.  I englarged it because when you blur an image on a transparent background, the blur will eat away at the image and make it transparent at the edges.

The amount of white on a layer mask represents the value of the opaqueness of that layer.  A good rule of thumb is that when you're blurring with layer masks like this, the amount of blur represents the distance from the camera at the base of a building.  So, if you want to get very complicated, you can sample the value of the layer mask at the base of a building and then paint out its outline in that solid colour.  In this case, the colour of the mask at CN Tower's base would have been white, but if it was part way through the foreground it would have been mid grey or something.

edit:  Oh, I forgot, that last Layer, EDOF Fill, is just a simple mid grey fill layer.   I wasn't happy with the amount of saturation and contrast in the far background, so to push it back a bit I just made the mid and background a bit transparent near the back edge.  As things get further from a viewer, there is more atmosphere messing with the light between the viewer and the object.  The end result is a decrease in contrast and vividness.  That's all that that is for, and it wasn't really necessary.

My resulting image is, of course, cheesy crap.  I didn't spend much time on it and overstated the effect quite dramatically.  Even so, these principles should be applicable to any kind of paint-on DOF effect.  I hope this helps you make all kinds of fake DOF effects, and increases your understanding of photoshop in general.

[bravo 6 0]

nice effects, too bad its not an ArmA map.

Opteryx, in the video you uploaded from the new wip Afgan terrain, what kinda sound mod did you use?