I didn't forgetcha just got buried between work and a hard place.
In any case lets see what happened
I blocked in some more tones and started working up the tires a bit.
Then I added a light layer and some more indications. I jumped into the wheels started to plan it out some.
I did some glass tweaks and roughed in some chrome, but I realized I wasn't feelin t like I wanted to. I did a little research and landed on to a few tutorials on
http://www.ctrlpaint.com and picked up a couple workflow tips. I wanted to paint through the shapes so my strokes would be more confident and have that, I don't know "it"...so....I started the whole render over. It was tough but if you're goin down a path that doesn't feel right, change paths.
So...I roughed in some body color. I was able to make selections on throw away layers using clipping masks and grouping masks which allowed me to paint through the shape and then just erase out what I didn't want.
The eraser in Photoshop is amazing actually. It has an edge control to it that makes it work almost better than the brushes. I don't know how they do it...I just know the sound it makes when it erases. (yeah...tropic Thunder was on last nite.) anyway..
Still blocking in color, did the tire tone and tread real quick. I follow a basic procedure on that...I like to base the sidewall and the tread with different colors cause I think it's cool how the tread looks like it's wrapped around like a dirty dirty latex glove. LOLOL anyway....I need to shower.
The color for the glass is always interesting. I was gonna go orangey but the warm warm body color on this car meant I should probably go with something on the cool side in the glass. I was toying with purpley cause I'm black, but I settled on blue cause I didn't want the competing red in the purple. At this point, I really started diggin this.
Blocked in the top and started in on the rims. Detailed rims are always hard to pull off cause you have blacks in the openings of the wheel already and then you need to add a black on the face of the rim, but make it look like a different material. The hilites are what help sell the look. The style of rendering I'm doing with this gives me a little play as it's looseness is part of what helps character retention so I was pleased with where this started goin.
Here I got the blues and hot spots and wheel well shadows put in. Note to car art cats...wheel well shadows are crucial. I noticed hot shots like Brian Stupski and Scott Fisk and countless others, always include them. This is what sinks the wheels under and sets the body on the frame. If you forget it, your piece though good is gonna have that missing thing...now...I still may have that missing thing, but it wont be that. LOLOL!
Here's a look at one of my path layers. I will use these to make selections where appropriate. Each path is created with the pen tool. You can then make selections and even intersect and other path operations to refine your selections and give you specific areas to paint in.
If you have ever airbrushed, this is the Photoshop equivalent of frisket film. By adding subtracting, intersecting and duplicating then transforming paths, you can do some pretty cool stuff. I have a friend named Jeremy Duncan who is easily one of the best in the field that showed me some stuff with this, but my daughter Alix really broke it down for me. Great method.
So...after using my paths to define my light and shadow areas, I was able to just dance around the car with a paint brush and work to bring areas to life.
Once again, it's still not done as I have to erase and do some nose work and a couple other things. I received a note from ESPI and Greg so I moved the tailights down by doing a shift+ctrl+c and copying through all layers and then pasting the taillights on a new layer and moving them into position. Then I just re-rendered the colors under them and cut in new hilites. It was easier to do it there than going back to formula so to speak.
Here's where it's sitting now.
I made a play file just to goof off with and try stuff. There's another car in this design so I'm gonna start on that then tweak this into place before integration.
Very very fun piece to work on. It's nice to be here with it.
I will update this thread soon.
Thanks
