July 2008 Contest Discussion

[T Paul]

Add your comments, questions or general discussion about the Contest entries here. This is also a great place to share your techniques or ask others about theirs.

Most members are eager to hear comments/suggestions about their entries, so please take the time to help each other out.

[Ruzzez]

I have restarted twice now. I seem to learn the hard way. I have now developed a shape of a hybrid and I will attempt to merge the photos of the Zebra and the Elephant onto it. Hopfully I will get something this time to futher develope. If not I may try some other combination(s).

I am doing more research than anything else.

[0lBaldy]

Hmmm, how do I discuss the rules without discussing the rules??

"2. I will not answer questions concerning the rules. Interpretation of the rules is as important as execution."

*Final image must be exactly 600 pixels wide and 800 pixels high (cropping may be required).

Just an idiosyncrasy of mine, I hate to submit a sideways image!

Soooo, my question is do you really want sideways submissions?


I would much prefer submitting a 800X600

[Doug Nelson]

I'll let you answer your non-question yourself. Imagine you're the art director and you've already spent a zillion dollars on a poster layout, now you're contracting with retouchers for images to drop into the design. One of them sends you a sideways image. How would you respond?

Remember, these contests are designed to simulate professional assignments. We hope everyone has fun, and non-pros are welcome to enter, but they're really pretend jobs.

[0lBaldy]

Gee thanks Doug, quite a thought provoking non-answer!

I guess that if I had already spent a zillion dollars on a poster layout and only had one spot left and it was in a portrait orientation because the layout staff designated that "the final image must be exactly 600 pixels wide and 800 pixels high".. I would kick it to the curb because there was no flexibility built into the drop in design space..

Then again with a small amount of fudging with borders and such it might be possible, if they were good enough, to place one or more landscape oriented photos into the mix.. especially if some of the other fantastic retouchers had the same composition problem and had also submitted landscapes, regardless of the "Rules"..

After all that's the way I made my zillions.. by being flexible and making the best of what was presented to me!

I still do not know what I am going to do.. submit the landscape or start new with a portrait.. guess I will just sleep on it and decide later..

Like stated above, I'm flexible, but gotta follow da rules.. submitting a portrait format (600 pixels wide and 800 pixels high) cause I do not want to get it kicked to the curb!

Laters,

[Sveltepig]

hi all
can i just get clarification about these (and other) images from stock.xchng?
can i use them without paying (and without credit) in any personal project of my own? are they only for specific context use (like this contest)?
thanks for your response
karin

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by karin l

hi all
can i just get clarification about these (and other) images from stock.xchng?
can i use them without paying (and without credit) in any personal project of my own? are they only for specific context use (like this contest)?
thanks for your response
karin

You might want to check the FAQs #6 thru #14 at:
http://www.sxc.hu/help/8

[Sveltepig]

cool, thanks olbaldy

[Kraellin]

i must say, these are quite amusing, unique and very creative. i'm enjoying watching these come in

[dweekley]

agree these are great so far but gee i do hope to see some more entries from this creative group. hint, hint craig - and all other members reading :-)
doreen

[Lorraine]

I don't know which are more creative -- the entries -- or the titles of the entries.

This is the best work that I've seen from everyone here.

Lorraine

[Cassidy]

Come on in Lorraine, the water's warm and very inviting

[LonK]

Notes on my Elephorse entry:

At first I thought this would be a great opportunity to do some nifty trick manipulation and create a truly exotic critter. That's just what I did.

But reconsidering, that the intended audience was to be young children, I figured something simpler and relatively obvious would be more appropriate. An acquaintance, who teaches elementary school, confirmed this notion. "In my experience," she said, "kids tend to shy away from overly complex concepts." With that in mind, I started over and decided to let my 11 year old grand-nephew pick the animals to combine. He quickly chose the horse and the elephant. "Can we put the elephant's head on the horse, Uncle Lonnie?"

Since the guidelines stated the end result should 1) look like a photo, 2) in portrait format, 3) using only elements from the provided photos, I realized a convincing, photo-like setting was going to be a challenge. My solution was to assemble a pastoral scene from parts of the other photos. For the upper background portion, I chose the top/left corner of the antelope photo. I selected a grassy/floral patch from behind the horse and used a perspective tiling process to fill the foreground. I blurred the nearest grass to enhance depth, colored the flowers and added some ground mist for interest.

Not to be left out, his 9 year old brother then insisted I mix the frog and rooster for him -- a froogster. I dared not refuse his request! The boys loved them and both creatives were printed and now hang proudly on their bedroom wall.

I sure hope there'll be more entries in this fun contest. And it would be great to hear how others made their entries too.

[Kraellin]

that's marvelous, lonk

the only thing i didnt quite understand about this contest was the insistence that final images be 600 x 800, when all the images provided were of a horizontal format. that part gave me more problem than the rest of the combinging.

[dweekley]

Lonk, what a great idea to ask the grand nephews and it's a cute story.
I'll really have to put more thought into these things - LOL. I just loved the plume (or whatever that is called) on the bird and just wanted to use it in someway. since i loved the rooster's feathers he was the choice for the main body. from there it was just play. i sure never thought about composing a new background...another good idea.
nice work everyone! keep the entries coming although it is making voting tougher...again.
doreen

[Ruzzez]

This has been a fun challenge. I had a couple of false starts before I got something I liked.

The challenging part was to “create a photo realistic new species by combing the images” , “Only use elements from the provided photos” and “Final image must be exactly 600 pixels wide and 800 pixels high.”

To create a cross between the Zebra and the Elephant I first created a shape for the side body, head and ear. I then warped the skins of each to fit. For the ear I had to use another part of the Zebra and I rotated and warped it to fit. I then added the legs for the opposite side. Adjusted the color and added shadows. The Zebra’s tail was adjusted and attached.

The problem I then had was the image’s orientation. I decided to use the elephant’s background. I prepared it by removing the Elephant by cloning. I then enlarged the canvas leaving the original at the top. Copied a portion and enlarged it below.

When I added the Zeephant, the background looked a little empty. I decided to add the Zebra and the Elephant, the poster now shows the before and after images of the animals combined. Again I was not pleased; it now looked a little crowded. I decided to have the Elephant and the Zebra interact. I reduced their size and had them face each other. I warped the Zebra’s head and neck to where the Zebra looked up toward the Elephant. I warped the Elephant’s trunk so that it reached out to the Zebra. I then adjusted shadows and limited the depth of field.

The grass at the feet had to be copied to a higher layer and motion blurred to get the appearance I wanted.

[Frank Lopes]

This was my first crack at "morphin" animals and I had a great time trying all kinds of permutations.

Some of your entries look like they came straight from The Island of Doctor Moreau.

[Cassidy]

This is such a wonderful stretch of the imagination, told my youngest, I found this in backyard, she was totally fascinated. Really glad to see more entries, don't be daunted, not as hard as it seems

[Lorraine]

Originally Posted by Cassidy

Come on in Lorraine, the water's warm and very inviting

After your invitation and excellent entry, I couldn't resist. Thank you.


Notes:

I didn't do much except use the warp tool on the frog's head and neck to mimic the rooster's shape. Same with the bird's crest.

The rest was just trying to match the background to the crest which was very difficult to extract from the original background. In the end, I had to use the original background which I blurred somewhat to minimize the cloning out of the bird. I sharpened the crest a bit with the sharpen tool.

Lorraine

[CathyH]

I have changed my entry, it was brought to my attention that we could only use the photos provided, luckily I found time to make a background from the original horse photo. I definitely like the the look of my first try better, but you have to follow the rules.
Good luck everyone.
cathy

[T Paul]

Here is a link to a temporary album for easier viewing: July Content Entries

[Sveltepig]

so when/where do we vote?
K

[CathyH]

Hi Karin we are waiting for T Paul to open the voting thread.

[T Paul]

Sorry about that! Voting is open now!

[Lorraine]

I've now put this this in the Voting thread where I should have posted in the first place. I'll leave it here as well. Sorry for the confusion.

Lorraine

All the entries are amazing in creativity and execution. I finally voted for the ones that were photo realistic and had that “aaawww” factor.

1. Cassidy – I want to adopt him/her. Beautifully done in all aspects.

2. Ruzzez – Incredible work in combining the texture of the elephant skin with the zebra stripes.

3. Old Baldy – It looks like something out of Jurassic Park.
Excellent color blending.

4. Frank Lopes – Another amazing blend to create reality.

5. karinl – I’ll take him/her home as well. Great work.

Special mention to pixeltek. When I saw the dimensions required by this contest, I said to myself, a giraffe would work very nicely. Congratulations on using the elephant’s trunk to create that illusion. I would have chosen your entry in the top five, but the back foot wasn’t quite finished. Sorry about that.

Excellent work everyone,

Lorraine

[pixeltek]

Thanks Lorraine. That was my thought and why I did the tall animal, 'cause of the dimensions.

Actually, the legs are the front legs of the elephant in a walking motion. Yeah, I know, the leg in the back kinda got distorted but, oh well, I tried my best

[LonK]

Originally Posted by karin l

LonK I love the mood of your image, and the blend between head and body works well, but I don't think the composition works well for a poster. The animal especially seems to be falling off the side of the frame.

Thank you, karin. I agree with your comment fully. To address the issue, I had added the bird to balance the composition and include a normal element for scale.

Unfortunately, I forgot to change my entry in the contest thread.

[Sveltepig]

O yes, LonK, that does help the balance in your composition.

k

[laura.lala]

I'm back from my holiday , ready for the next contest.
Very nice and funny this one, I am sad I've lost it, it would have been a nice opportunity to improve my skills in this technique of combining photos (I must admit is not my strong part in working with Photoshop ).

You all had great ideas.

[Cassidy]

my time is now 4 August so the Aug 2008 comp now a little agonising, with no clear result for July and August delayed, well am feeling a bit at a loose end