Need help with a very badly drawn footpath

[Canna W]

I made a composite pic today, and included a footpath in it, going over a hillside, which I drew using photoshop. The pic is meant to be naive in character, but the path is just appallingly bad.... My fiddlings around with warp and distort didn't make it any better. Ideally I should have drawn it properly in the first place

I attached 2 pix. A) My horrible finished version B) The pic without the path.

I would be really interested to see how I should have done it, if anyone is kind enough to have a go.

[Tony W]

I would not have the nerve to say 'this is how it should be done', certainly not on this forum . But attached is one possible version.

Like you I did 'fiddle' with warp and distort but the most important one in my view is perspective. This is what I believe is the 'fault' for want of a better word with your image i.e. the foreground path needs to be much wider then receding into the background. I also altered the scale of the dog and reduce brightness a little - just to try and add balance.

I did take the easy way on the path i.e. rather than trying to follow the hill contours I made the path look more like a bridge over the hill. You could if you wanted to distort the path more to follow hill contours (which I believe may have been your original intent) - liquify might help

[Canna W]

Thank you Tony!

That is much better! The perspective is way improved.

Ahhh, the liquify tool! Why didn't I think of that! I will go back and have a fiddle...

[Canna W]

Okay, here is my effort with liquify. I've also added more of a shadow which hopefully pulls the path more into the hillside. I've left the dog big because I quite like him being overly large. I still think the path looks like something from Alice in Wonderland though. Very strange. I am definitely spatially challenged!

[Chain]

Right now you are sort of gluing it to the hillside, making it tilted and impossible to walk on (and looking "off"). The original shadow made it hover a bit as well I think. Imagine what you would do to build a real path on a real hill... You would either have to carve it into the hill, or the outer part would have to be on poles or built on top of a wall of some sort.

See my attached image. #1 is the path you have created (oh no! our guy is falling!).
#2 is one option of how to "build" the path. #3 is another.
Then on number 4 and 5 – what i refer to as the titty hills – i would like to draw your attention to those texture lines on your path; they strongly affect how the perspective of the path is perceived. In other words to make it look "realistic" you will have to recreate the path rather then just warping the entire shape into place.

I hope this helps you when recreating your path.

[Chain]

Other important things for added realism:

• The lighting should not be even along the entire path (should follow the lighting of the terrain).
• Some of the vegetation should pop up "in front of" the path (this actually helps a lot to give clues to the brain about the location of the path).

Here's my little try. Not the best, but it is an improvement.

[Canna W]

Hi Chain,

I am absolutely bowled over, both by your great explanation (and accompanying diagrams), and by your reworking of the pic! Now it all makes a lot more sense. It still isn't easy - but it makes sense.

I cannot get over the difference between your version and mine. Mine is so crazy, and your is so right!!!!

I really appreciate you and Tony taking the time to respond to query. Thank you both so much!

[palms]

I too liked the explanation and know where to turn when i have problems with perspective etc
One thought i did have was that maybe instead of doing one long path, maybe doing the path in different sections might have helped, like one for going up hill, one for straight etc

Palms

[Chain]

Palms; I did the one above in several sections. Absolutely helps with all these twists and turns. I used the pen tool first to create the shape I wanted, and used that as a mask for several bits of "road" that i transformed and warped into place one after another...