RP Tutorials - - How to make Plastic skin with Highlights ( sample)

richardnyc · #1 03-23-2006, 02:47 PM

I am new around here and marveled by the wealth and quality of the information posted in these forums. Like my most newbie's I am starting off with a question. Anyone know how to make plastic skin like this ? Its particularly noticeable in the blonde model.
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http://www.bwgreyscale.com/adimg11/adv_5768.jpg
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I suspect it is some variation on the post Dreamypix made of "metal skin"
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Any tips greatly appreciated.
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Thanks
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Richard

mistermonday · #2 03-23-2006, 06:45 PM

Richard, welcome to RP.
There are many ways to do this. If there is a relatively small area of skin compared to the rest of the image, I create a mask of the skin areas. I then remove all of the detail using either a noise filter like Noise Ninja or one of Photoshops filters - the Surface Blur filter in PS CS2 is particularly for this purpose. After smoothing away all the detail I usually increase the contrast significantly and then using Hue/Saturation adjustment lower the saturation and shift the hue to either a colder or a warmer tone.
Regards, Murray

richardnyc · #3 03-23-2006, 08:02 PM

Ok Murray thanks. And thanks for the welcome... Just a follow up question.
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It seems the effect I am after are in the highlights and making them blurred and contrasty makes sense. I can see the obvious highlights but it looks splotchy when I do it. Tried color range select highlights both pre-set and eyedropper... Still too broad.
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I guess I am lacking the technique of painting in highlights, that or my lighting is too flat, compared to the sample I showed...
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In your technique do you paint in highlights that were not there ?
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Ok thanks in advance
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Richard
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mistermonday · #4 03-23-2006, 09:33 PM

Richard, there are almost always some highlights in photographed images, When they are not pronounced I use curves to accentuate them which usually increases the contrast at the same time. It is rare that your starting image is completely flat. I recommend that you upload here, an image to which you would like the effect applied. You will likely find a number of people offering up their different techniques with details of their process for that image.
Regards, Murray

richardnyc · #5 03-24-2006, 02:10 PM

Ok. Not sure how to load an image here but here is link to an image that I would like to apply a plastic-like skin. Its fairly smooth already and does have some strong existing highlights..
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Thanks
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Richard
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http://www.pbase.com/richardnyc/image/57685961

makeovermagic · #6 03-24-2006, 03:13 PM

Hi Richard,

Is this close to what you are looking for?

M.O.M.

arcadhia · #7 03-24-2006, 03:19 PM

And? what about these?

Elisha

Natalia

richardnyc · #8 03-24-2006, 03:41 PM

Interesting... Two different approaches. MOM seems to have done a hue sat / density thing which does make the model look like plastic... Works but not exactly what I was looking for as I may convert this to grayscale .
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Arcadia's samples I am curious about. Not the eyes but plastic - like highlights with texture... Especially on the nose. Is this a trade secret or can you direct me to an online tutorial ?
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Thanks for the help
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Richard

Cassidy · #9 03-25-2006, 01:33 AM

Lovely Pic,

Gave it a go with a slight gaussian blur (masked to arms mainly)
Then applied a very very ever so slight plastic wrap filter (again masked)
Finally a levels adjustment

richardnyc · #10 03-25-2006, 08:38 AM

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Thanks for the compliment and the work you did on the image. Very nice and it sends me in the right direction...
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I know you did a quick sample and it could be refined, but the arm is too blurry. If you look back at the sample at the top of this thread you see that its not distorted.
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However blurring and brightening the plastic wrap effect is something I have not tried. I was only reducing its opacity and finally the effect was diminished.
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I was not looking for an exact "how to" for this and I think I have some stuff to try out now. Still wondering about putting texture back in the blown out highlights like Arcadia did..
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Ok thanks all !
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Richard
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shellby · #11 03-25-2006, 09:26 AM

Here's my shot at it

richardnyc · #12 03-25-2006, 09:49 AM

Please tell me how you did it ...
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Thanks for your time
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richard

shellby · #13 03-25-2006, 10:56 AM

Ok I have see attached for a screengrab of my layers for this one.

1) The blur and sharpen method is outlined in this tutorial:

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1169397

Once you have done the Blur and then the High Pass Sharpen...

2) Apple, ALT, Shift N E to merge all to a new layer

3) APPLE (Control on pc) click on the RGB channel. This selects only the highlights in the image.

4) Go back to your layer and hit APPLE J to copy these highlights to a new layer

4) Apply the free downloadable action called "Daves Ethereal Glow" to the highlight layer

5) Mask this and paint in the areas of the skin that you want to have the glow. Lower opacity of the layer until you have your desired effect.

6) Use the channel mixer to desaturate by clicking on MONOCHROME and dial in 70% 30% 0% lower the opacity of this layer to 22%

7) Use a blue Photo filter layer at 33% opacity to cool the image's colour

PatrickB · #14 03-25-2006, 03:48 PM

I'm sorry for being completely wrong about what you want to achieve in advance

But maybe that one?

byRo · #15 03-25-2006, 04:33 PM

I was wondering why nobody changed the skin colour.
Plastic doesn't have the nuances of real skin - so just make all the skin exactly the same colour and it looks more "plasticky".
(The opposite problem to colourizing greyscale images )

Did my usual GBlur / High-pass tricks to get the texture right and then added (in LAB) a curve adjustment with a wavey metal-type luminosity curve and a flattened curve for the regions of skin in the A and B channels (masked to only the skin).

Rô