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guitar custom graphic cs6


tas9195

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Ok so I have been working on adding graphics to guitar bodies, I learned most of what to do on a you tube vid I found. I have gotten pretty decent at it, one thing I noticed in his vid is that the lighting on the original guitar was coming through to give a more realistic look. I have used the opacity like he did but depending on the color of the original guitar and the graphic I am laying over it if I reduce it too much it takes away from the realisticness and if I don't reduce it enough it looks fake. Also I have seen about displacement to have the image contour the body and also I seem to run across multipying in blending mode. The other thing is the way I do it is I duplicate the layer and then erase the parts of the top layer to expose the parts of the guitar I want to show through, such as the knobs pickups etc.... I have gotten pretty good at those the part that is hard is the strings because they are so thin. I just zoom all the way in and pick a brush size the match the string and then follow the string but it is hard to follow it perfectly and is time consuming. I was wondering if you can make a custom shape for the eraser to fit the pickups and do it in one click instead of having to do it with the regular eraser.I am just trying to find a way to be more efficient and speed the process up. Also add more realisticness to it. I have had someone approach me about doing this for clients before to see if they like the design. He is a custom builder. Here is one I am doing for myself that a friend is going to paint my Ibanez to match.
 

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IamSam

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Hi tas,

tas9195 said:
Ok so I have been working on adding graphics to guitar bodies, I learned most of what to do on a you tube vid I found. I have gotten pretty decent at it, one thing I noticed in his vid is that the lighting on the original guitar was coming through to give a more realistic look. I have used the opacity like he did but depending on the color of the original guitar and the graphic I am laying over it if I reduce it too much it takes away from the realisticness and if I don't reduce it enough it looks fake.
I would try blending modes, especially overlay, before I went to the opacity.

tas9195 said:
The other thing is the way I do it is I duplicate the layer and then erase the parts of the top layer to expose the parts of the guitar I want to show through, such as the knobs pickups etc....
Instead of ERASING, you should be using a MASK!

tas9195 said:
I was wondering if you can make a custom shape for the eraser to fit the pickups and do it in one click instead of having to do it with the regular eraser.
Absolutely! Are you using the exact same guitar template for each of your designs?
 

IamSam

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I made this custom brush from your photo by extracting the bridge and whammy bar using the Pen Tool. Once you have it outlined, right click and choose Make an Outline, then hit cmd/cntrl + J to duplicate the isolation to it's own layer. I then used the Rectangular Marquis Tool to make a tight box around the area I wanted to be the actual brush. Since the contrast was already there, I just went to EDIT >DEFINE BRUSH PRESET > named it and done!

Screen Shot 2013-08-21 at 10.49.59 AM.png

Here's a good tutorial on making custom brushes.
 
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IamSam

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Sorry for the extra post, but in order to use the brush in the manner that you described for an eraser brush (which I don't recommend, use a mask!), you would need to make a "blackout brush".

Procedure is that same as above, except you make a selection of your isolated bridge and whammy (cmd/cntrl + click the thumbnail) and then fill with black.

Screen Shot 2013-08-21 at 11.10.36 AM.png
 

tas9195

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Cool thanks alot, I really need to get used to using masks. I see alot of people using them i am just used to the eraser tool and have become lazy with it. I get confused sometimes on layer masks and the black and white brush but I guess I will get focused and get it down. Thanks a lot for the advice. Any suggestions for the strings. the problem being if I get rid of anything area but the string it is noticeable. I can do it with the eraser method it is just time consuming and with 6 string or 7 or 8 whatever they need it gets tedious. Blending modes is also a weak point with me. where would I start.
 

IamSam

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Ok, quick question..............

Your only erasing in the strings in these 3 small areas, right?

IbanezGuitar_01.png
 

MikeMc

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Cool thanks alot, I really need to get used to using masks. I see alot of people using them i am just used to the eraser tool and have become lazy with it. I get confused sometimes on layer masks and the black and white brush but I guess I will get focused and get it down.

Don't be lazy I used that way until I erased some pixels I did not save, they were "priceless memories" and my boo boo will haunt me...

BUT masking is really much easier than erase because you are not using the actual image, just covering things up with a layer on top of it. With refine edge in the later versions, you need to mask!
 

tas9195

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Yeah it is basically on the 3 spots you pointed out and then on some I have the pickups covered as well with the graphic so that would be done on the string as well.
 

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tas9195

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Sorry the one above is one I did for my teacher and we actually had this printed out and he is putting it on his guitar now. you can see I did the pickups as well.
 

tas9195

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This is the guitar for my teacher
 

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ibclare

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I don't know if it will help you any, but if you use the mask or eraser -- IMO the mask is better as Mike explained -- you can click your brush at one end of the string then go down to the end of it and shift click. You'll get a straight line erasure that way. If the line is variable width, you can go back, click and angle the next click.
 

tas9195

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I don't know if it will help you any, but if you use the mask or eraser -- IMO the mask is better as Mike explained -- you can click your brush at one end of the string then go down to the end of it and shift click. You'll get a straight line erasure that way. If the line is variable width, you can go back, click and angle the next click.

I actually tried that but the strings don't run parallel to each other so I have to readjust the guitar each time to make each string in a straight line. which works but just trying to find the most economical way to do it. Hoping getting into masks it makes it easier and more managable.
 

IamSam

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OK, here's a technique that I have used on other similar projects. Just an idea for you to consider. Take the original guitar (I used the one you posted) and separate it's parts into different layers. First I made a basic Guitar template from which any new schemes (skins) could be cut from......

GuitarTemplate_01.png

Then I separated the tailpiece, bridge, pick-ups, knobs, strap buttons, and neck (for times sake I did not do the machine heads)......

NeckBridgePickupTemplate_01.png

Here's a new skin cut using the Guitar template.....

NewSkin_01.png

Combine the two........

Combined_01.png

Add a shadow (I made this shadow manually and placed it on it's own layer)
Add some shading to the Guitar (also on it's own layer)
I forgot to add a layer style/drop shadow for the bridge, pick-ups, knobs, etc,.

ShadowShading-02.png

Screen Shot 2013-08-23 at 12.29.09 AM.png

Save as a new psd so you will always have the template psd to work with! Makes thing very simple, changing the scheme only takes a few minutes..........don't think this helps much with the strings on the headstock though.
 
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tas9195

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Dude, IamSam you are the man(assuming), I think this is what I have been looking for. I think you have awakened me to a new way of thinking of photoshop. All I needed was someone to point me in the right direction. Sometimes it takes me a bit to catch on but when I do it all makes sense. I went and watched some masking tutorials and viola it all makes sense to me now. Thanks for all the help guys. I guess I can live with doing the string manually.
 

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