Tips For Making 3D Fairy Edits

LabsNotDabs✨ · Post time 2017-7-8 16:19:08

Edited by LabsNotDabs✨ at 2017-7-8 14:30

Disclaimers

1) This is NOT A TUTORIAL but rather tips that will assist you in making better 3D edits. There is already a tutorial on the forum made by the lovely Nightkore, which can be found here.
2) I do not claim to be an expert at 3D fairy edits as I have only been making them for less than a year (approximately 7-8 months)
3) For these tips, I will mainly be referring to Photoshop, as that is what I use to make these edits. Feel free to apply these tips to any other program that you'll be using (e.g. GIMP, Pixlr, etc.)

~~~~~TIPS~~~~~

------------------------1: Don't use a single base! ------------------------

You'd think that using a single base would make your life easier as you just stick parts of the fairy on, but it doesn't always. I find that this makes it harder to add certain parts, such as the hair and clothing, and may cause these elements to be resized. For this reason, I find it better to stick different parts of other fairies onto the fairy you'd like to make 3D, by doing this:

1. You won't have to resize clothing or other elements, causing them to become blurry

2. This makes your fairy more customizable and less cookie-cutter (eg. you can take the face from one fairy, but shoulders, arms, and legs from completely different faries)

Example:

How to pick a good base?

- Newer images (such as those from the Pixie Hollow Games) work well for faces as the features more acurately resemble those of our own fairies

- High quality, larger images that can be resized to fit onto your 2D fairy

- Images with minial clothing covering the arms and legs

REMEMBER: IT HELPS TO KEEP EACH BODY PART YOU ADD ON A DIFFERENT LAYER, NOT REMOVING THE PARTS OF YOUR ORIGINAL FAIRY UNLESS THEY CAN STILL BE SEEN WHEN COVERED

--------------------------2: The mixer brush tool --------------------------

The mixer brush tool can sometimes be a good way to extend areas of skin, or cover parts of clothing. The mixer brush tool can help to extend parts of a picture by pushing colour out, and also helps to blend your colours when used at a low setting. By using the mixer brush tool, you are able to extend the skin out and then remove the perts you do not want.

Example:

After doing this, always make sure to go back in and shade your fairy! Darker areas are generally towards the side of the face or where the bangs touch the face (as this would leave a shadow). Lighter areas are toward the center of the face. Here is a guide to help:

-----------------3: Use the most precise selection method---------------

When removing background of the parts you will be adding to make your fairy 3D, always use the most accurate selection method. In Photoshop, this would be the pen tool. This should be done because:

1. You can more accurately cut out areas of background that are surrounded by curves

2. Your selections will be a lot smoother, giving you better results (Limbs will look less choppy)

**Yes, this can take more time but this detail will improve your edits

Example:

----------------------------4: Replacing clothing ---------------------------

Sometimes you may need to remove the arms of your original fairy depending on what arms you decide to add to make your fairy 3D. To replace the clothing from these areas, you can either:

1. Freehand: This requires you to be very precise and shade the areas afterwards

2. Duplicate a part of the clothing texture and blend it in with the original clothing

3. Use the clone stamp tool: this can often be one of the easiest methods, but you need to go slowly and use a softer brus

Freehand: Create a selection, fill in the area with a solid colour (on a new layer), and then shade on a new layer. Use a clipping mask to apply the shading to the freehand area

Duplication:

Clone stamp:

----------------------------5: Matching colours -----------------------------

Matching skintones of the added parts to the orignal fairy can sometimes be hard. Here is an easy way to do this:

1. Pick a colour from the lightest part of skin (usually on the apples of the cheeks) and fill in a new layer with this colour

2. Use a clipping mask to clip this colour onto the layer that has the part that you want to change the colour of.

3. On the layer with the colour, set the blend mode to "Divide" and turn down the opacity a bit.

**This doesn't always work. If this doesn't, then you can just use hue/saturation settings or the colour balance settings to adjust the skin colour on the layer where the body part is.

Example:

----------------------------------6: Liquify -----------------------------------

Liquify can help to more accurately adjust the size/shape of features in order to resemble the original fairy more. I recommend you do not play around in this menu if you are a beginner, as you can easily deform these features. Other ways to make sure features are aligned include:

1. Lower the opacity of the feature you want to add, then position it to make the elements line up (e.g. if it is a face, make sure the eyes of the face your adding line up with the eyes of your original fairy)

2. Warp the face a little to make sure the features align.

3. Make a copy of the features, resize, then use the clone stamp or mixer brush tool to mask that area on the layer you made the copy from.

Example:

~~~~~FINAL PRODUCT~~~~~

Something similar to this after drawing in hair: