Fwoosh Official Marvel ACTION PHOTO Thread 2.0

[killphil]

Killphil, those trading cards are pretty dope!! Love 'em! Nice work!

Thanks! Wish I had more of them done, but they take forever. I don't have any decent editing software, so I have to make the best with finding backdrops.

For example, my son's old National Geographic book "A Day in the Woods"...





...and then edit them in Microsoft Paint, using the rectangle and free form cloning tools to add all the overlays. It's pretty tedious.



Would love to get more of them done faster and more efficiently. For the more seasoned ACBAer's in here, could anyone recommend the best editing software for these types of projects?

[Enforcer]

If you're talking about photo editing software, technically ACBA folks would be the last people to ask (as they firmly believe in the purity of an unmanipulated photo). I think its part of the ACBA indoctrination (because Boog never learned Photoshop).

I use Photoshop. Have since the beginning. There are some tools I'd love to take advantage of in newer versions, but my PC isn't up to Windows 10. I gotta cut everything out by hand, which is the most time consuming part. There is an AI assisted cutout tool in more recent versions of Photoshop that would make your life easier assuming you wanted to go digital.

[Ninjak]

Oh yeah, Photoshop has some amazing new features in the latest versions. I'm a graphic designer by profession, and I pretty much need to have the most up-to-date graphics software in order to share files with other people and etc. And Photoshop these days has a feature where you select a layer (even if it's just a one layer file like a jpeg), and you can tell it to "remove background" and it automatically selects the subject for you and takes out the background at the same time.

That feature, and others, save me a ton of time when I'm doing work for clients and creating panels for my action figure comics on my own. Especially when you need Spider-Man swinging through the city or Superman flying in the sky, etc.

[killphil]

Thanks for the input. Definitely would save me many hours if I could just eliminate backgrounds and such.

I gotta cut everything out by hand, which is the most time consuming part. There is an AI assisted cutout tool in more recent versions of Photoshop that would make your life easier assuming you wanted to go digital.

Do you mean tracing around the edges of an object with your pointer and dragging it where you want it? If so, it is indeed the most time consuming part of making any of these images. Plus having to clone colors to clean up and blend the edges in with the pencil tool.

[Enforcer]

Thanks, for the input. Definitely would save me many hours if I could just eliminate backgrounds and such.

I gotta cut everything out by hand, which is the most time consuming part. There is an AI assisted cutout tool in more recent versions of Photoshop that would make your life easier assuming you wanted to go digital.

Do you mean tracing around the edges of an object with your pointer and dragging it where you want it? If so, it is indeed the most time consuming part of making any of these images. Plus having to clone colors to clean up and blend the edges in with the pencil tool.

No, I literally take the eraser tool and cut the figure out to the Pixel. By hand is the only way I can get it to look so sharp and clean. This includes using the blended edge eraser to cut out blurred/out of focus parts of the figure. I have it down to about 30 minutes per figure.

[killphil]

Guess I'll have to get Photoshop. Those utilities would be nice have.

[Enforcer]

It will be a game changer for you, especially for the type of photography you'd be doing for some of those cards.

[MaximumCrapping]

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

[SalemCrow]

Guess I'll have to get Photoshop. Those utilities would be nice have.

You can get Gimp for free https://www.gimp.org/downloads/ . It's got almost all the same tools as a slightly older Photoshop.

I "grew up" doing digital art/coloring/manipulation with an old program called Jasc Paint Shop Pro, so even getting the old version of Photoshop 3 when I did made a big difference. Hell, I've only had a tablet for digital work for less than a decade, so all that work used to be done with a mouse.

By the way, the cards look amazing. I just had to share that other info first.

[killphil]

I'll give it a shot. Much appreciated!

[Ninjak]

Thanks, for the input. Definitely would save me many hours if I could just eliminate backgrounds and such.

I gotta cut everything out by hand, which is the most time consuming part. There is an AI assisted cutout tool in more recent versions of Photoshop that would make your life easier assuming you wanted to go digital.

Do you mean tracing around the edges of an object with your pointer and dragging it where you want it? If so, it is indeed the most time consuming part of making any of these images. Plus having to clone colors to clean up and blend the edges in with the pencil tool.

No, I literally take the eraser tool and cut the figure out to the Pixel. By hand is the only way I can get it to look so sharp and clean. This includes using the blended edge eraser to cut out blurred/out of focus parts of the figure. I have it down to about 30 minutes per figure.

Hey, Enforcer, are you sure that your version of Photoshop doesn't have the "Quick Selection" tool? It would be grouped with the "Magic Wand" tool. The Quick Selection tool looks like a paintbrush with a dotted loop around the end. That feature has been in Photoshop for at least 10 years. That is the tool I use the most for taking backgrounds out of photos. See if your version of PS has it, and then look up a video on YouTube on using it. It's super easy and would save you hours of time.

Also, if you have a thin white line around your main subject after cutting it out from the background, just choose the layer that your subject is on and from the drop down menu at the top choose Layer/Matting/Defringe and it will automatically remove the white around the edges of your image.

[Enforcer]

I'm definitely going to try this out! Thanks

[sepster]

Been sitting on these for awhile. Put them up on Reddit and thought maybe you guys might like them here too.

Updated with Wolverine and Mojo. I had to get Wolverine in there. Mojo I did because I'm lazy and needed an easy card to fill them out.

What a time to be alive!!

Marvel Legends really is the line a dreamt of as a kid.

[Archrivals]

Painted DareDevil heads from the Casting Cave are dope..

[PharOOO]

I'll give it a shot. Much appreciated!

Without quoting all the cards again, that is some absolutely fantastic work!

What makes it even more impressive is the time spent editing in Paint. Wow!

Great job with the posing too. I didn't realize the figures could get into those poses since all my stand straight on a shelf.