Photoshop help please

[faza]

I am thinking of replacing the backglass on the poker machine that i am currently restoring as it has faded quite badly and is scratched / crazed in quite a few places.
To do this i have spent the day trying to teach myself how to use photoshop .
I have managed most of the backglass but i am hoping that there is an easy way to recreate the inca tribal patterns in the background.
Is this feasible or should i look for a similar pattern and use that as a background .
I am an absolute noob on photoshop so any guidance / help would be appreciated.
I have put a before and after picture up let me have it, any advice would be most welcome are the colours too bright not bright enough etc .

Cheers
 

[Retropin]

Have you tried selecting with " magic wand" and then cleaning up?
Corel Trace is a pretty good tool but it traces all defects too and so hours of clean up are required. I use both Corel and PS.. im not too strong with PS and am much more at home with Corel.
Many illustrators will use both and flip files fron one to the other as neither has all the tools required... what we need is Corel Shop

[goodolddays]

Massive improvement over the original . Good luck with your project . I am yet to learn Photoshop so can't help I'm afraid

[vinito]

There is a "select by color" option too which should allow you to globally select all the goldish Inca pattern (for example) with one click and maybe fiddling with a slider control a bit. After that you can click "cut" then if you want you can then paste what you just cut as a new layer which makes it easier to work on it.

First off I should mention that you should get used to dealing with "layers" in photoshop or similar software. Put everything you can think of it its own layer. Then you can do things like switch off all the other layers to isolate the one you want to work on. This makes things much easier as you go along. Then you can do things like globally tweak the color of a single element without disturbing the rest of your art.

Basically if I was starting at the beginning what I would do is start selecting, cutting and pasting a bunch of individual elements into their own layers. They stack automatically so you can easily see how the whole thing looks any time you want. Once everything is put into several layers, it really eases the rest of the work you need to do. You can even make layers which have lines or whatever on them to use as just guides or whatever, then turn those layers off or delete them come time to print so what you see is what you get. And it just takes a click or two to get there.

In this layering method, what you've done so far can be switched off so you can then deal with the Inca pattern on it's own. And that should be a simple matter of increasing the contrast so it's quite high, then selecting by color which will be a one-click step to isolating all that pattern with ease. After that, you can go in and clean up any flaws, then globally fill it so it's all whatever uniform color you want it to be or maybe just fiddle with contrast or one of the other filter tools so it looks like you want it too. Once the pattern is complete and looking good, you just create a layer behind the other stuff and make that whole layer a rectangle with your background color and Disco! - your done.

I used photoshop for a while before I built my Linux PC. If you have Linux, there is a very good graphics program which is essentially a clone of photoshop called Gimp. Both of them have such vast functionality that the learning curve can be a tad steep, but you can do so much with either program that it's worth the effort. If a guy didn't have the money for Photoshop, (or even if you do but just want to try it) I highly recommend Gimp. Actually, Gimp may have a version which works on Windows - I don't know either way.

Looks like you're doing good work so far. Kudos.

edit to add: After looking it up, it looks like Gimp is Linux only.

[faza]

Have you tried selecting with " magic wand" and then cleaning up?
Corel Trace is a pretty good tool but it traces all defects too and so hours of clean up are required. I use both Corel and PS.. im not too strong with PS and am much more at home with Corel.
Many illustrators will use both and flip files fron one to the other as neither has all the tools required... what we need is Corel Shop

Yes i have discovered the wonders of the magic wand i havent had access to corel trace might look into it.

[faza]

There is a "select by color" option too which should allow you to globally select all the goldish Inca pattern (for example) with one click and maybe fiddling with a slider control a bit. After that you can click "cut" then if you want you can then paste what you just cut as a new layer which makes it easier to work on it.

First off I should mention that you should get used to dealing with "layers" in photoshop or similar software. Put everything you can think of it its own layer. Then you can do things like switch off all the other layers to isolate the one you want to work on. This makes things much easier as you go along. Then you can do things like globally tweak the color of a single element without disturbing the rest of your art.

Basically if I was starting at the beginning what I would do is start selecting, cutting and pasting a bunch of individual elements into their own layers. They stack automatically so you can easily see how the whole thing looks any time you want. Once everything is put into several layers, it really eases the rest of the work you need to do. You can even make layers which have lines or whatever on them to use as just guides or whatever, then turn those layers off or delete them come time to print so what you see is what you get. And it just takes a click or two to get there.

In this layering method, what you've done so far can be switched off so you can then deal with the Inca pattern on it's own. And that should be a simple matter of increasing the contrast so it's quite high, then selecting by color which will be a one-click step to isolating all that pattern with ease. After that, you can go in and clean up any flaws, then globally fill it so it's all whatever uniform color you want it to be or maybe just fiddle with contrast or one of the other filter tools so it looks like you want it too. Once the pattern is complete and looking good, you just create a layer behind the other stuff and make that whole layer a rectangle with your background color and Disco! - your done.

I used photoshop for a while before I built my Linux PC. If you have Linux, there is a very good graphics program which is essentially a clone of photoshop called Gimp. Both of them have such vast functionality that the learning curve can be a tad steep, but you can do so much with either program that it's worth the effort. If a guy didn't have the money for Photoshop, (or even if you do but just want to try it) I highly recommend Gimp. Actually, Gimp may have a version which works on Windows - I don't know either way.

Looks like you're doing good work so far. Kudos.

edit to add: After looking it up, it looks like Gimp is Linux only.

Thanks i have figured out how to use the layers and that seems to be working great guns and i have tried to select the background pattern by selecting the colours but so far have not had too much success , i am not sure what globally fill means but i am sure i will figure it out eventually. Bloody clever program not so clever operator.
Cheers

[Wotto]

I think what is being referred to is the 'Colour Range' picker which you can get to by going to SELECT up the top ( as in the pink line in image below )



It will take you to a small window where you use an 'eyedropper' icon ( select the eyedropper with the + symbol next to it ) to click on the ( gold inca ) lines in your image - you can keep clicking and clicking ( as long as you selected the eyedropper with the + symbol ) until you feel it has picked up ALL of the tribal image.....it will look like this...where I was selecting the brown on the 'rat rod' truck.



Once OK you will be left with all the area's you selected  "buzzing in buzzy lines "you can then go up top to Layer -  NEW - Layer via Copy and you will have the tribal section on a layer all by itself
- here is a QUICK example of some of the brown selected from the rat rod.



See how I have all the layers showing on the right side of the image as well - do you see your layers?
To see them at all times go up top to Window and select Layers  - you can then see all your layers
You can name your layers by double clicking the name of the layer
You can turn layers on or off by clicking in the first left column - you can see the 'eye' in Layer 3 in my rat rod brown image - notice all other layers are 'off' so you ONLY see what you are working on.


I dont use the colour picker very often.
IF your tribal background is nice and clean - then use the Magic Wand as Gav suggested earlier to select it all ( you can hold down Shift and continue to select parts of the tribal image IF the wand doesnt get it all on the first click ) - then once all selected you will have the buzzy lines around it - go to Layer - New - Layer via Copy and you end up with a layer this way as well.

I hope this makes some sense.

[faza]

Thanks Wotto i have been experimenting with the colour picker but so far have not had a lot of luck the magic wand did not work out that well either, but i did not know about holding down the shift key to keep selecting more so i will give it another go thanks heaps.
The tribal pattern is  pretty poor in places and is in a multitude of different colours but im sure if i persevere i will get there if not i am learning how to use photoshop.
Apart from the tribal pattern i am nearly there although the smaller backglass still needs to be completed  once finished any advice on where to print it
Cheers

[Wotto]

Can you email me the image - brainsnap@kooee.com.au
JUST GUNNA LOOK - no promises 

[faza]

Can you email me the image - brainsnap@kooee.com.au
JUST GUNNA LOOK - no promises 

Thanks for the offer what do you want a jpeg or photoshop file .

Cheers

[Wotto]

photoshop - psd 

[faza]

Sent

[Retropin]

I had to get a new comp recently and lost Photoshop... cant find the disc anywhere!   Very annoying as i use it often for work and im buggered if im buying it again