Transparencies

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 8:20 pm

Just decided to show off my favorite finished template, to date. ^.^ It's the third generation in my super!rainbow project. X3 And possibly the least rainbow-ey individual of the batch. *snrk*

http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... n-3_ex.png
Warning: image is transparent png, and 483k - beeeeeg file. Linked to save those computers who have a hard time downloading large images.

Wish I had a good bg on which to post him, to better show off his transparent-ness. *love him* <3

Post by **Dray** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 8:47 pm

Cool! Where on earth does the see-through come from?! XD Gorgeous markings, btw!

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 8:53 pm

O.O oh that's just fantastic.

So pretty seethrough!

Xenoqueen · Post by **Xenoqueen** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:38 pm

...don't tell me it can has yautie/dysiniu Stavon as an ancestor? XD

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 7:45 am

Xenoqueen wrote:...don't tell me it can has yautie/dysiniu Stavon as an ancestor? XD

*giggle* Nope! Though now I'm tempted to add him in once the transparentness fades enough to need a new dose. X3 Though I'm also tempted to mix in a little xeno genes, so that might not work out so well. *sadface*

The transparency comes from one of my ice!dragons. <3 The lankyness/long limbs, too. ^.^

*love for this template* I can't wait to get this project officially!going and start giving out babies.

Post by **Dray** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:05 am

Either way, your previews fugging rock. @.@ I can't believe that that's the -least- rainbowy one! What's the -most-?! XD

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:42 am

lol When you post the most rainbow-y, I think we'll hear Molly from wherever we are in squealing delight.

Post by **Dray** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:49 am

...Agreed. XDD That made me giggle.

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 11:10 am

*snicker* I do love the super!rainbows. <3

And to give you an idea of just how rainbowey these guys are gonna get, here are the parents of the current four generations, in no particular order: Wriy (mmm, iridescent!transparency <3), Yorihiko, Verinotolimuth (as a nice base for the first gen), Kiyanna, and Sirishus (iridescent!glowies!!

). They're fun. ^.^

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 11:34 am

Oh those will be so nice to see.

and.... markings... >_> I'm still thinking of a "racing stripe" dragon breed, those would fit nicely.

Post by **Dray** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 4:07 pm

Those are going to be so wicked! *jawdrops* I can't wait!

Out of curiosity, are you going to give away any more of those plant dragons? I thought that they were so cool! 8D

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 5:29 pm

Shard: X3 I'll be releasing them in clutch giveaways as soon as I get the first one colored up.

Dray: I am! Both the plantdragons and the abianderni.

Just as soon as I can get their respective sites all up and ready to go. *sheepish*

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 9:50 pm

*slips in and posts a quick example of what to expect in the first generation of this breeding project* X3

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 9:54 pm

o______o

*grabbyhands*

Post by **Dray** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:00 pm

Verinotolimuth and this kirin guy?

That's kickass! Loving the feets!

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:01 pm

Shard: XD I'll set up a giveaway in a few.. but unfortunately, I only have seven to send out. (I'm keeping that example one for the breeding project) ^.^;; Though I suppose I could make some more if there's a demand for them. *shrug!*

Phe: Yup!

*also in love with the feets* <3

Starburst · Post by **Starburst** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:55 pm

...ZOMG RAINBOWGASM.

XD

Gawd I wish I could get my site working again. >.> I would actually be able to page some stuff then.

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 8:25 pm

*turns this into a show-off thread* XD

Couple of shiny new boys for the VotS residency. <3 They're twins. *love them* I get the feeling that they're related to both Illusyd and Eikida. Possibly Reif, too. But then, there's hardly a Saa in the valley who's not related to -someone-. ^.^;;; Mm. Inbreeding. *facepalm at poor little species*

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 9:36 pm

So.... pretty....

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 6:47 am

You know how incoherant I was when I peeked over your shoulder last night? "Oh, I really like the red one... and the pale one's markings... and the...." etc etc etc just kind of rambling stream of thought?

It went the opposite direction staring this morning. Oh, I really like the pale one, and the red one's got such pretty markings and... actually, you're in the other room. I could tell you this now. But why ruin the surprise? XD

Suffice to say, I really really really think that each time I look at this, I can't decide /which/ I like more. They're both so pretty. *___*

They need babies. They need them now. >__>;

Post by **Dray** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 1:51 pm

Gorgeous! :D Unyko, I'm so glad you joined the Nexus. Your creatures make me smile. (Cool, twins! XD I want to make a bunch of different images for breeding-type critters.)

Post by **Dray** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 3:35 pm

By the way, Uny, would it be possible to throw together some kind of tutorial on how you made the first image in that transparent style? :O It's really sleek!

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 6:33 pm

Shard:

! I love them. ^.^

Lilu: *SNRK* Well, that's sort of expected. (Plus, that's the way they're supposed to be, anyway. X3!)

Dray: Awu, thank you! Best compliment evar. ^.^ And surely.

I'll cook up a quick tutorial, probably tomorrow. It's really pretty intuitive, even if it is a bit complicated, with about a million layers in the initial coloring process.

Will do that in a bit. Maybe tomorrow, if/when my head is clearer. *salute!*

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 6:53 pm

Sorry it took me so long. ^.^; But here's your tutorial.. complete with images and helpful captions! :D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright, I assume you know how to scan and fiddle with the levels so that it's almost a black-and-white image. (Not quite b&w.. a little fuzzyness is fine. <3) So we'll start with making the background transparent. If you ink your sketch on the computer, this step is already done. You win. :D

LINEART
Use the wand tool and select all of the white in the image and delete.
(http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... utline.gif)
(I like to have a backup of the original image, for later use.) If necessary, make a new layer underneath the lineart and bucket-fill it with black to make sure you got everything. A little erasing will probably be necessary to get rid of any lingering whitebits in the cracks between lines.

SHADING AND HILIGHTS
I'm not sure how you all do your shading/hilights, and I'm not sure if any other method would work as well here. This is what I do. ^.^;
(http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... _shade.gif)
Basically it's just two layers of the dragon's most basic outline, one filled with white beneath one filled with black. (You can take the time to color your outline, but it's easier if you do this: Select the area outside your image, then select inverse and contract the selection by one pixel. This lets you quickly and easily eliminate the possibility of coloring outside the lines, and you can just bucket-fill both layers. <3)
Now that you have your layers, you can shade them, either using the dodge and burn tools, or black and white paint. Set the black (hilight) layer to 'Screen,' and the white (shadow) layer to 'Multiply.'

LAYERS!
This outline ended up with about 20 layers of color (not counting the shadow and hilight layers, or the lineart), but that's only because I'm a spaz and wanted to make a completely!transparent dragon. XD
(http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... yers_1.gif)
(http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... yers_2.gif)
Set your paintbrush opacity to 50%. (I do the 50% brush instead of a 50% layer opacity because I like to add a bit of extra opaque around the edges, so that it has some depth.) I suppose you could just color everything at once, one layer of 'paint' on top of the last, but that makes it hard to change colors, and it's -very- difficult to go back and fix something if you accidentally color something wrong. (This is why there are so many layers. XD;;;)
Feathers are hard, but only need one layer per wing (so long as you paint each feather individually, still using the 50% opacity).
(http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... _wings.gif)
Repeat for as many layers as you deem appropriate.
(http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... olored.gif)
Tada! You're done coloring! :D

TRANSPARENTIZING!
Now that you have the transparent color layers, it's time to do the shading and hilights.
(http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... -trans.gif)
At the moment, they are the only thing holding this back from being a completely transparent dragon. Transparentizing the hilight layer is pretty easy.
(http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... ilight.gif)
Hide every other layer but the hilight layer (and that handy black background we've been using), and go into the 'Channels' tab. Select the light areas by clicking on 'Load channel as selection' button. Then return to the 'Layers' tab, create a new layer, and bucketfill the selection with white. Tada! You now have a transparent background layer. :D
(http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... rans_1.gif)

The shadow layer is a bit more complicated, but only by one step.
(http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... ns_2-1.gif)
Make sure the black background layer is turned off, and repeat the previous few steps to select all of the white in your shadow layer, then go to the 'Select' menu and inverse your selection. Now you can fill it with black.
(http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... ns_2-2.gif)

FINISHED! :D
(http://unykness.pegaruny.com/Lliyani/ne ... 12-fin.gif)
Tada! You have successfully made a transparent!dragon. And it only took 12hrs! :D (Now go sleep. And rest your hand for a day or two. >.>;;;;)

Post by **Dray** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 11:08 pm

Duuuude, cool! XD It's the shading that had always gotten me before! This helps! :D

Post by **Dray** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:42 pm

(Sorry to necro. XD Just thought it pertained to these guys) So what's taking so long to get the previous clutches out, if you're waiting to put these guys up on display? Have you drawn the first clutches yet? XD *wants to see 'em in all their glory, dengit!*

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:13 pm

XD *thread zombies around*

Well, I have the first clutch ready to go (except I was hoping to improve on their coloring before sending them out <.< oh well?), but I'm mostly waiting on myself to get the parents up. *sheepish* They were both giveaway dragons, and I don't quite know where to fit them in. ^.^;; The second clutch is drawn and inked and scanned and ready to go, but with my arting computer out of commission, I can't really finish them. *die* And I am absolutely in love with that template, too, so.. yeah. That's why.

I've also got the generation -after- this one all drawn and inked and ready to go. *facepalm* I just can't color anything at the moment.

Post by **Dray** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:39 pm

Nooo, I hate computer failures! XD I hope that'n can get all fixed up soon!

In the meantime, feel free to borrow Star City for in character locations, if need be! :D They have a wide variety of dragons and plenty of 'private' clutches for whatever kind of giveaway you'd like!

(This transparency is just to die for, is all. XD I squeegle with glee at it, and try to emulate it whenever I get a see-through type with my own dragons!)

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:09 pm

I know! It's downright unhelpful! *shake fist at computar, who is insisting it needs a new harddrive, or something*

Awu, that's awesome of you, Dray! <3! I think I may take you up on that offer, and have their clutches based out of Star City. ^.^ Honestly, it's quite a convenient main hub. :3

(Also: best compliment evar. <33!!!)