Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
To lighten the eyes, I created a new layer and set
its Blend mode to Overlay. Then, I painted white
over the eyes. I also added subtle highlights, paint-
ing some distorted reflections by hand on a separate
layer (this time with the Blend mode set to Normal).
On the same layer as the reflections, I also dark-
ened the highlights on some of the nails, picking
colors from nearby areas with the color picker and
painting over the bright highlights. (Make sure to
turn on Sample Merged in the tool options to allow
you to sample layers below the current one without
switching to them.) Finally, on the original render
layer, I used the Blur tool to slightly blur some of
the hair on the feet in order to draw attention away
from where it looked a bit too coarse.
In Figure 14-13, you can see the retouched eyes.
Figure 14-14 shows the completed Bat Creature
project.
Figure 14-13: Retouching
some areas of the compos-
ite in GIMP. I added some
highlights to the eyes with
one layer and brightened
them overall with a second
(with the Blend mode set
to Overlay).
Rendering and Compositing the
Spider Bot
To finalize the Spider Bot, I wanted to add color
grading to the lighting (from Chapter 13), show
some depth of field to communicate the robot's
small scale, and add some bloom.
Depth of field is a real-world phenomenon
that happens with images seen through a lens,
whether that's a camera or the human eye. Lenses
can only focus perfectly on objects that are a certain
distance away from them, a distance known as the
focal length . Objects outside this distance become
progressively more out of focus. The effect can
be subtle (even not worth bothering with) or sig-
nificant. In general, depth-of-field effects are most
apparent when viewing objects at small scales.
Depth of Field in Cycles
There are two ways to create depth of field when
rendering with Cycles. One is to use the Defocus
node in Blender's compositor. This works with both
Blender Internal and Cycles and will be used for
the Jungle Temple scene later in this chapter. The
other way is to use Cycles's “real” depth of field as a
Camera setting when rendering.
To use real depth of field, do the following:
1.
Select the active camera.
2.
In the Depth of Field panel on the Object Data
tab of the Properties editor, set a distance from
the camera to the focal plane (the distance where
objects appear in focus).
Figure 14-14: The retouched Bat Creature
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