Computer Graphics

 

Have you ever used the Save for Web option in Photoshop and found your image looks much lighter on the export than on the canvas? It happened to me when I switched from CS on XP to CS 2 on OS X.

The problem is that your canvas is using one colour profile (sRGB is best for web by the way) and exporting using another. If you're working on web here's how you fix it:

Choose File > Save for Web and then click the arrow located to the top right of the canvas. Choose Use Document Color Profile - this will ensure the canvas and the exported image match.

I found this link that details the steps a Photoshop artist would typically go through to retouch a model photo so it looks good enough to go on a magazine cover. The difference is staggering and it's all the more impressive so if you're a Photoshop artist.

To see the before and after follow this link and then click on the image (which launches a Flash movie).

It's a fairly high-level description but it's interesting all the same.

If you've downloaded the Combustion 4 Trial from Autodesk you may be struggling to learn the application properly. The user guide that comes with the download acts more as a reference and the tutorials on the Autodesk site are short videos. So, there are no structured step-by-step tutorials that come with accompanying footage are there?

Actually, there are.

Autodesk have relased a book entitled Combustion 4 Fundamentals Courseware that contains exactly what you're looking for to learn the application: a structured step-by-step tutorials that come with accompanying footage. I purchased the book recently and it is in my opinion an essential purchase for the new Combustion user (probably not so useful for advanced users). It covers every facet of Combustion and includes 42 tutorials spread over ten sections.

Get the book from Amazon - for around £20 it's a small price to pay.

dougie0047, a member at CGTalk has very kindly put together a huge, free library of textures for CG artists to use in their projects, commercial or otherwise. The library contains over 1000 images at a resolution of 3200 * 2400 and is available as a torrent. As for the type of textures dougie0047 says he "spent a few days walking around Berlin shooting here and there".

Read details about the torrent here.

Thanks dougie0047!