M1A1 with A-10 flyover

[chrism7262]

hey. this is dedicated not only to the soldiers, but to Don for all the help and support. i also tried what Spitfire and john uk said with the canopy, jagged edges, and the filesize. im still working on the blending, but any suggestions are appreciated!!

[Tjw2]

It looks wrong because the A-10 is 3d and the M1A1s are 2d

[chrism7262]

yea i see what you mean.

[Kleen Harry]

Hi, Chris! Thanks a lot, M8! Very kind of you!  :)

Considering how new you are to this editing business it's really outstandingly good work, M8! The image as a whole is quite good, IMHO. You really have an intuitive sense for what makes a good, interesting image.  ;)

It's a bit rough, as we knew it would be at a larger size. That's no surprise. We wanted that so we could better see where things could be polished up a bit.  :)

Please permit me to offer a couple of suggestions for your consideration, Chris:

1) Choose a high quality background image.  When you start out with one this rough it's almost impossible to smooth it out and still have it look good. A better quality background image would, IMHO, offer an immediate,  100% improvement to this image. Not a very "hi tech" suggestion, is it! However, it is one of the basic things that we all learn somewhere along the way!  ;)

2) If you get a background which is a little rough, you may be able to fix it with one of the various types of blurs the editor offers. I don't know if you editor has "Gaussian Blur" but that can work quite well on the rough areas in low doses. Too much and you'll quickly see what happens, hee, hee!  ;D

3) If you have work to do on the background, do it first. You can also do it later as long as it is still on a separate layer. Once you've merged or flattened things, it's a lot harder to work with. This also gives you the opportunity to see if you can bring the background around to an acceptable level before you invest a lot of time and effort in it.

I think that's enough from me for now, hee, hee! What I'm trying to do is to focus in on what appears to be the biggest single thing rather than throwing a bunch of stuff at you all at once. We'll get around to the other stuff as time goes by. No rush.  8-)

So, just keep makin 'em and postin 'em. You might consider the idea of setting a goal for yourself in your next one to start out with a background image which looks good at 800 pixels wide. Don't forget that you can always crop a piece out of a much larger image. I do that more often than not and most of the guys I know who do composites do that as well.

Keep up the good work! You're on a roll!

Tallyho!
Don

[chrism7262]

your welcomeDon!! i'll definately keep that in mind for the next one thanks for the help!! as backgrounds i have been looking for larger image sizes and then either scaling them down or cropping a piece of it as you suggested.

this way the background is clearer (much clearer) and it gives you room to work with when you insert an image so you don't have to worry about the quality of the image matching the quality of the background. the quality can always be brought down, but its hard to improve it.

your suggestions really helped!  ;D  i think the one im working on now is going to turn out nice!

[Kleen Harry]

You gots it, Red Ryder! Go get 'em!  ;)

[spitfire boy]

Getting better and better - I can't see any compression issues with this one, and the colours are really good.

I do agree about the tanks looking too 2d though.

[chrism7262]

thanks a lot Spitfire!! i'll try to work on the tanks  ;D

[Sytse]

Yes, that is a really nice picture. You just need to work on the quality, you know... polishing up the rough diamond.

[chrism7262]

thanks sytse much appreciated!! i'll try to fix it up some more!!  ;D

[Sytse]

If you want... but I wouldn't worry about this one anymore. Just move on to the next one and remember the things you've learned from this one...

[Kleen Harry]

Of course, you need to go the way that seems right to you, Chris, but I've found that what Sytse has suggested to be the best way for me personally. Just seems that you can progress and learn faster that way.  ;)

[chrism7262]

yep thats pretty much what i've been doing when i get suggsestions from people i work on them for a little while and if there isnt any dramatic change i probably won't post it again.  ;)