Dali & Depp

This competition was called Cinema Pygmalion and the object was to somehow incorporate a famous painting with a scene from a movie. I used a famous painting from Salvidor Dali and put these surreal characters behind Johnny Depp in a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean. I like how the scary long-legged animals in the distance changes the meaning of this image. Originally Cpt. Jack Sparrow was running from the island savages, and now everyone is running away from these crazy monsters on stilts... I suppose you could possibly arrive at a completely different conclusion, but that's how I interpret this image.

Senior Rugby

I actually feel a little embarrassed posting this image because it was such a simple project. All I did was:

• swap heads with an old guy. Period.
  

But I did come in 3rd in the "Geriatric Groove 4" contest at Worth1000.com so I guess that makes it worth mentioning. :)

See the originals

Mini Bean

I did this one just for the fun of it. I wasn't necessarily shooting for 1st place, I just thought it would be fun... I blew through this project pretty quickly and really like how it turned out. It still makes me laugh... :)

This was another Worth1000 competition (Celebrity Mini-Me 2), and I ended up coming in 5th out of 62 entries which I am very happy with considering how little time I spent on this.

Basically all I did was:

• slightly shrink his body
• shorten the arms and legs (to make him look more like a midget)
  
• put the chicken on his head
• modify the title (although Worth1000 made me remove the text for the competition)
  

Robots vs. Apaches

This project was LOTS of fun. I've definitely spent more time in the details on this image than I've spent on any other of my submissions to Worth1000.com. I was trying my hardest to get the gold this time... (I came in 4th). . . This image was definitely influenced by that of Josh Caez (a former coworker of mine).

This contest was called Giant Robots Attack! and the goal was to create a scene of just that -- robots attacking. I created this image from 15 - 20 separate images. There are too many details for me to list them all.

• See the original images

"Car-Toon" Isetta

This was one of the easiest but yet most satisfying projects to date. This was for a contest in which we were to turn a real car into a "car-toon". I'm sure it helps when the car already looks like a cartoon character, and then you steal the overall style and stylized mouth from another very successful "car-toon" character. Oh well. :)

• See the originals

"Car-Toon" Healey

This image was for a contest in which we were to turn a real car into a "car-toon". This was my first attempt at making a "car-toon" and I think it turned out very well. I found a nice background image of a street and put the car in the scene. But because the streets were wet, I had to make a convincing shadow/reflection combo.

• See the original car

Toy Spitfire

Here's another entry that was created with a supplied image. In this competition we were given an image of an old Spitfire. We were to change it in any way we wanted. I decided to turn it into a toy airplane.

• I flipped the plane around
• added the plane to the 2nd image
• added building in the background (from original image)
• added a Japanese Zero
• added a trail of smoke
• made the Spitfire look plastic
• added a toy cockpit to the Spitfire

I think this turned out pretty good.... perhaps too realistic to win the contest, but I at least proud of my work. :)

See the originals

Tricked-out Dune Buggy

This was my first attempt at photo-manipulating an image that was supplied to me by Worth1000.com. Occasionally they will post an unaltered photograph and have you change the photo in any way you so choose. The contest restrictions for these challenges are usually very broad and open-ended, so it's always interesting to see what everyone else comes up with.

This challenge was titled, "Old Machinery". In it we were supplied with an image of old machinery which I dissected & then added to a dune buggy picture. My modifications include:

• adding a giant engine to the buggy
• changing the color from red to green
• changing the wheels
• adding the garbage can
• adding other various belts & pulleys

See the original images here.

Lava Mahal

I created this image of the Taj Mahal along with this other one for the "Bury It" competition at Worth1000.com. The object was to take something and partially bury it with something else. This project is directly inspired by the incredibly beautiful matte paintings of a previous coworker of mine.

In this project I was going for the larger than life epic feel, focusing on realism and the intricate details. Notice the splashing bits and trickles of hot lava, and the smoke plumes. In this project I pretty much just cut the bottom of the Taj Mahal off and constructed the lava field around it from several images, making it look partially buried in lava. Then I scattered little bits of detail here and there from several more images. I think this one turned out very well, IMO.

UPDATE: This image placed 3rd in this competition.

Sweet Revenge

I did this one along with the Lava Mahal for the "Bury It" competition at Worth1000.com. This is the first time I've submitted two entries in the same competition.

This project was pretty straightforward. I chopped off the front of a Ferrari Enzo and put it in front of the dirt pile, and then created dirt on the hood to create the buried effect. I also changed the sky and modified the reflection in the hood to make it correct.

UPDATE: This images placed 4th in this competition.

Space Junker

This week's contest was entitled "Discount Space Race" and so I created this spaceship out of an old rusty junker. I chose the background image because (1.) I liked it, and (2.) I wanted to experiment with silhouetting an object in front of a bright light source. That decision may have hurt my chances at winning 1st place but I'm still happy with the final result.

This project was quite complex... Check out the originals to see what all I used. :)

The Beatleshop Quartet

Ok kids, here's the latest contest submission to Worth1000.com. The topic was called Meet The Beatles and the object was to transport The Fab Four to a different era or a different genre of music. I chose barbershop. :)

This one was actually quite fun and not terribly difficult. Basically all I did was:

• cut out and resize the heads to fit the bodies
• cut out the bodies
• pasted the Abbey Rd background behind them
• added and tweaked shadows

See the originals

Blizzard of Oz

My 3rd submission to Worth1000.com got 11th place (out of 96 entries). I'm a little disappointed -- I was hoping to be at least in the top 4 or 5. But, oh well.

This project was quite challenging. Some of the other entries didn't do nearly as much Photoshop work as I did. I guess humor & creative ideas carry more weight than technique does.

In this project I:

• changed the background to snow & ice
• created a "Bl" and changed the title
• added snow on the tin man & the emerald city
• added a few subtle icicles to the Tin Man
• added a scarf to the Tin Man
• added a hat and warm pants to Dorthy
• added a snow storm
• changed "November 7" to "Winter 2007"
  

See the Original Movie Poster

Lost Time Machine

This week I submitted two images to Worth1000.com in two separate Photoshop competitions. The first one (Horton's Egg) won gold, and the second one (seen here) received 3rd place. The theme was "Archaeological Anomalies" and so I created this image of the Back To The Future Delorean being unearthed.

• See the other entries at Worth1000.com

Horton's Egg

I finally decided to join one of the Worth1000 contests and did this Dr. Seuss remix of Horton the Elephant. I haven't exactly read the story myself, but after Janell gave me the brief synopsis I was immediately sold on the idea. This image was made up of:

• several elephants
  
• a couple branches
• a nest
  
• a shrub
• grass
• sky
• and some bird wings

This was lots of fun! You can see all the other submissions from Worth1000 here. You can also see the original photos I used in this project.

[UPDATE] - I won the gold for this competition.

Hibiscus Dress

One evening a couple weeks ago Janell said to me, "it would be cool to have a dress that look like this hibiscus flower." And I said, "just a sec. Let me take a couple quick photos..." And here's the result. This picture was more for the sake of visualizing the concept of a "flower dress" for Janell than for the believability/Photoshop-skills factor. But I think it's still quite convincing -- at least at a glance.

30 Years Younger

I wasn't exactly sure if this would even work when I started, but I think it turned out quite nicely. Not bad for an afternoon project. Here's a breakdown of what I did to make her younger:

• smoothed her skin
• made nose and ear smaller
• straightened nose
  
• raised & straightened jawline
• enlarged eyes and brought them forward
• added definition to the eyes
  
• added eyebrows
• lifted & colored hair
• lowered shoulders

The REAL Little Mermaid

Unlike the statue of David that I colored, here I turned Denmark's Little Mermaid into a "real" mermaid using pieces from real photos of women & fish. I still haven't completely mastered shadows yet, but I am VERY satisfied with how realistic the wet rock turned out.

• See the original

The REAL David

Having changed the ethnicity of two models (white to black & black to white) I decided to bring a stone statue to life. Adding skin color to a mid-tone gray statue was much easier than making a white person black or visa versa. While the skin turned out pretty well, the hair still looks rather sculpted. I added some realistic looking hair to David's legs and also added some beard definition to his face. The final effect turned out so well I felt as though I needed to censor it. But if you want to see the whole thing you can click on the image to see all of David.

Bush Behind Bars

This is a good demonstration of "juxtaposition" -- The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development. I thought that Bush needed a little "character development".

The thing that I found most challenging with this picture was the shadows from the bars. It's quite hard to realistically "fake" a shadow.

• See the originals

Race [white to black]

Having previously conducted an experiment where I digitally changed the ethnicity of a black woman, I decided to do the same with a famous Caucasian celebrity. Naturally I chose Paris Hilton.

Drastically changing someone's skin color is more challenging than you might think. Different shades of skin effect light differently so in order to acquire a semi-convincing shade of brown I had to use multiple skin color layers, each one having a unique layer effect -- one effecting color, one focusing on the tone of the shadows, one for highlights, etc... It's not perfect but I think it's fairly believable.

The hardest part was actually changing Paris' hair -- painting out her original blond hair -- and then adding a more convincing quaffer, taken from a Tira Banks photo.

Race [black to white]

I suppose I should mention that my inspiration for this blog comes directly from the awesome contests at Worth1000.com. I've seen lots of different creative ideas at Worth1000, but don't remember seeing anything along the lines of changing one's ethnicity. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see how easy (or hard) it would be to drastically change someone's skin color and maybe slightly modify a few features.

Apocalypse Now [Iraq]

"The horror... The horror..."

I got this idea late one night and could sleep until I finished it. It was actually quite simple relatively speaking. I'm sad to say that it was far too easy finding actual current photos to remake this classic Vietnam War war flick...

Once I had all the photos in place I had to match the colors & artistic style, etc. It wasn't too difficult.

• See the original

Angelina Jolie [Fight Club]

Jumping on the Brangelina bandwagon, I decided to try my own hand at a Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie mash-up.

On this project I basically just replaced Brad's head and body with Angelina's, but retained his hands & hair. I did however soften the hands and arms to make them appear more feminine. I'm happy with how well the scrape on her face turned out, but am not so sure how well her posture and his hands match up, but it's not too bad I guess...

• See the original

Laurel & Hardy [take 2]

Here is a modern take on the classic duo of bumbling buffoons.

This was the first phototweak I did for this blog so I decided to start out with an easy one. I simply replaced the faces -- nothing too difficult. But I think it turned out pretty well. It's not perfect but it still makes me laugh. I find it funny on several different levels.

• See the original