RLDWV2003

i am trying to put this face in the dirt and make it look 1/2 way believeable.

RLDWV2003

and so far this is the best i can do i am using the liquify to try and get her to mesh with the cracks. i also tryed to use a mask to make it more like the color the ground it but bah if i cant get it. any suggestions or have i taken on a project over my head

Bacardi

First: a trick. That is *not* the solution

Open the cracked earth, and place the face in a layer above it. See that the face layer is active.
Then, at the bottom of the layers pallette, click the f at the left-hand side. These are the layer effects. Choose the top option, Blending Options.

You'll see two sliders that look like theones from Levels. They are called ThisLayer and UnderlyingLayerThe arrows are a bit peculiar as they seem to be made out of two parts: a left one and a right one. This tells that there's something special.

Hold down Alt and drag the inner side (right on the left side, left on the right side) towards the centre. try this with all four arrows.

Amazing, no?

The result will always be a bit awkward because the face is a front view, and the cracked earth is in perspective.
But, you can use a sandwich to get an easy result.

A sandwich are two layers (in your case faces) and between them there's another layer (the cracked earth).
Normally, a face above the earth and multiply or darken blend mode gives you something, but the face is too weak.
When you copy the face layer and place it on top, and then set it to multiply, just like you also do with the earth layer, the face will have more power. Which is needed to start with.

But before you copy the face, go to the edit menu, choose Transform>distort and drag it wider at the bottom than at the top. This gives a bit of perspective.

Then duplicate the face layer and create your sandwich (face, earth, face) and set the two top ones to multiply.

Now desactivate all layers except for one face layer (unclick the eye icons) and open the channels pallette. The red channel has the best contrast. Copy this channel. Hold down Ctrl/Cmd whilst clicking on the Red channel copy. The channel image will load as a selection and you'll see the marching ants appear.

Activate your cracked earth layer and add a mask. The image will load into the mask as you turn the selection into a mask.

Now take the dodge tool, set to shadows and paint softly on the cracked earth layer (not the mask!) to soften the cracks intensity.
Then activate the mask (click on its icon and see the mask icon appear instead of the brush) and paint with 30%transparant black on the face to lessen the influence of the crack.

This is *a* way to obtain a result. There are others, but with this you'll learn a lot of tricks.

Bacardi

Bettrer is to use displacement (this will defrom the earth like as if the face comes out of it) but that's a bit more complicated. (it's also Stroker's pet dragon).
Eventually we can tackle that later on.

stanislav

Something like this ??

Oh Erik did not see your post, we were doing it at the same time i guess.
Great explanation [righton]

RLDWV2003

stan that is more of the look i am trying to get. erik thanks for the tips. i think i will try what you said and then move to the comming out of the ground next. thanks again guys

RLDWV2003

thanks this look 1000 times better. now its time to try the 3d version.

stanislav

Glad you made it ooptea, and the album you were reffering to :} :}
You shure have taste for music

Stroker

I have extremely mixed feelings about using Displace for this kind of thing. Doing it proper is not easy, and I have yet to find a way of faking it that I'm happy with.

What is needed is a height map. The nose will be the highest and be white. Forehead just a little harker. Then cheeks and chin just a tad darker than that. Then the eyes will be ever so slightly darker. Then fade to black around the outside (hair, neck, cheeks to ears, and what-not).

The best way of doing this is with a 3d program. There are plenty of free 3d progs out there and plenty of free models. If you go with a 3d prog, you will have to take pespective into consideration. For example, being laid back like that, you should be able to see her nostrils.

Or you can try painting it, which can be excedingly difficult. See attachment for a quick painting attempt.

Or you can try to derive the height map from the photo. I estimate a 99.97% chance of failure at this, but it's fun to try. Well, failure rate for a proper map, but you might be able to fake with satisfactory results.

Or maybe try to derive the height map from the photo, then mix in some painting. This is probably the best route sans 3d prog.

Good luck.

leenapink

I saw this and like to try things.
I used the same approach as indicated on an above reply..but..
layered the ground, above the girl.
added noise to the girl layer.
used "blend if" and pressed alt and the left side of the white triangle under "this layer"
pulled the left part of the white triangle left.
duplicated the girl layer and applied "note pager" filter (using defaults settings)
layer setting to "darken", opacity to 60.
It may not be any batter they any of the others, it just dif.

Nice forum,

Lasa