Experiments

[The Liar]

Experimenting with hue and contrast function on GIMP.



Opinions?

[Morlok]

If you were going for a metallic aspect it doesn't work, skin isn't reflective enough. But for a plastic-like material it works.

[Murotsu]

Looking at your selection on the wiki site, you do pretty good stuff with an anime / manga feel to it.

[Silkscreen]

Metallic looks is tricky. But there is a kind of source pics which you can almost always give a metallic look: black latex on bright background. In addition, it's crucial the source pic isn't intensity-compressed, some photographers are doing awful postprocessing with their pics, making all the contrast go away. It won't work then. But for those who don't you simply:

* Select the latex delicately (use Gaussian blur on the mask after your selection is done, which gives you a nice fade-out selection)
* Colors->Desaturate: luminosity
* Colors->Retinex: Level: most times low; Scale: below 30; Scale Division: 1 to 3; Dynamic: about 3

Don't let the preview fool you, it's sometimes inaccurate. You have to try it a couple of times and undo if it doesn't fit your needs. Also, image size does affect the needed parameters, same does contrast between foreground and background.

* Colors->Colorize: Choose low-saturated blue
* Colors->Brightness-Contrast: High on brightness, a bit lower on contrast.

You are done converting black latex into metal. Congrats.

[The Liar]

Metallic looks is tricky. But there is a kind of source pics which you can almost always give a metallic look: black latex on bright background. In addition, it's crucial the source pic isn't intensity-compressed, some photographers are doing awful postprocessing with their pics, making all the contrast go away. It won't work then. But for those who don't you simply:

* Select the latex delicately (use Gaussian blur on the mask after your selection is done, which gives you a nice fade-out selection)
* Colors->Desaturate: luminosity
* Colors->Retinex: Level: most times low; Scale: below 30; Scale Division: 1 to 3; Dynamic: about 3

Don't let the preview fool you, it's sometimes inaccurate. You have to try it a couple of times and undo if it doesn't fit your needs. Also, image size does affect the needed parameters, same does contrast between foreground and background.

* Colors->Colorize: Choose low-saturated blue
* Colors->Brightness-Contrast: High on brightness, a bit lower on contrast.

You are done converting black latex into metal. Congrats.

Thank you for the advice; though just to clarify, I wasn't aiming for a metallic look.