(RoW Sept. 4 – 10)
Scuba Island is my entry for the 2d challenge “Dreamy Beach” currently running at C3D. This is the first 2d challenge that I’ve taken part in, and it won’t be my last. I can’t believe all the new techniques I’ve learned through taking part in this challenge. Now, that I know how to create images like this, it opens up whole new horizons for creativity. Let me explain how this challenge works:
The image (left) was posted for download on the thread for the forum challenge. The point of this challenge is to create a dreamy beach postcard, integrating Vue with this photo (a.k.a. 2d plane). The photo of the beach is what you’re supposed to build your world on. But, the beach and the water must stay intact. (click on the images for full view)
Beginning with Photoshop, the first step that I took was to lengthen the beach. The “dreamy beach” that I had in mind needed alot more sand, so I added more as 
shown on the left.
The next step I took, was to import the edited photo into Vue 5. Then came the hard part: I needed to place 3d objects onto the 2d plane, but in a way to make it look realistic. I couldn’t just put a boat on the water, because the photo is flat, but the boat is not. So how does it work? I placed a boat in front of the image. The size of the 3d object shows how close or how far away the boat is in the image. For example: if the boat is scaled to be really tiny, it looks really far away in the 
scene. But, all the time, the boat is sitting in front of the 2d plane. Interesting? Take a look at a screenshot I took while working on this scene. This screenshot shows the 4 views of the scene that I worked with to create the final image. I painted in the arrows and words with Photoshop to give you references to what some of the icons mean.
So after 6-7 (or more) hours of experimenting and work, I rendered the final scene. As you can see, it looks pretty good, but some things just don’t look right. 
For example: the diver out in the ocean isn’t actually in the water (he’s in front of the photo). The plane looks like it’s just stuck in the sky. There’s no movement at all. These imperfections need to be fixed in the final stage of “Dreamy Beach”- postwork.
I imported the image into Photoshop and began the finishing touches on my dreamy beach postcard. I brightened the image a bit (dreamy, remember?), blended water over the diver in the ocean, added some sand and splashes on the 
boats, and smoothed motion blur over the plane. Then, I added the final postcard details.
The creation of Scuba Island was long and hard, but the finished image was well worth the effort.
Great post! The whole process is quite amazing. Thanks for the screen shot of one of your steps. Can you please print the postcard out for me so I can use it?! M
Wow!!! It’s really cool seeing the images you started with and then the finshed product!! I hope you win!!
You’re learning a lot on the challenges! keep challenging yourself. Great job. Dad
That is SO GREAT! I loved seeing the step-by-step process. Way to go!
that is so cool! I enjoyed coming up and playing with you!
Good job, Brady!
Very nice work on this piccy !!