Introduction

Recap the task we started in the last lesson and what the students have done so far. We looked at sculptures and how they fit into their environment. We saved an image of a real life location using Google Street View and then created a sculpture appropriate for that environment using Sculptris. 

In this lesson we’re going to go back to using Pixlr.com again to edit our two images together and add some effects to make it look like out sculpture is really there. 

 

Main task

Open Pixlr.com and once again choose Version E.  and the image editor and begin by selecting Open image.

 

 

Browse for the background image that we saved from Google Street View in the last lesson and adjust the zoom slider or number until it’s as big as possible on the screen while still all in view. 

 

 

You may want to tidy up the image and remove things like the navigation arrows that appear on the roads in Google Street View (seen on the pavement in the image above). Which tool could we use to remove this?  Selecting a section of the pavement next to it using the polygon lasso tool is the best way to cover it over quickly. 

 

 

When you have completed the selection copy it (Ctrl+C or Edit > Copy) and then immediately paste (Ctrl+V or Edit > Paste) a second version of the selection and use the move tool to move it into the correct place to cover the arrow, which should then be barely noticeable. 

 

 

Then go to Layer > Add image as layer and browse for the image of the sculpture you created in the last lesson. 

 

 

Zoom in to make it easier and use the polygonal lasso tool to very carefully go around the edges of your model.

 

 

When you complete the selection, invert it to select the background instead of the model (Edit > Invert selection) and then delete the background with the delete key on your keyboard.

 

 

Use the free transform tool to get it roughly the right size and the move tool to put it in position. 

 

 

Then take a careful look at the background image you have used and see if there are any visible shadows. This will obviously depend on whether the sun was shining the day the photo was taken by Google’s Street View car! But if there are, then take note of their direction and how dark they are.

If there are no shadows in your image you can skip these next few steps, but if there are, here’s how to create a realistic looking shadow for your sculpture. 

Duplicate the layer that your model is on (right-click the layer > Duplicate layer).

 

 

For the new layer, go to Adjustments > Hue and Saturation and turn just the lightness down to -100 so it goes completely black. This will become the shadow.

 

 

Then go to Edit > Free distort. This will, like free transform, give you handles, but these let you adjust the shape of the layer by moving them around, so the shadow looks like it starts at the base of the sculpture and falls at the same angle as other shadows in the picture.

 

 

Then go to the layers box (check you are on the shadow’s layer) and right-click the layer to show the transparency slider.

 

 

Adjust it downwards to make the shadow opaque and the same darkness as other shadows in the picture. 

Then finally for the shadow, decide if you need to move the shadow layer up or down to place it in front of, or behind your sculpture.

You can also make other small adjustments to make the sculpture fit better with its surroundings. You can change its colour and light by adjusting the lightness and saturation in Adjustments > Hue and saturation.

 

 

Or you can add shadow or brightness to specific areas of the image by using the Dodge or Burn tools. Dodge gives you a brush that lightens parts of the image you click on. Burn darkens parts you click on. This can be useful if the sun is shining from a different angle in the background photo to the way Sculptris created the shadows when you made your model. 

 

 

The last thing we did in this image was to again use free distort on the sculpture layer to very slightly tilt the statue to an angle similar to the lamppost, to match the perspective of the photo.

Then flatten the layers in your image (Layer > Flatten image) and save your finished image to your computer (File > Save). 

 

 

Plenary 

Ask the students to compare their work with a partner, and consider:

• What has gone well?
• Are there any parts you think you or they could improve?
• What do you think people would think if your sculpture was really in that location?

Then ask them to consider:

• What skills do you now have that you didn’t have at the beginning of this unit?
• How could you apply these skills to other situations in the future?
• Which was your favourite project in the unit? Why? 

 

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