Compositing in Photoshop?
polycounter lvl 3
So I want to take my renders to the next level for my portfolio work, and many people have been recommending Photoshop to me. I just got Marmoset renderer, and while I'm struggling with it, my renders are starting to look better than the Unreal Engine or Substance Painter IRay renders I was using before.
The thing is, I know that there's more I can do beyond these rendering changes in Photoshop, especially when it comes to post processing. I know I won't be able to change the lighting as much as when I'm in a rendering engine, but I could fix up things like a vignette that's too strong or other items. I know the rendering engines like Octane and Marmoset provide a vignette tool to begin with, but I want to have the highest quality of renders (to get a job out of college, of course!).
I was hoping to get some beginners advice to building up my images to look better in photoshop. I've gone in there and I've found things like the camera RAW filter and other things I can add to it (in combination with hand painting in masks), but the main issue is, I don't know how it should look in the end. I can apply all sorts of cool effects, but I either go too far, not far enough, or going somewhere in the wrong places. Because of this, I often end up going back to the default image that comes out of Unreal, Marmoset, or Substance Painter. How can I start building up the abilities to get better at Photoshop compositing? My only experience with Photoshop is from a short foray (and a resoundingly unsuccessful one) into digital painting. I've experimented with things like the quick selection or magic wand tools during these times, but my knowledge of the tools is still probably considered a beginners point, especially when I compare myself to my professor, Rayce (he is known for a TV show of some sort, I don't know enough about it, but I'm planning on asking his help too).
TL : DR
1. I used to render in Painter, but now I use Marmoset.
2. I want to learn compositing in Photoshop to make my renders look better.
The thing is, I know that there's more I can do beyond these rendering changes in Photoshop, especially when it comes to post processing. I know I won't be able to change the lighting as much as when I'm in a rendering engine, but I could fix up things like a vignette that's too strong or other items. I know the rendering engines like Octane and Marmoset provide a vignette tool to begin with, but I want to have the highest quality of renders (to get a job out of college, of course!).
I was hoping to get some beginners advice to building up my images to look better in photoshop. I've gone in there and I've found things like the camera RAW filter and other things I can add to it (in combination with hand painting in masks), but the main issue is, I don't know how it should look in the end. I can apply all sorts of cool effects, but I either go too far, not far enough, or going somewhere in the wrong places. Because of this, I often end up going back to the default image that comes out of Unreal, Marmoset, or Substance Painter. How can I start building up the abilities to get better at Photoshop compositing? My only experience with Photoshop is from a short foray (and a resoundingly unsuccessful one) into digital painting. I've experimented with things like the quick selection or magic wand tools during these times, but my knowledge of the tools is still probably considered a beginners point, especially when I compare myself to my professor, Rayce (he is known for a TV show of some sort, I don't know enough about it, but I'm planning on asking his help too).
TL : DR
1. I used to render in Painter, but now I use Marmoset.
2. I want to learn compositing in Photoshop to make my renders look better.
Replies
I'm aware that in Unreal Engine at least, there already exists post processing features to give you that extra cosmetic feedback (i.e depth of field, tone mapping, color grading). But if you're literally taking your marmoset renders into photoshop and making edits that were impossible to run in engine, then you can't call it game art anymore!
I'm not sure if marmoset supports it but UE4 / cryengine etc allow you to grab different render buffers/debug views that you can use to help with prettying up - much like the render passes you'd use in offline renderers.
for inspiration look into how film shots are rendered and composited - it's basically the same idea
That said my personal favorite things to play with in photoshop if I need to do an extra pass of post process type work are 1. Lens correction settings (vignettes and chromatic aberration) 2. Gradient maps (set to overlay can be fun) 3. Colour curves as an adjustment layer
have fun!