tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81542462500245790042012-01-20T21:32:10.025+01:00A collection of tricks by me, ranging from photography to photo manipulation and from 3D animations and modeling to video editing. You don't have to be a professional and everyone can try them out. They are also well suited for beginners that want to learn a few new tricks in many areas!Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.comBlogger421100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-70901085166263580372011-12-06T14:04:00.001+01:002011-12-06T14:04:30.455+01:00

Background info: Runnind CentOs 5.5 (and 5.7 on another machine) with PHP 5.3.8. Technorati Tags: imagick php php5.3 error install After doing a "pecl install imagick" I was getting the following error, and imagick wasn’t showing up on phpinfo(): php: symbol lookup error: /usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/imagick.so: undefined symbol: MagickWandGenesis This thing

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-25490427344754227002011-05-06T09:58:00.001+02:002011-05-06T09:58:13.926+02:00

If you just installed CakePHP, and you get the the “all is good” page, but with no styles(no colors), that means that you don’t have mod_rewrite enabled on your localhost! Solution: In the httpd.conf file in apache, change the line “AllowOverride None” to “AllowOverride All”. Also, search for the line in the httpd.conf file with the word “mod_rewrite”, and remove the pound(#) from the

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-73025470631067579772011-04-30T19:11:00.001+02:002011-04-30T19:11:23.140+02:00

Just thought I'd drop by to update the blog a bit. Here is a recent error I couldn't find the fix online for, but found out myself. If you're reading this, you have created a path with the Vector tool in Photoshop, and you aren't able to Stroke or Fill the path with your brush. First off, here is the fix that helped me: Make sure that when you select the Vector tool, you have "Paths" selected

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-60311351508967604622010-04-27T00:46:00.001+02:002010-04-27T00:46:47.877+02:00

Decided to drop the post numbering, it seems a bit silly in retrospect. Haven’t posted anythig here in a while ‘cause I thought noone reads it, but I have been proven wrong and I’m back :) First things first. Open Photoshop and an Image you want to work on: Now, select the Custom Shape Tool: And from the Custom Shapes list, select the postage stamp: Out of the 3 choices in the

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-79923717157514016442009-12-12T13:53:00.001+01:002009-12-12T13:53:10.389+01:00

This has happened to me today, of course at the time when I urgently need Photoshop(in my case CS4), and I found the solution. If you Googled this and wound up here searching for the fix to this, chances are the problem will fix itself by the time you are reading this, if not, try the trick below: If you Photoshop is stuck on the Hand tool, try this: Edit – > Preferences – > General – > [

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-75608068063760621322009-11-21T14:35:00.001+01:002009-11-21T14:35:01.414+01:00

Not my usual forte, but I had this problem, and I just had to share the solution with you! Windows XP has this section for setting the default browser on your machine, and that might be causing you trouble. For the sollution, got to your Control Panel, and then proceed to Add/Remove Programs.                                  After that click on Set Program Access and Defaults. Click on

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-57536066359252021352009-10-12T14:34:00.001+02:002009-10-12T14:34:45.921+02:00

Have you ever wondered how other photographers have powerful colors in their photos? If you thought it’s all in the camera, you are way off track! Read on to find out the truth behind these photos… Decide which photo you want to empower and open it in Photoshop (i think this works in all CS versions). 1) Duplicate the background layer (the only layer): 2) Apply a Gaussian blur to the new

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-70035779124889505642009-07-17T14:36:00.001+02:002009-07-17T14:37:30.841+02:00

This is a quickie. To get you started: 1) Open the image you want done 2) Make a copy of the Background Layer, and delete the original background layer 3) Make an New Layer beneath the picture(check image for consistency)   4) Hold down ALT and click on the line between the layers(as shown on the image below) Your layer should move slightly to the right like so:  

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-21639560816728165992009-07-13T10:57:00.001+02:002009-07-13T10:57:44.939+02:00

The simplest frames are often the best ones. Especially if you’re in a hurry, or don’t want to lose focus with the photograph you’re framing. For this particular tutorial, a good choice of photograph would be one where the photo has one or two dominating colors. A good example is a wedding photo, where the dominating colors are the colors of the bride’s dress and bouquet, but anything will do.

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-58679322165578441212009-07-12T01:01:00.001+02:002009-07-13T10:24:12.371+02:00

Ok, keeping it short and simple. Open the image you want to work with in Photoshop. Press CTRL+SHIFT+U to make it black and white(or Image->Adjustments->Desaturate). Now, all that’s left to do is select the History Brush tool(shortcut Y) and be sure to not select the Art History Brush by mistake. Now just go over the areas you want to get their color back and voila: If you accidentaly

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-81792754303890226082009-04-07T18:33:00.001+02:002009-04-07T18:52:30.843+02:00

This can be treated as a continuation to the macro photography post. Also, on a side note, I’ve read somewhere that posts are better when left shorter. Which makes sense in this micro blogging boom that we see today. The above photo shows how NOT to do it. First of all, turn off the flash and get closer! A good way to make your macro photography stand out is to get real close, from a

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-11163599221172235862009-02-22T17:28:00.001+01:002009-02-22T17:28:33.216+01:00

If what the current internet trends are any indication, then you can’t have a photo of you on a social site without at least a little retouching. Well, for starters, you need a photo to fix up. This is a guy writing this, so I won’t be working with what you would expect for “makeup”: I was amazed how this turned out, I wouldn’t of changed it, but it will be great for today’s trick. The

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-10702307203332424692009-02-13T17:25:00.001+01:002009-02-14T10:41:18.166+01:00

With Valentines day coming up tomorrow, I thought that this was a more then appropriate post to make. Maybe it will save someone the hassle of using worn-out templates, and done-to-death pictures. Ok, start open a new page in Photoshop, with the size you want and the background color you want, and let’s get started. Select the pen tool and just punch in these points, with the tool shown

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-68527492910426906142009-02-12T12:01:00.001+01:002009-02-12T12:01:52.958+01:00

As always, there are at least 2 ways to go about doing this. One way is modeling it polygon by polygon, but that’s kind of a stretch, so we will be using an easier way, in accordance with the tradition of this blog. Start off with a sphere, and make it editable(of course after you have set the subdivision count). Create a new material, so we can start working with this. For the color, you

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-90616596870058374582009-02-09T00:55:00.001+01:002009-02-12T12:07:23.690+01:00

You don’t always have to move the letters you have on your screen to replace them with other letters. With this technique you can make your letters change their shape into other letters. You can also do this with words, once you get the hang of it. It would be a good idea to check out my post on Morphing Setup with PoseMixer, to make it easier to follow this post. To get things started, we have

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-72845217326617653122009-02-07T10:09:00.001+01:002009-02-07T11:52:47.510+01:00

In a previous post, I showed you the basics of making chess pieces in Cinema 4D. Now we are kicking it up a notch and making a Rook piece. First, take a look at the shape. It’s different from most of the other pieces. Obviously we can use the Lathe NURBS tool to make most of the Rook, but not the top. So we will model the body first, and leave room for the tower-like top. Image taken from

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-54091744816867691752009-01-30T16:48:00.001+01:002009-02-12T12:05:56.443+01:00

Sometimes you will want to be able to create a vast number of objects with as little effort, so you can concentrate on the more important parts of your project. This shows you how to do just that! I also made a post on Making an Asteroid! Let’s say that we need a monotonous asteroid field. Creating one asteroid and copying it doesn’t even sound too bad. But what if you want all your asteroids to

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-1224362948730987122009-01-30T01:45:00.001+01:002009-01-30T01:45:58.653+01:00

With all the 1-click logo making software on the web, you might ask why should you even go through the hassle of making one yourself? The answer is simple. Originality(and brag rights too). If you are using overused templates in logo creation software, chances are your logos style has been done to death. To get things going, write up the text for your logo in PhotoShop. Rasterize it(right click

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-35027467040011074132009-01-27T17:49:00.001+01:002009-01-27T17:49:59.268+01:00

A long time ago I used this tool for an animation that required my character to move his lips in accordance to the lyrics of the song in the background. Back then I actually thought that this was the only purpose of the PoseMixer, but by experimenting with it I found many more. For now, I am just going to show you the basics.  To get things started, create an object in Cinema 4D(PoseMixer is

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-9223271545825184242009-01-25T22:59:00.001+01:002009-01-26T22:43:38.095+01:00

There are always more ways then one to do a certain task. Most of them fall into “the easy way” category, or “the hard way” category. As always, I am going to show you the easy way. First thing we need is to set up the foundation of our creation. For the sake of practice, I suggest you use an image, with some text, and some room for modification. Something like this: I used PhotoShop to make

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-42250936220974187062009-01-23T17:55:00.001+01:002009-01-23T17:55:13.477+01:00

You may, or may not be a believer in ghost stories, but either way you should be aware of how easy it is to fake a ghost in a photograph.  Get yourself a few photos to mix up. I just happen to have a Christmas angel figure, and an eye photo from one of the previous posts. Now that you have something to work with, you can start by fading out the “ghosts”, using the opacity slider for the

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-13725767378376448872009-01-19T19:38:00.001+01:002009-01-19T19:38:17.391+01:00

I do realize that I have been posting 3D more then a few times in a row, but my choices are limited, since I don’t have all the apps reinstalled yet since my Hard Disk died on me. This is a pretty straightforward tool to use, but it' can help you model more complex shapes in minutes, or at least give you a better start then the basic box modeling start. Lets start by modeling a custom chess

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-63686086857259207312009-01-18T12:38:00.001+01:002009-01-18T12:38:29.424+01:00

From time to time, you’ll come up with an animation idea that involves an object flying around, randomly or not. One way is to use the Vibrate Tag. Another way is to set the object on a path. If you want the objects motion to be in your control, you would probably go with this way. Using Cinema 4D, create a Cubic spline. Don’t make a Freehand spline because that can make for shaky movement.

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-91355861623007810312009-01-15T18:08:00.000+01:002009-01-25T20:30:30.769+01:00

On a side note, my hard disk dropped dead this morning, and it took all of my data with it, it seems. But, I am not giving up on this blog yet! I pulled an older picture from my deviantArt account for this post.Playing with shadows can wield some interesting, and sometimes beautiful results. I'm short on time now, so let's skip to the trick at hand.(Cinema 4D guide)Create a cage like object first

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-38965618557465164482009-01-14T17:05:00.001+01:002009-01-14T17:05:38.693+01:00

Why go to the fare to enter a house of mirrors when you can make your own? Again, really simple to make, even if you have zero-to-no experience in 3D software. Just Create one huge object(sphere or cube) and make sure you are viewing it from inside. Now put some other objects inside it, rotate them around, resize them etc… If you are using Cinema, create a new material and make sure it’s

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-2260562191999770552009-01-13T18:12:00.001+01:002009-01-13T18:17:33.616+01:00

So, you feel like not moving away from your couch, and you happen to have your camera close by, and some empty beer bottles on the table. Remember the Through Glass trick? The same applies here. The empty bear bottle vortex! Try it. Differently colored beer bottles give you different results.       You can also use it as an extra lens. If you can get a girl to pose for you, you could

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-29745060525102309932009-01-12T21:49:00.001+01:002009-01-12T21:49:26.741+01:00

Not so long ago I showed you how to make easy vignette frames for your pictures. Well, now are kicking it up a notch. Open the photo you want “manipulated” in PhotoShop(I am using CS4, but you can do it in an older version with no difference in procedure). Use any selection tool to highlight the part of the picture that you don’t want to change and add a feather value of 20(or whatever you want

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-22235942380442924152009-01-09T18:34:00.001+01:002009-01-10T10:34:10.757+01:00

Montage – as in, editing your video footage by splitting, or rearranging your scenes, or adding effects. I say this because it’s a general rule that spontaneous, uncut video can be as good as a well planned and painstakingly edited video, if not better. Sure the spontaneous videos are a rare occurrence, but they should never be forgotten because they always bring the viewer closer to the entire

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-75859598154028302432009-01-08T16:45:00.001+01:002009-01-08T16:45:32.175+01:00

Grab your camera, and look for any and all transparent objects. Preferably glass objects without smooth shapes. If the object is smaller, such as a glass(for my examples), set it between the camera and a subject(like you, for instance). Rotate the glass, zoom in and out, improvise until you are satisfied with the result. You are not prohibited from having a little fun in PhotoShop of course.

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-16131509256240565162009-01-08T00:59:00.001+01:002009-01-08T15:42:35.897+01:00

This tool is indigenous to Cinema 4D, but I don’t really know if the other big 3D apps have it. You could be able to make the same effect with just the extrude and bevel tools, but would take too much time and effort, and that just defeats the purpose of this post. What this tool does is perform a chain of extrude operations on the polygons you select. You can select the number of extrudes, or

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-24700633255922280832009-01-06T12:44:00.001+01:002009-01-06T12:44:19.725+01:00

It might look a bit corny or what-not, but I actually had to do this once(albeit a gypsy wedding). That might not be what you are going to use it for, but i am sure you have an idea of your own. First of all, we need a video to work with. Again, you can use any video for practice. I am going to put up one of my old 3D videos(as soon as I decide which one). Just so you know what the end result

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-66631069685856961832009-01-05T17:23:00.001+01:002009-01-05T17:23:25.492+01:00

If you are tired of looking for various instant border, frame or vignette plug-ins, or you just prefer having a higher degree of control with your work, this might be just the ticket. It’s actually quite easy to do. It’s a simple trick, which is this blogs main content. For starters, you need a photo, or picture for yourself. For practice’s sake, even a pattern-filled page will do. Our first

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-88482086520538346312009-01-02T18:06:00.001+01:002009-01-02T18:06:19.767+01:00

Yeah!I made it to the tenth post without any real delays! The only problem is, I seemed to have lost track of the order of post topics. Yesterday was supposed to be photography, but I am going to make up for it right now! One way to make unique(and possibly beautiful) photos is to have some interesting objects others don’t. In this case, glass objects. One interesting aspect of a glass object

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-11818356382927390912009-01-01T16:01:00.001+01:002009-01-01T16:01:15.404+01:00

One of things I love about Cinema 4D is that it has all this nifty little tools that help you make certain animations more easily. One of such tools is the Vibrate Tag. I have mentioned the Vibrate Tag in another post. That time, we didn’t get the exact effect that we needed, but it will do just fine here. Just for fun, the example that we are going to use this on will be a head banging

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-68354867820724609862008-12-31T18:40:00.001+01:002008-12-31T18:40:45.075+01:00

So, you are looking for something give your videos some special effects, but you can’t make up your mind on which to use, ‘cause the choices are many, so you decide to use them all, sequentially. The problem now, is how to fit them in, without the viewer getting a headache. Hard cuts just won’t do it. Here is how I do this. The software I use is Adobe’s Premiere 6.5, but you can do this in

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-8007054042004736832008-12-30T21:55:00.001+01:002008-12-30T21:55:41.397+01:00

2009 is just around the corner, so let’s get at least one more trick in before we say farewell to 2008. I took a picture of my cat sleeping, and decided to fiddle with it in Photoshop a bit. Here was my starting image: Peaceful isn’t he? What we are going to do now is turn this cute picture into something spooky, in 3 simple steps. First thing I did, was use the crop tool to isolate his

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-86985002832909752612008-12-29T16:57:00.001+01:002008-12-29T16:57:45.993+01:00

This time, I’ll show you what to pay attention too, when trying to make your 3D Speaker beat to your beat. First, you’ll need a 3D speaker, with the part that has to vibrate to the beat detached. But, for the sake of practice, you can even use a simple sphere, and we will make it’s size vibrate through the beat. Now, there are 2 ways of going through this: the quick(effortless) way, and the

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-23864055629173362212008-12-26T19:47:00.001+01:002008-12-26T19:47:54.022+01:00

Macro Photography. Quite possibly the area of photography with the largest abuse factor, anywhere. Everyone is doing it, mainly, because everyone can. You don’t have to know squat about taking photos, and you can do it with any camera available(I would even go so far as to say you can do it with your vintage phone cameras). If you still don’t know what I am talking about, check out wiki.

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-3963505563930594612008-12-26T10:49:00.001+01:002008-12-26T10:50:56.400+01:00

I am going to show you how to make a video that turns into an edge magnified version of itself. The easy part is that you don’t have to work with keyframes here, so all you need to know is how to drag and drop any effect onto a clip, how to cut the clip and how to add a transition. And those are some core basics. The software I am using is Adobe Premiere 6.5, but I know for a fact that this can

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-7606602428678853892008-12-24T11:17:00.001+01:002008-12-24T11:37:10.185+01:00

I was meaning to make a new picture using this trick, but it’s 8:30 AM, the morning before Christmas, and I just got back home 2 hours ago, so don’t hold it against me! As the title itself says, I am going to show you a simple trick using Photoshop. I will be using CS 2, but it’s basically the same in any version. All the pre-learned knowledge you need is the use of layers, and only some basics,

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-90342311008954740492008-12-23T13:10:00.001+01:002008-12-24T11:38:14.560+01:00

Imagine having to build this object with your basic modeling techniques: Looks painful doesn’t it? On the contrary. You can actually make this 3D model in under 2 minutes simply by knowing what tools and shapes to use. Now, the 3D software I use is Cinema 4D, but it’s a known fact that you can make anything in any of the major 3D apps(Cinema 4D, Maya, Lightwave, 3D Max…) the only differences

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154246250024579004.post-90174157962398523642008-12-22T17:22:00.001+01:002008-12-23T16:01:50.889+01:00

It seems to be time to get this blog rolling. For the first trick, I am going to post a photo that “brakes” a couple of basic photography rules. But, since I am an amateur, breaking such rules is what I do on a daily basis. Hey, nobody ever learned anything by keeping inside the guidelines! What’s more, this photo is my personal favorite! One of the basic rules of photography is, keep the

Cingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06774134669872011220noreply@blogger.com0