NFSUnlimited.net

In my humble opinion there are currently three people with outstanding PS presentation abilities.
In no particular order:
YaelDjiel
Rienkie
Rayquaza

I'm not ashamed to say that I take in a lot from their presentation styles (I'm not as skilled as they are though )

The reason I started this thread is so that people can write what they do when they edit their cars. In the end I would like to have a sort of checklist that everyone can modify to suit their skill or time consumption - for example:
1. Edit headlights
2. Cleanup windows
3. etc.
This way you’ll know how much work goes into presentations, and what you can do to improve on them.
You can also write tips on how to create certain effects, which would be cool

The things I do when I start presenting my cars is:
1. Correct Brightness/Contrast settings
2. Correct Saturation
3. Cutout the car
4. Mark out the vinyls and fill them with the color I like
5. Blur out the rough edges on the car and vinyls
6. Use the dodge/burn tool to accentuate the lights/shadows
7. Mark out the windows and create a new layer for them
8. Fill that layer with black/color that fits
9. Use the dodge tool to create an unreal light reflection from the windows
10. Choose a floor texture that suits me
11. Create a new layer from only the bottom part of the car and in layer properties select drop shadow – play around with the settings to make it look good
12. Go crazy with the dodge/burn tool on the floor texture
13. Choose a background color, usually a dark one
14. Use a brush type that conveys the general shapes of the vinyls and create an 'aura' around the car
15. Use the color replacement tool to get the aura to be the same color shade as the background
16. Render lighting effects if you like
17. Go crazy with the dodge tool on some areas of the car to create a blinding effect
18. Render lens flair if you like

I think I nailed the basics. Feel free to ask questions.

So, what do you do?

I Usually just start changing the contrasts, highlights and things in the screenshot. Then i cut out my car. I Put it onto a new shot, if i want to edit it onto an existing wallpaper, i do that, if i don't, i make my own background.
Then i make my shadow, using no feather at all and later on using wind tool.

From there on it all differs.

Rienkie «^» RocXz..

make a shot., cut it out in a white bacground.. then make a shadow, if thats done
make a ground for de car, then the background behind the car, then i do all edits of the car, light effects, shadows, bloom, reflectetions,.. all that stuf.,
then i edit the contrast, highlights and all that stuf.. maybe a bit bloom., and some blur around the pres, for more special effects,, and maybe a gradient on a new layer and put it on overlay and lower the opacity for more special colours, and effects..
but i do it everytime diffrent.. thx,..

Why are you in another profile Rienkie?

Well usualy i always try to add some more to my press, but for now, this is the routine part!

So lets start with the press guide!

1.
First and most important thing for the press is hella good screenshot! Without it it wont be anything more than usual press everybody can do. So do the crashing, drifting looping this and that... do anything thaz can brign your car into unusual position that will result with one of a kind screenshot. Also keep an eye on the ˝results camera˝. For that u need lota luck in taking screenshots. When u press enter race standings will disapear and new window will pop up. Take screenshot inbetween thoose two!! my tip is - overload your gfx as much as u can, slow down your PC, do anything to make that time between two windows last longer.

2. Do the cutting! Dont do anything on raw screenshot. No contrast, no hue, no saturation! That way you might lose edge lines of the car in dark areas and you might omit something since cutting is usualy done at 500% zoom and you dont have the sence of what is car and what is background.

3.Draw help lines or 3D mesh! Its importatn that you have all the time the feel of prespective if you want to make your car realy stand on ground... not howering above it!!

4. Do simple shadow under the car. Imagine that light source is above car and do simple shadow like that. No need to complicate things right now. Its just for giving the feel of 3D.

5. Clean up the car! All the wierd reflections, gfx glitches,vinyl glitches, jaged edges, squared lines can be polished with use of lasso selection tool and smudge and blur. Experiment with smudge and blur strength for best results!

6.Draw the lines...
So far there is no game that made door lines 3D. its always simple black line representing the shape of doors. Doing 3D lines on car bonet will highly boost up your press and your car will overall look a lot more realistic and nice.
Aso now u might do the lighten lines. If something is too dark draw a simple brighter outline

7. Moving onto tires! lota work around here, if you want it look good. First of all in NFS back circle of rim is covered with black texture so you actualy cant see whats behind rims. all you see are brakes, but under that nothing. Do a little cutting inside the rim. Watch ut not to cut out brakes kit that are hidden in dark or even worse - actual rim. Also try not convert tuner rim into thin bicycle rim. So far i heavent seen anybody doing that lil thing, so here is your chance.

Still on 7th... now do the 3D tire. If your gfx suport pixelshader 3.0 you could see 3D tire in carbon. It simply gives you feel that tire realy has thoose gap lines... or what it realy is called. There are two tehniques to do that. One is to apply light embos effect on tire. thats what i use mostly. Other is to draw your own lines - its for hardcores!

Duplicate the tires to make them more massive. and more cool. No one likes tiny skinny narrow rims.!

8.Window edit! cutout the original window and replace it with your own transparent window tint. On new layer do the blured gloom or precise reflection. Your choice.

9. Metal shine. Its recomended if you do the metal shine to do it on matte paint. You dont want ingame shine and reflections if you re doing your own. If you do that right ppl might say- WOW THATS NFS?!! trust me i know!:D
Also if you re not very familiar with metal shine use a reference... find a picture of similar car with similar pose, and do the shine according to it. But mostly only the side shine line is enough.

10. Doing the ground...
Use all of aveliable free textures you can find on the internet, brushes etc to create huge ground texture. 4000x4000 would be good. Place it in right angle and prespective and the fill the rest of pic with vanishing point tool.

11. Doing the background.
Now thats where i cant help u with any tip. Use all of your imagination to draw nice, attractive and car matching background. Do not hassitate to use brushes, blurs, reflections etc etc etc...

12. Reflection. Now this is the part you can do with single click or spend hours on doing perfect reflection. if needed. First of all have in mind that reflection is matter or mirror... or sth like that. That means, reflection isnt duplicating the layer and flipping it according to ground line. If you re doing ground reflection make sure not to draw reflection of the hood. There is simply no way it could reflect...
Also there are bonet n windows reflections... but if u understand the laws of reflecting it shouldnt be a problem... so do them too, it gives a lot!

13. Gloom and candy color. Color select with 100% oppacity anything white on the car... add difuse glow and grain for gloom and candy color.

14.Shadows... now the real shadows...
Do the shadows for the coresonding light source, keep in mind that shadow isnt blured atall places the same, nor it has same opacity. Also draw sidemirrors shadows, tire(rimz) shadows, spoiler shadow, and the ground shadow that represent car shape.

15.Effects! Light flares, taillights, enviroment lightning, soap, rain, snow, raindrops, feathers, motion blur, light beams(rienk style) and everything else that could boost up your press. Use real photos or free textures for raindrops, sopa, snow, if not having right brushes

16. Girl if necesary:D
Find import tuner girl that could easily fit your car. Make sure she is the right size, and prespective fits. If hardcore do a 3D model and pose her as ever you want. I recomend 3D... result is much much better.

17. Contrast, photo filter, hue, saturation, levels, dodge, burn... anything that can enhance the overal look of your press.

18. Try not to upload it ASAP. Usualy few moments later you see some mistakes you did and now its too late. Thats it. Thats how i do, and here is what i did... this time no nude girls:D

Juiced Dice - special clean up
UG1 Samurai - special effects
UG1 Toxic - special reflection
UG1 Sphinx - special metal shine
UG1 Lightspeed - special light effects
NFSC 10-ZoR - special background
UG1 Burnout - special use of gloom & photo filters

And one more... no matter how ugly car you have, photorealistic press will always get you atleast one WOW!!!

1: Start Fraps
2: Open up NFS: Carbon
3: Take a screenshot


Some easy steps.. .

Great Pres guide Nylaian!..

Yeah his presentations are damn awesome... And cool UG1 and UG2 are still used!

Thx guyz!

and rienk... u re gona teach me that ground creating tehnique one day... including thoose lines ground. Also feel free to ask anything u want to know that i might help u with...

Deal?:D

DEAL!.. but i must have ure msn then XD coz u didn`t came online for ages

how about now? im online... but i see u re busy...

edit... im having some problems with msn right now.. all of a sudden it tells me that im not signed in, and from than i just cant make it work! sty

Wow man! Thats the kind of tip I was looking for.
Thanks Type S/LMS.

wbf wrote:Wow man! Thats the kind of tip I was looking for.
Thanks Type S/LMS.

glad i can help... and i would realy like to see the result of my tips... so feel free to write link to your new press

I'm going to try these tips myself some day...

wbf wrote:Wow man! Thats the kind of tip I was looking for.
Thanks Type S/LMS.

same here. now i can have tips from a real pro of the SR