Photo Bashing: a technique used in media where an artist would use real images or created 3D assets to create a concept piece.
It is often used to speed up the process of creating concepts for games and media, an artist will be able to use this technique to realistic concept art of a design brief either using their own images and work or images s=that are freely sourced and available.
Using photoshop we could overlay different (creative commons) images to create a realistic concept or landscape very quickly. I decided to go for something different and tried to capture a fantasy world using some images found on Unsplash and Pexels. from there I layered the images together on a photoshop document.
My Work:
Using the evening sky as a background I found an image of some waves and removed part of that image with the magic wand tool, so it left a singular wave that I layered one a few times moving them as I went on, I also applied shadow and levels to each wave, so they were slightly different and stood out. I did the same for the rocks and layered them between some of the waves.
As for the Ships I applied hue and saturation as the original image was taken during the day, I added a slight red hue to the sails of each ship once they were in place in the scene, so they blended with the background.
Reflection:
This was my first time using photoshop to overlay and manipulate several images together, whilst I have used some of the techniques before for photography I haven’t used them all together to create a concept piece. Personally I fell that my image could be improved due to the way the magic wand tool works I was unable to keep a lot of the rigging on the ships which they themselves could have some highlights added using hue and saturation or the contrast tool to make them look more a part of the overall image.
Overall I have enjoyed crating a photo bashed image and I can understand how useful it is in the industry for creating realistic concepts quickly. For that very reason I created a background for my cookie clicker prototype game using the same techniques that I have learned here.
It is a skill I need to develop and one that should get better with practise but is definitely a technique I want to try and use again.
References:
Heignbotham, C. What is Photobashing? with beginner tutorials Available online: What is Photobashing? (With Free Beginner Tutorials) (conceptartempire.com) [Accessed 5/10/2022]
Kuzman, C. (2019) Rock Formation in Ocean [Photograph] Available Online: rock formation on the ocean photography photo – Free Nature Image on Unsplash [Accessed 4/10/2022]
Dilbert, D. (2017) Pirate style galleon ship [Photograph] Available Online: brown galleon ship on body of water near trees photo – Free Ship Image on Unsplash [Accessed 4/10/2022]
Baisch, S. (2019) Ocean waves [Photograph] Available Online: ocean wave during daytime photo – Free Water Image on Unsplash [Accessed 4/10/2022]