Nux Creative Works | Toyota FT-1 Vision GT | Update 13 | Jan 9th



Glow Effect Tutorial (Photoshop/GIMP)
Hey guys! I created this tutorial because it was requested by a few people that were apart of my tips & tricks conversation, and I thought it'd be a good idea to share it with the rest of you guys just incase you wanted to try it out.

This is my method on how to create a glow effect around your lights. However this method can also be used to create your own light leaks / glow effects in your images.

The first thing we are going to do is open our image file.

[Note: The image used below has already been fully edited.]
View attachment 91736

The next step is to create a new layer, then grab a small, soft, round brush with the settings below.

[Hardness = 0% | Opacity = 50% | Flow = 100%]
Then make sure the colour of your brush is an orange/red colour and begin to brush around the outline of the tail light, like so.

View attachment 91737

This is what it should end up looking like.

View attachment 91739

Once that's done, we're going to create another new layer. This time we're going to enlarge our brush, reduce it's opacity to about 35% and select a bright red colour. We then begin to layer up the paint until it looks like this, below.

View attachment 91738

Now we're going to select both layers and change the layer blend mode to Screen.

View attachment 91740

And there you have it! It's that simple!
You can increase the intensity of the glow by duplicating the glow layer. If you want to reduce the intensity, lower the opacity or use a layer mask/soft eraser to get it looking perfect.

View attachment 91741

You can also use this brush/screen method to create your own light leaks/glow effects in your image. Play around with different colours or you can simply use white. Just be wary of the direction your main source of light is coming from.

[Note: Look at where the light hits the car and the shadow it casts on the ground.]
:cheers:Anyways, hope this is useful. Cheers!:cheers:
 
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Merry Christmas & a Happy Holiday Everyone! :D

Here's my gift to you; a little preview of my upcoming set. It probably won't be done for awhile, since I'm going to go fishing off the coast of Coromandel between Boxing day & New Years.

Click for Lightbox


Plymouth AAR Cuda Preview

Nice tutorial Nux!!! 👍👍👍 :cheers: tnx
Thanks Ronin! :cheers:

Very nice tip, thank you!
No probs mate! :cheers:

Fantastic gallery, very dramatic editing. One shot that stood out to me in particular was this one. Love how the clouds turned out in that one.
Thanks for visiting mate! Glad you like that shot. :cheers:
 
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Some excellent work in your gallery here - your style is vibrant, dynamic and attention-grabbing. The soft, glowing sheen that sets your work off is a really nice touch, and is really dramatic looking. Super nice work - keep it up! Looking forwards to seeing more from you!
 
Good job sharing that tutorial. I'd observe your work and try to figure out how you'd do things like the light glow, must say I figured right :D

That Cuda Set looks promising, happy holidays Nux! :)
 
Good work on the tutorial! I'm expecting a few more to be posted... ;)

Also, I can't wait to see the Cuda set! 👍
 
Brilliant Cuda picture, hope you had a nice xmas, I seached some Coromandel pictures, seems to be a wonderful place, hope the weather is better than the crappy one we have here in Europe. Thanks again for you glowing lights tuto mate. happy hollidays Nux :cheers:
 


Hey guys! :D

I'm finally back from my relaxing holiday up at Coromandel and I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long...

So here it is my Cuda set! As you can tell by now, City of Arts & Science is currently my favourite place to shoot. If any of you have some recommendations for places to shoot as well as time of day, let me know below. I think it's about time to spice up my locations.

I've kept the car stock for this set and will do another photoshoot in the future with a new paint job and some custom rims. Anyways, I hope you enjoy!:cheers:














. . . . .

Bonus Shots | Shelly Beach | Coromandel | New Zealand
Here are a couple of shots my sister took of the place at where we stayed for the holidays.
Please excuse the low res quality of the images because they were taken with her phone.
I've only lightly edited these pics because they already looked beautiful as they were.






:cheers:Thanks for viewing!:cheers:

Nice preview, looking forward to it!
Can't wait to see this beauty edited by your hands...
More! :)

Nice and simple tutorial too 👍
Next time I get a new batch of shots, I might give your tutorial a go. :D

And the preview looks great. 👍 Can't wait for the full set.
Great pics and great tutorial! :bowdown: I have much to take from it! Thank you! :)
Cheers guys!:cheers: Wait no longer because it's finally here!;)
Some excellent work in your gallery here - your style is vibrant, dynamic and attention-grabbing. The soft, glowing sheen that sets your work off is a really nice touch, and is really dramatic looking. Super nice work - keep it up! Looking forwards to seeing more from you!
Thank you very much Revolution!
Cheers for stopping by, and great to hear you will be returning here in the future.:cheers:
Good job sharing that tutorial. I'd observe your work and try to figure out how you'd do things like the light glow, must say I figured right :D

That Cuda Set looks promising, happy holidays Nux! :)
Thanks Sean!:cheers:
And you sure have, I've noticed the increased use of lighting & textural effects in your recent works.

They are looking great! Happy holidays to you too mate!👍
Good work on the tutorial! I'm expecting a few more to be posted... ;)

Also, I can't wait to see the Cuda set! 👍
Thank you Katie! I'll definitely be posting a few more tutorials soon.;)
Brilliant Cuda picture, hope you had a nice xmas, I seached some Coromandel pictures, seems to be a wonderful place, hope the weather is better than the crappy one we have here in Europe. Thanks again for you glowing lights tuto mate. happy hollidays Nux :cheers:
Thank you bro! Hope you had a wonderful holiday too.;) The weather was great most of the time. It's just one of many places where you can just sit back and watch the beautiful scenery in New Zealand.
Feels great to take a break from the city life every now and again.
 
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I like how thw purple and blue hues work together in this set. Very harmonious and the trademark lights and glows of your style suite the modern/futuristic backdrop. I really like shots 1,2 & 6 (nice composition and clean isolation.) 👍

Also dig the first shot of that beach. 👍
 
Beautiful, composition and lightning 1a as always:drool:

Only thing I do not like is the combination of the beautiful violet with the blue light;)

And yes, there are not enough photomode locations... I want the ones from 5 or even from 4 back!
 
As expected this set is killer. I like the fact that you kept the car stock, the lighting is as usual splendid and my faves are #2, 3 and the last one. Nice holiday pics too. ;)👍
 
I've never been to the Coromandel, mainly because I never go anywhere, especially not as a holiday, and even if I did go on holiday for whatever reason, I wouldn't go half way up the country for it. Too much effort. :lol: Hope you enjoyed your time there. :D

Anyway, the set. Is that water/condensation in shot 3!? It looks amazing. :drool: And the last shot is so white, bright and clean I can honestly swear it was taken on Richard Hammond's teeth fresh after teeth whitening. 👍 Another great set.
 
The set of the Cuda's really nice and you've got a neat "Riceman Style" going on with the soft light-themed editing going on in some of your shots.
 
GPR
I like how the purple and blue hues work together in this set. Very harmonious and the trademark lights and glows of your style suit the modern/futuristic backdrop. I really like shots 1,2 & 6 (nice composition and clean isolation.) 👍

Also dig the first shot of that beach. 👍
Thanks George! I'm pleased to hear you think the colour hues worked well together. Cheers!:cheers:
As expected this set is killer. I like the fact that you kept the car stock, the lighting is as usual splendid and my faves are #2, 3 and the last one. Nice holiday pics too. ;)👍
Thank you very much Nicolas!:cheers: Glad I didn't disappoint. I thought the car already looked badass in it's stock form, can't wait to add a few mods to it and do another shoot.
I've never been to the Coromandel, mainly because I never go anywhere, especially not as a holiday, and even if I did go on holiday for whatever reason, I wouldn't go half way up the country for it. Too much effort. :lol: Hope you enjoyed your time there. :D

Anyway, the set. Is that water/condensation in shot 3!? It looks amazing. :drool: And the last shot is so white, bright and clean I can honestly swear it was taken on Richard Hammond's teeth fresh after teeth whitening. 👍 Another great set.
Cheers mate!:cheers: I had a wonderful time there, except for the fact that on the way there, I vomited outside the car window while it was moving!:ill: I hate being a passenger on windy roads!:lol:

And yes that is water condensation in the 3rd shot. I thought it would be a nice touch to add in. It's my first time trying it so I'm glad you liked it.:D

Also the last comment about Richard Hammonds teeth is hilarious!:lol: Nice to hear you like the set.

Beautiful, composition and lightning 1a as always:drool:

Only thing I do not like is the combination of the beautiful violet with the blue light;)

And yes, there are not enough photomode locations... I want the ones from 5 or even from 4 back!
Thanks mate! You don't like the Violet/Blue combo? Well I guess you can't please everyone...:sly:

I have to say I would love this game even more if they brought back the old GT5 locations and updated the GT4 ones!:drool:
The set of the Cuda's really nice and you've got a neat "Riceman Style" going on with the soft light-themed editing going on in some of your shots.
Cheers Jaden!:cheers: Great to hear that my style is becoming it's own thing.
Amazing shots, as always! #3 has got to be my favourite. :drool:👍
Excellent set! Nice lighting effects.
Thanks for the comments Katie and Mazda!:cheers:
 
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Sharpening Tutorial (Photoshop)
For this tutorial I'm going to show you how to get sharper looking images without overdoing it in Photoshop. I already know that there are are quite a few other GTP users who use this exact same method, but this tutorial is for the ones who haven't given it a go yet. I currently do not know if this method is available in GIMP, so let me know below.

Now I tend to use Lightroom to sharpen up my images however, this is the alternate method I prefer to use in Photoshop. This method requires the use of the High Pass Filter, which I find to have much better results than the Unsharpen Mask. The unsharpen mask seems to sharpen each individual pixel wich results in having unwanted banding issues which tend to break your image, whereas the high pass filter method only sharpens lines and edges. I recommend doing this step after some colour correction.

The first thing we're going to do is open our image file. Then we're going to make a copy of the original layer, by right clicking on the layer and selecting Duplicate Layer.

View attachment 93266

The next step is to select your duplicated layer and go to Filter > Other > High Pass.

View attachment 91372

A dialogue box will appear. This is where you can adjust how strong you want the effect to be. I usually have the radius at about 2.0 pixels.

View attachment 91375

Hit OK and then you will be left with a grey image like this.

View attachment 91374

The next step is to change the layer blend mode to Soft Light.

View attachment 91373

And there you have it!
You will then notice that your image will look slightly crisper than the original image.
Here's a side by side comparison below.

Sharpening Before & After.jpg


If you think the result is not crisp enough, then duplicate your high pass filter layer. If you think the effect is too strong, then reduce the opacity of the layer.

:cheers:Hope this helps.:cheers:

The next tutorial will be about Photo Toning Gradient Maps.
 
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