Workshop El Scorcho NAFL templates - Painting a guernsey on a photo

El_Scorcho

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Greetings all. I had magpienato ask me for some advice on how I put together my NAFL templates this year, so I figured i'd post up my process as a thread.

Firstly, I used a Wacom drawing tablet heavily for this, and i'm not sure i'd have been able to achieve it with a mouse. It certainly would have been much, much more time consuming, and it took countless hours over months as it was.

Secondly, i've never been good at drawing. If you're good at drawing and/or you've had a lot of experience in life drawing, this will all come a lot more naturally to you than it did to me and you'll be able to do a far better job. My first few attempts at this were pretty bad and it was only through a lot of practice that it got to a level that I was happy with.

It's important to start with a large, crisp base image. Use the advanced google image search (which you can find by googling advanced image search) and search for images of 4mp or larger, and you want something that is really crisp and in focus.

I'm not going to go into insane detail here, because it's important that you play around with photoshop and try to find different ways to solve problems.

40LaJdW.jpg


Start by simply tracing the outline of your base image guernsey with the pen tool. If you don't use the pen tool a lot, this is good practice.

MeBSRuY.jpg


Trace shapes for your collar and cuffs, and as you can see i've done a shape for the back part of the guernsey behind the side seam here. Use drop shadows and inner glows in the blending tools to show a bit of depth and differentiate the collar and cuffs from the main body of the guernsey.

i0Wh2bl.jpg


Add in some stitching. I do this by drawing paths with the pen tool, making a dashed brush and using the stroke path function at the bottom of the paths list. I duplicated my layers and separated them slightly, with the higher layer white and the lower layer black to give it some depth and make it work on any colour base.

1RVwwWM.jpg


I gave my guernsey a light meshy fabric type texture as a pattern in the blending options, I just found this made it look more like fabric and not too smooth.

HqKACq3.jpg


Start by adding the large general shadows created by stadium floodlighting. I have a layer for shadow and a layer for highlights so I can edit them as I please. You can basically trace this off of the base image. Adjust the hardness and size of your brush as you go to make this as close to the base image as you can. It took me forever, so be patient.

U6li4Er.jpg


Keep playing around with it to get the contours of the body as best you can. Use the eraser as well as a brush, and make heavy use of the smudge tool to make it blend as seamlessly as you can. This took me a lot of practice. A great tip I got from Dylan8 while learning this is to not fall into the trap of making your shadows too light or starting shadows from a medium gray base. If there is no light, a shadowed area should be black, and erase away from there.

2HJL3sC.jpg


Now add some general highlights. These are as important as the shadows to create depth. Follow the base image and try to copy as best you can remembering to adjust the hardness of your white brush as needed to keep it blending in well with the rest of your guernsey.

sLZIakZ.jpg


This is where it gets really, really time consuming. Start adding shadows and highlights for the folds in the guernsey. I did this by having a layer for shadows and a layer for highlights and doing the shadow of each fold first and then the highlight. Use a black brush for the shadows and use the smudge tool to blend it into the guernsey.

This took countless hours of trial and error, including lots of complete restarts. Do small sections of the guernsey at a time and focus on getting them as perfect as you can. Patience is the key here. Try to follow the base image as best you can. The undo button on my Wacom tablet got a fair workout.

mtDWXcy.jpg


This image shows the highlight layer added to my shadow layer. Even after all this time and so many hours and revisions, the only section on this guernsey i'm really happy with is the bottom left part as you look at it. The rest could all be re-done if I had the time and patience.

I can't really give you much better advice regarding drawing, it's not a strength of mine. Wish i'd paid some attention in art class.

HjLnO8D.jpg


Next I add in the logos. I find positioning the logos first (based on where the logos are on the base image) gives a good frame for the guernsey and helps you to line up your design later. Make your logos smart objects and then use the warp transform tool to get them into the right shape based on the contours of your guernsey.

wQrpjhC.jpg


Add your design. I always do my designs in a flat rectangle in a separate document, and them add that entire flat design in as a smart object, so I can use the warp transform tool to get it to fit with my guernsey.

KowQEMx.jpg


To finish off here i've added little shapes to the design to help the actual design of the guernsey follow the folded ripples i've made, which hopefully makes it look a bit more realistic. You can see how it's changed the line of the yellow part.

AjQ3ai9.jpg


Just to show you how I developed over time, here are a couple of examples of earlier drafts of the shadow and highlight layers, the earlier one is on the right. Basically everything was redone, but I got better as I spent time on it.

Thanks for reading! I hope people learned something or have a different way of looking at things, even if they don't intend to try the same sort of template themselves. Remember a lot of what i've done here is building on over a decade of mucking around designing guernseys and working on templates on this board. I definitely think people with a drawing background will be able to do the highlights and shadows much, much better than I did, it was all very new to me.
 
Incredible resource Scorch, thanks very much for sharing. Would highly recommend anyone give this a read and give it a crack for development.
 
Jul 21, 2010
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gave it a crack, first draft. tried finding a suns reference pic at first, most of them looked despondent walking off after a loss or had their arms covering the middle of the guernsey, so ended up with a soaking wet rischitelli neafl one from a few years back haha.

the bottom creases definitely need some work. i might need to find a player with a keg like buddy so they fill out their guernsey a bit more to have less creases on the front haha. logos up top look a bit flat as well, in particular the afl logo is a bit off.

comparison between the template & the original is below. any comments?

RISCHA-0.png


RISCHA-1.png
 

The Victorian

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gave it a crack, first draft. tried finding a suns reference pic at first, most of them looked despondent walking off after a loss or had their arms covering the middle of the guernsey, so ended up with a soaking wet rischitelli neafl one from a few years back haha.

the bottom creases definitely need some work. i might need to find a player with a keg like buddy so they fill out their guernsey a bit more to have less creases on the front haha. logos up top look a bit flat as well, in particular the afl logo is a bit off.

comparison between the template & the original is below. any comments?

View attachment 1027064

That’s a terrific attempt! I’d be willing to try but literally lost access to PhotoShop and adobe products last week
 
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This is fantastic Scorch!! I started an Aubameyang realistic template for an update in FLO transfer period but I ran out of time now I'm shacked up in a pub until I find a place to live for my new job.

As soon As I get a place and my computer up an running I'm definitely giving this a go!!

exile great first attempt from you as well!! Can't wait for you to put your NAFL designs on the realistic templates next year!!

Sent from my SM-A505YN using Tapatalk
 

El_Scorcho

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gave it a crack, first draft. tried finding a suns reference pic at first, most of them looked despondent walking off after a loss or had their arms covering the middle of the guernsey, so ended up with a soaking wet rischitelli neafl one from a few years back haha.

the bottom creases definitely need some work. i might need to find a player with a keg like buddy so they fill out their guernsey a bit more to have less creases on the front haha. logos up top look a bit flat as well, in particular the afl logo is a bit off.

comparison between the template & the original is below. any comments?

View attachment 1027064


Wow it's great to see someone have a go! This is way better than my first attempts, you've done a great job here!

The only advice I can really give is to make your shadows a bit darker on the lower parts where they are darker on the base image. It's counterintuitive to make a shadow really dark with a typical template on this board but with this sort of thing, a dark shadow should be almost black if it's a hard fold or under an arm etc. Start from full black and erase gently from there. Don't use opacity to soften your shadow layer, because you want your darkest shadows black.

Hope to see you use it in one of the upcoming comps, FIRA is up shortly.
 
Jul 21, 2010
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Wow it's great to see someone have a go! This is way better than my first attempts, you've done a great job here!

The only advice I can really give is to make your shadows a bit darker on the lower parts where they are darker on the base image. It's counterintuitive to make a shadow really dark with a typical template on this board but with this sort of thing, a dark shadow should be almost black if it's a hard fold or under an arm etc. Start from full black and erase gently from there. Don't use opacity to soften your shadow layer, because you want your darkest shadows black.

Hope to see you use it in one of the upcoming comps, FIRA is up shortly.
thanks mate! definitely see what you mean on the darker shadows at the bottom.
i gave it another crack with a better photo, and a better process for the shadows & highlights. think i've figured it out a bit better, but could always do some more fine tuning to either match the existing folds & creases or simplify up if needed. upon reflection of the below, i can see i could sharpen up some of the creases too to increase the realism.

con-2.png


i'm still new to smart objects, so still learning my ways with them. haven't done the little coloured shapes across the design where the guernsey ripples yet, will give that a crack if i use the template in a comp/folio.
con-1.png
 

El_Scorcho

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thanks mate! definitely see what you mean on the darker shadows at the bottom.
i gave it another crack with a better photo, and a better process for the shadows & highlights. think i've figured it out a bit better, but could always do some more fine tuning to either match the existing folds & creases or simplify up if needed. upon reflection of the below, i can see i could sharpen up some of the creases too to increase the realism.

View attachment 1030248

i'm still new to smart objects, so still learning my ways with them. haven't done the little coloured shapes across the design where the guernsey ripples yet, will give that a crack if i use the template in a comp/folio.
View attachment 1030249

This is excellent! Much better than either of mine. Really impressed!
 
thanks mate! definitely see what you mean on the darker shadows at the bottom.
i gave it another crack with a better photo, and a better process for the shadows & highlights. think i've figured it out a bit better, but could always do some more fine tuning to either match the existing folds & creases or simplify up if needed. upon reflection of the below, i can see i could sharpen up some of the creases too to increase the realism.

View attachment 1030248

i'm still new to smart objects, so still learning my ways with them. haven't done the little coloured shapes across the design where the guernsey ripples yet, will give that a crack if i use the template in a comp/folio.
View attachment 1030249

Outstanding work!
 
Oct 27, 2016
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thanks mate! definitely see what you mean on the darker shadows at the bottom.
i gave it another crack with a better photo, and a better process for the shadows & highlights. think i've figured it out a bit better, but could always do some more fine tuning to either match the existing folds & creases or simplify up if needed. upon reflection of the below, i can see i could sharpen up some of the creases too to increase the realism.

View attachment 1030248

i'm still new to smart objects, so still learning my ways with them. haven't done the little coloured shapes across the design where the guernsey ripples yet, will give that a crack if i use the template in a comp/folio.
View attachment 1030249
Elite stuff mate!
 
Jul 21, 2010
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you are, straight up, the future of FJGD.
thanks mate, really appreciate it coming from someone of your experience!

huge credit to el scorcho for the tutorial, never would have given it a crack without his guidance. been loving the waikato tigers in the nafl for years, really took it up a notch this year with this new style.

if i could add one extra note to the tutorial is that trying to recreate the exact guernsey you're drawing over helps massively. it's probably already obvious and goes without saying, but using it as a reference as a side by side comparison was super useful.
 

Genghis Tron

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Great stuff Scorch. This will help with some jumpers I'm working on. I'd love to give it a crack right now but my laptop has s**t itself recently and I don't have access to my program :(
 

TheDoctor11

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Been giving this a go, think I'm getting the hang of it but feedback would be appreciated. I'm working in Illustrator with a Wacom tablet, not sure whether this would be better done in Photoshop but I've made it this far at least. I also see how much easier a Wacom tablet helps with this. I'd just finished the first round of adding folds to the jumper, using the brush tool and opacity settings in place of smudging. Used the pen and opacity for the shadows.

live action template PRE FOLDS.png


For reference, the original photo:

template base.jpg
 
Oct 27, 2016
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Been giving this a go, think I'm getting the hang of it but feedback would be appreciated. I'm working in Illustrator with a Wacom tablet, not sure whether this would be better done in Photoshop but I've made it this far at least. I also see how much easier a Wacom tablet helps with this. I'd just finished the first round of adding folds to the jumper, using the brush tool and opacity settings in place of smudging. Used the pen and opacity for the shadows.

View attachment 1096933

For reference, the original photo:

View attachment 1096935
One thing I found that helped me was turning the opacity and hardness of the brush wayyy down. Have one layer for the black (darker) parts of folds, and another layer in white for the lighter parts of the folds in the jumper. Really brings it to life.
 

El_Scorcho

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Agree with the above, you definitely need a highlights layer and a shadows layer to get the best out of it.

I'd start quite dark though and carefully smudge and erase away to lighten the shadows up. If you look at the photo of Walker, the darkest shadow parts are basically black. If you start from a lighter base, your shadows will never get quite dark enough. Generally I found the shadows needed to be a bit darker than I thought.
 
May 25, 2009
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Been giving this a go, think I'm getting the hang of it but feedback would be appreciated. I'm working in Illustrator with a Wacom tablet, not sure whether this would be better done in Photoshop but I've made it this far at least. I also see how much easier a Wacom tablet helps with this. I'd just finished the first round of adding folds to the jumper, using the brush tool and opacity settings in place of smudging. Used the pen and opacity for the shadows.

View attachment 1096933

For reference, the original photo:

View attachment 1096935
Like the other 2 have said adjustments to the brush hardness/flow/opacity and shadows/highlights will do wonders.

Having said that great job on actually getting that far, I have done the guernsey base, cuffs and collar and now every time I look at it I think uggh I cant be bothered.
 
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