Crabby Graphics
Author: Marlene LaVarta
Title: Stained Glass Hummingbird
Skill Level: Intermediate
Additional Files: Hummingbird
zip file
and
Stained
Glass Textures
PI Version: 10 - earlier
versions too
Terms of Service: TOS
Start by downloading the Hummingbird zip file. Extract the zip file - remember where you put the extracted file! Now download and save some or all of the Stained Glass Textures and save them to your hard disk - again, remember where they are!
Now open hummerkit.ufo, duplicate it and close the original. This step is important, we'll be using the original file again! Save the duplicated file as hum1.ufo.
With the pick tool, select the body of the hummingbird.
Press and hold down the c key on the keyboard. This will temporarily turn on the eyedropper tool. Still holding the c key down, click on the body of the hummingbird to select that color.
Select the paintbrush with these settings in the attribute toolbar:
and these setting in the tool panel:
Make several quick passes back and forth over the hummingbird body. Repeat until you get a pattern you like.
Now we're going to do the same thing for each object in the file. Here's the workflow: The w key temporarily selects the pick tool. Press and hold down the w key on the keyboard. Click on one of the objects. Press and hold down the c key and click on the same object to pick up the color. Once you release the c key, you should have the paint tool still active. Make several passes over the selected object to get a pattern you like. Do this for each object in the file. Remember - w to select, c to pick up the color, and paintbrush to color the object.
Here's what mine looks like now:
Personally, I thought the blue leaves ought to be green, so I selected all the blue leaves, pressed ctrl-e to bring up the hue and saturation panel and changed the hue to -108. Then I selected all of the hummingbird parts and pressed ctrl-e and played with the hue until I got something I liked. Below, the hue is -102. Select the background and use a gradient fill on it. I used a light blue to a medium green
Save your file as hum2.ufo. You can use the dodge and burn tools as you see fit to give it some depth. Save your file again.
Minimize this file. Now open the original hummerkit.ufo, duplicate it and close the original. Save the duplicated file as hum3.ufo.
Now we're going to turn this into a stained glass picture.
Press ctrl-shift-a to select all the objects. Fill (ctrl-f) the objects with white.
Now select the paintbrush, color black, transparency 0, soft edge 0. Click on the paintbrush icon again, and press shift-p to paint on edges.
Ctrl-shift-m to merge all.
Choose the magic wand tool, similarity 60, search connected pixels off. Click on a white area in the document. Right-click, invert. Right-click, expand/shrink. Expand 1, circle, OK.
Menu->edit->trace edges->selection marquee, OK.
On the attribute bar, change the mode from horizontal deform to 3D Chisel and the color to black. In the path panel, adjust the boarder and depth for a more 3-dimensional look to the leading. Drag the resulting shape into the hum2 document.
Right click, align, left. Right click, align, bottom.
Select the background (Enter key for PI 10). Menu->Selection->All. Right click, convert to object. Ctrl-f to bring up the fill dialog. Image Tab. Click on the browse button (...) and navigate to one of the saved stained glass textures you downloaded and extracted earlier. I used stainedglass002.jpg. Click OK.
With the pick tool selected, in the attributes toolbar, click on the "bring to front" button, then on the "send backward" icon. You should see the 3d chisel outline sitting on top of the stained glass object. In the easy palette, select the stained glass object and change the merge mode to one of the following: Luminosity, Lighting, Overlay, Hard Light, or Soft Light - or any one that you think works well. I liked hard light.
Done! Isn't it beautiful? To finish it off, add a frame of your choice.
