Expert: Glen Demers - 8/12/2009

Question
Dear Sir/Madam,

This is a repost as the first volunteer declined to answer.  So I am asking this question to many to improve my chances of getting favourable result.

Hope you are aware of "Sivaji-The Boss" indian film wherein they have applied digital skin grafting technique in Eyeon fusion.

http://www.cgarena.com/archives/news/digitalskin_sivaji.html

Is it possible to similarly do the same in photoshop if I have a reference frame as I presume fusion is a composting application similar to Photoshop but with utilities optimised for motion frames.

Thanks in advance.

Answer
Hi Premjit,

Yes, this affect is possible to produce in Photoshop but the key phrase is time-consuming. You'll have to mask out the skin areas on the target image. Make a layer with the new skin and apply an image map to it. And finally change the blending mode to screen, lighten, overlay or soft light, and adjust the opacity of the new skin layer to achieve the desired result. Alternate methods to try would be to apply the new skin in color mode and then apply the image map to the composited image or move to Lab mode and work on the ab channels to change color and only lighten slightly the L channel to retain shape and shadows.

It is not simple and would require the use of multiple techniques and some experimentation.

Hope this helps,
Glen Demers
Adobe Certified Expert, Photoshop 7
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

For more Photoshop tips please visit our help pages here: http://www.bestprintingonline.com/photoshop.htm