3D Background, Still Unfinished. What Do You Think So Far?
- Thread starter DarkSoul
- Start date
looks realy nice. i think now that its painted,even the crack is natural looking! And may I ppoint out, you used your own idea for how to paint it.
I just read the other thread, and I am the same way when it comes to making things look right, or even decent with paint. For future reference that method of putting the lighter colors on first and then dark on top, then wiping the dark off, really does come out a lot like your castle. it sort of takes care of where to shade because the dark paint comes off the high points first. also it kind of greys out the underneath color like the castle. i also like it because it gives you lots of chances to mess up. try it on something sometime, you'll think your an artist.
ps i tried that granite look paint once, i couldn't make it look natural.
will we get pix of it in the filled tank?
I just read the other thread, and I am the same way when it comes to making things look right, or even decent with paint. For future reference that method of putting the lighter colors on first and then dark on top, then wiping the dark off, really does come out a lot like your castle. it sort of takes care of where to shade because the dark paint comes off the high points first. also it kind of greys out the underneath color like the castle. i also like it because it gives you lots of chances to mess up. try it on something sometime, you'll think your an artist.
ps i tried that granite look paint once, i couldn't make it look natural.
will we get pix of it in the filled tank?
Ya, but after this is finished, the last step in getting this thing full of fish, is the plumbing.
It will be costly for what I want to do, and need, and Likely, the parts I need will be next to impossible to find... at least a couple of them anyway.
Will74: I used the pink extruded styrofoam used in housing construction. I tried using the white expanded styrofoam first, but for what I wanted, I found that not only was it a real pain in the a** to carve, and work with, it made an ENORMOUS mess, and those little foam pellets either staticly clung, or repelled from things.
So trying to vaccuum them up became a week long job,..... literally.
This pink stuff makes less of a mess, carves really well, and sands like a dream, plus the mess left behind is MUCH easier to clean up.
The cement I used as my base coat, was some very old speedcrete, which began to harden in about 20 mins, which made "painting" it on extremely hard to achieve a "rock" texture, as opposed to a "concrete poorly plastered onto foam" look.
I discovered that using non-bathroom, sanded grout not only worked wonders for painting, it left behind an amazing texture, as you can see. Should I make any more, or people want to follow along with my idea, I would use grout first and only, and skip the cement totally.
Also, instead of "painting" the grout on, I would just pour a bunch of it into a wide, shallow pan, and dip the face of the board into the pool of grout.
I will be posting finished pics, as well as a full tutorial on making one of these backgrounds.
I might actually do the DIY post tonight.
zazz: I wanted the background to be darker, more like a darker rock. I perhaps should have gone with a grey, instead of the black, but I didnt have any grey spray paint, and I could only apply a light coat such as I did, with spray paint.....And I didnt have money to actually buy any paint, nor could I wait
I should still be able to apply some lighter colours, as suggested, and have it look as good, if not better, because the background is simply darker, not really painted.
I will say, I am slightly(extremely) bothered by the 2 or 3 spots where you can clearly see its been spray painted, cause its a dark solid line.
I might be able to clean it up a bit using a stiff brush, and blend it in better.
It will be costly for what I want to do, and need, and Likely, the parts I need will be next to impossible to find... at least a couple of them anyway.
Will74: I used the pink extruded styrofoam used in housing construction. I tried using the white expanded styrofoam first, but for what I wanted, I found that not only was it a real pain in the a** to carve, and work with, it made an ENORMOUS mess, and those little foam pellets either staticly clung, or repelled from things.
So trying to vaccuum them up became a week long job,..... literally.
This pink stuff makes less of a mess, carves really well, and sands like a dream, plus the mess left behind is MUCH easier to clean up.
The cement I used as my base coat, was some very old speedcrete, which began to harden in about 20 mins, which made "painting" it on extremely hard to achieve a "rock" texture, as opposed to a "concrete poorly plastered onto foam" look.
I discovered that using non-bathroom, sanded grout not only worked wonders for painting, it left behind an amazing texture, as you can see. Should I make any more, or people want to follow along with my idea, I would use grout first and only, and skip the cement totally.
Also, instead of "painting" the grout on, I would just pour a bunch of it into a wide, shallow pan, and dip the face of the board into the pool of grout.
I will be posting finished pics, as well as a full tutorial on making one of these backgrounds.
I might actually do the DIY post tonight.
zazz: I wanted the background to be darker, more like a darker rock. I perhaps should have gone with a grey, instead of the black, but I didnt have any grey spray paint, and I could only apply a light coat such as I did, with spray paint.....And I didnt have money to actually buy any paint, nor could I wait
I should still be able to apply some lighter colours, as suggested, and have it look as good, if not better, because the background is simply darker, not really painted.
I will say, I am slightly(extremely) bothered by the 2 or 3 spots where you can clearly see its been spray painted, cause its a dark solid line.
I might be able to clean it up a bit using a stiff brush, and blend it in better.
Ok, So I went ahead and basically painted the entire thing black.
It was one of those things where, it started out as just a touch up, and then I got another darkspot, So I made the rest darker, and got more dark spots, and before I knew it, Its pretty much all black now.
so, I'm not too sure how to proceed with further painting or shading at this point.
It was one of those things where, it started out as just a touch up, and then I got another darkspot, So I made the rest darker, and got more dark spots, and before I knew it, Its pretty much all black now.
so, I'm not too sure how to proceed with further painting or shading at this point.
Alright, Here are some pics of the background now, after its full (regretable) paintjob, in a few different lighting situations.
Here it is, normal room lighting, 80W dual 4' fluoroescent fixture in the middle of my room. No flash. This is pretty much just about what it looks like IRL. If you could combine this pic, with the pic below with the flash on, It would be a match to what I see with my eyes.
This is with my aquarium fixture, and some generic 36" T8 tubes, place on top of my TV stand, above the background. no flash.
This is with the aquarium fixture and generic tubes in front of the background, basically underneath the camera. no flash.
This is with the camera flash on.
Here it is, normal room lighting, 80W dual 4' fluoroescent fixture in the middle of my room. No flash. This is pretty much just about what it looks like IRL. If you could combine this pic, with the pic below with the flash on, It would be a match to what I see with my eyes.
This is with my aquarium fixture, and some generic 36" T8 tubes, place on top of my TV stand, above the background. no flash.
This is with the aquarium fixture and generic tubes in front of the background, basically underneath the camera. no flash.
This is with the camera flash on.
This is exactly the type of situation I have gotten myself into LOL
Luckily, I think that when lit from above, as it will be when installed, it still looks good.
I really dont think that putting colors over black will acheive the look you want. I'd say its good as is, but if you don't like it, id say your best bet would be to start over with a light grey or,tan, or whatever you want the starting point to be. I don't know how many layers of paint it can take before you loose texture. I think you did a good job with the spray paint the first time, so id say use spray paint again. maybe practice on something first to get the hang of applying it the way you want. If you took a light grey for instance, you could try spraying it just like you did the black the first time, ( only maybe hold the can a little further back, to eliminate those parts you didnt like) If that doesn't give a result you like, keep going and paint it mostly grey and then apply the black in a light way like you did originally.
Again, I think its good the way it is, but if you arent ok with it it is worth working patiently on. eh?
Luckily, I think that when lit from above, as it will be when installed, it still looks good.
I really dont think that putting colors over black will acheive the look you want. I'd say its good as is, but if you don't like it, id say your best bet would be to start over with a light grey or,tan, or whatever you want the starting point to be. I don't know how many layers of paint it can take before you loose texture. I think you did a good job with the spray paint the first time, so id say use spray paint again. maybe practice on something first to get the hang of applying it the way you want. If you took a light grey for instance, you could try spraying it just like you did the black the first time, ( only maybe hold the can a little further back, to eliminate those parts you didnt like) If that doesn't give a result you like, keep going and paint it mostly grey and then apply the black in a light way like you did originally.
Again, I think its good the way it is, but if you arent ok with it it is worth working patiently on. eh?
tip on how to get the colors like your castle.... its a tecniqui called dry brushing... you pretty much load up your brush and paint on a paper towel a bit till theres paint residue... you then lightly brush over the areas and it leaves the bumps and edges tinted with colore... you should do the burgandy first and then the blue in otder to match the castle....
the pink stuff is apparently illegal in cali to buy.. you have to have a licence to buy it >.<
(did you get a gorilla to take that picture for you?!?!)
the pink stuff is apparently illegal in cali to buy.. you have to have a licence to buy it >.<
(did you get a gorilla to take that picture for you?!?!)
Ya, my pet silverback
I had a revelation, Lastnight I was watching how it's made, and they had a segment on how fake bonsai trees are made.
Lo and behold, they used some glue, over top of clay, and sprinkled on some "moss" and dabbed it in.
Im thinking I can get some of that green plant foam, and break it up, using it as a moss over the entire thing..... or parts of it anyway.
The biggest problem with the paint was that I had to do it outside, and the lighting isnt right.... I couldnt see enough of what I needed to se, to paint it properly.
Also the wind doesn't help, when you spray the paint, and the wind carries it off to far away lands.
