Does anybody know how to create this skin texture effect on PDN?

[Ishi]

http://learnphotoediting.net/

 

 

Its a Photoshop tutorial and what it does as it makes the details pop out in such an amazing way. It makes the skin look 3D-ish and digitally painted as well.

 

I was wondering if there is a PDN technique or plugin somewhere that can mimic that effect.

[Cc4FuzzyHuggles]

The only thing I can suggest at the moment is this HDR tutorial : http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/20608-extreme-hdr-tutorial/

[Ishi]

Not a a bad bit right there. Gotta try that tutorial and wait for more suggestions. Thanks..

[Cc4FuzzyHuggles]

Well, if nothing else, I think HDR could be the look you are wanting. There might be some HDR plugins, I haven't looked yet.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Cc4FuzzyHuggles

[Ishi]

The HDR effect did something good for me but its still nowhere near to what I found on the Photoshop tutorial site where the skin can be made to pop out its details and be sort of glossy at the same time.

[Cc4FuzzyHuggles]

I think paint.net can still do something to what you're looking for, but it will be harder to achieve that look. Keep in mind that photoshop is still a much more powerful software.
For example,
I tried to follow a photoshop tutorial one time and I came to realize that not only does photoshop have more layer blending modes, but it's blending modes are also a higher quality. What I mean is, the photshop tutorial used a layout of three blending modes which made a picture look more dramatic and shinyer, I was missing one of the blending modes in paint.net and the ones that I could replicate still didn't produce near as strong as a shiny look (I even tried to use the paint.net blending mode plugin, and I tried to get the same look in gimp too, nothing could reproduce the same photoshop quality). The way photoshop's layer blending modes function seem to be different than how paint.net's do. So there is naturally a difference in the results that the two programs can produce. The funny things is though, thanks to paint.net's plugins, there are some things where photoshop tutorials have like five steps to do something, but in paint.net I do it with one click of a plugin.
 
Now, I don't have any specific recommendations at the moment, but here's some tips.
I'm not saying paint.net can't get awesome photo effect results too, it might just take a few workarounds or different approaches. Regardless of the program, I suggest trying to look into HDR, and maybe hard light photo effects, any kind of style that makes images more dramatic, because I've noticed those styles tend to lead to pulling out details. Just start with getting familiar with some different kinds of photo effects. Then later you can figure out how to pull out details on any picture, not just with making a dramatic look. Some things you will be able to do with paint.net, other things you will have to find a workaround. For example, photoshop has a burn tool, we don't, but the paint.net paintbrush set to "color burn" blending mode can sometimes mimic a burn tool.
 
For now, play with blending modes, Sharpen, brightness/contrast, levels, curves+, and the HDR-ish plugin. You could also duplicate your image and explore some artistic effects/plugins combined with blending modes or layer opacity to have things get a unique look to them.

If I ever figure out how to make details more dramatic and pop, I'll try to share what I learn.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Cc4FuzzyHuggles

[Ishi]

Thanks for the tips and explanation Huggles.

 

I do understand that our beloved Paint.NET has limitations when it goes head to head with Photoshop. However, there are a few among us who are stubborn enough and would stick to what we love and accustomed to use rather than adapt something more advanced. There are those among us who would defend Paint.NET to the bitter end, to the fatal finish because we have developed what I call a ''fanboy idolatry" to this beauty of a free program. I did install a "portable" version on Photoshop which is Photoshop 7.0, released maybe 12 years ago since I'm using a low-end netbook machine and that version must have been built to not hog as much resources like the recent ones with the "CS" titles do.

 

I have done the Extreme HDR Tutorial both on PDN 4.03 and Photoshop 7.0 and I would say that PDN, along with its plugins still gets my vote, if only it had Photoshop's burn, dodge, sponge, sharpen and blur tools. Hopefully in a a near future version, we shall witness the arrival of those tools for PDN and we shall celebrate because that would be a step closer to a better and more competitive industry standard. The only direction for PDN is to move forward.

 

I'm no pro but I have done many-yer than many things with with PDN's Curves +, Levels and particularly some of those plugins under the Object category. Last week, I even decided to edit pictures of some of my Facebook friends and turn them into scary creatures from zombies to an Avatar-ish creature for my Halloween gig. The Multiply and Overlay blending modes have done so much magic on the types of edits that I do. I do wish PDN has those other blending modes for us to have fun with.

 

Photoshop's sharpening and detail-enhancing effects are what are what I'm after in mimicking in PDN. Resourcefulness and efficiency will play a key role. 

Edited November 6, 2014 by Ishi

[Cc4FuzzyHuggles]

Yeah, I'm one of those people who loves paint.net no matter what, and I would choose it over photoshop any day. lol.

I'd say thanks to the plugins, and the what-you-see-is-what-you-get line/curve tool and gradient tool functionality, plus the dents effect, paint.net has irreplaceable things to me.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Cc4FuzzyHuggles

[Ishi]

I have shown PDN many months ago to a close friend who was a user of Photoshop. I was doing the planets and star thing and thankfully we got the Shape 3D plugin (that still works on PDN 4 apparently) to do just that. He was not a Photoshop expert but he was amazed on how PDN had rendered the 3D sphere much more efficiently than what he might have imagined could have been done on Photoshop to achieve the same thing. Random Shape Fill is another awesome plugin and I'm yet to discover more.

 

We do have aces in our side of the table, against Photoshop lol.

 

 

I wish somebody would write an "Awesomize" plugin for PDN that would do what its entitled to do in the first place which is to make an image so awesome in just a few clicks that the Photoshop fanboys would pop their eyes and drop their jaws in pixelated awe.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

What? Planetoid not good enough for you??

I'm currently tinkering with a fractal terrain generator. It has potential to be AWESOME - like many other plugins around here.

[nitenurse79]

I'm currently tinkering with a fractal terrain generator. It has potential to be AWESOME - like many other plugins around here.

Ooo sounds good

[Red ochre]

Ishi - you could try my 'Overblur' plugin, set to sharpen, if you are trying to increase wrinkles and blemishes.
http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/24585-overblur-changes-standard-gaussian-blur/
Those tutorials you linked to look fun!

off topic:
I have PS elements 5 and recently bought a book "advanced techniques for PS Elements 6" from a charity shop. I could do everything better with Pdn! (except perhaps colour profiles & CYMB print stuff).

 

@E.E.R. - looking forward to that one - does sound good!