Ugh, Could Really Use Some Help

[Haz]

Could use some help with something guys. I have some homework from a small graphics class I'm taking and I'm having trouble with it, we all have to do some kind of picture from, you guessed it, The Matrix, anything we want as long as it's based on that, so I thought I'd try something challenging and try to recreate this effect here.



Maybe I aimed a little high.

Anyway I'm practicing on this pic here, all in Photoshop.



Been struggling for days and the closest I can get to it is this.



Made the Matrix code ok, and what I do have so far looks alright I guess, but I know there's gotta be a way to do it, as you can see there's too much of the character showing through the code compared to Neo where it's all code, tried lowering the opacity, tried toning down his colors, messed around with blending options, tried adding more code (looked like crap), fresh out of ideas, it doesn't have to be perfect but just a little closer than what I have now, any tips, tutorials or whatever? Thanks in advance.

[100%]

If you get the Matrix ScreenSaver (the one with the images going thru it)
then get a Hex editor - like Exescope
then go to the Bitmaps and change them with your image and youll get a perfect version of it.

If not then photodhop is your only hope

[Haz]

Yeah I think I know which saver your talking bout, I'll give it a shot

[Haz]

Well, tried it, but it won't let me edit the bitmaps so I'm totally screwed, shame too, it was just the effect I was looking for

Still screwing with it in PS but I'm still nowhere, if anybody can think of anything else....

[100%]

copy the screensaver pallication -.exe or .scr or whatever the one with the bitmaps in to somewhereelse.
then swap the bitmaps
then replace the edited one with the original

[bujub22]

add to it in a sec wid a pic

[Haz]

Originally posted by Zedaxax@15 May 2004 - 18:55
copy the screensaver pallication -.exe or .scr or whatever the one with the bitmaps in to somewhereelse.
then swap the bitmaps
then replace the edited one with the original

Tried it again, said everything was compressed and that I couldn't edit or view the files, so I just grabbed the paid version of the saver (screw it) and threw the pic into it like that, looks good but it magnifies the pics to sizes where you can only see a part of it at a time, even reducing the sizes and playing around with the options didn't help much, thanks for the help Zedaxax, much appreciated but it doesn't look like that routes gonna pan out

@bujub22: looking forward to it, hope you have more luck than I am.

[Haz]

Ok a little more screwing around and I came up with this, how's it look?




Should I keep going or quit while I'm ahead Doesn't have the 3d look Zedaxax's option had but it's close.

[pol]

looks good

a quick easy way would be to convert your pic into ASCII with something like this - ASCII Art Studio - loads of those around and there are probably better/freeware ones

and you can get the matrix code font here

so if you convert the pic with a converter, copy+paste the text into photoshop. make a copy of the layer and then 'rasterize' it from the layer menu or just by right-clicking it in the layer panel

now you have an editable text layer/s that you can use the eraser/blur tools etc on to give you more detail and contrast in the text. when you're happy with the pic you could try going to the filter menu and adding 'lighting effects' to give it more contrast. here's one to give you an idea, i didn't spend much time on the ASCII text but you'll be able to get more detail in to it



^if the pic isn't showing click here

then you can add some dropping text in the foreground. search google for 'fosi' and get the eye candy 4000 and xenofex2 plugins - eye candy 'motion trail' gives you this..



.. and the 'tv' effect at the end is just some frames with the xenofex2 'television' plugin - there are loads of good effects with these if you mess around with them

or you could do it the long way by using your pic as a template, with the tansparency lowered, and build up the new image with strips of text - in different sizes/transparencies and making it more dense at the edges like the neo pic

if you are going to animate the text just remember to set up your first frame at the top before it falls, then move all the text layers down to where you want them in the finished frame and 'tween' (image ready), to save you having to make all the individual frames

and good luck with the class btw

[Haz]

Holy cow, Pol that looks great, and that's how you did it huh, man I'm gonna get right on that.

And wth? Image Ready can tween? Shows you how much I mess around with it. Thanks for the help, seriously, more than I could have asked for

Not homework