When you look at today’s magazines, all the beautiful models are photoshopped like there wasn’t a new day tomorrow. As long as the result is not a freaky alien-like caricature we all like the perfect skin, hot curves and so on…

I recently saw a before-after photo that demonstrated all the reparations and modifications on a bikini model…

I thought Hey! It’s exactly what i am doing to the characters of my erotic story Luisa & The Elfish Spell! Most of the hot pics are intensively retouched and photoshopped.

So i created a before-after picture with one of my latest creations, the sexy contest winner Zelda…

Virtual models also need to be retouched!

When you make a photo of your avatar the result is often not too pretty. In case you use SimPose to make custom scenes with your Sims the result is never satisfying. Those photos need retouching like they were “real”.

While the retouching technically isn’t very complicated to do, it’s still a very time intense task. Look at my before-after pic (click on this thumbnail):

Retouching techniques in detail!

You don’t need to have an up-to-date and state-of-the-art editor like Photoshop. I’m sure other editors also have the perfect tools and can do most of the required things as well.

Here’s more about the tools i use for different retouching tasks:

1. For Hair Reparation i use Brushes, Stamps and even custom-made hair patterns
2. Skin smoothing can be done with the blur tool. Larger areas with the Gaussian Blur Filter
3. Skimming is more complicated. I prefer to redraw such areas with the Pen Tool, make selection and fill it with the Smudge Tool

I know this isn’t very detailed information but i hope it gives you the idea. After all, you will find many retouching tutorials on the web – you can use the same methods on your avatar ;)

Don’t forget to check out the complete gallery of the virtual model shown here, Zelda Full Nude on dreamsofluisa.com

I’ve just realized how much people love sun beams. The warm ray of light makes us smile and say “Jesus, how wonderful!”

But it’s pretty hard to shoot photos in nature that feature those special beaming atmosphere. The same counts for virtual worlds where it is technically tricky to add stunning lighting effects.

But luckily we can add self-made sun beams to our photos and virtual pictures manually. I will give you the right tools in this post…

6 Photoshop Brushes and a Template File!

It’s pretty easy to create a nice light beam in Photoshop or appropriate applications. You don’t need special knowlegde, plugins or something like that…

Just make a selection, cut out some chaotic pieces, add  the Render/Fibers filter and large motion blur, transform the result into the shape you need. Make it more or less transparent and add layer effects of your choice.

Or better don’t worry about that… simply use my template file and brush set to create sun beams in no time.

Sun Beams Collection - all together

The template contains 6 different beams as well as many single developing phases. So you can always look back at how a beam reached his final look, see which layer effects are in use and so on.

The layers contain all sub stages - great to learn and test

This way you can also take the basic beams and create your own shapes!

Here’s how the final rays look on a black background:

The same beams on a black background

The download package also includes a brush set with these 6 final beam shapes.

It’s free and you can do what you want with the template and brushes, just do it ;-)

Credits:

The background of the demo picture was taken in the “Patron Wilds” in Second Life, a place really worth a visit.

A bigger version of the demo pic can be seen here.

Download:

File is zipped, about 12MB and free.

I hope that many of my lovely twitter followers and friends will love the new layout.

Just in case that you don´t love the new layout you can try to create a better one by yourself…

Because i´ve created the design in Photoshop and just thought: Hey, why not giving away the file?

Photoshop PSD-File!

Download the psd-file, open it in Photoshop or any other usable graphic editor and change it however you want.

Or leave it, or parts of it as is.

Everything is possible, there’s no problem, just give proper credits!

The Photoshop Template of this Twitter Background Picture

What you should know before you create a twitter background!

There are some (many) restrictions in a twitter background pic:

• the twitter background is static, it doesn’t move when you scroll…
• …but the content/time line is flexible, always centered on every screen.
• the main information should be visible even on small screens.
• everything to the right of the time line is additional content…
• …as well as everything below 500px or so.
• take care of the file size. 900kb are possible but not the best you can do.
• Set a cool background color to make it fit to the background pic.

My template is very large, it’s 1700 x 1050px! I just decided to make it appear correctly on large screens like mine.

But it also works on small 1024 x 768px screens like many netbooks have. Imagine that many people tweet from mobile toys.

Create your own twitter background!

I wanted to create a layout that looks related to my site www.elfishspell.com and that make people ask: What’s that? Is it dangerous? Will it eat me?

I leave it up to you if you cut and resize the template and add other layer effects or whatever. You can decide which element you will keep and which you will replace.

Just play around, it’s pretty much trial and error.

[ad#content-lrectangle]

In the case that this photoshop template helps you please tell everybody about it and do the usual social stuff… following, retweeting, linking, commenting and so on.

Thank you and here is the download:

Twitter Background Photoshop Template from mxm-studios.com

To promote the upcoming super blockbuster “Luisa 6″ (working title) i’ve released a letter from Lena Luv today which you can read on her homepage.

To make it look like a “real” letter i needed to create a sheet of paper in Photoshop.

I will describe how you can make your own virtual letter paper as well – in only a few minutes; it’s pretty easy…

Figure out what you need

Before you start, first specify what you want to get:

I want a sheet of paper that fits perfectly into the design of the website.

It should be large enough but not too large, vertical layout and black background (to let it meet the background color of the website).

Step 1: Open a new document

Open a new file in Photoshop, give it the correct size and fill it with the background color (black in my case).

Step 2: Create the shape of the paper

Open a new layer (!) and – with the “rectangular marquee tool” – make a selection in the size of the paper.

Don’t let the selection meet the border of the document because we need some margin in later steps.

Fill the selection with a soft color, close to white but not white. I’ve chosen a soft rosé tone to let the paper look lovely.

Step 3: Add some decoration

Open another new layer (!) and set its “Blending Option” to “Multiply”.

Get a beautiful flower brush from somewhere on the Internet and add a flowery form to the paper.

With the right brush you only need to make one click. That’s the trick with brushes, get some free Photoshop Brushes from somewhere…

Just “paint” in the same soft color like the paper sheet. With the blending option set to “Multiply” it will look very natural.

Step 4: Transform the paper

The paper still looks very sterile, it needs some crinkles and waves.

First, “Merge” the layers “Paper” and “Flower” together: Mark both of them in the layer window and click “Strg + E”.

Now apply the filter-effect “Artistic/Film Grain” and set all three parameters to 1.

With the powerful tool “Liquify” (in the top area of the Filter-Menu) you can easily transform the border of the paper; it’s up to you and your taste.

Step 5: Add more effects

With a rougher brush i’ve added some more shadows and stains.

Again: On a new layer, set to “Multiply” and painted in the same soft rosè color.

I also reduced the “Opacity” of those effects to make them look less intense.

And i added the Layer Style “Inner Glow” to the paper layer. Set the Blend Mode of the effect to “Dissolve” and look at the other settings:

That’s it, you just created a nice sheet of virtual paper in only a few minutes.

Get a lovely handwriting font and write something down. It looks lovely, i’m sure.

And then leave the way of this workshop and try to find your own method, change and add stuff of your choice…

…and get the very last out of Photoshop.

You can download my original PSD-File here!