:: Magical Glyphs – Spell Symbols 1 ©2008 Caballus:: Content is protected under copyright law and may not be redistributed without prior written permission from the Author. Product Description: This is a collection of magical symbols on transparent layers. These are intricate magical symbols woven from magical energies showing mystical diagrams and glyphs glowing in the air. You can apply them to your mystical or fantasy renders or paintings with a picture editing program to add a unique spectacle. Equip your magic users with glowing symbols of power to use as spellcasting effects. This set contains 10 different spell symbols in PNG format. Each magical symbol has 3 variations – a cool colored, a warm colored and a plain version so you can apply your own effects to it. So you get 30 symbols in total. All symbols are high resolution images, their dimensions ranging from about 1200 to 2000 pixels. BONUS CONTENTS Background Pictures: 4 background images, one basic theme with 4 color and lighting variations to start you off. You get two cool colored and two warm colored variations, one is lighter and one is darker. You can use them for any type of renders or other graphic projects. Light Effects: You also get 3 different light effects on transparent layers in PNG format. These are from the spell symbols but you can apply them individually to any type of renders or paintings to give them some special effects. You get their cool and warm colored versions too so there are 6 effects included in this set. Requirements: Any image editor program, which can open PNG and JPEG files. It was tested in Photoshop Elements 3. All of this product's content was created by Mayer Laszlo (Caballus) ©2008 Installation instructions: Unzip the files to a folder of your choice with your unzipping program. Open the files with Photoshop, or another program which can open PNG or JPEG files. You can also import the bonus backgrounds in Poser or another 3D graphic program. Usage instructions: Open your rendered image and the PNG file containing the spell symbol of your choice in a picture editor program which can handle image layers (like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro) and drag and drop the symbol into your image. It will appear on its own transparent layer. You can position and scale it to fit it into the picture. Apply some perspective distortion (e.g. with Perspective or Free Transform in Photoshop) to the spell symbol to add further realism. Adjust the opacity of the symbol layer to make it brighter and more opaque or more subtle and transparent. If you want your spell symbols and the rendered or painted image to make a homogeneous picture you have to harmonize the colors of the symbol with the colors of the rest of the image. Usually the cool version of the symbol looks better on a perdominantly cool or bluish picture while the warm version looks better on a warm colored image. If the symbol does not blend in the image well, you can make some color correction to the symbol (or the image). The Hue/Saturation or the Color Balance commands are especially useful for this purpose. You can completely change the colors of the symbol with them. To help you choose from the different symbols and light effects, we included the thumbnail picture of all the symbols and effects in this package at the end of the user guide pdf, in the Appendix. Using the Bonus Backgrounds in your 3D Projects: You can apply the images as background in Poser or another 3D graphic program of your choice (if the program has this function). In Poser, load the background image with the File › Import › Background Picture menu command. This makes a file open dialog to appear. Here you can select the desired JPEG file from the folder where you placed the unzipped content. The selected picture will be opened as a background image. If the pixel dimensions of the Document Window do not match the dimensions of the background image (2400×3000 pixels), Poser will ask you if you want to change the size of the Document Window to match the size of the image. If you say yes, Poser will set the Document Window to the largest possible size, then you can set the dimensions of the rendered image in the Render Dimensions dialog (Render › Render Dimensions menu command). Select “Render to exact resolution” and check the “Constrain aspect ratio”. Then you can specify the desired dimensions of the rendered image. Fill in one dimension and Poser will modify the other to keep the aspect ratio of the image. Use dimensions smaller than or equal to the size of the background image (2400 pixels width and 3000 pixels height). Use smaller size settings for preview renders, then set your desired dimensions when you are satisfied with the composition and lighting. If you load an image as a background, but it does not appear in Poser, select Display › Show Background Picture to make the background image visible. You can hide the ground plane with the Display › Guides › Ground Plane menu command, and turn off the shadow display in the Preview Window with the Shadows toggle at the bottom of the window (the little sphere with or without dropshadow, showing the state of the toggle). You can position and pose your 3D models in front of the loaded background image, and render the scene with the image in the background. You can also render your scene without a background image, and save it as a PNG file. This saves your render with transparent background and you can place it before a background image later in a picture editor program like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. There are some advantages to this method. You can freely position and resize your rendered models before the background image after rendering it, and you can reposition or resize them any time afterwards if you change your mind. You can easily make tonal and color corrections to the figures or the background separately, without bothering with selecting the figures or the background first, or you can apply different effects to them separately. You can also place magical symbols between the figures and the background picture if you keep them in separate layers. Files list: bg_stone_floor_cool_v1.jpg bg_stone_floor_cool_v2.jpg bg_stone_floor_warm_v1.jpg bg_stone_floor_warm_v2.jpg light_effect_01_cool.png light_effect_01_warm.png light_effect_02_cool.png light_effect_02_warm.png light_effect_03_cool.png light_effect_03_warm.png spell_symbol_01_cool.png spell_symbol_01_plain.png spell_symbol_01_warm.png spell_symbol_02_cool.png spell_symbol_02_plain.png spell_symbol_02_warm.png spell_symbol_03_cool.png spell_symbol_03_plain.png spell_symbol_03_warm.png spell_symbol_04_cool.png spell_symbol_04_plain.png spell_symbol_04_warm.png spell_symbol_05_cool.png spell_symbol_05_plain.png spell_symbol_05_warm.png spell_symbol_06_cool.png spell_symbol_06_plain_1.png spell_symbol_06_plain_2.png spell_symbol_06_plain_3.png spell_symbol_06_warm.png spell_symbol_07_cool.png spell_symbol_07_plain.png spell_symbol_07_warm.png spell_symbol_08-09_plain.png spell_symbol_08_cool.png spell_symbol_08_warm.png spell_symbol_09_cool.png spell_symbol_09_warm.png spell_symbol_10_cool.png spell_symbol_10_plain.png spell_symbol_10_warm.png user guide.pdf