U.S. Championship V'ball - vball(miguelsluma_09-26-08)

[miguelsluma]

Love this simple volleyball game. Good game for some multiplayer fun.

Ball: Spinning
WHAP!: pulsing


any suggestions?

[tk375]

the background looks a bit low res. but the idea is great! I like the theme

[miguelsluma]

the background quality is a bit better than the screenshot would tell. But could be better indeed. Unfortunally this was the best i could find (a 300DPI scan of the boxart).

Perhaps some colour tuning might make it look a bit better, ill try that

[tk375]

Yes Miguel! I remember playing this game at the arcades and it would to eat my quarters the bastard heehehe, but I remember loving it! tune up the colors and it's gonna look great! I like it a lot!

thanks for bringing those memories back!

[miguelsluma]

hehe, good to hear i can at least make one other person besides myself happy with this theme ;)
Somehow everybody allways wants to play this game with me, really addictive.

made a slight colour adjustment, ill upload for approval now..

[BadBoyBill]

The colors on this theme are definitely washed out and it could use a 2 pixel smart blur to clean up the artifacts also, would look much cleaner. I sugest adjusting the levels and using the smartblur.

Also the video looks kinda cramed int e corner like that. I'd move it out from behind that free play artwork and move it up and to the right.

[tk375]

I remember playing this game with my cousin, we always had a blast with this one and NBA JAM. VBall was a great multiplayer. Hopefully you will have it done soon. I would make me happy

[miguelsluma]

that smartblur is pretty amazing for some easy-road quality upgrading, thanks bill!
adjusted the levels a bit and the video placing.
Ill reupload if everyone is happy with the changes.

[BadBoyBill]

Its starting to look better, try doing this... image -> adjustments ->selective color -> select black from the drop down menu -> move the bottom silder (black) over to the right about 10 - 20.

[miguelsluma]

i think it made the palm trees in the back come out a bit better.

also took the liberty of reducing the reds a bit, think it looks a bit more natural.

any more online photoshop help is allways welcome ;) . Lots of features which i didnt even know existed.

[BadBoyBill]

Ok the image is still very washed out, heres what you can try. Dont try to use contrast that much to fix an image, thats the reason alot of crappy boxart is floating around the net. People try over and over to adjust it that way.

The thing I just showed you works good for getting blacks better, but one good way to get all the colors to do the same thing is to do this.

Setting -> Adjustments - Curves

You will see the panel below. The bottom of the curve controls the darks and the top of the curve controls the brights. You can get your darks darker and your brights brighter this way.

The left side of the line will make brighter and the right side dark, so a good "S" curve can help.

Grab an area on the line towards the bottom and move it slightly down. This will make all your colors come out better on a washed out images. But moving that down can make your lighter colors go a little darker, so you can counteract it by taking a top part of the curve and moving it slighly up.

For you pic Im guessing a curve like below will help.

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/examples/photoshop/curves.jpg

But for your blacks the first option I gave you works the best in my opinion, without affecting other colors, but in this case your whole picture needs help.

Also the picture even after your adjustment still doesnt really have true blacks in it, they still looked kinda dark greyish.

I usually use a combo of both of these adjustments on an images amongst other things.

[BadBoyBill]

I took your screenshot and ran some adjustments to give you and idea about what I think it should look like.

BEFORE:

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/examples/photoshop/volleyball_old.jpg


AFTER:
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/examples/photoshop/volleyball.jpg

[miguelsluma]

thanks! (thanks given)
Great advice for any future themes.
Came pretty close to your after result, ill upload the theme.

[hollywood]

approved