Hey there
I thought about explaining a little bit how my edits work by using this upcoming remake of one of my old no-background edits.
It’s obviously not finished, I’ll post the final result somewhere before Valentine day
Let’s start with the basic: find the right face for the right card. So what I normally do is find a random card I like, look at it, and think " who would fit on that ". I think about two things here. First, the colours. Most characters are having colours that match them more than others. For example, Ran is fitting really well on cards that are with warmer tones. Second, the overall "energy" of the card. Is it more of a cute pose, cool pose, sexy pose, etc. I then try to find a card of the girl I choose that fits the orientation of the original card’s head. That’s where most of my projects ended, when I couldn’t find any.
I found a nice head to fit the card. Yay! I place it by making it bigger/smaller, swap from left to right and erasing whatever is not needed. In most card, including this one, the placing of the head would be done. However, in some cards, I have to redraw additional hair as it is cut by shoulders or other objects. It was the case with my first Pareo edit, where I had to move and redraw a little one of her pigtail. I also have to make sure, like in this card, that there is some hair that stays behind translucide parts of the card (here, the chocolate bag and hat later).
Now we place accessories! Most of the time, it’s just a hat like in this one. I add shadows to the border so it feels more natural. Sometimes there’s also earrings to add. In more " extreme " cases like Valentine Pareo, I’ll have to change the colours of existing accessories. Pareo’s bow was originally blue on the Pareo card, but I did my best to redraw it red.
Now the most fun part: " filters ". I say filter, but I actually just apply different shades of colours to make the new face fit with the card. It’s already mostly done on this card. I added some pink to Ran’s red hair, some pink tone to her eyes and changed the shadows to match Chisato’s. Sometimes I also have to change the skin tone.
And there we go with the long and harsh job of erasing everything that doesn’t belong in the card anymore aka the hair. Sometimes it’s easier than others, depending on how thick the hair parts are and what background is behind. I am currently doing it on this card, as you can see. It’s quite messy, but I’m working with the right pigtail. It's simple but very long... I have to redraw the background and sometimes imagine what it can possibly look like.
When this’ll be done, I’ll do some last edit things (more filters, redrawing some things, etc.) and it’s done! I try to make sure I didn’t forget something on the way, which is most of the time the case, and I don’t see it before posting and then I see it and try to go as fast as possible to correct it and change the image…
That’s about what the process looks like… an edit can take 3 to 5 hours (most of the time more when I’m slow, which is… a lot of the time that’s why I listen to music while doing it) depending on the card and, especially, amount of erasing to do.
Hope you liked that and that you'll like this edit when it'll be done!
