Photoshop Cleanups of Fighting Fantasy covers

[Gambit37]

Here's some PhotoShop cleanups I've done of 2 gamebook covers, thought I'd share them. They're not perfect (I got bored!), but pretty good if I say so myself

The Shamutanti Hills



The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

[beowuuf]

Wow, that's very impressive! I would assume it was the original art if you had said nothing more!

[ChristopheF]

Agreed, very impressive! This looks like magic to me.
How much work does this represent? and what is your purpose?

[Trantor]

Wow, impressive! I think the German books do look different, though I haven't seen those particular two in German...

[Gambit37]

@Christophe: I just wanted to see if it was possible to rebuild each cover convincingly. And also to get the original artwork which I've always loved. I didn't time how long it took but probably somewhere between 8-16 hours for each one.
@Trantor: I don't know the German covers, but these are the original first edition USA cover (Shamutanti) and UK cover (Warlock).

The techniques I used are varied, but it's mainly vast amounts of cloning of tiny parts of the visible background to paint out the text and the blemishes. Some parts of other images were also used, for example on Warlock, I copied a different corner from another version of the book that doesn't have the black triangle on it.

[cowsmanaut]

nice!

the top one still has that stubborn line in the middle (I know .. damn my picky eyes) it's most visible in the blue channel so that's where I'd go about repairing it. .. if you're so inclined. getting rid of the spines from that is a huge challenge, one where i think I would just end up repainting most of it myself.. I used to try to rid myself of watermarks for background images or stuff i wanted to use as textures... and still don't know how I found the patience

[cowsmanaut]

sent a new version to your gmail played for a few mins using saturation layers and mask painting adjustment layers (mainly levels)

[Bit]

Very good work Gambit!

[Gambit37]

@Cows: I got your fixed image. Nice work. You did the bit I got bored with Did you work over the top in layers, or by working directly on the channels?

[Sophia]

These look really good.

I love the clone brush (or whatever it's called in Photoshop, I use PSP), it makes all sorts of awesomeness possible.

[cowsmanaut]

I attacked it in channels first, then went back over top in the layers. Some things were immediately seen in channels that I could only get an idea of in the full colour image, and other things were more obvious in the coloured.. so that's why I went both directions. I've been teaching this kind of stuff lately, so I took it on as a bit of practice

Sophia, the heal tool is way better in photoshop.. you can use it like the clone stamp tool, but it colour matches even if the source is not the same. This helps blend new detail into photos where things may have been destroyed or gone blurry and you wanted to replace it from other photo sources.

[linflas]

thanks Gambit, i now have a new background for my android device
i've forwarded this thread link to my FF forum as well

[Gambit37]

Cheers Linflas.

@Cows: I found on this that the healing brush was actually more of a problem due to the very tiny tolerances with the wmount of space I had between letters to remove. If that makes sense.

Here's the corrected version of Shamutanti that Cows supplied:


He cleaned up the area around the spine that I got bored with; it's less obvious now (easily seen if you open each image in a browser tab and swap between them).

[Gambit37]

I used to try to rid myself of watermarks for background images or stuff i wanted to use as textures... and still don't know how I found the patience

I only just realised what you're saying here... you cheap so and so! If you worked out how long it took you to do that, I'm sure you'd see that actually buying the image is ultimately a better time investment

[cowsmanaut]

I did it because first of all, the resolution of it was usually poor anyway, I didn't have money, I wasn't using them for commercial products, and it was good practice..

Also. the healing brush I use to add new elements to photos, I didn't use it fixing this.. (which I can still see the line through the castle and sky a bit.. argh!) Say, adding a scar to someones face from another photo of a scar with different lighting etc.. it's quite useful in that way. However if you're working in a tight area, you need to be sure you have a hard small brush size and work as well as I can. If it still flakes out,, it's time to get creative

[ian_scho]

These are really good - thanks for sharing them with us. I REMEMBER these books, and they were a great spark of imagination in my formative years.

p.s. Publish them in another forum? I'm sure that others would love to see these.

[linflas]

Ok, I *had to* put a screenshot of my mobile device so here it is

[Gambit37]

Nice

[Stingm]

Hey those are awesome! I too read those years ago and still have a bunch including the Sorcery series. I think your Fighting Fantasy forum is great too linflas, only I can't read french unfortunately. I hope you do a lot more dungeons based on the series as well.

[Balthus]

Ha. I stole my pseudonym from the Fighting Fantasy series, Lord Balthus Dire of Craggen Rock. Been using it ever since Citadel Of Chaos.
Deathtrap Dungeon, Trial Of Champions, Forest Of Doom and City Of Thieves were, in my opinion, the best books they ever written for that series.

[linflas]

Talking about that, there's a mini-gamebook (50 sections) having place in Allansia where YOU incarnate Hissssa, a shapechanger from the island of Makan.
It's written in french but maybe you can try to paste text into some online translator... https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?ci ... 6k17UCldOI
There are several possible endings by the way and I'm not the author

[beowuuf]

Don't forget Creature of Chaos! Some interesting merchanics, and quite a deep story happening in the background.

[Gambit37]

Um, that'll be "Creature of Havoc", a play on "creature of habit." Tut, tut, your memory is getting bad, Be.... uh...., who was speaking again?

[linflas]

Unfortunately, I never read that brilliant gamebook by Steve Jackson (in french, "La Créature venue du Chaos"). Of course, that Hissssa story is just a fan-made novel but quite well written.

I'm collecting good old books at the moment on Ebay or PriceMinister (most of them cost only 1 to 5 EUR). My collection is growing slowly : all 4 Sorcery, all 6 Way of the Tiger, 3 Golden Dragon, 30 FF, 15 LW.

[Balthus]

Way of the tiger? Was that the series about a ninja/samurai, i think, and some sort of green gem? A portal that led to earth?

[linflas]

Yes, playing a Ninja (becoming a king !) in a classic fantasy world was definitely original. I loved fights in those gamebooks because Mr. Ninja had special abilities (throwing shurikens, various kicks and punches, falling techniques).
Of course, I remember a portal leading to Earth ! It's in "Talisman of Death", written by the same authors before Way of the Tiger. But it's the same fantasy world : Orb.
Maybe the Talisman has a green gem.. I thought it was red... Don't remember

[Balthus]

I remember reading the way of the tiger series, I just don't remember much from it. What, with me aging and all that.

[Gambit37]

I did a new cover cleanup, "Demons of the Deep", one of my favourite FF covers from back in the day.
It's not perfect, but good enough. The hardest bit was the double "EE" over the water bubbles...

Original resolution JPG available if anyone wants it (2567 x 3899)

EDIT: Wow, I just found a small version of the original on the artist's site. Much clearer version, however I'm pleased to see I did a decent job on the bubbles!
http://www.lesedwards.com/galleries/vin ... -deep/1450

One can buy a print of it, or even the original!!!! Stuff like this blows my nostalgic mind....

[linflas]

very nice colour-ish one !

[ian_scho]

Don't remember having seen this one... Great work!