Decrepifying a Beautiful house

[xyzygy]

I have this small assignment to do for school which requires me to make a really beautiful house look old and decrepit. The problem i'm having with the assignment is that there are lively trees and flowers everywhere in the picture... i'm not really sure how i would actually make them dead. what tools do you suggest i use for this?

the picture of the house is here:

http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/report/S ... %20Inn.jpg

this isn't the exact picture, but it is from the same angle. the only real difference is that you can see the fence in my picture. so yeah, i'm just wondering what tools i should use. i already have ideas for what to actually do, i just don't know how to do them. also, how would i make the sky dark and basically make a darker atmosphere? thanks!

[dflynn]

cut out the house and land and put them on a new layer then put a new sky tone underneath it. I'd suggest something along the greys and puke greens.

As for making the flowers seem less lively, experiment. Maybe burning the pedals or changing the colour to browns and such to "kill" them. try using effects that make the pedals look like they've curled up if you have time.

On the house try making the paint look like it's peeling, shingles have fallen off. broken windows or boarded up windows. etc.
Then follow it off by essentially makign everything look realy grungy and dark.

[xyzygy]

ok that sounds pretty cool, thanks a lot man! anyone else have suggestions?

[Tomi]

Jeez that's a small picture, that's all you have to work with? No high res?

[xyzygy]

actually, thats not the real picture. i couldnt find the one that my instructor gave us, but it's not in any google search... but the picture on here is taken from the exact same angle so the features are pretty much the same - just to give you guys an idea.

[jerryb]

hi,
like dflynn mentioned your going to need to put things on alot of seperate layers.....
my ideas....
1. the yard, it too manuicured,,
a. make the grass dull and spotty and a lot of brown,,, put in lots high weeds and grasses... both green and dead!!
b. the flowers, kill most of them only leave a few in bloom and then it out, the bushes...
look at this link the grasses and bushes... and also notice the roof.. how bad it looks
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcmorr/684054282/
c. parts of the bushes should be dead and lengthen the some of the branches where it looks raggedy...!!!
and have dead vines around the pourch area somethinglike this link...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishsette ... 363219911/

this length sort of refects how uncarefor bushes may look and also refelcts what dflynn mentioned as far as the paint on the house and what to do about it....!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcmorr/996971112/

d. on the purch right beneath the edge of the purch put in spots of green or black algea....
e. the steps..... get rid of most of that red.... have it really patch up with bare cement also put in streaks like dirty brown or black when you get run off from the roof and such...

f. the white chairs.. either get rid of them or make them look old.. get rid of the white and replace old wood appearance with some broken or missing slats....

well those are some of ideas.... for inspirations.. do a image search for old homes or decrepit homes, etc...... not only idea but something you may be able copy and paste into your project!!!!

I have this small assignment to do for school which requires me to make a really beautiful house look old and decrepit. The problem i'm having with the assignment is that there are lively trees and flowers everywhere in the picture... i'm not really sure how i would actually make them dead. what tools do you suggest i use for this?

the picture of the house is here:

http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/report/S ... %20Inn.jpg

this isn't the exact picture, but it is from the same angle. the only real difference is that you can see the fence in my picture. so yeah, i'm just wondering what tools i should use. i already have ideas for what to actually do, i just don't know how to do them. also, how would i make the sky dark and basically make a darker atmosphere? thanks!

[Tomi]

I haven't really made a valuable post in a while so here goes.

There is one main technique you want to be using when doing this and it's the use of blending modes. The first step to creating your image will be to collect a range of grungy textures of the internet. For this example I'll just use one that I like the look of:

http://fc33.deviantart.com/fs30/f/2008/ ... ckdumb.jpg

To start, I would remove the brightness from that texture using the brightness/contrast feature. I would also do the same for the original image.



Ok, so there you can see I slightly darkened the image and made the sky black and white.



Here you can see I selected the house, applied the texture with a Multiply blend mode then gently erased the edges near the wall/grass... Then I made the rest of the picture b/w to add to the ambiance.

Basically, you put a grungy texture on top of your image, set the blend mode to multiply then erase the unwanted edges to fit your image. Remember to have your eraser tool set with 0% hardness!

This was a very quick job just to demonstrate the technique. I applied one texture to the entire house, you could add lots of textures to different parts of the house for a nicer effect. Don't forget you can also layer the texture layers for more detailed/unique textures...

[xyzygy]

wow, thanks guys so much. this was all really helpful!

[dflynn]

lol, Tomi, I think you went a little overkill. You went from making the house look Decrepit to making it look like a haunted house of the underworld Good job though.

[Tomi]

Haha lol, the technique can still be applied with less opacity for a more subtle effect