Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Kia Picanto Veloce: 5-Minute Chop


C H O P — Autoblog.com just posted this newly redesigned Kia Picanto, a tiny 3- and 5-door hatchback not for sale in the US. I immediately knew that I wanted to see it with black door frames and B pillar, a black roof, silver side skirts and of course, suicide doors. I've named this version the Veloce, as it would be a higher-powered, faster version of the basic Picanto. For the original photo and Autoblog's write up, click here.

14 comments:

  1. I like it! You and your suicide doors, now when I see a movie where the car has them I always think, oh there is Casey's favorite doors.

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  2. Very nice, Casey.
    Dramatic and clean.

    AP

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  3. Thanks AP. This was a really fast idea. When I saw the original, I just had to see with "better" trim elements, and I wanted to post it back to Autoblog as fast as I could. I have a long list of chops I want to do, and this one was just a complete spur of the moment.

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  4. It's very lively ,Casey.

    I don't know how you do the things you do with Photoshop, but if you ever start selling tutorials on line, I'd sign right up !


    AP

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  5. thanks, AP. I've taught Photoshop in person, but I think it would be too unwieldy to do it remotely. It's all about making selections and modifying them. Also it's useful to go through each option in the pull-down menus and layer palettes and see what they do and how they work on your selection.

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  6. Well, this little Veloce is seamless . Perfect. I guess I will have to trust that time and usage will show me how to make things like your "silver side skirts."

    I've taught myself the Logic Pro program for making music. I did this by reading the #@$!@ manual an hour a day until I was done. Later,I paid for on-line tutorials . Worth every penny ! It was amazing to watch masters at work . I learned so much.So quickly. Get confused? Rewind the lesson and start again. Fun!


    Oh well, back to the Photoshop basics for me! I am trying to remember that old Haiku about the snail climbing Mt. Fuji "but slowly! Slowly!"

    AP

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  7. There are tutorials for programs like Photoshop available. I think you buy a membership and then get the disks, or do them online, called something like Linda.com.

    The silver sideskirts are very easy. I didn't change the shape from the painted versions on the production car Autoblog showed. I just made a selection around them, drew an outline around them in other words, then I Desaturated the 100% and then played a bit with the highlights and shadows. The little "starburst" is just one of the brushes in the extras folder. The same with the black roof. I made a selection of the area, desaturated it and this time played around with the highlights and shadows to darken it. I excluded most of the sunroof as that was glass and would retain its sheen.

    The grille was made larger by again, making a selection of it, by drawing around it. Then I feathered it slightly, which makes the selection "softer" so you don't get those jaggy pixelated edges, then you transform it to the size you want and move it around until it looks right. When you enlarge items like that, in perspective plan, you sometimes have to play around with the "skew" feature or "perspective" feature so that the angles stay true.

    Also, make sure your "history" states are set as high as you can, I think mine is set at 1000. That means I can go back step-by-step and get to any point I've done in the past. You can also "paint in the past" at any opacity, by using the "art history brush" and that's a boon to get back to the original image in places after you've made your changes. It helps with the realism a bit.

    Again, it's much easier to see me do these things when I'm showing someone in person!

    Time for coffee, good morning!

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  8. Your mini tutorial is very interesting -- for the first time I understand a bit about what you do when you create the chops. This Kia is adorable! I think Kia is on a roll these days, style-wise. I like the Kia Soul -- very easy to enter/exit, very roomy, certainly distinctive and even has some interesting interior treatments. I also like the Forte Coupe. I haven't seen the new Optima in person but the pictures look good and last night I saw an ad on TV with lots of footage of it in motion and it looked pretty nice.

    Paul, NYC

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  9. Kia has the great designer Peter Schreyer behind it now. He's been there for about 5 years I believe, but his clean-sheet designs have just been showing up recently.

    As to what I do in Photoshop, I'm much like the Wizard of Oz, lol. If you could peek behind the curtain, there's not much magic to be seen!

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  10. Thanks, Casey.
    That is very helpful Thanks, too, for the link.


    AP

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  11. Casey,

    love your signature door handles on this one and the black roof makes it looks very Italian to me.

    What do you think of the small grille?

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  12. i wish this is real....so i'll buy it right now...

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