Attached Link: http://thibs.menloschool.org/~Fanmail3D/escher.jpg

Well, I have been working on the positions of the hands for DAYS! Man, I never knew how hard it is to match a 3D hand with a 2D hand. Well, now I finished the hands, but now I don't really know how to blend the hand in with the image. I tried blurring (above) but it doesn't look right. Any suggestions/comments? Thanx in advance -Adam

Well, seems to me your doinf quite well already?? Nice!! However, I know what you mean. What I would do in this case is use the cloning tool and kind of clone my way around the areas where the hands are attached to the 2D image. It should appear as if the hands are actually "growing" out from the image so if you mix the 2D pixels with the 3D pixels you well get that result. You may also wish to use good old pixel by pixel rendering, (I know this can take a long time, phew) but this will give you a nicer end result. Then if you need to, use the blur mildly afterwards. Hope this helps?? ;-)

I don't know exactly what u'r tying to blend, but if it's the beggining of the hands and the shirt. You can do this, if u have two separate layer, one for the hands and the other layer for the 2D drawing go to; layer-Add layermask-Reveal all. You should have a layer mask now. Make sure u'r background and foreground color are at white and black. Now make a selections that u want to be blended in such as from the wrist of the hand to part of the shirt etc, it doesn't have to be perfect selection. Now use the gradient across your selection, and it should blend it in very nice. You can do it separetly for each hand. If u want to adjust the blending go to the options for the gradient, where the navigator bar is, and adjust the level of the gradient. This blending mode using layer masks works as it takes what ever is white as the part with the highest opacity, and as it get darker it decreases the opacity, and eventually black will be completely transparent. That is why using the gradient u get an even blend and adjustable however u want it too be. You can also use any painting tool and using black will make it trans parent, and using white will make make it more opaque. Hope that I helped u with your problem. ~HaRoLd~

Adam: HaRoLd's advise sounds good to me. I have one other suggestions for you though... If you have a scanner, lay the back of your hand on the glass and scan it, then use that as a texture for the two hands. Turn it into a bump map for the blood veins, too. Oh, the bend of the wrist joint doesn't look right on the upper hand, either. The rubber stamp tool should fix that easily. -Jim

The little finger and ring finger on the left hand look awfully stiff. Trying to duplicate that pose with my own hand, it's a really unnatural pose, but makes sense if the hand is stretching around in an effort to reach the sleave of the other arm like that. I think, in that case, the fingertips of those two fingers would have some backward bend from being pressed hard against the paper. Interesting problem, I think I understand that your intent is to create an Escher-type effect, in which case what you really want is a dimensional transition, 2D to 3D, that confuses the eye. I've never tried anything like that, but my guess is that you need to carry the 2D pencil outline of the arm up to the bend of the wrist, gradually transitioning the shading from a light pencil shading near the edge of the sleeve cuff, showing the paper grain, to a full skin texture at the wrist. I think your shadows ought to trasition from an obvious paper grain to realistic shadows where you want the image to appear 3D. This will be quite a trick to pull off, and my hat's off to you if you can manage it! Gromit

thanx guys! I posted my new image, so check it out and tell me what you think. The bottom hand's little finger looks like that on the original Escher drawing, and I am trying to copy the image exactly, so I will see if I want to change it or not. Thanx again everybody! -Adam