Alright folks, let me walk you through my “inside out fritz” adventure. It was a bit of a wild ride, but hey, that’s how we learn, right?
So, it all started when I stumbled upon this cool effect online – basically, making something look like it’s popping out of a screen, but in a kinda glitchy, retro way. Looked like a fun challenge, so I decided to give it a shot.
First thing I did was grab a reference image. I chose a picture of Fritz the Cat (hence the name, duh!). I fired up my trusty image editor (Photoshop, in my case), and the real work began.
The core idea is to duplicate the image, then mess with the duplicated layer. I started by selecting Fritz out of the background. It wasn’t perfect, I kinda just winged it with the lasso tool. Good enough for rock and roll, right?
Once I had Fritz isolated, I duplicated that layer. This is where the “inside out” part comes in. I wanted to make it look like parts of Fritz were escaping the screen.
Next, I started slicing and dicing the top Fritz layer. Think of it like using the eraser tool with different shapes. I created these jagged, pixelated edges, especially around the parts I wanted to “pop out” – his head, an arm, that mischievous grin. The trick is to make it look kinda broken, like the pixels are glitching.
Then came the fun part: adding the “depth.” I offset the broken pieces of the top Fritz layer. Moved them slightly, just a few pixels, in different directions. This gave the illusion that those parts were actually protruding out of the screen. I also played with the color a little, making some of the offset pieces brighter or darker to enhance the effect.
To sell the effect even more, I added a subtle shadow underneath the “popped out” parts. Just a soft, dark brushstroke to ground them and make them feel more three-dimensional.
The background needed some love too. I blurred it slightly to keep the focus on Fritz. Then, I added some scanlines and a little bit of noise to give it that retro, CRT monitor vibe. You know, that old-school computer screen look.
It took some fiddling, moving layers around, adjusting colors, and adding those little glitchy details, but eventually, I got something I was pretty happy with.
Was it perfect? Nah. Could it have been better? Absolutely. But that’s the beauty of these little projects – you learn as you go. And honestly, it was a blast to create. So yeah, that’s my “inside out fritz” story. Give it a try yourself sometime! You might be surprised at what you can come up with.
