These Are a Few Of My Favourite Dims

This is a Self Indulgent Post

Watchmaker has lots going for it - a complex, yet easy to use app, great and helpful community, great designers that share their work, a dedicated website in the form of WatchAwear.com
But after all this I love a good dim, and have learned so much through the desire to make a good lume

So as usual and in no particular order here are some of my favourite watches that have I have given the Bowmore dim treatment

1.
Speake-Marin London Chronograph Special Edition for Harrods by +Ram Mor

A request came to me for a dim/lume of this truely stunning creation by Ram. Its a lovely watch and I did not want to mess it up. Ram draws his watches fresh in Photo-Shop which means that one has a very few layers to work with, and my approach to the dim was different from my usual method.

Using an app called ERASER, which as the title suggests allows parts of images to be erased, I erased the hour marker numerals from the main face plate image, leaving a .png image with gaps where the numbers were.

Then in the watchmaker app I added this new image on the top of the original face plate image, ensuring they were the same size, gave it a darker colour and set to dim only.

Between these two layers I added a round shape 100% opacity, increased to 520x520 and turned it green, set to dim only
On top of this I added a smaller shape, red in colour to show under the number 12, set to dim only

For the hands I used one of Rams layers that had a nice white blurry texture, copied them, moved them to the top layer, changed the colour to blue and set to dim only

After adding some code so the user can choose when the watch dims I was satisfied, and I have to say very proud

Without great artists like +Ram Mor, The WatchMaker community would be a poorer place

Thank you RAM

Download it from WatchAwear



2.
GRAHAM Overlord MarkIII by +Dimitar Simitchiev




Another request came through for this lovely Graham

Still using the Eraser app, but this time erasing everything and leaving the highlights which I laid on top of the face and hands - a round shape with 60% opacity was added under these new layers

And added the dim choice so the user can have Auto dim, Normal dim or no dim at all

The end result, even though I say so myself, is very impressive

It's available at WatchAwear


3.
Tag Monaco by +Robert Pope 
One of my first attempts at dim, I have often gone back to this and updated with improvements as I've learned new tricks - probably because I think it's such a stunning watch in the first place.

So far it incorporates everything I've learnt - I think.
Shapes and layers as I've discussed before, the eraser app and this version has glow effect added to the dim.

Using the eraser app I erase everything except the hour markers, Then open the image in a picture editing app recommended to me by +Cyrille LE RAY - image editor get it here. Make the markers as white or light grey as possible using colour, hue or brightness as desired and then using the focus tab add a Gaussian blur. Save and add it to the watch, ensuring it is the same size and lines up with the original hour markers -  then tint it to the desired colour

Get it from WatchAwear






4.
INVICTA STINGRAY by +Mark Askey

Have a look at Marks work here

Just like me, Mark seams to have grown a designer as I have grown as a dimmer.

One of the first watches he asked me to work on was this motivational one requested for a chap celebrating one year dry, the result and the kind words this person had blew me away - I never knew our little hobby could help someone so much.



Since then I have been  privileged to work with Mark many times, usually on INVICTAS like this one

These complex watches with many layers have helped me perfect my dims

Muchas Gracias Amigo




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