More Montage Madness.....

Ok... by now most of you are going to think this guy is NQR, but I already know that While its fun been able to clearly visualise what an oud is going to look like, it makes it very vey hard to settle on something. So each time I think I've nailed an oud and its locked in; more possibilites come up. But thats also the beauty of it! However I can feel that I'm getting closer. I want my next oud to be a Shehata, but I seem to be having most trouble deciding between a Nahatish kinda look, or the more classic Shehata look like the one Abady is playing below...

Hi Melbourne- those are really nice montages you've put together for your future M.Shehata oud! I'm waiting on one myself so I know the feeling of this stage of the game! They all look great, you'll have a tough time deciding! On my oud I was trying to decide on a short or long fingerboard, but decided for the longer fingerboard to the soundhole after some good feedback on the benifits of the longer fingerboard, that it may help prevent any warping, and if you find yourself playing in the upper register it may be useful. I guess it depends on how many ouds you have, both with short and long fingerboards...but if this is going to be your main oud then see what others have to say on this topic as well and then go for it mate. good luck with whatever you decide.

Thanks for the nice comments guys.

Jameel - I imagine it would be a great tool for you to be able to visualise an oud before it is built. And yes, these have all been done in photoshop, mostly anyway. The main palette, is a whole heap of high resolution images of wood grains, and its heaps of googling trying to find a good resolution strip of spruce, or rosewood or ebony!! However the main part of the images is the line work, if you look close at the images evey thing is drawn in autocad. The autocad files are then printed using PDF writer, and then they are opened up in photoshop again in high rez. Because the PDF file is high in resolution you can select the most minute of detail using the "magic wand" tool and applying a finish to it, ie wood grain etc - you are simpy selecting an area of line work, the raqma for example, applying the selection to the wood grain image, and subtracting away anything beyond the selection - if that makes any sense It would if you are familiar with photoshop.
I can try emailing you a photoshop file of one of these montages in progress, and it will allow you to see all the different layers that make up such image. But the more time consuming part is drawing the oud "elevations" in autocad. Actually, its better if I email you the PDF file of the linework, and if you are familiar with photoshop, then you can see that's its a simple fun thing to do.

And I would be more than happy to draw something up for you - just send me an image of the oud you want drawn - preferably a straight on shot without perspectival distortion, that way I can trace around the shape in autocad