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Today I will show you how to make psychedelic planets. I've been making a bunch of art based on these recently and I think I've got the technique down. Plugins Required A. Self-Negation (it looks like the post got removed so get it here: Self-Negation.zip) B. Shape 3D C. Glow Steps 1. I like to start with a black layer of stars just so I can get the feel of the outcome. 2. Pick two colors about 1/4 around the color wheel from each other. I like using blue and pink most of the time, but this time I'm using orange and green. 3. Create a diagonal gradient of the two colors. I like working with a 3200x2400 canvas, but you'll have your own preferences. 4. Add some mild dents. In this case you want something barely visible, just enough to add a little texture. I usually do a high scale, low refraction and medium roughness. 5. Use my nice Self-Negation plugin set to 2 repetitions to get a nice blend of textured color. 6. Run a twist at maximum Size settings (I leave the amount at the default here). 7. Run a Shape 3D. Go ahead and set the ambient lighting up to something more visible (0.45 is what I use). 8. Use the "Object Rotation" settings to align the twist at a good spot. The controls aren't exactly intuitive here, and you don't want the clamped part of the image to show (where all the points come together basically, you'll see what I mean). 9. Lastly, set the anti-alias of the shape 3D to 5 (you don't want any nasty jagged edges showing up at later points). Go ahead and render the Shape 3D. 10. Zoom into whatever the 100% is (as I said I tend to run with larger canvases). 11. Duplicate the layer, set the top layer to "Lighten". 12. Run a gaussian blur on the top layer so there's just a slight halo around the planet. 13. Merge these layers down. 14. Duplicate the planet, set the top layer to lighten again and run Zoom blur. 15. Shift the hue of the top layer slightly (not too much, or you'll run into granularity issues later!). Don't worry if it seems to ruin the colors (it won't usually, but sometimes), your goal is just to add some extra color and texture into the mix. 16. Merge the top layer down. 17. *now* use Hue/Saturation to make a more interesting color set. 18. Repeat steps 11-13 (new layer, lighten, gaussian blur, merge). 19. Do #18 again, except instead of doing a gaussian blur, do a glow. 20. Do #18 again, except on the bottom layer and at full gaussian blur settings to add a bit of an outline. You might need to feather the top layer too. Conclusion Here's my final result: Here are some samples (out of context) of other psychedelic planets I've done: I experiment a lot with the different settings. You should too!

You sure give up easily. I can think of a bunch of things to try. For example, after generating the noise with zero saturation, use Curves to adjust the blacks to gray. Or generate the dents with the colored noise, then convert to black and white. Or how about using Clouds to generate the noise? Without knowing exactly the result you're after, I can't say what would or wouldn't work. You won't get very far if you just throw up your hands because you can't find exactly what you need in one effect, but you refuse to use plugins.

This topic is in response to this post http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/30462-feature-request-hex-color-input-available-in-plugins-color-wheel/?p=420010 I've been using a custom Color Wheel on Visual Studio. When I read the post I saw there was a need to modify it to include Hex input. I asked Ego Eram Reputo,Red Ochre and Midora to have a look at it before posting and they had excellent suggestions which were incorporated into the control. Thank you all for taking time to look. Here is the control source to be incorporated in a project Namespace is Controlz: Using Controlz; The control has one event : private void colorWheelTR1_ValueChanged(object sender, Color e) One Read/Write property: colorval Three Read only properties: hue,val,sat for HSV reference The Control :ColorWheelTRControl.zip Make sure to build the control after you import the source into your project. It will then appear inthe Toolbox

Thanks for the addition to the update. Accessing blending modes from within the plugin are very useful. Since the plugin is now in the Artistic submenu an option to pick colors could be nice.

YAY - I finally got on here, but it's via a Proxy server at the moment! Thank you all for your help, especially @Redochre who has been keeping me informed. I know that @Sasha and @Barbieq still cannot connect via their normal servers, as myself. Keep up the great work chaps

Hey guy and gals, I just added a new graphic.... Mix Tape. The depth perception could use some work, but I honestly got sick of working on it.

Thank you all! I took Pixey's advice and gave a tutorial, this time of planets. I've been busy making alien worlds: Clamshell in the Sky Fields of Plenty Worlds within Worlds Morning Eclipse On the Road Home Plus a bunch more... I'd like to reorganize my gallery here and link to my full one soon..

I love this plugin! Been using it to make alien worlds...

You're welcome Seerose

I updated effect to version 1.2 again, adding the Blending mode to the interface.

Resetting the position of the Utility Windows is a manual job now I told Rick users would miss that feature!