cweber54

Thanks a million welshblue, this is exactly what I needed. I'll get it done for sure. This is great, Thanks! I tried it and everything worked just great. I didn't get the adding of the white blur so if you can walk me through that step I would appreciate it. Everything else came back to me so great. Really appreciate your help. I'm getting the hang of it https://photos.app.goo.gl/KHyemg1sbJtKDM3v5

Thanks for the info. I'm having trouble with Photobucket right now, not able to upload pictures for some reason. I used a link from Google Photos and added it to my post. That seems to work fine so I'll stick with that. Still hope someone offers a few ideas regarding making a clean invert with the crystal ball. I have most figured out but I want to clean up the edges of the ball. Hoping for a little tutorial help. Thanks again for your reply!

Hello, I'm just returning to PDN. Glad to be back! I need some help finding a good way to invert the ball in my crystal ball photos. This was one attempt but I;m sure there is a better way. If anyone can recommend a tutorial that will help that would be just great! As you know with crystal ball photos the image is upside down. It looks OK that way and you can invert the whole photo but sometimes it works better to just invert the ball. Again, thanks for all and any advice. I'm looking forward to it! I didn't realize we can now attach a file to these posts! Hooray, this is awesome! The photobucket didn't seem to work anyway? The picture I was working on is attached. Looking forward to a great tutorial or plugin advice to get me reacquainted with PDN and to make my crystal ball pictures look much better! Can't wait, thanks so much! Update: I seem to be having trouble with Photobucket. I can't upload the crystal ball photo. I was advised to use photobucket so I took photo off this post. Sorry I can't seem to be able to show it but I still would appreciate help with a clean way to invert the crystal ball in photos. Thanks!! Try this Google Photo link and I think you'll be able to see the picture. https://photos.app.goo.gl/kz5bAxKs9gkMTzYw6

Thanks so much! Great to be back! Looking forward to trying some new things soon!

Great to be back and thanks!!! Great to be back and thanks so much!!

Hi Red ochre! Yes, I'm still playing jazz, doing close-up magic and juggling as well. Been playing my Didgeridoo too! Hahahaha, lots of fun in retirement from teaching. Lately I've been playing in two local musical productions, "Guys and Dolls" and "Wonderful Town" bot fun and a real challenge! Tomorrow I'll be going to New York City to see a former student of mine who is playing drums and leading the band on a new Broadway show called "Tappin' Thru Life" staring Maurice Hines. I'm really looking forward to it. As soon as the shows I'm playing are over I'm heading into some of the local elementary schools to demonstrate the Didgeridoo for several music classes then later in the spring I head all over NY state to judge All-State Jazz auditions. Keeping busy and enjoying it. Practicing my trumpet, my close-up card and coin magic and a little juggling everyday. Hope you're doing well and thanks so much for your help and inspiration here on pdn. I don't know how you do it but keep on doing it!! I appreciate all that you do, great to hear from you!

After a long time away I'm happy to be back on PDN. I have to do lots of relearning but I have at least started! Hooray! Yesterday I did some juggling practice and really was using my head! Whoops, dropped one, I should have stuck with just three! Any comments, advice is always appreciated. Thanks!

Having trouble installing Custom Brushes. Do I use the Custom Brushes Plugin by Brown? If so where and how do I install it? I tried pasting the dll file into the smudge brushes and the effects folder but it didn't seem to work. If anyone could give me a little help I would appreciate it. Thanks!

I really like this tutorial! Here I used a picture I took last summer of mushrooms in an outdoor market in Chinatown, New York City. It turned out to be perfect for this tutorial! I like the big chunks. Thanks again for this tutorial, it's a winner.

Great job Daniels! I like the shading and the stars are awesome. How do you get those great stars in your background. Check out my attempts (post #9) if you would and I'm always open to suggestions. Thanks, cweber54

Thanks MikeRobe. I'll have another go at it tomorrow. Looking forward to trying your ideas. I want to add colors for sure and I'll get the hang of the cloud thing. I'm sure it will be awesome and thanks again for the reply. Here's another take with some added colors and glow. I'm getting the idea and I'll keep at it. Thanks! Another take on your tutorial I tried today. I like to think I'm improving. Looks better every time! This time I went a little easier on all the colors and went without the object outline on the land and added some smudge when I first colored in the land. I was after a kind of sand bar/beaches effect. It's looking way less cartoon-like and lots more realistic then my first attempts. Next time I want to do more with the ocean and try to get some aqua blue lagoon effects going. It's been a fun learning process.

This is an excellent tutorial and I enjoyed learning from it. I had a little trouble with the clouds when I first made them. When I used dents the clouds extended beyond the planet and didn't curve around the planet. I also didn't go to overlay on the land and ocean variation layers because for some reason when I did it took the shading away? I was wondering if you could tell me what I might have done wrong. I want to keep at this tutorial and improve on what I've learned and get it better. Next time I want to add some tan (beach) outline to some of the land mass. I think that would make it look even better. Thanks for any input and suggestions and thanks for sharing this great tutorial.

I really learned a great deal from this tutorial. Enjoyed it very much. Here's something I had some fun making. I call it Planet Oatmeal because I used a picture I took of boiling oatmeal to make the planet template. Added some color and the rest was learning your method of adding the glows and the gradient. Awesome tutorial, I'll keep working on it. Thanks!