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Almost Realistic Fluffy Clouds


Goonfella

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This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it

I recently posted this tutorial on how to make clouds on the Fans forum and it has proved to be quite popular, so I thought I would post it here too. I know there are cloud tuts already but I have not seen another one using this technique or getting this outcome so I think it complements the others rather than competes against them. I hope you enjoy it.

Only one plug in is required for this tut - Ed Harvey`s Dents which has now been incorporated into PDN, so this tut now has the added benefit of not needing any plug ins downloading :)

Anyway , lets get started.

First you will want a nice sky coloured background. I used 8cc2ff foreground and cfecfe background but you can used whichever you prefer.Then just add a linear gradient to get something like this. -

1

Next, on a new layer, you want to make a white ellipse -

2

Now use Dents to get a `jelly' look . Play around with the settings until you are happy. I used Scale - 85, Refraction 13. The rest I left at default settings. You can do it more than once if you wish using Ctrl-F. For this tut I repeated it once. You should now have something like this -

3

New layer, select the cloud using the Magic Wand and on your new layer draw a light grey line along the bottom of the cloud. I used bcbcbc for the grey in this one.

4

Deselect and use Gaussian Blur . I used 35 as the setting but it will vary from cloud to cloud. You want to end up with something like this -

5

Merge your two cloud layers.

Next it`s back to the Dents for the fluffy look . I used these settings -

6

Use a transparent gradient as to blend the cloud in . I find using a radial gradient works best and gives you more control. You should end up with a nice fluffy cloud -

7

Then just duplicate,move and use transparent gradients to blend them together like so

8

For the best effect you should repeat the tutorial a number of times with different settings to get different shaped clouds each time. After all , when did you ever see two identical clouds?

And that concludes this tutorial. Enjoy ;)

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Very good, it looks like a simple tutorial to follow.

Edited by Jyggalag

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45463d761c0a9e6d8399c364f416d7bd5g.jpg

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Nice Tutorial, but i've seen another tutorial which get allmost the same result. :)

As I said at the start of the tut, I realize that but mine is easier to do, only using one plug in(that is already part of PDN now) and also helps to get newbies used to using transparent gradients. I am wondering if I should have posted this in the Newbie Playground instead.

Mods - feel free to move it if you think so. ;)

 

 

Please feel free to visit my Gallery on PDNFans

And my Alternatives to PDN

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  • 1 month later...
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  • 4 weeks later...

Using this tut., when you create many different shaped and sized clouds on many different layers, with different transparencies and finishes such us sharpen, etc, you end up with very realistic looking clouds:

cloudsr.png

Great tutorial Goony!

Edited by ventor1
naturesig.png

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Using this tut., when you create many different shaped and sized clouds on many different layers, with different transparencies and finishes such us sharpen, etc, you end up with very realistic looking clouds:

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6456/cloudsr.png

Great tutorial Goony!

That...is amazing. One of the first pictures I've seen that I would never have known was not real if I hadn't been told. Now I gotta try it...

No, Paint.NET is not spyware...but, installing it is an IQ test. ~BoltBait

Blend modes are like the filling in your sandwich. It's the filling that can change your experience of the sandwich. ~Ego Eram Reputo

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Hi I am new to this!

and I really hard time and I do not speak English and to learn a little more use the google translator and some words are not well translated ...

I find it hard to understand some steps!

But anyway this is what I came to my

post-83474-130695008338_thumb.jpg

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  • 6 months later...

Sadly, I've lost the file that had several much better examples, but here's my first draft I used to test this technique that Goon shared here. I've added a text effect as I'd always wanted to render something like this and was happy to be able to do it without actually setting up something in a program like Blender to achieve the effect.

Same technique more or less was used for the letters. Had to add a drop shadow to keep them from blending too much was one difference and that bleeds through the letters a little. Though it appears you can get that effect with a small amount of curves use on nearly transparent edges of the lettering. I also had to use a jittering smudge in a few places as a test and to add some wisp. That's not as easy as I'd thought it would be either. ;)

Anyways ... here's my first draft of finally getting to do GF's most excellent tutorial:

th_del_cloud.png

***

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  • 2 years later...

Hey, really informative tutorial. It gave me some great insight on Dents. 

 

I know this is old, but it's one of the first tutorials available when searching with Google, and one of the only I can find that focuses on the creation of "individual" clouds. 

 

I'm a n00b and I follow it up until "Use a transparent gradient as to blend the cloud in" and get something that looks very similar to the example cloud after the Gaussian Blur. I've chosen the radial gradient, tried using transparency mode and tried matching the background gradient and making those colors partially transparent, but, no matter how I use radial gradient, I can't get anything near the last example graphics. I've looked for tutorials on transparent gradients and blending, but none of the techniques they are using get an effect like the examples. I would be very grateful if someone could point me in the right direction - Even another tutorial that explains blending with transparent gradients in the way that is necessary for this technique to work. 

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Tip:  Have your cloud on it's own layer.

 

Using the Radial Gradient :RadialGradient:, select the Transparent mode from the Tool Bar.  Click in the centre of your cloud and drag outwards.  This should progressively fade the cloud from the center out - fading the edges the most.

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Hey, really informative tutorial. It gave me some great insight on Dents.

I know this is old, but it's one of the first tutorials available when searching with Google, and one of the only I can find that focuses on the creation of "individual" clouds.

I'm a n00b and I follow it up until "Use a transparent gradient as to blend the cloud in" and get something that looks very similar to the example cloud after the Gaussian Blur. I've chosen the radial gradient, tried using transparency mode and tried matching the background gradient and making those colors partially transparent, but, no matter how I use radial gradient, I can't get anything near the last example graphics. I've looked for tutorials on transparent gradients and blending, but none of the techniques they are using get an effect like the examples. I would be very grateful if someone could point me in the right direction - Even another tutorial that explains blending with transparent gradients in the way that is necessary for this technique to work.

 

I love blending images by using a Gradient in transparency mode, but I have also found the Alpha Blur plugin to be a handy alternative. You can find the plugin here : http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/24280-alpha-blur-v2-2012-03-05/

To help with the fluffy look, you can also follow the tutorial up to the step where you fade and/or blur the edges of the cloud, and then run the dents effect again, but adjust the settings till you have something you like.

Edited by Cc4FuzzyHuggles
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I'm not sure if it works the way it should, as I sometimes get little artifacts from the plugin. However, I haven't done enough comparisons of the plugin in paint.net 3.5. vs 4.0 yet to know if it's the plugin or if it's an incompatibly thing.

 

Nonetheless, the plugin does run in 4.0 and I haven't noticed any unexpected crashes specifically from Alpha Blur. Be sure you have the latest version of the plugin though, or else I guess it does crash.

 

When I'm feeling lazy and don't want to gradient blend, Feather and Alpha Blur are the plugins I run to, haha. :lol:


By the way, Great tutorial! I've been wanting to make clouds in Paint.NET but haven't sat down to figure out how. Seeing this tutorial I'm now finally making clouds! Yay! <3

Edited by Cc4FuzzyHuggles
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