cjmcguinness

As the saying goes, "There's more than one way to skin a cat". I would like to propose that the theme for PJC#02 should be to give these rather bald looking felines a new coat (or an abundance of body art). No cats will be harmed during this competition.

I don't spend as much time around the PDN forums as I used to, but I drop in from time-to-time to see what's going on. I saw this competition and it really piqued my interest. It was unfortunate that the response, in terms of entries, was a little disappointing - but this is a great concept for a competition and I hope it continues, as I would definitely be interested in entering again. I have to confess that I didn't get round to voting before the deadline, but if I had voted it would have been for entry #3 (the camouflage one - by Skullbonz, I believe) so, morally, it probably should probably be a tie for 1st place. Anyway, thanks for the votes and if, like some other competitions on the forum, the winner gets to choose the next theme then let me know and I'll come up with something to get the PJC#02 up and running. -CJ

About 6 or 7 weeks ago I put a placeholder in my gallery stating 'Under Construction' - this was something that I though might take a few days, perhaps a week. A subway map is something I've wanted to do for a long time and I decided to go for something fictional, so started producing a map that would cover all of Ireland - many sleepless nights ensued and work was scrapped and started over (and over) again. Finally a concept started coming together that fit in with other famous subway maps and after, literally, weeks of plotting places on maps, moving them, changing line directions, etc, I settled on a finished diagram. I just threw a logo and a line-key on, so it is still work in progress: I hope to flesh it out and make it more of a recognisable map poster, that looks somewhat official. This has been, by far, the piece of artwork that has taken me the longest - and, to be honest, it was a great exercise in patience, but I don't think the final result will quite be worth the time spent - in fact, I may call it a day as it is. -CJ

Work in progress..... Coming: Summer 2011

The 'Backfill' effect is definitely useful, cuts down on a lot of tedious work. However, the 'Echo' effect would benefit from a greater scale of Vertical echo height - 512px seems a bit limited, especially if you want your stereogram to be 800x600. Also, I tend to try and make my backgrounds look as seamless as possible. I have been starting with something like a 100x600 strip and using the Random Shape Fill plugin to cover the area (repeated), then with the Panelling effect I shift it 50px so the seam is in the middle, then select a 60px wide strip, in the centre, and use the Random Shape Fill again to cover the seam (this time keeping all objects inside, so none cross the edge). This creates a nice 'tileable' texture. Your 'Echo' effect would be great if I could then paste this into a new layer and 'echo fill' across, however (again) it only works if the image is less than 512 in height. Maybe if I created a 300px height tileable texture I could then panel this in two rows, but I prefer full height strips. Good work on the 'Backfill' though, I will definitely be using that on any future efforts. Cheers -CJ

The image is 800x400, and I used 8 x 100px strips for the background. I then cut the 'image' into 10 x 80px pieces. I've always loved these 'Magic Eye' pictures - probably because I have no problem seeing them and so many others do, lol. I am currently working on one for my daughter, based on Twilight (go figure!). I am trying to work out if I can get multiple layers (i.e. one on top of another). My first effort was unsuccessful - I'm also trying to see if I can do a true 3D style one, you know, like a shaded 3D texture map image - any ideas? I suppose that kind of thing would require a sophisticated program, and do it 1 pixel strip at a time, each at different focal distances. Anyway, I am happy with my first results and will still use this method in the future. -CJ

Nice one: I remember making a request for someone to develop this type of plugin over 2 years ago This should be very useful. Thanks. -CJ

A couple of times in the past I tried to figure out how to do these with PDN - gave up in the end, but great to now see the methodology. Nice tutorial - I will definitely have some fun playing with this (BTW - Pyrochild's Random Shape Fill plugin is great for backgrounds): Thanks -CJ

I present the ZX Spectrum Emulator Application, for iPad. This is approximately 95% Paint.NET. However, I had to make use of some stock images as references: - I recreated this ZX Spectrum Keyboard Layout, in the iPod style. - I used this as a base reference for the home screen. - I recreated the first level of the classic 8-bit platformer, Manic Miner (then added touch-screen controls to the bottom). - I also used this plain black Apple Logo, inverted it and coloured it in. Additional stock was used for the little Game-App icons at the bottom: ZX Spectrum Emulator App Icon Manic Miner App Icon Jet Pac App Icon Pyjamarama App Icon Knight Lore App Icon Halls of the Things App Icon -CJ

Hmmm... the 'Daily email digest' option does not seem to be working, either - I am still getting separate notifications of all thread updates. Is this just me, or is anyone else having similar 'email notification' problems? -CJ

Unfortunately, no joy. I just got 8 forum email updates in a row, all from this thread, without having visited it in-between. On the old forum I would have gotten one mail letting me know there had been an update and not received another until I had visited that thread again. Sorry, it's just too many emails for my liking. I've changed my notifications to the 'daily email digest' - not ideal, but the best I can do until such time as a solution can be found. -CJ

Splish, splash, I was takin' a bath... Stock: Hand & Hippo -CJ