I guess with frames you mean layers? Hmm more than 50 I guess. I saved 15 png files (Alphamask, Textures) before I started to complete the whole image... took me approx. 3 hours.
Except of one texture it was done 100% in PdN and Microsoft GIF Animator.
I was bored on making textures with noise and chrystalize all the time so I used one I already had. I found it long time ago in a graphics forum don't remember where...It's the outer texture with the beveled structure. In the whole image are 7 different textures used...
The 3D look was done via the "How to make a wire" tutorial and different dropshadows on different backgrounds.
In this magnification you can see that the shadow on the ring is much darker than on the other part of the image. That's because the distance to the metalbar is nearer. Has anybody recognized details like this?
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/1363/shadowsna4.png
I don't know either...it seems to be some very unimportant guy so that no one remembers him
PS: at 21:00h GMT+1 I'm going to publish something big...really big. ^_^
A new foilsticker! (got that idea long time ago from Boltbait...)
I used the "Render Polygon/Star" plugin, Alphamask and Displacement.
Bigger Version
Can you see the beveled text in this small version?