pdnnoob

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it In this tutorial, we will be trying to make this Unfortunately, when I made that, I didn’t keep track of what I did, so we will have to settle with this If anybody can come up with how I made the first one, a pm or post about it would be appreciated (hint:I tried to make this tutorial as close to that as possible...) If anything becomes confusing, ask about it. It is late and I may have some grammar glitches/confusing explanations. I'll make sure I reply in the morning when I'm not so tired Plugins required: Gradient bars Optional plugins: Basic Antialias AA’s_Assistant Align Object Anti-alias If I missed something or a plugin comes with PDN, please say so and I will fix the list. Now...Let’s begin! 1. Make a new image and fill with black. 2. Add a new layer and name it “Original Text.” Add some white text and modify the shape however you like. Make sure it is completely opaque (but anti-aliased at the same time). I used “Comic Sans” with “anti-alias” turned off, then ran basic anti-alias and AA’s_Assistant at default values. I used “Align Object” to center. 3. Duplicate the layer and turn off the original text visibility. Name the new layer “Crystallize” 4. Run “Fragment” at 8 count and 5 distance. Crystallize at 3 size. 5. Use the magic wand tool to select everything not text in the original text layer, switch over to Crystallize layer and hit delete. Antialias the result with the antialias plugin. (does that come with pdn now?) 6. Duplicate “Crystallize” and rename the new layer “motion blur.” Move layer down 7. Run motion blur at the following settings: -90 degrees, uncheck “centered”, 30 distance 8. Add a new layer and name it “gradient bars” (should be just above “motion blur”) 9. Render gradient bars at default settings. Make sure white is your primary color and black is secondary. 10. Select all (ctrl+A) and resize the gradient bars with the “move selected pixels” tool. See picture for where resize handles should be. 11. Set the blend mode of the gradient bars to overlay Noticing how uniform those icicle looks? Let’s fix that before we continue... 12. First off, duplicate motion blur and call the new layer “motion blur:uneven” 13. Crystalize the new layer at 7 size and gaussian blur at 5 pixels. Seeing white splotches? Go on to the next step to fix them. If you have floating icicles, erase them on the new layer with the eraser tool 14. Set the opacity of both motion blur layers to 150 and set the top one to lighten. If there are still splotches, adjust the opacity of the bottom layer until they are gone. 15. Add and new layer under “motion blur” and call it “motion blurs.” Merge motion blur and the new layer, then merge “uneven” and “motion blurs”. 16. You may notice that the icicles are a bit dim. Increase brightness and contrast of gradient bars to 40 brightness and 50 contrast. go to motion blurs to erase any new floating icicles 17. Go to “motion blurs” and run noise at 60 intensity and 0 color saturation. leave coverage at 100. We are done with the icicles! 18. Duplicate Crystallize and name the new layer “Gaussian blur.” Blur using Gaussian blur at 10, then run frosted glass at default settings. Set blend mode of layer to overlay. Lower the brightness to -60 (Brightness/Contrast) 19. Go to “original text” and select everything not text. Delete selection in ”Gaussian blur” 20. Go to “Crystallize” and run Crystallize again at size 2. Repeat 19 on this layer. 21. Duplicate Crystallize and move layer to the top. Run frosted glass at default settings and run noise at the same settings as before (see icicles...). Motion blur at following settings: 0 degrees, centered, and 5 distance. Name the new layer “glaze” 22. Adjust brightness and contrast: brightness=-100 contrast=50 23. Set layer blend mode to overlay 24. Use curves to make the glaze layer slightly blue. 25. Try to get a similar coloring with curves on the gradient bars. If you want, you can stop here. Smooth up a few places, and you got yourself a cold set of text. To get a cool translucent looking blue effect, you only need to go through another few simple steps. 26. Duplicate “Original text” and move layer all the way to the top. (make visible) 27. Lower brightness to -100 and keep contrast at 0 (brightness/contrast) 28. Run curves at the same settings as gradient bars. 29. Use the linear gradient tool on transparency mode as shown in image 30. Set layer blend mode to color burn and run Gaussian blur at 2 pixels If the text looks choppy and pixelee, go to “Crystallize” and run antialias. Done! The result again: Feel free to post your results (and how you modified the tutorial too if you did )

Definitely deserved the pin!

ptuZ: 0 Siddek: 1 Both were great, but ptuZ's was too brightly colored for me. (darn resize burred up my sig >.< It was perfect at 500x160)

I'll join with my new sig...

The basic idea of making things shiny is to give it something to reflect. If you mess with the luminosity curves (adjustments:curves), you can give the object the illusion of reflecting something around it, making it shiny. The other thing you could do is forget everything I said and download the "metallize" plugin. It's basically a quick luminosity curve mod that does it all for you. Warning: it may produce odd and unwanted effects (messed up lighting for example) EDIT: Gold text tutorial if that's not shiny enough, click on the left-most piece in my sig (the one labeled "chrome"). If you play with that effect and color tint the object, that might work too I'll keep updating as I find the mentioned helpful links: Conditional hue/saturation method curves method

lol someone wasn't paying attention to the sign

...and that's just the cub... http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx228/pdnnoob/kungfubearattack.jpg Hidden Content: stock photos http://www.wildnatureimages.com/images%202/050612-100..jpg http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/7/29/1248872583531/Building-demolishing-in-S-010.jpg

I know Sarkut already answered the question and more, but I just wanted to make a comment... Layers are not difficult. Use them because they are one of the most useful tools any good photo editing program has to offer. You say you prefer not to use them, I say you should get over it and use them a whole lot (just name your layers to keep them tidy)

Possum, I must say you are getting better with every picture. that's one awesome table. How many competition related things did you put in there? I'm counting 3, but it looks like there could be more... My latest spacescape. http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx228/pdnnoob/spacerender1.png Planets, stars, and sun are all 100% PDN. I used Apophysis for the nebula-ee thing. (thanks to whoever it was that had the name of the program in their pictorum)

...And welshy takes the cake with a late entry >.< nice pic!

doesn't seem like something I would call "abstract"...more like photo editing.

O.O I would never have thought to do that...nice work! I'm not really sure about changing the shadows, though. The glass part contains the light source. Adding shadow under it would imply that the light was being blocked by the glass itself and the source was above the entire bulb.

I guess my original plans were tossed. Now I have a spaceship I made from scratch...ing on a piece of paper. How's it look? (Possum, your background on you image is a killer...almost overkill)

Possum, I think you nailed this one on the head with your entry. The first thing my eyes told me when I looked at your entry was "cut and pasted paper". I quit XD

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx228/pdnnoob/spaceship.png last minute entry. Definitely not one of my better creations, but it was fun sketching on paper. Creds to my bro for helping design the ship ^^ (other than the sketching, 100% PDN )

yay! somebody uses median too XD I've always wanted to do something like this but never got around to it. I'm glad I didn't though...you did a lot better than I would have

lol thx! I'd give maybe half a dozen mistakes in my pic, but that isn't usually a good idea when you're in a competition To tell the truth, I think it was much easier to make than your pic The blurring's great. If it really concerns you, try making the un-blurred area wider. something that would make it a little more realistic than it already is: make a lighted area on the ground. All you have to do is make a slightly transparent ellipse and blur it. At the moment, it looks like the light bulb is on the ground (because awesome shadow), but not on the ground. Other than that, I have absolutely no complaints other than the fact that I can't figure out how you made the glass part of the bulb. My best guess sounds really tough to me, but making that bulb looks tough without even knowing how it was done Apologies for over-use of emoticons...bad habit of mine

It's big enough to make an 8x10 photo, but you can't shrink it, keep the dimension ratios, and not clip off a bit of the edges all at the same time. It's too wide. Either you distort the image or you cut off the edges.

Like the lightbulb, Kemaru! ^^ Looks like it would go in a socket in my bedroom or something.

looks really bright for some reason...maybe darken the background just a tad to make all edges at least slightly visible. Awesome coffee cup. Not an expert on coffee and tea colors, but that sorta looks like creamy coffee...I like it XD

If you only need it to look like 1 bit, then use my mini tutorial. The file will still be the size of a normal picture, but there will be only two colors: black and white.

closest you can get to actually converting to 1 bit is making it look like 1-bit: change to black and white, run halftone, then increase contrast to 100% (adjust brightness as desired) Note:increase image size before running halftone on smallest dot size

Question: Do we post images we based the creation off of as stocks?

Try changing your monitor settings because it is perfectly fine on my computer...absolutely beautiful

Edit: please disregard my post, I just answered my own question by looking at the full-sized pictures.