delpart

Uhg I hate text when I want to try and convey what I'm "seeing" in something. Especially with a lacking lexicon and some knowledge of PDN to back up any suggestion. Just read this as someone who's got a big smile and has come back the next day to look again and talk with you about it. Not as some anonymous jerk who thinks critique is a fun way of messing with people ... 'Cause to be fair, people dont throw out this much text unless they are seemingly vested on some level ... First off though when I stand back from my monitor or shrink it down to about 75% I get a solid breaking out illusion. That could just be my vision, monitor size to resolution ratio and such, but I figured I had to try and explain it. Meaning that it does work, and works well. And works better when I shrink down the perspective on it. Plus the amount of labor to do that in single layers versus combining some of the layers is simply awe inspiring. You mentioned placement of shadows ... this is where I'm constantly trying to figure out in general and something that I'm sure you got stuck on ... where is the light source creating them and how strong should they be for glass in motion. I've always appreciated the animator's headaches with things like this. This image helps to illustrate just how complex all that rendering software really is as well. Semi transparent shadows are evil. I've read up on that a little recently and seen some examples from photos in water, etc and it makes my head hurt. Especially with the contrasting source from the player potentially creating reflections ... ((hrm, I lost where I was going with that.)) (Again disclaimer about struggling for text descriptors here) The blur to give a sense of motion is what requires me to stand back to have a sense of the screen fragments come into focus better I think. Either that or they need to be "darker" ... which may be why that other image this is based of utilized the white background. And of course, I'm struggling from an IT person's viewpoint of knowing what these screens look like when they break ... that's just me fighting my inner anti-artist demon though. Perhaps its from being spoiled but I keep expecting something different from the glass shards in the way of light reflections (evil ray tracing, which we know is not done here) and extra fragments like Hollywood always adds seem missing or off. Not a critique of the image, just sharing my eyes. Like I hope I conveyed: very impressive complex work on this one. The sword "blank" is nifty as well. I get cold feet with anything on the realism scale still (I get discouraged quickly). But I've seen plenty of real life sword works in progress to appreciate that as it stands. On the handle, one of the reasons for layering it up is to help rid of that problem from what I recall in looking at that tut. Back to work for me ...

Nice impressions as usual DUG. I really like the blending I got from the road to nowhere pic. Made me think of Metropolis and The Wizard of Oz. The night fishing one is well done from the standpoint of the illusion of light on the water being transformed like that. My backyard happens to look like that for the most part, so it was easy for me to appreciate that one. Not sure ever what else to say, but I like leaving my impressions on things that leave impressions ... The other two didn't ring my bell just now, but thankfully I can come back and see them again since the Internet is usually open 24 hours a day.

Ah so the question should have been something pointing out the exact step involved instead of allowing for speculation by just quoting the hang-up you're having. You did quote what you wanted now that I bothered to use F3 on that tut. But asking people for help should be posed with as much information as possible to avoid miscommunication for both parties. Including what you may have tried already: tutorials, methods, etc. And not require them to have to do a lot of extra searching on your behalf. In this case you want to figure out how to apply a shadowing effect applied (more or less mimicked using gradients and blend modes via PDN) to the blade form in STEP 7: "Go to Filter/Render/Lighting Effects and follow the settings below." Because even in this second reply my first reaction to "middle line" is to explain how to emboss a thick line using PS Emboss to replicate the blood groove he creates in STEPS 9-10 ... thankfully you were capable of double posting instead of using the edit feature to include a second post to get really specific about "exactly" what you wanted here ... That sort of gradient effect from STEP 7 can be derived from starting with a vertical gradient (or horizontal which might make it easier to line up after all that) and then using polar transformation - rectangular to polar on it (at some odd angle probably to get near that tip blemish shown), and then working from that form blend out a gradient with a fine point to align ... not a one step thing at all and requires some blurring, masking etc to blend in. At least that's one way to go about getting that sort of hard line gradient mix started. There may be others someone can suggest now that everyone knows your goal is to duplicate the tutorial without compromise of any sort.

Look at this: Similar Sword Tut For the lens flair like effect, you can test the one plugin that makes them to see about blending a layer in. A bit of work to create that effect in and of itself. Depends on just how close you want it to look. Some gradients with curves applied to "metalize" an inner edge, then cropped, color inverted ... A bit of work comes to mind to me. Maybe somebody else has some fast how to on that. (Written under duress of headache. Just .02 to help.)

Well the nice thing about dating yourself is the check is 1/2 the price of any other date. :mrgreen:

Well outside of the side discussion I end up leaving in the battles (ooops, should have gone offline with it ... or not ... heck I dont know ...) it seems people had been busy with the holidays etc. But overall I'm still scratching my head a bit about the gradual slow down as seen from looking at posting trends in general ... Neither here nor there I guess. Just wish people would vote in that darn thing as I have found it rather inspirational and the only way to get new stuff in there is to end a vote. I'm "bumping" the please vote idea here so I dont get dinged for it on the main thread. Though the main thread may require reposting the current sigs and vote count to hint that it's there again. Anyways, remote bump and some random thoughts about the competition and board status.

@Kuro - Thanks for sharing. Understood how the language barrier may limit your interaction. Any contribution is appreciated. I really enjoyed the Carios trace. Seeing the original and your style transforming it was really inspiring.

Still not sure what that request is ... Reminds me of the Staples Easy Button commercials but I dont think that's what you meant. If you were doing something that can tax your machine there is a progress bar on the bottom of the window ... Probably not what you were getting at though.

Well since its being hashed, this is something I would like to have at some point as well. Easy enough to work around it, but it falls for sure in the "would be nice" categories. Based on what I've seen on the priority list of work being done, and wishing to see a 2012 release of the base 4.x platform, I'm not asking with any priority wishes. As a side note there does seem to be another resurgence push in the PC market to get people into multi-mon setups. Sort of the defacto designer setup in a lot of cases as well. Again, just food for thought on the potential use of the feature request. Thank you.

I knew I should have played with it more before posting that. And thought of learning a few part names and screen-shot examples. Here's some screen shots of the controls I was thinking of. Ripple and drop ripple both have this highlight function. It can be used to create gradient effects and not just as a distortion. A similar approach could be applied to this plugin with that feature. Obviously here I may be lacking the knowledge of how these other distorts function, but the use of highlight in both of them will change the outcome. Sometimes dramatically. Brief example of drop ripple on a white canvas using the highlight to create the pattern and a gradient with no highlight showing the distortion it is creating. Also note the centering/positional control in the interface as that's what I was thinking the Donut needed. And the function pointed out (since I made this screenshot might as well use it): Sorry for the confusion here. While that would be wonderful to see a liquefy-like interface, I was just thinking of this control: I hope that helps explain my ramblings. Thanks again Madjik and I'm not wishing to demand those changes. Just my feedback from a user's point of view.

Missed this is my sweeps. I can see the distinction clearly Madjik. Especially in the distinction it will leave the center of the zone un affected which requires masking with swirl and is harder to control. Single pass approach. Overlapping this effect, as you've demonstrated lends a far more complex distortion than simple swirls and it avoid the hard center point that will occur from that approach. Because of the matching distortion similar to Ripples, etc. it may even be nice to see a highlight added to this one. (Cursory overview request/suggestion and I've not seen the code to know if this is possible or not with this implementation.) Thanks again Madjik for another wonderful tool in the arsenal. (Or first thanks in writing. Tons of thanks in my head while using PDN so far ... ) Example of overlapping distortions that I was seeing before downloading. Only other thing that came from this was that I had to use a selection box/bounding box approach to position the distortion. Would love to have the positional box included (not sure that that thing is called in the interface programming.) And another example of what you absolutely cannot do with just swirling:

Argh, now all I see/hear is pandas vs PDN'ers thanks to listen to a lot of think accents recently ... Also look at this for another way to consider making bubbles. It helps to illustrate that you're aiming for an illusion in many cases and not an actual object: WB's Quick Bubbles in Water Tutorial

Not to dismiss making anything nifty with PDN ... but you may want to consider something else to lighten the load of the main banner. There are many CSS tricks, JScript, and other methods for doing this that allow you to make modifications without recreating the entire thing each time. Sounds like a simple slide-show from the description. Animated gifs have their place mind you in lieu of using flash, etc but this from the brief description doesn't actually sounds like what you need optimally. Just $.02 on the matter.

Glad this got bumped ... Had to mention something regarding this thing and here is a great place for it: Old school Word Perfect key labels ... Some may recall this for Word Star and similar ... But I was trying to explain some of the basic shortcuts and a friend asked if there was a set of these available as a training aid. It was a lot of laughing and wondering how peole put up with those things all over the place. Between stickers and standard overlays. Plus goes to show you how evolved this has all gotten. No longer glorified word processing machines for the most part. As a side note I have this list shrunken down and nearby as I get confused between PDN and DW, WORD, etc all the time. At least its not emacs though.

The fact Mr Brewster is capable of retaining this esoteria is why I'm a big fan of the simplicity that PDN strives for. (Or some other sentence in English that expresses my like of both Rick's cross-platform knowledge and PDN's effort to not bloat out like a Macy float.) 'Tis a neat option/feature in PS, but hardly required. Also good to know that there is a great chance some of the crisp factor I'd seen from the art department was due to auto filtering and other such "cheats." Tool's a tool, but this makes more sense to leave it natural. And ditto for asking that question mate. Very insightful.

If you want to create the illusion of a field barrier or pressure zone or similar I could see doing that to some degree. However, since the screen is actually being displaced, this can create another illusion problem of leaving behind a ghost screen on the laptop itself. To be fair though, that's one of those things you'd have to probably test to judge. You could consider blurring the rest of the background image out slightly and combine a small streak to blend in with some of the edge fragments etc. The image itself already has a good depth of field to me in other words. Plus as a background layer this is at least something you dont have to commit to straight out. On the glass fragments, a friend mentioned that the glass showing the parts of the person or object coming through on them may add another level of complexity that could provide for the ack of ray traced light sources ... (.02)

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:

@Jaxon - I knew I saw that image in more than one place ... That helps actually. Those things can sneak up on you. Big fan of abstracts. Love what you did with that Jaxon. I'm slowly catching up from lurker to commenting. Should have commented sooner and all that. And @Khin, same thread where I lost track of using these sorts of things as icons. That's simply brilliant and they definitely seem like they'd avoid too much confusion being so unique. While I'm at it, I'm also going to post a happy accident from a few minutes ago because it's abstract and it creeps me out. Its a desktop image for me, but I wasn't sure it fit in that umbrella as it's pretty abstract. As with most happy accidents, this could use some clean-up here and there. But I figure I need to put up or shut-up as well. 1680x1050 @ ~460kb

As always, have you looked at the help feature of PDN yet? Since you didn't mentioned it specifically, the first recommendation is to start here in regards to layers: PDN Help for Layers. There are three sections dealing with how to do basic functions with the layers menu. Resizing an image can be done by going to: Image > Resize from the drop down menus at the top or using CTRL + R. Pasting into a layer can also be done quickly and the image will resize to the current project size or offer to expand the canvas of the project to accommodate: EDIT > Paste into new layer from the drop down menu or CTRL+SHIFT+V That should get you started and dont underestimate how much help is available in the actual help file on most of the base features. I'm still revisiting it frequently to clarify this and that and once you know what you want, its easier to understand for all that as well. Hope this helps.

Sorry, silly American idioms FTL in this case. Its usually a mention of respect toward those with simply more experience in my circles and not the underhanded slang denoting classism ... Figure I need to cover some bases here as my own filter for International sharing seem to be broken this week.

Well again, I was hoping to encourage looking into or at. Seems I overstepped in my wish to be helpful instead of just: "I like this better, so votey equals zot." Apologies all around if somehow you've been disheartened by the mere the ramblings of my silly self. I intended more bolster than luster. Feel free to visit and trash me where needed in my gallery at fans. Even I've not been brave enough to post my drivel here outside of a couple of tut and sigs. ( But my New Year's resolve is to branch out a little and still stands regardless of what critique I may encounter ... ) Guarantee you'd win over my little self portrait sig below. Without the insight as to why its layered up like that, its rather "bleh." But that's where I'm at with the tools, so it reflects me on yet another layer ... etc etc. Sincerely, **edit: fast typing, major grammar and typo correction

OMG. ... Okay, first I'll insert the smiley here: To better illustrate that it wasn't a criticism intended at all. OMGoodnees no ... I was just stuck on a perspective which can be turned on and off. I should also note that if I hadn't been doing this and that, lack of sleep, etc I would have ensured that my often dry humor was illustrated better. ESPECIALLY since I'm ultra-noob ... I have an eye for this and that and some base experience but I'm far from being "teh pr0z" (rule violation to illustrate point) in any far reach of even my imagination. I just fired up my nerve to post on the main forum as a new year's resolution and I'm mucking away it seems. Sincere apologies for any misunderstanding. I've just not gotten to point of commenting on all the great work I've seen you (and many others too folks) plug into the forum. Whether it be text or pictorial, there is layers to being an interactive human in a digital world. You're far surpassing most in your wish to communicate, help, and share ... So please dont let a silly old geek like me dissuade or discourage you. And if that was somehow dry humor as a passive retort, point taken. I know my limitations. I just forget them sometimes when it comes to communicating in the worlds worst forum: Internet Text in an International Crowd base. 'Cause to be fair, we really dont all speak the same language. I think in flow charts and wiring diagrams a lot ... process analysis and technical writing ... but sometimes I like to wear funny hats. I hope this was enough public falling on of a sword to illustrate I had no intention of slight towards your work and efforts. My first post stands. I love the feel of it and it elicited a sincere need to say something about that impression left upon me. The rest is just locker room banter for all that. Humbly,

I came up with something but it wasn't my original. To clarify, the crash happened while saving the file, hence the corruption mas grande. I submitted something though. First comp attempt, 'ell or 'ighwater! (And high water around here is no joke, so that take that seriously ... problem with being @ sea-level with the sea as your doorstep and all that rot.)

Nice start and perfect idea for a smash through effect. (Nice start sounds trite ... insert more colorful language expressing how well done this is and the amount of work shown ensuring the effect was taken to ensure a solid foundation for the rest of the shattered glass illusion to follow.) Also took a few to quickly review some of the other items not in the top of the gallery. Nice work Jim. **EDIT: took some more time to review just because I felt silly for being quick on the draw while I try and manage too much at once. Love the orb work, especially on the last revision. I'd almost suggest looking at the highlight some but the more I look at it the more I can see that causing all sort of issues in a revision. Which reminds me about something I need to do ... ack. Glad I revisited this for sure. Inspiration and a task list reminder ... kudos.

Reworking on it right now. I just lost about 8 hours of work, 79 layers ... In denial at the moment. I think my submission will be simpler in the rush ... and i just dont have it in me to do that over right now. Sometime today is the deadline or is it midnight or what? I wasn't sure on the day of deadline what the cutoff was/is ... **edit ... due to the change. I guess logic would have dictated the predetermined 8 PM Possum time. Scrambling to submit something ... anything is better than nothing. Firing up the Jonny Cash to lament and paint some more ...