Create A Realistic Iris - Step Intensive

[lynxster4]

Hello everyone!  We will be making this:                     Plugins needed:

Dryad and Highlight (found in Red ochre's pack)

Donut (found in Madjik's pack)

Sharpen+ (by tanel)

AA's Assistant (found in dpy's pack)

Gaussian Blur-clamped (by toe_head)

Feather (found in Boltbait's pack)

Gaussian Blur - Built in

Reticulation and Dragan Effect (found in ReMake's pack)

 

Spoiler

New Canvas 252 x 252, transparent layer, Primary Color – 64,64,64

Shapes – Draw circle 240 x 240, 8 px thick, Align, add new layer below.

 

On Ring layer, select, invert, move back to new layer. Set Primary Color to

192,192,192 and Secondary Color to 32,32,32. Gradient Tool – Radial, offset 116x0.

 

Add new layer above gradient layer. Keep Primary Color set to 192,192,192. On new layer Effects-->Iterative Lines-->Dryad at the settings below: 
Trunk Position – 0.00, 2.00
Iterations – 8
Trunk Start Width – 0.10
Branch End Width – 1.00
Overall Size – 30.85
Length Change Ratio – (-2.51)
Start Deviation Angle – 37.53
End Deviation Angle – 21.54
Alternate Branching – 5.02
Outline Width (Primary) – 0.00
Fill Colors – Primary
Check ‘Fill Color Smooth Gradient’
Curve – 0.00
Randomness – 0.00

 

Deselect, duplicate Dryad layer, flip bottom layer vertically. Merge Dryad layers.

Magic Wand (50% for this whole tut) the Ring layer, invert, go to Dryad layer and
Distort-->Donut at 124,0,15.3,2,0, mode-medium, 0,0.

 

Keep selected and apply Photo-->Sharpen+ at 500,100,0,100,0 on Dryad layer.

 

Apply an AA’s Assistant at 1,2,1.00. Keep image selected.

 

On Dryad layer apply Effects-->Blurs-->Gaussian Blur-clamped at 1.

 

 

On Ring layer apply another Gaussian Blur-clamped at 16 then deselect.

 

Add new layer on top for pupil, color black (0,0,0). Paintbrush size  - 125,
click a couple of times, Align and Effects-->Object-->Feather at 9.  (You can make the pupil larger if you wish)

 

Add new layer on top for pupil shine, white (255,255,255). Paintbrush size – 25,
then apply Effects-->Blurs-->Gaussian Blur at 3.

 

Merge Dryad layer down onto Gradient layer.

 

Add new layer above Gradient/Dryad layer. Select Gradient layer, invert, go back to new layer and apply Effects-->Artistic-->Reticulation at 26,12,multiply.                                          Apply Effects-->Object-->Feather at 10. Set layer opacity to 130.

 

Merge Reticulation layer down onto Gradient/Dryad layer. Add new layer above Grad/Dryad/Reticulation layer and set mode to Color Dodge. Set Primary color to 96,96,96. Paintbrush size – 25, Hardness 0%. Paint small circles a bit away from the pupil. Try to highlight the clumps of white in the Grad/Dryad/Reticulation layer.

 

Add new layer above Grad layer. Set Primary and Secondary Colors both to white (255,255,255). Select Grad/Dryad/Reticulation layer, invert. Go back to new layer and apply Effects-->Render-->Highlight at 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 18.00, 17.22, 12.00, 1.5, 3.20, water glint, tint-white, 255. Deselect after applying.

 

Duplicate Highlight layer, rotate one layer 15°. Duplicate the rotated layer and rotate another 15°.

 

Merge all Highlight layers.
Duplicate merged Highlight layer and rotate one layer 7.50°.
 

Merge all Highlight layers.

 

On Grad/Dryad/Reticulation layer apply Effects-->Artistic-->Dragan Effect at 14.

 

Select Grad/Dryad/Reticulation Layer, invert and go to Highlight layer.
Apply Effects-->Blurs-->Gaussian Blur-clamped at 2, then deselect.

 

On Highlight layer, Effects-->Object-->Feather at 20.

 

Uncheck Highlight layer and move Color Dodge layer below Highlight layer. Then merge Color Dodge layer down onto Grad/Dryad/Reticulation layer.

 

Merge pupil shine layer down onto pupil layer. Delete white background layer.
Re-check the Highlight layer. You should be left with (4) layers.
 

SAVE THIS .PDN FILE!!!  The bottom three layers can then be tinted independently and blend modes changed to achieve a large variety of iris colors.

 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  I know it's pretty involved, but yields a good result.  All comments are welcome.  Thank you.

 

[Chowie]

I love this! I ran a light round of Dents on the highlight layer, I didn't like the way the perfectly straight lines looked. I also ran Bulge on the reflection layer to give it a curve.

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Chowie

[lynxster4]

Excellent @Chowie!  Your irises look great!  I'm glad you liked the tutorial. That is why we write them. And tweaks are a good thing.  😊

 

I can't tell you how many weeks I worked on this trying to find the right plugins to use....😄

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by lynxster4

[Pixey]

Great tutorial @lynxster4 and wonderful use of Plugins, especially Dryad, Highlight and Reticulation.  Well done 👍

 

[lynxster4]

Thank you @Pixey, @Ego Eram Reputo, @otuncelli, @Red ochre @Lemonade and @Rle for the reps!  🤗

This was a lot of hard work figuring it out, 😵 but I did it.

[BMP]

😮😮😮  Oh my gosh, lynxster.  I came across your tut on my way to something else and wow.  I bookmarked your tutorial in my classes folder.  

 

Thank you for the tremendous effort you put into presenting this system in such minute detail - many people on many a platform assume viewers are already familiar with Part I, Part II, etc., and start in the middle.  I have been looking for a few of the effects you used - too cool!

 

BTW, I'm from the other side of the state: Doylestown in Bucks County.  Been living in Southern Cali since '73.  My, my, my we come from a beautiful part of America, yeah?

[lynxster4]

Thank you @toe_head2001!  🤗

 

@BMP Thank you for the kind words about the tutorial. I try to be as precise as possible so everyone can try it. Let us know how it goes...

Quote

My, my, my we come from a beautiful part of America, yeah?

 

We most certainly do!  Excited for the fall and changing of the leaves...I'm kind of summered-out...😀

[lynxster4]

Thank you @Maximilian!  We need to see you here more often; you are missed.  🤗  Where's that gallery? (my first nag in a long time)  😆

[BMP]

Grinning happily.

 

Sorry, I've been busy watching the cactus spines turn to fall colors...🤔

 

Been having a bit of a hard time (Dr. prescribed the wrong medicine: Gasp!) but am back on my roll.  Just completed a planner series, off to create stickers and backgrounds, let's call 'em "skins", plus provide a digi format so I can drip new stuff into my new Etsy store daily while I work on the next set of planners in the series.  Then I have to create the banner, the About, descriptives for the products, and so forth.  After that, I'll hold my breath for a tick and LAUNCH!

Somewhere in there, I'll start my gallery. 👉👉 Oh, shoot.  I just realized you were talking to @Maximilian?  Hope I got the right poster

 

Lemme tell you, girl - were it not for this community, I would have been dead in the water as far as this project goes.  Overwhelm would have been a deal breaker for sure, and I was in the middle of it with burnout staring me in the face before I even got started.  I retired from my last online biz several years ago due to burnout and never wanna go there again.

 

Oh, and I saved more of your tuts to my Classes folder!  Am SO looking forward to learning how to create the opalescent stained glass 'cause I can't wait to use it for my customers' delight.  

 

Hugs, and thanks endlessly for your kind words.  TTYL😁

Edited September 27, 2023 by BMP

[Manc]

On 9/27/2023 at 8:47 PM, BMP said:

Grinning happily.

 

Sorry, I've been busy watching the cactus spines turn to fall colors...🤔

 

Been having a bit of a hard time (Dr. prescribed the wrong medicine: Gasp!) but am back on my roll.  Just completed a planner series, off to create stickers and backgrounds, let's call 'em "skins", plus provide a digi format so I can drip new stuff into my new Etsy store daily while I work on the next set of planners in the series.  Then I have to create the banner, the About, descriptives for the products, and so forth.  After that, I'll hold my breath for a tick and LAUNCH!

Somewhere in there, I'll start my gallery. 👉👉 Oh, shoot.  I just realized you were talking to @Maximilian?  Hope I got the right poster

 

Lemme tell you, girl - were it not for this community, I would have been dead in the water as far as this project goes.  Overwhelm would have been a deal breaker for sure, and I was in the middle of it with burnout staring me in the face before I even got started.  I retired from my last online biz several years ago due to burnout and never wanna go there again.

 

Oh, and I saved more of your tuts to my Classes folder!  Am SO looking forward to learning how to create the opalescent stained glass 'cause I can't wait to use it for my customers' delight.  

 

Hugs, and thanks endlessly for your kind words.  TTYL😁

 

[Manc]

I hope you get better and are well.

[victorbrodt]

You know I looked and searched for a tutorial with this kind of description and I cannot find it. You would think that somehow there would be a link, but I have no idea if it's outlawed to do such a thing or what; for me it's made paint .net less and less interesting. I really don't have the time to spend days figuring things out that may or may not work.

Well I'm just putting this down in case this can help add value.

All the best, Victor

[Pixey]

@victorbrodt this tutorial was published on the 14th September, 2023.

 

You could have done these steps:

 

[Tactilis]

10 hours ago, victorbrodt said:

You know I looked and searched for a tutorial with this kind of description and I cannot find it.

I don't understand this statement.

You are commenting in the very thread that contains the tutorial, so clearly you did find it.

 

 

10 hours ago, victorbrodt said:

You would think that somehow there would be a link

Where exactly are you expecting to see a link to the tutorial?


As @Pixey has indicated, you can use the forum Search.

However, I prefer to use Google to search the forum. Use the site: operator to restrict the search to forums.getpaint.net

eg.  site:https://forums.getpaint.net  iris     (the https:// is optional)

The main reason for doing this is that you can quickly switch between a text search and an image search of the site, which can help you find the forum thread that you want:



 

 

[lynxster4]

Thank you @Djisves for the rep! ☺️

[Djisves]

Thank YOU @lynxster4 for a well written and easy to follow tutorial for a beautiful image.

Here is my try:

 

[lynxster4]

Wonderful @Djisves! Love the eye coloring. Glad you liked the tut.  🤗