jerry533482 0 Report post Posted July 20, 2010 (edited) Actually, if you're into experimenting with interstellar plasma clouds, there's a couple things I'd recommend checking into to help you. Mcamp14 is an astronomer, and recently gave me some advice on what colors go where in a nebula. That post is here, at his gallery (reply # 6): Astronomy Related And here is a brilliant tut by Frozen_byte that works by blending clouds to the point where they're almost invisible against the night sky, then painting and blurring colors in a layer below; which makes that particular section of the nebula become "visible", while adding color. It's here: Making Polished Spacescapes v2 And I also found a nice Photoshop tutorial on deviant art that gives the outlines on how to make some very realistic nebulae from pictures of real clouds. It's in Voyager212's gallery: Nebula tutorial by Voyager212 Of course, You'll likely end up creating your own technique for actually making the clouds, as everyone has their own preferences. And Once again, I hope you find this information useful. Edited July 20, 2010 by jerry533482 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Falken 0 Report post Posted July 22, 2010 You're making some nice progress with your nebulae , keep on at it Jerry (I especially like the red one). Lots of layers and blending modes like overlay and screen are very important when creating a nebula. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry533482 0 Report post Posted July 24, 2010 Haven't been up to much new artwork lately; I've been busy cubing (I started back in April; it's a long story, but anyway, I can now average under 45 seconds, with my best being 32 seconds ), and so I haven't been getting much inspiration lately. But, the SAC competitions have been getting me into my old habits, so expect new artwork soon. Until then, here's my SAC #4 entry: It uses the same technique as Randomized Beauty, and hence looks similar (With the exception of the colors of the background stars; they're faint, but they use a similar effect as in GIMP's "plasma" noise render, which I have figured out how to duplicate in PDN). I was originally going to do a star system, but I decided this on last-minute. It turned out to be a good choice, as I won 2nd place . Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yy10 5 Report post Posted July 24, 2010 Stars look a bit off. The planet is just too colourful, especially the outer glow. Still, keep practicing! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry533482 0 Report post Posted July 24, 2010 Well, my original intent for creating this space rock was to make it stand out; e.g.; I was aiming for something more fantasy-like. I wasn't focusing on realism; I was focusing on abstract eye-candy. granted, I am working on the stars, and finding a way to create believable continents. It's just easier when you go for the final composition rather than realism. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yy10 5 Report post Posted July 24, 2010 Try adding some fractals inside the planet. If you're aiming to abstract, don't even add the outer/inner glows. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry533482 0 Report post Posted July 24, 2010 (edited) Continents and no atmosphere? And speaking of fractals, would you have some advice on the subject? I use PDN quite a bit, but I've never paid much attention to some of these terms. I know what they mean, but I don't know them fluently enough to fully utilize them. Edited July 24, 2010 by jerry533482 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry533482 0 Report post Posted July 25, 2010 Nothing big, but I've changed my sig. Now it's a project itself, instead of a crop from my artwork scaled down. I decided against creating a 2 megapixel spacescape and then scaling it down to 400x150 because the antialiasing would make it look terrible. Credit to Frontcannon for the idea of noise in a nebula. It looks beautiful. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csm725 8 Report post Posted July 25, 2010 The left side of the sig is top-notc. Really good, I love it. The right side, not so much. Planet is WAAY too bright in the middle and the galaxy looks like a sick worm. The ring looks like a rubber band. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
barbieq25 931 Report post Posted July 25, 2010 CSM, is right about the planet & the ring. Galaxy, maybe get rid of the stars behind it? Duplicate the layer & blur, send below? Ring, wonder what would happen with Trail plugin set to fade out & maybe Conditional Hue/Saturation? The idea is good & so is the background. You do good work Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry533482 0 Report post Posted July 25, 2010 How about this? I did kinda cheat by adding one of my old planets, but it was a good texture, and it's hard to come across that. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csm725 8 Report post Posted July 25, 2010 Resized too much... The beautiful texture of the planet is now aliased and noisy. Galaxy still failing to impress, maybe that's just me. The ring is fixed, definitely. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry533482 0 Report post Posted July 26, 2010 Well, how about this? 100% original; even the planet texture was created in 150x400 canvas. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csm725 8 Report post Posted July 26, 2010 Nice. The texture is a little weird on the planet, but that's just me... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry533482 0 Report post Posted July 26, 2010 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry533482 0 Report post Posted August 15, 2010 Here's something small i did recently. The original image was much bigger, but it looked kinda' bland (with the exception of this one corner), so I cut out what i liked. "space rock" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bart9032 0 Report post Posted September 13, 2010 Wow, these pictures look really great. Don't think I could top it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry533482 0 Report post Posted October 17, 2010 (edited) Cool sig bart, but why not add shadows under the letters? That always solves the issue of not getting text to show up over a background. Anyway, here's a little something i made with v3.36 (school computers don't have the 3.5 framework): I call it "aqua": I still say I came up with the effect before Mcsteeze. Heck, I was an 8th grader when I first made it! Anyway, the computers at NHS are dual-core, so I made the textures in the 1200x1600 workspace (and they rendered much quicker there than they would on my system, might i add), and resized them down to 800x600. I'm pleased with the outcome. cubing update: my new PB: 22.99 seconds () Edited October 17, 2010 by jerry533482 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
barbieq25 931 Report post Posted October 17, 2010 Great planet effect. Not sure if I commented on the glass button but it is great! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry533482 0 Report post Posted October 17, 2010 You mean the orb on page 1? That's v3.6! I just went over the original and replaced parts i didn't like, and feathered here and there. Actually, I think it was the first tut i followed on this forum (hence that's why it's the first pic in my gallery). Here's the tut if you're interested: glass ball by Sharp Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stone85 0 Report post Posted October 17, 2010 very nice, you're really talented. how do you make the shining stars, like in your sig? very cool stuff you have here. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry533482 0 Report post Posted October 17, 2010 It's called Sparkle, and it works wonders. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
barbieq25 931 Report post Posted October 18, 2010 Cool sig bart, but why not add shadows under the letters? That always solves the issue of not getting text to show up over a background. Anyway, here's a little something i made with v3.36 (school computers don't have the 3.5 framework): I call it "aqua": I still say I came up with the effect before Mcsteeze. Heck, I was an 8th grader when I first made it! Anyway, the computers at NHS are dual-core, so I made the textures in the 1200x1600 workspace (and they rendered much quicker there than they would on my system, might i add), and resized them down to 800x600. I'm pleased with the outcome. cubing update: my new PB: 22.99 seconds () This one is what I meant. I've done that tute ages ago too. Updated my gallery with the forum change & so it isn't there now in my gallery but it is a fantastic tute. Well worth a go. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry533482 0 Report post Posted October 20, 2010 Like what do you mean? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaykaybay 0 Report post Posted October 23, 2010 I like it. Oops. Am I bumping? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites