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Creating a realistic'ish cobweb, got stuck & need some h


KirkFitzgerald

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Hi all, hope you're all well.

I'm hoping someone can please help me out here.

I'm well stumped, not having a graphics tablet and having to try and generate my own graphics for templates is becomming a real headache.

I'm trying to create a realistic cobweb graphic to use as a semi-transparent background for the text input of a new template. I'm trying to get my free templates added to the phpBB database, all the graphics have to be my own in order that I can do so.

This is what I've managed to create thus far:

cobweb.jpg

As you can all see, it really doesn't look much like a cobweb as yet, but it's as close as I'm able to get.

Does anyone have any hints or suggestions on getting this image to look more realistic.

I'm far from idle with my attempts to get on with things by myself, check out FreeStyles forum, the default template is designed using my own graphics created using paint dot net for background images, the buttons I created using fireworks and jasc animator.

I wouldn't be here taking up peoples valuable time if I hadn't got stuck, I'm really hoping someone here can point me in the right direction.

Be well and stay safe all, regards,

Kirk.

In A World Of Darkness, Try To Be A Ray Of Light!

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2 things.

1: The web is too wavy, a real cobweb is actually quite precise in its lines(one reason for the perception of disarray is the sheer number of individual threads)

2: The threads that appear circular are actually not concentric circles, but rather they are...for lack of a better term...whirlpoolish. The whole thing could be viewed as one continuous strand that is anchored at each of the spokes of the web.

That said, probably your best approach would be to draw spoke lines, then, on a new layer, start drawing the "circular" lines, if you want to make it look like an old web, draw the lines at different angles respective to the spokes. (I'll include a pic that should explain this better) As spider webs are usually a little out of focus to the human eye, you might try a glow effect to give the web just a hint of blurring. Once you're done with the web, and you like the basic look, do a bulge distort effect on the "circular" lines layer (-10 or so) to give it a slight curve. You could also apply a twist effect on the spokes layer to accomplish a look of deformity (from wind, etc.)

That probably muddled things more than it cleared them, here's an image that will hopefully bring it all together.

web2.png

This one's fairly simple, obviously you'd probably want to add more lines in your final version.

Oh, also, if you make the web layers slightly transparent it makes for a more realistic effect as spiderwebs are, themselves, mostly transparent.

Lawless%20government%20sig.png
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Hey Crosswalker, many many thanks for the excellent advice, as I stated, I'm no so great at mouse drawing but this is what I ended up with after following your guidance:

text_back.png

By far and wide far superior result to my earlier effort, I appreciate you help immensely, thank you.

Regards,

Kirk

In A World Of Darkness, Try To Be A Ray Of Light!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry it's taken me a while to respond Madjik, been sooo busy with new template designs I aint hardly had time to do much else.

Thanks for your suggestion :) , alas, I needed the web to look life-like if you follow me, it was for a personal request from a group of individuals in Maine, USA. I got it all sorted in the end.

Your compliment is heartily recieved Cosswalker, thankyou :)

In A World Of Darkness, Try To Be A Ray Of Light!

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HTML templates? Can I have one? :)

Please do not percieve me as being rude or anything, all respect to Rick, but this is not the place for such discussions.

You're more then welcome to join us via my www link and discuss this further there.

Kind Regards,

Kirk.

In A World Of Darkness, Try To Be A Ray Of Light!

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