Stroker
09-13-2003, 08:33 PM
This is a straight cut-n-paste from somewhere else in these halls. A suggestion was made and I'm taking him up on it. I recommend you take in chunks to digest the ideas and concepts.
Hopefully jonbalza will show up soon with his little diddy.
********
I did say I would post something to test the waters over here. Rather than a tutorial, I think I'll go on a ramble. You might have to put your thinking caps on because I'm going to assume a certain level of proficiency and this is text only with one exception.
And here is that exception. This is a Polar Coord variation I did from Mahjqa's fire technique:
http://w3.chrlmi.cablespeed.com/~halmich/ozone/littlebowser.gif
Some other cool things can be done with Mahjqa's fire, like smoke and other whispy things. I even have a variation to build a D-Map for rising heat waves (see Heat Waves (http://w3.chrlmi.cablespeed.com/~halmich/tech-slop/heatwaves/index.shtml)). Gotta love it.
So, you want to animate a gooey mess? Well, I'm not going to show you how to do it explicitly, but I will give a bunch of junk for you to mess with.
First, let's take a look at Mahjqa's fire. Layer are something like this:
4. Favorite method to colourize, probably a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer
3. Mask layer set to Colour Burn
2. Magic layer
1. Background
Not bad.
Now, let's look at another method for animating:
1. Start a new doc and fill with Black
2. Paint white blobs and give it some liberal Gauss
3. Start another layer with black
4. Paint some white blobs and give it some more Gauss
5. Set the second layer to Screen
6. Add a Levels Adjustment Layer and tighten it up
Layers something like this:
3. Levels Ad-Layer nice and tight
2. Blurred blobs and set to Screen
1. Blurred blobs
Pretty straight forward, but the fun is with the Move tool. Use the Move tool to move the Screen layer around. What you should see is some blobs kind of flowing around. Now that's cool.
Now let's take a peek at a modern version of Snowy Mask (http://development.gurusnetwork.com/kpt/tip/23/).
The Layers for a modern version looks something like this:
3. Levels Ad-Layer to taste
2. Something with some kind of blur and set to Difference
1. Background, probably also with some kind of blur
With Snowy Mask, move either Layer 1 or Layer 2 to get things to animate. Now, this is one of my favorite techniques. I can't even begin to describe the variations.
For those last two variations, I didn't mention colourizing. Use your favorite method on top of it all to add some colour. Yeah.
Sure is fun, isn't it? Ah, but there is a slight problem with the three techniques mentioned. The problem is that there is a layer in each one that kind of operates on what's beneath it. When you try adding more stuff in there, the compositing of those layers can get messed up. It can get very not pretty in a hurry.
Let's run through this with Snowy Mask on a photo to see the problem, and then fix it really smooth like.
1. Grab a photo
2. Start a new layer and fill with black
3. Default colours and Clouds/Difference Clouds to taste and some Gauss
4. Set it to Difference
5. Add a Levels Ad-layer and switch the Output sliders to invert and Input sliders to taste
What you should end up with is a Snowy Mask effect that conforms to the photo. However, the Difference Layer makes it kind of hard to composite over the photo. That is, you can see the Snowy Mask, but not the photo. Jeez, I hope that makes sense.
Let's fix it real smooth like.
1. Start a new Layer Set
2. Copy the photo and toss in the set
3. Toss the Difference Clouds layer in the set
4. Toss the Levels Ad-Layer into the set
Now this is the cool part...
5. Set the Blending Mode of the Set to Screen
Should looks something like this:
2. Set1 set to Screen
2c. -- Levels Ad-Layer
2b. -- Clouds/Difference Clouds
2a. -- Photo copy
1. Photo background
Now use the Move to move 2b around and watch the magic.
Dude! That is too cool!
And the same idea of using a layer set with a non-normal blending mode applies to the other techniques already mentioned.
So, what does this mean?
It means you can animate any sort of dependant blending mode combo over any given background with ease.
It also means that you can mix and match the techniques within the same doc.
Yes, you can mix and match the techniques with layer sets.
Lets say you have a layer set with Snowy Mask in it that has an electric feel to it. Well, copy the set, rearrange a few things for a whispy smoke feel, and all of a sudden you've got electricity *and* a plasma-esque aurora to go with it. Now, if you link the right layers between the two different sets, you can keep the seperate effects in synch with each other when you animate.
Or you can do blobs that flow and ebb in one layer set, and give them snaking tendrils in another set - while keeping them in synch.
That is like coolness^2 or something.
So, can the gooey stuff originally posted be animated?
Certainly, and a whole lot more with the right Bag o' Tricks.
Now, I have left a ton of junk out of this ramble. I mean, I could talk about variations, particulars, and tweaks until your brain oozes out of your eye sockets, but I won't do that. I'll leave those things up to you. At the very least, you should now have a pretty good foundation to mess around with.
play.fiddle.learn
Hopefully jonbalza will show up soon with his little diddy.
********
I did say I would post something to test the waters over here. Rather than a tutorial, I think I'll go on a ramble. You might have to put your thinking caps on because I'm going to assume a certain level of proficiency and this is text only with one exception.
And here is that exception. This is a Polar Coord variation I did from Mahjqa's fire technique:
http://w3.chrlmi.cablespeed.com/~halmich/ozone/littlebowser.gif
Some other cool things can be done with Mahjqa's fire, like smoke and other whispy things. I even have a variation to build a D-Map for rising heat waves (see Heat Waves (http://w3.chrlmi.cablespeed.com/~halmich/tech-slop/heatwaves/index.shtml)). Gotta love it.
So, you want to animate a gooey mess? Well, I'm not going to show you how to do it explicitly, but I will give a bunch of junk for you to mess with.
First, let's take a look at Mahjqa's fire. Layer are something like this:
4. Favorite method to colourize, probably a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer
3. Mask layer set to Colour Burn
2. Magic layer
1. Background
Not bad.
Now, let's look at another method for animating:
1. Start a new doc and fill with Black
2. Paint white blobs and give it some liberal Gauss
3. Start another layer with black
4. Paint some white blobs and give it some more Gauss
5. Set the second layer to Screen
6. Add a Levels Adjustment Layer and tighten it up
Layers something like this:
3. Levels Ad-Layer nice and tight
2. Blurred blobs and set to Screen
1. Blurred blobs
Pretty straight forward, but the fun is with the Move tool. Use the Move tool to move the Screen layer around. What you should see is some blobs kind of flowing around. Now that's cool.
Now let's take a peek at a modern version of Snowy Mask (http://development.gurusnetwork.com/kpt/tip/23/).
The Layers for a modern version looks something like this:
3. Levels Ad-Layer to taste
2. Something with some kind of blur and set to Difference
1. Background, probably also with some kind of blur
With Snowy Mask, move either Layer 1 or Layer 2 to get things to animate. Now, this is one of my favorite techniques. I can't even begin to describe the variations.
For those last two variations, I didn't mention colourizing. Use your favorite method on top of it all to add some colour. Yeah.
Sure is fun, isn't it? Ah, but there is a slight problem with the three techniques mentioned. The problem is that there is a layer in each one that kind of operates on what's beneath it. When you try adding more stuff in there, the compositing of those layers can get messed up. It can get very not pretty in a hurry.
Let's run through this with Snowy Mask on a photo to see the problem, and then fix it really smooth like.
1. Grab a photo
2. Start a new layer and fill with black
3. Default colours and Clouds/Difference Clouds to taste and some Gauss
4. Set it to Difference
5. Add a Levels Ad-layer and switch the Output sliders to invert and Input sliders to taste
What you should end up with is a Snowy Mask effect that conforms to the photo. However, the Difference Layer makes it kind of hard to composite over the photo. That is, you can see the Snowy Mask, but not the photo. Jeez, I hope that makes sense.
Let's fix it real smooth like.
1. Start a new Layer Set
2. Copy the photo and toss in the set
3. Toss the Difference Clouds layer in the set
4. Toss the Levels Ad-Layer into the set
Now this is the cool part...
5. Set the Blending Mode of the Set to Screen
Should looks something like this:
2. Set1 set to Screen
2c. -- Levels Ad-Layer
2b. -- Clouds/Difference Clouds
2a. -- Photo copy
1. Photo background
Now use the Move to move 2b around and watch the magic.
Dude! That is too cool!
And the same idea of using a layer set with a non-normal blending mode applies to the other techniques already mentioned.
So, what does this mean?
It means you can animate any sort of dependant blending mode combo over any given background with ease.
It also means that you can mix and match the techniques within the same doc.
Yes, you can mix and match the techniques with layer sets.
Lets say you have a layer set with Snowy Mask in it that has an electric feel to it. Well, copy the set, rearrange a few things for a whispy smoke feel, and all of a sudden you've got electricity *and* a plasma-esque aurora to go with it. Now, if you link the right layers between the two different sets, you can keep the seperate effects in synch with each other when you animate.
Or you can do blobs that flow and ebb in one layer set, and give them snaking tendrils in another set - while keeping them in synch.
That is like coolness^2 or something.
So, can the gooey stuff originally posted be animated?
Certainly, and a whole lot more with the right Bag o' Tricks.
Now, I have left a ton of junk out of this ramble. I mean, I could talk about variations, particulars, and tweaks until your brain oozes out of your eye sockets, but I won't do that. I'll leave those things up to you. At the very least, you should now have a pretty good foundation to mess around with.
play.fiddle.learn