Gradient Blur in CS

[jonbalza]

Remember when this used to be so hard? (http://www.photoshoptechniques.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=169)

http://www.balzasteel.com/temp/fireblur.gif

Photoshop CS makes this type of effect rather easy, with just a simple alpha channel and the Lens Blur filter.

Let's get some other creative uses of this filter up here, shall we?

[Stroker]

Are you kidding? Can CS really do that?

There are certain Displace techniques that I have been trying for years, but haven't been able to do because they require that kind of blurring. For example, see Grid Dip (http://w3.chrlmi.cablespeed.com/~halmich/tech-slop/griddip/index.shtml). That is a quick, "hidden" tutorial with a bad hack for that kind of blurring.

Don't tease. If CS really can do that, then a whole new door of very cool Displace techniques has been opened.

[jonbalza]

I'm not just teasing... It is insanely easy now, and VERY versatile.

I'd read about the lens blur filter, but never in my wildest dreams was it going to be this powerful. You have to play around with it for a while to believe it - different lens types, Specular control, and almost a million other things as well.

[Mindbender]

Anyone else having the same eerie feeling like when layer effects made it so everyone could do drop shadows and bevels? hrmm.... :'

[Ammar Midani]

Cheers Jon. I read a lot about Lens Blur, will goin in once i got CS.


Ammar

[jonbalza]

Originally posted by MindBender
Anyone else having the same eerie feeling like when layer effects made it so everyone could do drop shadows and bevels? hrmm....

Yeah, I could see that happening. The good news is that the animation requires at least some knowledge of how Photoshop works. And the blur itself isn't so trendy that we will start to see it everywhere. (I hope. ;} )

Your right, it could get to be cliche, hopefully not too soon.

[sampheap]

It's a marvelous play with that tech :) But, hey, why dn ya open it up to this forum's doorrr?! I really appreciate to c ya tut here, too.;}

[Ammar Midani]

Jon, what windows are you running, is it true CS won't run on Win98?

Welcome to PST sampheap.

Ammar

[jonbalza]

I'm working on a tut for this, but we all know how timely I am with updating my site... Don't hold your breath, Sampheap. (But I'll get it done - eventually.)

I believe the answer to that is yes, it won't work on Win98. I'm about 95% sure on that one, though. A good place to look for that would be the Adobe forums - I know they've discussed it there, I just can't remember offhand.

[dperceful]

you would want the stability of NT file structure to run CS. the specs are brutal for low end users. If you haven't upgraded OS's by now I would recommend to do so. Not just for stability and a more up to date OS, but also Microsoft doesn't have to support 98/95 anymore...so any patches you want you will have to pay for. And besides, if we don't put bill gates' kids through school who will? :-)

here are the specs for CS from Adobe

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/systemreqs.html


oh yeah, awesome gradient blur effect. the school i work for is getting a copy of CS for me to prep teaching it in the spring, i know what i'll be doing over the break...trying to figure out that effect.

dperceful

[jonbalza]

Thanks for looking for that link. When I posted I was late for work, so I didn't have time to find it. I'm glad you like the effect. Don't worry, it will be my next tutorial on my site (eventually ;) ).

It looks like I might be teaching a class at my old college next semester. They don't have anyone available to teach the introductory PS class, so I might get that chance... I hope.

Anyway, what school do you work at? (I'm looking to going at to grad school next semester, so I'm looking around.)

[BabbleGrabble]

That's excellent news, Jon - I'm very happy they addressed that issue.

[White Mouse]

Jon... your Cylon/Knightrider
logo is hypnotizing..........
.............................
$} $} 8(

[Mindbender]

Well, you don't need CS for that sort of thing...

http://home.earthlink.net/~phantom1138/sigs/bounce.gif

I am curious about how it's implemented though. I know when I made that a while back it required some black voodoo blending mode techniques.

[jonbalza]

Nice effect. Didn't you post that a while ago? I think I remember it.

MB, you are correct in that you don't need CS for that sort of thing, as evidenced by the link in my first post. However, it does make it a lot easier. The part of the animation I was referring to was the gradient blur demonstrated in the aformentioned challenge.

I'm fairly sure I know of what blending mode techniques you are talking about, but the balzasteel animation required none of those, just a simple filter.

Unfortunately, I haven't had time to sit down at my computer and play recently, otherwise it would be up already.

knightrider... :lol: Thanks, White Mouse. What's really fun is putting it on your desktop so you can stare at it all the time.

[dperceful]

Originally posted by jonbalza
It looks like I might be teaching a class at my old college next semester. They don't have anyone available to teach the introductory PS class, so I might get that chance... I hope.

Anyway, what school do you work at? (I'm looking to going at to grad school next semester, so I'm looking around.)

I teach at a community college here in Tulsa. They have a few locations and I just pick up a class here or there if they need me to. Teaching is alot of fun, it really keeps your skills in check. If you do teach prepare for it to take more of your time than you thought. When I first started I thought it would be a breeze, which for the most part it was, but there is so much that goes into lessons, showing off students work, grading projects, seting up projects, etc. But it is all fun and I wouldn't give it up.

can't wait to see that tutorial.

dperceful

[The Black Dog]

where's that tut fo0lio

[jonbalza]

I haven't done the animation part yet, but here's the basics. (http://www.balzasteel.com/tutorials/gradientblur.shtml) The rest you could probably figure out. It's just a matter of doing it over again, changing one setting in the Lens Blur Dialog.

[The Black Dog]

:~ it would be nice if u could do this in ps7...i bet u could, but it sounds a lot easier in ps cs.8(

[Mindbender]

<thinking out loud>
Seems like you could construct a "faux-lens-blur" by making a blurred mask, selecting a layer, applying a gaussian or maybe a radial blur, then moving the mask and repeating on a new layer. If you just had duplicates of the text layer it would build the moving blur and you could add your color effects to the top of the whole stack.
</thinking out loud>

[jonbalza]

Except that was the point of the thread I linked to in the first post. It doesn't quite work that way, because it looks like a "grease-smeared lens" - I believe that was the quote.

The closest I have been able to get to reproducing the effect was what "unregistered" suggested in that thread... Using the gradient mask, and then pressing "blur more" a billion times, but even that doesn't correctly mimic a gaussian blur. To see what I mean by that, try this:

Make two circles/lines/whatever you want.
On the first one, perform 5 gaussian blurs at 2px each.
On the second one, perform 1 gaussian blur at 10px.

The difference is subtle, but it's there.

[BabbleGrabble]

This is sort of a sore subject for me, so please forgive me on this point of clarification. I came up with the repeated blur technique in that thread prior to "Unregistered" suggesting it - I challenged people to figure it out, which "Unregistered" managed to do (and in so doing, received credit for coming up with the idea). I hate to say such a stupid, meaningless thing, but I was there first. Z:g

[jonbalza]

Good point, I should give you credit where credit is due. I guess I was just put off by "unregistered's" tone in his initial post, and your post kind of lost attention because of that.

You do see the limitation to that method (even when using Blur More) that I pointed out in my previous post, right? I used Gaussian blur in that example, but only because the "2px x 5 times <> 10px x 1 time" is easier to see there. You get similar results if you replace the 2px gaussian blur with the "blur more".

[BabbleGrabble]

First of all, one last point of clarification - I came up with a repetition of the Blur filter; whereas "Unregistered" suggested using repetitions of the Blur More filter. The concept is the same, but my main point was that by using the smallest amount of blur possible repeated times, you can get a more accurate looking blur (to avoid the grease-smeared lens look). By the same token you could set G-Blur to something miniscule (like 0.1) and repeat it as needed.

Your example very effectively displays the difference in the blurs. Technically speaking, I figured that a G-Blur ought to save a lot of repetition by being able to reproduce 10 1px blurs in a single G-blur set to 10. As Raph pointed out in the other thread, using this method with a gradient mask results in a grease-smeared lens look.

Anyway, I don't need to get all into it all over again... I'm very pleased to hear that Adobe has improved on what I considered to be a limitation of the G-blur.

[bigcloud]

geek

Z:b2

[BabbleGrabble]

gawd, i know... someone needs to shut me the heck up

[strych9ine]

*knocks Babble's books out of his hands, gives him wedgie*

[BabbleGrabble]

http://www.osborn.bz/pst/9ineanim.gif http://www.osborn.bz/pst/9ineanim.gif http://www.osborn.bz/pst/9ineanim.gif http://www.osborn.bz/pst/9ineanim.gif http://www.osborn.bz/pst/9ineanim.gif http://www.osborn.bz/pst/9ineanim.gif http://www.osborn.bz/pst/9ineanim.gif http://www.osborn.bz/pst/9ineanim.gif

[strych9ine]

http://www.boomspeed.com/strych9ine/katrina-smilie.gifhttp://www.boomspeed.com/strych9ine/katrina-smilie.gifhttp://www.boomspeed.com/strych9ine/katrina-smilie.gifhttp://www.boomspeed.com/strych9ine/katrina-smilie.gifhttp://www.boomspeed.com/strych9ine/katrina-smilie.gifhttp://www.boomspeed.com/strych9ine/katrina-smilie.gifhttp://www.boomspeed.com/strych9ine/katrina-smilie.gifhttp://www.boomspeed.com/strych9ine/katrina-smilie.gif

[BabbleGrabble]

http://www.osborn.bz/pst/button.gif (http://www.strychnine.net/strychFrameset-44.htm)

[strych9ine]

http://www.boomspeed.com/strych9ine/Sphere.gif (http://www.geocities.com/babblegrabble/main.html)

[jonbalza]

Stop it you two, or I'll bust some moderating all over you both.

#0

[strych9ine]

http://www.boomspeed.com/strych9ine/2-shock.gif

[bigcloud]

Z:y

[strych9ine]

http://www.boomspeed.com/strych9ine/popecore1.jpg

[jonbalza]

Originally posted by strych9ine
http://www.boomspeed.com/strych9ine/2-shock.gif

She's hot. Stop it. THIS IS MY THREAD!

;}

[BabbleGrabble]

Sorry, Jon Z:o

I do have to say to 9ine though, talk about digging up the past... I forgot all about that site (I can't believe it's still up).


wow


Jon - I'll stop now. You're right - your thread. Feel free to mod my posts. }~

[strych9ine]

Trumpet quiz... *smacks books again, administers wet willy* ;}

[jonbalza]

Since we're off topic anyway...

9ine, remember that jewelry site? It still may happen. They just are doing a little thinking about what they want. It may end up being after Christmas, though, since they are kind of busy right now. You still interested?

[strych9ine]

Definitely Jon... e-mail me whenever things start setting into motion.

[Magikman]

$} $} and here I was soooo pround of myself for finding this thread. I got all wrapped up in the Gradient Blur action and how cool it is.
Then how quickly it it degraded:~
Nice to see that things haven't changed:lol: :~

[strych9ine]

I hold Babble responsible for this particular outburst of retardedness.

[BabbleGrabble]

Originally posted by strych9ine
I hold Babble responsible for this particular outburst of retardedness.

I've killed for less than that

[White Mouse]

I've dated worse then that...