Reply With QuoteGroup 2, sets 3 and 4.
New Map Objects
Ok Just playing around with some new Solar bodies and was looking for some input.
These are very simple objects that can be mass produced quickly for multiple solar system builds. What bothers me is that I was aiming for a coronal effect and I'm not sure I pulled it off.
I'm uploading these in two groups of two sets of images each. Each set is basically identical And intended to show the different effects that I can use to make them. Please critique them and let me know if you have a preference.
Group one. Sets one and two.
Group 2, sets 3 and 4.
Take image 1 and 4(out of 8 total) and blur the circular line that forms the body. 5 and 8 are the right level of blurriness(perhaps a bit to much) but they miss the "gas" that makes 1 and 4 (and 6-7) pop.
Not sure what software you are using, but a displacement map applied from a cloud/solid noise layer might also make it appear that the surface is constantly shifting via flares.
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
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Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Here is a picture of a star taken from the new scientist website here.
The corona is not quite a circular fade to the edges, you can see it's got more of a filligree effect. I had a quick ten minutes on photoshopt to try to recreate it, the result wasn't great but I reckon with a couple of hours work it's possible to get the knack of it.
I used GIMP.
I have 4 layers.
1st layer: (Gas) Color with a Gaussian Blur set at 40.
2nd layer: (Surface) Cloud/Plasma then desaturate it.
3rd layer: (Back Glow) Black to white Circular gradient with he layer set at 50% transparent.
4th layer: (Background) Fill Black with HSV Noise.
The Goal is to make them look reasonably nice and somewhat unique, while still being able to keep whole build time for the entire system down to about an hour apiece.
Last edited by David; 11-02-2008 at 02:56 PM. Reason: typo's, evil evil typo's.
Originally Posted by ravells
I was playing around the other day and made a sun. I created my base image with a orange->yellow gradient, blurred and then use a heavy noised displacement map a few times to simulate the flare effect. I did not do the noise overlay (which is something I like about yours David) or the coronal flare, but the overall effect was still rather nice for the 5 minutes I put into it.)
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
If you want the 'filligree' effect, then you only need to do it once and reuse (recolour it) - all I did was used the smudge tool with a brush which had lots of pointy edges. to draw out the flares.
Not that I like Space stuff that much (in terms of me trying to do it or RPG's), but I was bored and whipped this up in about 15 minutes or so. I included the xcf file in case anyone wanted to take a gander....
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
hmmm... needs to have some swirlyness to it
maybe try like making a layer of one color (maybe behind the whole thing) and getting a selection the size/shape of the star or whatever, and filling it with a color, then removing the selection, setting the mode to dissolve, merge it down to a blank regular layer, gaussian blur it some, then use Filters--> Distorts--> iWarp on it? that could add some cool swirls and such to it.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone," it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."
-Lewis Carrol: Through the Looking Glass
If you were being true to real life then the star would look barely at all like any of these. If you look at our sun through a solar filter then what is almost shocking is the uniformity of it. It also has a really crisp edge to it, so much so that amateur astronomers use full eclipses to get the occlusion necessary to photograph the solar flares. These pro astro pictures are using sensors that can determine the sub structure of the suns to give the swirling patterns.
Here is a photo I took of the partial solar eclipse of this year.
http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2635
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