I'm not one too much on that silly c-indexy thang, but, would like perhaps a wee more feedback on Just a Dot on the Map . I put a little more post work into the Apop than I normally would and thought it kinda neat, but, at current it's 65/92 and a c-index outta the gate @ 30?? What was NOT liked in this piece plez?? I may repost this w/o the Earth whatever ya'll think!!

Thanks!!

care to explain your process? .. render size, post-work size, etc

shooting from the hip .. I'd say, the details of the fractal are small, delicate .. and it looks, on the surface, that maybe you rendered @ 16x12, postworked and saved to that size .. knowing you, I don't think you did that, but that's what it looks like to me

in doing that (if you did) you beat down the delicacy of the fine detail so that it is no longer crisp and doesn't stand up to close inspection ...

if you DID work @ a higher rez, you can afford to do a 'sharpening' pass of your choosing .. try smart-sharpen in PS, and if necessary, SAVE-as-PSD, resize down, use "SAVE FOR WEB" from the file menu .. and take a look at it .. were you too heavy handed with 'sharpen' or not enough? ... was the fractal a 'player' in the first place, or did it have issues going in?


as far as creating a space-nebula .. I hear ya, I've thought the same thing when looking at flames. This particular composite isn't working for me ... I think if you ditched the earth .. created a foreground scene (of any pasture\tree motif) .. and did a setting sun-fade-to-black heavens .. and introduced a quarter of this into the sky ... you'd have a winner

and before you say "I can't do that" .. you CAN .. and you will ... ask Les for help

;)


also .. remember, Apo spits out 72DPI pixels .. and if you've ever had troubles signing your work, that's why _ low rez = blocky fonts

convert your original to 300DPI before any postwork .. you can do that by going into the 'resize' dialog and unchecking the [x]-resample image, change the 72 rez to 300, and click OK .. (you'll need to recheck that box to resize, normally, again)

this gives PS a lot more data to crunch when resizing .. arcs and curves benefit the most .. think of graph-paper with 1\8 inch squares, now mentally fill in the squares to make a circle, full squares only .. it's kinda chunky, yes? .. now picture graph-paper with 1/32 inch squares, fill in the circle ... smoother, yes?

Lauren asked Zeuek if he could up-the-rez, he said "why, you can just use PS"

I put my paw print on it

Colour gradient ... is probably the biggest culprit here.

Add to that ... the image looks a bit discordant.

I think, if I am recalling correctly here ... ok, checked ... Jaq is on the right track with the relative size of the earth in comparison to the rest of the 'universe' that is appearing in the galaxy. Some dimensionality is lost ... and it looks put together/assembled.

Perhaps, adding a final transform ... and then increasing or decreasing it's size will expand your universe a bit so all the objects are not as close together as you now have them. You know ... create some additional 'space'? ... if you understand me here.

And that is all very harshly said and worded. Forgive me for trying to provide a reality check.

Place the piece on your own desktop for a bit. You'll either start to see it's shortcomings your own self ... or ... you can chalk this one to differences in artistic sensibilities and taste.


Now then ... I really like the concept Randy, and have been in the place where you are at with this one. Attached to a creation.

The pbs spiralized scripts do a great job of creating a fairly decent looking nebula. Just checked a couple of them and they work in the 2.07 version. With some qualifications.

Much better to run it in the Apophysis205beta2zplus_cplus_r5 which is still available.


Keith has presented a more than workable solution should you wish to work with the existing flame. However, try another gradient would be my counsel on that.

Thanks dudes 'n' doll!!

I always render Apop @ 32x24 to PNG. The first thing I do in PS is create a new area 32x24 @ 300DPI and move the flame onto the new canvas...I do this on black as well as white (sometimes stuff looks cool on white) and then save both @ the same 32x24 to PNG---those I then use in my post work. Other than that I nabbed the Earth from stock.exchng and I dunno...copy & pasted it onto the flame. Dropped & dragged I guess you'd call it...workin' with layers maybe, again I dunno much about them layer do-dads!! I bought a PS7 how-to book and it's doin' just what I thought it would...collecting dust on my desk. Wish there was more time in the day, ya know!! Thanks again!!

Anybody else??

if you are rendering PNGs with a transparent background .. but dragging over to a black background (sometimes white) .. I think, from personal experience, the end result isn't quite the same as rendering WITH a color back .. it is possibly weaker

you can toggle PNG transparency in one of them there option tabs .. it's been a while since I've tested it (2.02) .. the only transparent ones I do anymore are the situations where I want it to be 'transparent' .. like the marbles I've done


as for PS books ..

(*Obi-Wan Voice*) .. use the library, Luke

my library was chock full of PS 6+7 books