Quote Originally Posted by stygg2003 View Post
...without my computer going into egg timer oblivion! and then lose all the work I have done, another
I learned and used the "trick" of making a bitmap copy of largish bitmaps that have any Live Effect attached when I did a candy cane illustration two years ago for Gary Priester's end-of-year Show. I had a really nice, diffuse snow field the canes were sticking into, and even with a Quad Core at the time, my machine was melting down because of the processing overhead involved in holding the effect as a dynamic one. My personal lesson was/is: when you're certain you have an effect the way you want it, it doesn't have to be dynamic (editable, reversible) any longer.

If you or anyone else is interested in a collection I've made of seamless tiling fills (not precisely suitable for Emboss, but still interesting, I put some up on TalkGraphics about a year ago:some of Bouton's seamless tiles.

I encourage experimentation.
I encourage taking artistic risks.
I encourage large, non-sequentially numbered bills in an unmarked bag at my doorstep.

My Best,
Gary