Self portrait

[jamesmc]

James...

a very interesting touch...

can you explain it a lil more?

geo.

I can, but don't want to hijack Alan's thread. What part were you interested in? I can post in another thread.

[GeoBen]

in the skin tones comment:

you are using a fractal plasma transparency as a bump map. the trans does not seem to be xara color option generated. it is too irregular and lacks the typical xara pattern signature, which often keeps me from using it.

i would be interested in how this came about. I ask as i am working on a project that requires just such irregular color patterning for the surface of a flower petal.

you can pm me, if you like.

thanks,
geo.

[alanstancliff]

Hi James,

I hope you can post an answer to GeoBen's question somewhere.

Hi Ray,

You gave me an idea. You'll see what I mean in a day or two.

Regards,

Alan

[jamesmc]

On using the fractal plasma with skin tones. It requires the use of transparencies and feathering. Keep that in mind with each use of the fractals.

I work in layers, so each fractal added is done on a different layer and not necessarily applied to a whole face or other areas. Sometimes it is just applied to an area.

In the image below you see swatches of Fractal Plasma. Some are one layer and others are combined in layers to show the effect.

On the right hand side I borrowed the image and placed the Original in the center right for comparison. On the top right is two possible versions of red Fractal Plasma applied. The one on the left has some transparency. The one of the top right has transparency and feather applied.

The middle left shows the effects of a green and red Fractal Plasma with transparency and feathering applied.

The bottom set of images show a flesh tone applied. The base is a green/red Fractal combination heavily feathered and high transparency. I used the additional flesh tone which was also heavily feathered and giving high transparency to make the area around the temple darker with some bump effect.

By the way, using the bump map plug-in with Fractal Plasma works well too.

On the left, the top left labeled "A" shows red and green combined over the cartoonish flesh tone.

The middle labeled "B" shows a feathered flesh tone over the "A" combination.

The bottom labeled "C" displays a plain red heavily feathered and heavy transparency over the "B" swatch.

Now you can use one Fractal Plasma effect to achieve an effect or can use a combination. There is a limiting factor because of feather size and transparency. That is, you will eventually run out of transparency levels the more layers you have.

If you look at a real person's face, you will notice imperfections of the skin tones. Some show more vein (the green) and some show more red (the arterial supply giving more color.) Without drawing veins and blushed areas that show the petichial splotching, Fractal Plasma adds a bit of realism.

Some people have thin skin that shows lots of splotching, others don't.

Just experiment.