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March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Wisps of Smoke and Steam March 2014 Free Giveaway
Attachment 101107
This month, Gary has used an open source program, Chaoscope, and a few other tools to produce photorealistic, detailed, high resolution PNG images—with transparency— of wafts and wisps of smoke and steam. Want to warm up an illustration of coffee or tea? No problem, import any of the eight PNGs, position and scale them. CAUTION: your drawings of beverages in the future might be very hot.
Download the files (don't forget the Bonus ones at the bottom of the page) and then show us how you make things hot!
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
These will be very useful :) I have a collection of coffee cups, take out cups, liquid toppers (that simulate different kind of liquids), steam and even straws and ice cubes that I've done over the years. These wisps of steam/smoke will make a nice addition. Thanks Gary!
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Thanks for those Gary, I always have trouble creating steam or wisps of smoke, they will come in very useful indeed.
Stygg
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Thanks for the hot coffee Gary :D
Stygg
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
@Frances, you're more than welcome!
@ Stygg—very nice illustration of a coffee cup! Why doesn't it reflect anything? Answer: It's porcelain, not plastic, Gary, you fool! :)
Seriously, Chaoscope is a challenge to learn, probably because you're not supposed to learn it, you're supposed to experiment with it. The first time I achieved ropy strands of trailing soft paths, I kept the equation and have been doing minor variations for years now.
Convincing-looking smoke has almost unlimited potential, especially when you combine these files with the Liquid Color Live Effect. A race car screeching to a halt, add a few circles and feather them, and make "magic" emanating from a magic wand, just tuck 'em away, I'll create more if the demand is there in the future, and enjoy!
My Best,
Gary
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I couldn't work out how you'd altered the coffee cup at first Francis, bit slow on the uptake and figuring out today but got there in the end. :D What you did with some labeling would make a nice coffee advert. Thanks for sharing Francis. Please excuse me for not cleaning the final image up(edges)
Stygg
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
If you folks haven't downloaded the Bonus files yet, I drew a coffee cup, the disposable sort, it's all vector (unlike the incense burner which is a bitmap render), and it's very easy to use the Mould tool to add a logo to my cup, your cup, or a flying saucer.
-g
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
@ Stygg I didn't alter Gary's coffee cup. I used one of my own :)
@ Gary: I have downloaded the bonus files and your coffee cup will be a nice addition to my colloection :)
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
it's a strangle strangely attractive program chaoscope... good work with the wisps... all smoke and no mirrors you might say [but only if you were me maybe]....
C'est bien
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Ahhhh great cup of coffee! Thanks for the wisps and cup, Gare! :) They're very useful!
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Oh.
Yeah.
I forgot to include smoke and dragons in my list of things to do with these image files.
Attachment 101124
Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all!
—Patty O'Furniture
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
wisps yes... but no time to draw Excalibur....
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gare
Seriously, Chaoscope is a challenge to learn, probably because you're not supposed to learn it, you're supposed to experiment with it. The first time I achieved ropy strands of trailing soft paths, I kept the equation and have been doing minor variations for years now.
Gary
I am little surprised you did not use particles for creating those instead.
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
you have some examples - be interesting to compare, in another thread - need a 3D renderer for particle systems I'm thinking
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Gary I found these very inspirational, though probably not in the way you intended...
what is not there is all around us....
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
I intended this month's Giveaway as a pure gift for artists as a resource. Sure I offered some input, but not so narrow as, "Here's a blue crayon. Now go draw something that is blue."
And I made some suggestions as for an appropriate time to use the smoke images, but your compendium in #15 is by far the most unimaginable (at least by me!) and inspired, creative use for them, sort of like seeing shapes and objects in the clouds whist gazing up at the sky on a grassy knoll, because artists are always broke and can't afford a proper holiday. ;).
No, no, very well thought-out and executed, thanks for sharing.
My Best,
Gary
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
theinonen
I am little surprised you did not use particles for creating those instead.
Hi theinonen—
I will try not to get too off-topic here; as Handrawn has mentioned, this might be an interesting topic of comparing methods, but not in this thread—Mike Bailey or Gidget might want to talk this through over on the 3D forum.
I used what I used to create this Giveaway for two reasons:
1. I'm not very accomplished at particle systems coding. Particle systems can add exciting animation to video, and I use Trapcode's Particular and ParticleIllusions for video, but rely an awful lot on presets. Particle systems exist within the space domain of 3D, you don't need an expensive modeling program to produce clouds and fire using particle systems, but you do need a program that "understands" how to map 3D parameters to 2D space (IOW, your monitor).
2. Chaoscope is free. I don't know of a free particle generation system, and I want to encourage Xaraists to go for the free stuff out there, give it a try, and see how it might work into compositions you have in mind.
Attachment 101135
Okay, second Giveaway this month: I've created four particle emission effects that come close to a smoke trail effect. I'm not as happy with the results as I am with the Chaoscope pieces, but I encourage a discussion here, even though this is a Giveaway thread and people are just supposed to download the free stuff and perhaps share their work here.
My Best,
Gary
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
thanks Gary
just to let you know the direction it is going: see attached - but it's for information only as I've decided to do the line art in raster brush [SAI] not xara - could use xara to colour it, but maybe raster airbrush... time will tell
thanks again for the images [high resolution is a relative term obviously , but horses for courses :D]
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I altered the coffee cup image some what and made it into an adv. of sorts with wisps. The wisps above the text Sensual are from a file I found lost in my many folders. I don't know who posted this image originally but it does work.
Stygg
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That is a very nice page layout, stygg!
Yeah, there's a Photoshop tutorial hanging out somewhere on the web that describes how to mess up fractal clouds to get a nice simulation of rising smoke, but 1.) That's Photoshop, not Xara—so you did us all a favor by explaining how to achieve the effect in Our Favourite Program, and 2.) It's a different effect than the Chaoscope stuff I offer. Chaoscope (by its name, naturally) offers a little Chaos theory behaviours to do its thing, but it also uses gradients which then move the highlights in unpredictable, but often pretty configurations.
You can do this sort of stuff, also, if you carefully manipulate a Blend in Xara using lines and then use the Mould tool This ain't smoke, but I thought it was interesting:
Attachment 101146
My Best,
Gary
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I did a similar technique sometime ago Gary using the Spray tool and Web to make these fish, the tails are a blend and then the mold tool to shape. The plants also are a blend and then shaped with mold tool. There's a couple of free downloads for use in Xara that I think get overlooked and they are quite useful, Spray,spxe and Grid master.
Stygg
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I had an idea.
By the time I got round to doing it... Well, I see that you've already posted matchsticks, Gary.
Oh well.
I'm still going to post mine!
It's a great gift, Gary. :-bd
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Your match stick looks a lot more photorealistic than mine, Rik. I didn't do the burnt paper/wood, nor did I char the match head.
Is that the candle you used to light my birthday cake last year?
And if so, I don't think you put it out completely.
-g
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
that is one realistic match Rik, and it is very effective in the background you have chosen, I would be proud of that myself if I had done it...
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Great burnt match, Rik!
I used a wisp for a firey effect on the cartoon dragon.
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Care to share, Maya, how you tinted the smoke?
Did you use the Contone feature?
-g
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Hi,
No. Since the wisp is a png I just used PS to quickly effect a color change on the wisp and create another png file. Any color can be used, and I was tempted to use the blue fire also as it really looks cool.
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gare
Your match stick looks a lot more photorealistic than mine, Rik. I didn't do the burnt paper/wood, nor did I char the match head.
Is that the candle you used to light my birthday cake last year?
And if so, I don't think you put it out completely.
-g
Thanks, Gary. That matchstick has done a lot of work. So, I thought it was time to put it out!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
handrawn
that is one realistic match Rik, and it is very effective in the background you have chosen, I would be proud of that myself if I had done it...
Thanks for your kind words, Steve. If you would be proud of it, then I'm doubly proud.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Crow Haven
Great burnt match, Rik!
THanks also, Maya.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Crow Haven
Hi,
No. Since the wisp is a png I just used PS to quickly effect a color change on the wisp and create another png file.
The same can be done with Contoning in Xara, one might argue that it's even faster than using Photoshop's Gradient Map, which is essentially the same thing in Xara.
1. Select the bitmap.
2. Press Ctrl+E to bring up the Colour Editor.
3. Probably the Light Contone will already be your choice in the drop down box at top. That's what you want. Set your color mixer thing there to HSV, and then move the Hue/Saturation indicator in the color field to a bright orange or whatever, the Dark Contone should be black and it already is if you check it from the drop-down.
Attachment 101154
It's news to some, bizarre to others to be able to remap a continuous tone photo (con-tone) and an underused feature in Xara. Admittedly, there's a lot to learn since the program reached maturity several years ago. You know me: you even helped me with one or two of my Photoshop books. But the company wants to LOAN you the program for what we used to pay retail to OWN a disk, and I'm getting to that point where I'd prefer to stay in one program when possible, witrhout compromising.
My Best,
Gary
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That's one way to do it. I didn't even use the PS gradients though, just the color variations mode. Then I liked the added depth and highlights when using the color dodge, which varied the depth of colors in the wisp more than just using one tone throughout the wisp. It's all good! :)
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Instead of using those files directly as PNG images with an alpha mask, there is another possibility to get rid of the alpha channel and then use them itself as a mask.
It opens up many interesting paths to experiment with.
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
This thread is great! There are so many different ways and inspirations, thanks for everyone. On the weekend would like to give a go for some tries
Quote:
Originally Posted by
stygg2003
and Grid master.
Stygg the others I knew but what is that Grid master? Those fishes are really very creative ones
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Here is quick example with one of my all time favourite programs, Compo.
If the smoke trails need to pop out more, then would have been as simple as sharpening the blend mask.
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
josephine baker [from the 'cleopatra' wisp]
bitmap trace and vibrations filter [mehdi]
[just to keep Gary happy I did the bitmap trace in xara - although for this sort of tracing inkscape is less messing about - xara tend to give you either too many objects [program crawls or sleeps] or too few]
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
Quote:
Originally Posted by
handrawn
[just to keep Gary happy I did the bitmap trace in xara
Keeping me happy is beyond the capability and time constrains of most people, but I'm glad you made the effort, Steve. ;)
Me, I use Vector Magic when I need a critically accurate trace. My approach to these tutorials and giveaways is I make the presumption that everyone is not rich, and therefore let's hunker down and try to find an artistically acceptable (if not excellent) solution to a graphics challenge within Xara. So I recommend the Bitmap Tracer in Xara, which is at least as good as Corel's and the other programs that include a tracer within the program, essentially for free. "Free", I've discovered, is a popular motivational point here in tg.
At worst, you're obliged to look somewhere for the solution you seek, but often bring that solution (such as the Chaoscope wisps above the Xara drawing I did and offer in the Bonus files) into Xara for finally composting work.
At best, you might not find what you need in Xara, however you stumble across something else that's interesting and usable for a different project.
I believe the solution to a visual idea you have in your head shouldn't be limited to brand loyalty. I was loyal to the Ford Motor Company for decades until they burned me (no, not in a Pinto, but figuratively), and this loyalty, or business relationship, or whatever you call being loyal to a company who could care less about you as an individual...was over.
That said, I don't use Xara daily to draw artwork; I do perhaps once a month, but it's really the hub of my design projects because Xara is more than a vector drawing program. I can export splines to modeling programs which have notoriously crappy drawing tools compared to Xara, I've used Xara in the field as a book production tool—the acid test for this program because not one Macintosh-based Illustrator person in Production at Macmillan or McGraw-Hill has ever complained about colour accuracy or the ease with which they insert a Xara-generated EPS file into an InDesign document. And I use Xara exclusively to create logos and labels for materials I map in modeling programs:
Attachment 101159
The point of the Giveaway this month was to provide folks with a quick way to add an effect to a drawing, a time-saver, if you will.
If you extend your art toolbox to include other programs that "play nice" with Xara, it's all good, and I get to keep my job as host of XaraXone for the foreseeable future. :)
My Best,
Gary
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I wanted to get in on the action too. Well I tried anyway and I hope you like it. I thought about tinting the smoke but decided against it.
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
That's terrific, Larry. I owned that incense burner until it got lost in my transit back up North from Manhattan in 1991. It meant a lot to me, the ornate claw feet and the slightly flying saucer look of the body, and mostly because it was a gift from my parents.
In later years, they confessed that it was what they considered a piece of garbage they discovered in the basement of their first house, and had the space to pack it away.
Needs more work as a model, but that's not your problem. I love the Middle East motif and what you've done with the shadows!
Three thumbs up!
-g
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
one more for the road then, before work consumes again my aching waking hours
'you looking at me... pal ?'
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
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Re: March 2014 Giveaway - Wisps of Smoke and Steam
All the wisps and smoke files Gary have been great and very useful for lots of objects as members have shown and tinting them via contone excellent, however I could not resist as handrawn didn't but see a shape in some of the wisps I was using. I saw this sort of dennison of the deep here, wouldn't like this coming at me. :D
Stygg