Here's some goodies! - Digital Marbling

[michelle]

Hello everyone! Yes, it has been awhile since I've kicked around on the web. Real life got in the way of my virtual one and I'm just now getting back into the swing of things. I've got alot of catching up to do.
I really like the new forums here! The Painter forum at i/us never seemed to take off, but hopefully this one will be different under Athena's superb leadership.
I know it's been a bummer with all of the problems Painter has had over the past few years, but it's still an outstanding creative tool. I've had a love/hate relationship with the program (it's trashed my machine more than once) but I keep coming back to it. I do hope Corel puts some time, money, & effort into Painter 7. And with that said, on with the goodies!

My first offering is, of course, near and dear to my heart - emaps. Those of you who have the Painter 5 & 6 Wow! books at home already know this. You can find a couple of my tutorials in the special effects section and also some of my custom emaps on the CD.
Here is a set of new emaps that were used in a different way. I like creating marbled textures and backgrounds with my emaps. The results are much better than using solid colors. I'll send Thomas the emaps to put in the Painter Swap Shop. You can use the emaps that are in the default pattern library for now. To marble in Painter, you first apply Effects:Esoterica:Blobs to a blank canvas. In the Blobs dialog, select Pattern in the Fill Blobs With drop down box. Make sure you have an emap selected in the Patterns Palette. Hit OK. I apply blobs several times until the canvas is filled. I usually start with the default sizes and decrease the sizes on the last few applications. Next, I use Effects:Esoterica:Apply Marbling. The image below was created with a modified Bouquet pattern. (I have several custom marbling presets if anyone is interested.) Just remember to be patient with Apply Marbling. It does take a bit of time to process and you may need to play around awhile before you hit on something you like, but it's worth it. It's much cleaner than marbling in real life! Anyway, I made a quickie button out of the marbled image using the Bevel World plug-in. Well, that's it for now. I've got to run!

-Michelle

[Jinny Brown]

smorg,

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll think about them but likely will change the page entirely since it doesn't appeal to me much.

Your ideas are good, though, and thanks for taking time to share them. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Jinny Brown
http://www.pixelalley.com
________________________

[michelle]

Don't forget that you can use e-maps in the Liquid Metal Dynamic Layer plug-in when you select Clone Source in the Map drop down box. Just make sure that you have the e-map selected in the Patterns Palette and no other clone source is active (other than the file you are currently working in) by looking in File:Clone Source. While you are working with Liquid Metal you can select different e-maps in the Pattern Library to automatically see the results. Also, you can apply reflections to any pen/brush stroke with Effects:Apply Surface Texture like I explained above. All you have to do is create a new layer by clicking the little down arrow in the Layer Palette. On the new layer, draw with whatever brush or pen. (The Smooth Ink Pen works well...) To apply the reflection, just select the Layer Mask in the Using: drop down box in the Apply Surface Texture dialog box. This is the trick to get that hand-written metallic/gel type. I'll show some examples later...

Happy Mother's Day!!!

-Michelle

P.S. There are even more ways to use e-maps but that will have to wait for another day..

[paulo]

Michelle,

Congratulations on your work! I'm really intereste in your "several custom marbling presets". I never had any luck doing my own.

Would be so kind as emailing them to me?

paulo.purim@avalon.sul.com.br

Thank you!

Paulo

[michelle]

Hello everyone! Yes, it has been awhile since I've kicked around on the web. Real life got in the way of my virtual one and I'm just now getting back into the swing of things. I've got alot of catching up to do.
I really like the new forums here! The Painter forum at i/us never seemed to take off, but hopefully this one will be different under Athena's superb leadership.
I know it's been a bummer with all of the problems Painter has had over the past few years, but it's still an outstanding creative tool. I've had a love/hate relationship with the program (it's trashed my machine more than once) but I keep coming back to it. I do hope Corel puts some time, money, & effort into Painter 7. And with that said, on with the goodies!

My first offering is, of course, near and dear to my heart - emaps. Those of you who have the Painter 5 & 6 Wow! books at home already know this. You can find a couple of my tutorials in the special effects section and also some of my custom emaps on the CD.
Here is a set of new emaps that were used in a different way. I like creating marbled textures and backgrounds with my emaps. The results are much better than using solid colors. I'll send Thomas the emaps to put in the Painter Swap Shop. You can use the emaps that are in the default pattern library for now. To marble in Painter, you first apply Effects:Esoterica:Blobs to a blank canvas. In the Blobs dialog, select Pattern in the Fill Blobs With drop down box. Make sure you have an emap selected in the Patterns Palette. Hit OK. I apply blobs several times until the canvas is filled. I usually start with the default sizes and decrease the sizes on the last few applications. Next, I use Effects:Esoterica:Apply Marbling. The image below was created with a modified Bouquet pattern. (I have several custom marbling presets if anyone is interested.) Just remember to be patient with Apply Marbling. It does take a bit of time to process and you may need to play around awhile before you hit on something you like, but it's worth it. It's much cleaner than marbling in real life! Anyway, I made a quickie button out of the marbled image using the Bevel World plug-in. Well, that's it for now. I've got to run!

-Michelle

[michelle]

Hi again! I thought I'd upload a quick example of how the e-maps I showed in my original post can be used for 3D looking text. I used the Dynamic Text tool to enter the text. Then I used Effects:Apply Surface Texture to apply the reflection. Make sure you have the e-map selected in the Patterns Palette. In the Apply Surface Texture dialog box, select the Text Mask in the Using: drop down box and move the Reflection slider to 100%. You also have to increase the Softness slider to round the edges. I usually like to run through the effect a second time without the reflection and with the Invert box checked. Decrease the softness by about half. The last thing I did for these examples was add a drop shadow. When I get the time to work on it, I plan on posting detailed tutorials. For now, though, I'll just post quick tips and goodies every so often. Happy Painting!

Michelle

[Jinny Brown]

smorg,

Thanks for the compliment. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

My site has been "Under Construction" since December '99 and consists of something over 125 pages. It will always be "Under Construction" and I need to change that opening page since it is misleading and probably gives the impression that the site is fairly new and doesn't have much content.

The reason that page is set up the way it is... is that I still haven't.. even after all this time.. settled on a final home page design. My original idea was too elaborate and not practical due to file size constraints (for fast loading). The current page loads too slowly as it is and leaves the viewer staring at a dark and gloomy page for too long before the central image pops up (unless, I suppose, one has a fast connection).

Thanks for commenting on it so kindly, though. My imagination is far too active for the time needed to manifest the ideas that keep running through my head. Darn! Just when I really need to do something specific, I draw a blank. Ain't life grand? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

When you have some time, click on the links to the various sections of PixelAlley. I hope you'll enjoy the visit.

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Jinny Brown
http://www.pixelalley.com
_______________________

[This message was edited by Jinny Brown on May 11, 2001 at 12:40.

[This message was edited by Jinny Brown on May 11, 2001 at 12:42.]

[michelle]

Hey, how do you upload more than one attachment per post?

[Jinny Brown]

Hi,

Michelle,

Thanks for your new contribution! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Everyone,

In case anyone wants to create their own e-maps, it's very easy and I've posted a new tutorial on my website:

http://www.pixelalley.com/tutorials/...se-e-maps.html

Also, there are three other new tutorials (all marked NEW with the month) posted in April and May at:

http://www.pixelalley.com/tutorials/tuthome.html

Hope you all enjoy them. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Jinny Brown
http://www.pixelalley.com
_______________________

[smorg]

Jinny, that's one of the cleverest "under construction" pages I've seen and I've seen a lot.

You have a great imagination. Can't wait to see your site.