September 2013 Tips and Tricks: Creating a Space Beacon!

[Gare]

Brilliant!

I was hoping we'd get variations on this here!

-g

[stygg2003]

Hi Gary,
I have already uploaded an image of the Space Beacon but I was intrigued by the nebulae cloud you included in your image, software obtainable from Flamingo Pear but being a skinflint I thought I'd try to imitate the cloud image just using Xara, so I made a shape, did some slicing, fractal cloud fill with the colours I thought closest then created a bitmap copy and altered using the brightness level tool, a bit of feathering and transparency. Not to bad considering completely free

Stygg

[Gare]

Hey Stygg—

I salute you for your desire to learn how to create a whole scene and not just the 3D plus symbol.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, a starfield can be generated by creating noise in a bitmap, and then using modifications such as slight blurring and Levels to add a touch of authenticity to your work. Truth be known, I'm not sure how active Flaming Pear's website is, and I think but I'm not sure that I bought the bundle almost 10 years ago. After Effects can generate a starfield, as can Particle Illusions, but probably the easiest way is to cop a photo from the Hubble website and if you're dead-set on vector art, you auto-trace the photo. I used Vector Magic in the attached file because Xara's internal tracing engine was generating too many shapes, or too few.



As far as the nebula clouds go, your instincts are good. I created a rectangle over my composition, used Fractal Clouds fill, made the "outside color black and the inside a medium blue, then used Screen transparency mode, Elliptical shape and feathered the edges a little and repositioned the tiling fractal until it sort of blended in.

My Best,

Gary

[wizard509]

I have tried several times to make a suitable star field using only xara but succeeded only once. Most of the time I get way too many stars. I don't know why but that seems to be way difficult. I'll have to try your method Gare, although truth be known I already have but somewhere I missed the mark. Or didn't like the result I was getting enlarging the bitmap noise. I don't know but it seems a snotty problem, at least for me. I've tried using the gimp and Photoshop too but I hate using those and didn't get very far there either, so I guess it's just me. Yours looks very good Gare even if some of the stars seem a little too large. Maybe this concept might make a good challenge. I'll have to think on that one.

[stygg2003]

Thanks for that Gary, the method you used for the nebula cloud looks pretty good to me, I will have a try and recreate your steps, yours is definitely better than my attempt, the colour and blending in far far better.

Stygg

[stygg2003]

Adding the cosmos fractal you posted Gary certainly makes a difference overall to the image.

Stygg

[Gare]

Okay, Stygg, your next assignment is to highlight that planet in the centre of the image. Shouldn't one side be edge illuminated, or have I missed your artistic point (which I am subject to doing on even days of the month).

My Best,

Gary

[csehz]

Finally decided that this frozen bacon from the fridge will not crash that peaceful view, that is why entering only to the picture and will be melt in the stratosphere The stars I made with brush in Xara

[stygg2003]

I like that csehz, well done. Do you mean beacon or bacon

Stygg

[stygg2003]

Okay, Stygg, your next assignment is to highlight that planet in the centre of the image. Shouldn't one side be edge illuminated, or have I missed your artistic point (which I am subject to doing on even days of the month).

My Best,

Gary

Gary I've moved the planet to the centre and altered some transparencies to give an edged look to the planet as the light is coming from the nebula, should have picked that up in the first place.

Stygg