PErhaps one of
the most 'special' features known to Project Dogwaffle is a brush
system made of particles: Optipustics.
You can paint with them just like with regular brushes, but it will
generate not just one trail of paint along your brush stroke. Instead,
dozens and even hundreds of particles are shooting out of the mouse and
all direcgtions, subject to color changes, gravity and other oddities.
Learn the basics of Optipustics here: Fractal
Particles
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Exploring
More Options
Start by launching the particle brush system from the Window menu:
Window
> Optipustics panel...
or press the keyboard shortcut: ' i ' for 'incredibly addictive'
or perhaps it was 'incredibly long hours of fun ahead'...
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In the Optipustics panel, go straight to the presets (Settings button
in bottom-right)
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If you've never painted with particle brushes, try the Ginieffect
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Just one brush stroke from lower left to upper right, and here's the
result:
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Ok, so now we're
intrigued, or perhaps hooked. Time to try something more 'natural'.
Select the preset for 'Grass': Paint around and watch the grass grow
right out of your mouse under the cursor.
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 You'll
notice that the grass is dark on the bottom half, has some shorter and
other longer helms of grass, perhaps as a result of sudden moves with
the mouse (speed or mouse direction dependency) and also slight
variations in directions (randomness). They start thick and get
thinner, change color against a gradient, and gravity pulls them down...
Let's change a few parameters to get a cleaner behaviour:
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Remove the
gravity: set it to zero
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Now the grass doesn't hang down.
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next, remove the
dark shading: uncheck the Shading box.
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and reduce the size
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or change the style altogether from shrinking lines (which start at a
size controled by the Size slider value) to plain lines (Line)
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Now it's much thinner sets of grass, almost like hair, and no darkening
to the bottom half.
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Straighten up the particle paths, remove any randomness: set it to zero
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Make the particles live longer: increase the Life span
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Now they're living longer, and in straight lines. No gravity to pull
them down, and no randomchanges or erratic changes due to mouse
direction and speed of movement.
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You can change other
parameters, too, such as the initial and terminal velocity. If you
increase their vaues the particles will travel farther in their life
span.
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Keep painting around that center a few more seconds and you can get it
all covered with particle trails.
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Ok, here's a set
that will work nicely. Notice the parameter values used if you want to
do the same. (Click the image to enlarge)
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click to enlarge
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Color
Sobel Edge detect
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Here's a neat effect, using the Color Sobel Edge Detect filter
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Here's a result.
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And another (with ample of other filters such as Zoom Blur applied
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Here's with many hundreds of particles
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And with some Lens Flares added on top
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Experiment with changing so parameters. For example, add a little
randomness. And zoom blur - it's a great way to create some sort of
explosion effect or cosmic blast. Never mind the initial colors. You
can always remap it to a different gradient.
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Here's the same inverted and remapped to a different gradient. Plus,
some additional Mystic vision, which sort of combines light diffusion
and zoom blur.
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Add some more novae lights:
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or lens flares bloom.
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Of course you can use such images as a starting point for many other
compositions. Here's an example: cosmic eye 2:
click to enlarge
copyright notice:
all images are copyright (2007) TheBest3D.com or their respective
owners. No direct linking please, as it kills the server bandwidth. If
you wish to use our image(s) please contact us.
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