Topic awaiting preservation: ****August 2005 Sig Contest - Discussion**** (Page 1 of 2)

Yak yak yak

Cool.. nice topic. Have some ideas already

--Amerasu--

Great topic DL, ~fires up PS~
Btw,
I noticed on the link that outcydr provided (to a google search for "August big sig") Sig Contest - JULY Winners for August there was a sig for Shiiizzzam made by nimraw. This got me to thinking, always a dodgy thing, I searched for Sig Contest and found 14 out of 20 examples, from the Asylum on the first page! I think our "Big Sig" seems rather unique.
Tao

I've got an idea... with any luck the end result will bear a faint resemblance to it.

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

*Fires up MSPAINT*

Wait... Oh yeas, I do have an idea, pixel time

I do hope no one takes the piss this month

___________________
Emps

The Emperor dot org | Justice for Pat Richard | FAQs: Emperor | Site Reviews | Reception Room

if I went 'round saying I was an Emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

Well, now it looks like it needs some anti aliasing =)

(Edited by Ensellitis on 08-04-2005 05:56)

Just dropping this in here to see if it looks OK...

Of course, it's silly, doesn't really make any sense, and is poorly executed, but oh well.



[Edit: OK, that bugs me the way the plug just pops right back in again. I think we need another brief delay before that happens.]

(Edited by Suho1004 on 08-05-2005 16:43)

[Edit: Yes, that's better. I think I want to give the plug a few more frames of swinging animation (not like it's going to increase the file size anyway), but it ain't happening tonight.]

(Edited by Suho1004 on 08-05-2005 16:53)

OK, added three more frames to the swinging plug animation... not perfect, but good, I think. This one's going into the contest thread.

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

Suho1004: I like it - how about making it smaller (although I'm sure youa re more used to the opposite idea ) and pos. go for some kind of Heath Robinson affair where the filling causes the emptying to be triggered and being empty causes the filling to start - pos. some kind of float/ballcock (insert double entendre) and a couple of levers or something?

___________________
Emps

The Emperor dot org | Justice for Pat Richard | FAQs: Emperor | Site Reviews | Reception Room

if I went 'round saying I was an Emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

One thing that bugs me is that the water seems to simply vanish once it hits the bottom of the letters - it doesn't continue flowing down the exit pipe.

It's also a little strange that the fill pipe flows into the middle of the letters - it wouldn't be able to fill to the top in that case.

It's quite nifty, but those two bits are buggin me

Also, when the plug is out, the water drains out of the letters, but it should keep flowing from the faucet through the letters directly to the drain, then fill up the letters when the plug is back in.

Emps: interesting idea with the float... I'll have to think about that.

DL: I agree with your second point. That actually bugged me a bit, too, but I wanted the pipe to be part of the "S." It doesn't really make sense the way it is right now. I suppose one way to get around this would be to have the water come in through the top of the 4 on the other end. I don't really like the idea of having the pipe feed right into the middle of the S.

As for the water vanishing, well, yeah, that's pretty much a result of the simplistic nature of it.

Wish I had gotten this feedback before I dropped it into the contest thread. There's still plenty of time left in the month, though, so I'll see if I can't come up with a more aesthetically pleasing version. It will probably involve a more complex animation, which will require a smaller size to keep the file size down, so I guess that covers everything.

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

briggl: Missed your post the first time around. I guess you posted while I was typing.

What's happening is that the water flows in until everything is filled up, then it stops, then the water drains, then the water starts flowing again. I'm guessing this is confusing because there's no valve or other control device on the pipe.

What I had originally envisioned was a water tank that had a "cutout" (ie, a transparent glass section) in the shape of SUHO1004. Things changed in the implementation, though, so I came up with something that doesn't quite make sense on a number of levels. What I think I'm going to do is start over and try to implement what I had originally envisioned, incorporating Emps ideas for various mechanisms to control water flow and drainage.

Which means: end of development on the Craptacular Liquid Suho, Version 1.0 (CLS v1.0). Stay tuned for CLS v2.0. I'll drop it in here when it's done and try to be a little less impatient waiting for feedback.



[Edit: But I guess there's no harm in just leaving CLS v1.0 in the contest thread, right?]

[Edit: And, dang it, I have another idea, except this one is more subtle and elegant... grrr, me and my big mouth.]

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

(Edited by Suho1004 on 08-07-2005 05:58)

(Edited by Suho1004 on 08-07-2005 05:59)

Moth's is sexy.

Moth, that reminds me of one of those liquid filled stickers. I had heaps of them when I was a youngin.

quote:

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Moth's is sexy.

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blushes... Thank you!


Life's too short to put up with bad art.

someone (F1) had better piss-write their name or I'll be sorely disapointed



(Edited by JKMabry on 08-09-2005 07:19)

Sorry, no piss writing this month or next. Just a little too busy.

Aw, no piss writing? There go my plans for the weekend.

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

Amerasu - love them both, but that first one is just gorgeous =)

Testing an idea before I submit it.



Yep. Gotta new entry.

(Edited by Moth on 08-10-2005 07:20)

Oh well, there goes my other idea.

(btw, the whole thing seems to jiggle a bit at the end there...)

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

Looks like you'll have to go for the piss-writing, Suho


(really - someone, PLEASE do a piss-writing sig. please?)

Amerasu: First sig is awesome! Reminds me of the old mario bros. when you're in the water levels (I really don't know why, it just does)

Suho,

Go ahead and do yours also. There is nothing in the rules against two participants having the same idea. In a prior 70's style contest, Mahqua and I both submitted lava lamp sigs. There was no problem. We both thought of the idea independantly of each other. If you say you had the idea too, then that's good enough for me.

The jiggle is the final ripple reaching the edges of the sig. A necessary concession. I wanted it slower but file size and logistics made it too much of an effort. I would need over sixty frames to make it graceful.

The sig has 27 frames. Originally, 28 frames but I dropped the first as the jump from last frame to first frame was too jarring. Each needed its own displacement map so 27 separate displacement maps. Then transparency for each layer. It drove me crazy.

If you get one working, let me know how you did it. If there is an easier way I would surely love to here it.


Life's too short to put up with bad art.

(Edited by Moth on 08-10-2005 21:22)

OK, Moth, since I've got the go ahead from you, I think I'll give it a shot tonight. I haven't thought about how I'm going to do it, but I will see if there isn't an easier way than separate displacement maps for each frame. Oh, and the version I had in my head is a bit different, but that doesn't really mean anything (we all know how adept I am at reproducing what's in my head).

DL: I'm sure (i.e., hoping) that someone will step up to the plate on the piss writing sig.

(Edited by Suho1004 on 08-11-2005 01:59)

quote:

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Oh, and the version I had in my head is a bit different, but that doesn't really mean anything

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Hmmm... and I thought I was the only one who thinks things that don't really mean anything!

Well...just becuase you're better at it than most, doesn't mean you're the only one



BTW - your entry is not cheating at all. that kind of sig is often less likely to win a contest (though not at all necessarily), but is in every way a perfectly legitimate sig, and therefore a perfectly legitimate entry.

Now if you could manage to animate it....

Hey there, it's me again, the hack.

So I was giving the ripple sig a try, and I realized something: I suck at Photoshop!

Yeah, um, I've never actually used a displacement map before, but I figured, hey, how hard could it be?

Pretty friggin hard, apparently. Either that or I am just pretty friggin stupid. Most likely the latter.

I know how displacement maps are supposed to work (at least I thought I knew how they are supposed to work). Light values mean negative displacement, dark values mean positive displacement, right? And the displacement should, you know, be proportional to the actual displacement map, right? For example, if I have a little circle of white on neutral gray, it should produce a circle of displacement and not, oh, I don't know, some stupid oval shape, right? I've tried fiddling with the horizontal and vertical scale values, and these have zero effect on the displacement (which is another thing that baffles me).

I read Steve's displace tutorial, and I'm pretty sure I understand it--no, scratch that. I obviously don't understand it, because if I did, this would be working.

So, any help on how the hi diddly doo to get displacement maps to work would be appreciated. Now I'm going to go continue my temper tantrum in private, if you don't mind.

[Edit: Or maybe it's just not possible to do what I want to do. I can see it in my mind, but making that a reality is most likely beyond my meager PS skills. Now I remember why I stopped making graphical sigs--they never turn out to be anywhere near as cool as I had imagined. Yeah, that's a weak excuse, but I can be an excellent defeatist when I put my mind to it.]

(Edited by Suho1004 on 08-11-2005 11:11)

in general, displacement is not that complicated, and I've always been successful with what I learned from Steve's tutorial.

If you want to get into specifics....well, then I lose all concept of what goes on.

WJ wrote some great stuff on the real technicalities of it all - I'll see if I can find a link to any of that for you..

{{edit -
this should keep you busy for a while -
http://tech-slop.serveit.org/tob.shtml



(Edited by DL-44 on 08-11-2005 14:01)

OK, this post originally had a bunch of whiny garbage in it, but I just tried it again and for some reason it is working now. So, I don't know what's up with that.

Thanks for the link to WJ's stuff. I'll have to give that a good read when I'm more coherent. But at least I have things working now, so I should be able to make some progress.

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

(Edited by Suho1004 on 08-11-2005 14:54)

haven't messed with photoshop for a long while.
i'd like to figure out how the water drop thing works too,
you guys. the links are getting me going, but i'm not sure i'm following
very well.

in the meantime i have been playing around trying to get back up to speed.
here's what i have so far:

I quite like that outcydr. Looks really good so far - it's simple and effective. If you work to smooth the transitions it will look excellent.

thanks DL and redroy

--Amerasu--

Basically, the displacement maps used are a set of expanding rings. I was not as involved as the maps at tech-slop. My maps were black, white, and a little grey. Read on, if you dare...

The rings were made by using a 256 x 256 canvas filled with black. On a separate layer, I made a white bar across the top of the canvas, with the marquee tool and the paint bucket. I then went over to ImageReady and created an animated gif.

First frame - white bar on top. Second frame - moved bar to the bottom of canvas with the nudge tool. Tweened between the frames - to create a smooth animation of a white bar descending down the canvas. Saved animated gif. Closed. Then reopened in ImageReady. Jump back to Photoshop and each frame is displayed as a separate layer. Applied Polar Coordinates and Guassian Blur to each layer. Ta-da! Rings!

Used Blend Mode screen and the layer visibility (eye icon) to make the rings expand as needed. Basically, the first ring expanded four layers before being joined by a second ring expanding. The third ring joined four layers after that. I saved each change as a separate psd file. 27 total.

The displacement settings were the default 10% horizontal, 10% vertical.

I suppose you could do a variation of the zoom cube like this, using a linear gradient with the correct colors instead of a white bar, and a neutral grey background, but I'm not sure if it would be better.


Life's too short to put up with bad art.

Testing... commentary to follow



OK, this looks pretty crappy, but believe me, it's progress. I realize the drop-off is pretty sharp at the end there, and I think the ripples themselves are two wide to begin with, but the effect I'm going for here are ripples that rapidly die out, achieved by applying increasing levels of gaussian blur to expanding rings. Something is not right with this example--one of the frames is messed up, I think, cause it doesn't look as smooth as it should. Anyway, after playing around with it, this is where I am. I think I'm going to try this same experiment with skinnier rings (I started with a 4px ring here) and see how it goes. Will post results.

Oh, btw, I had to use very low percentages for the offset. 3%, in fact. 10% completely scrambled everything for me. Not sure what's up with that, but whatever.

(Edited by Suho1004 on 08-12-2005 11:25)

OK, skinnier rings, and more of em:



I think that's better. More subtle, which is what I was looking for. I should be able to apply this technique to a sig now. Not today, though. Maybe on the weekend. I need a break from displacement maps.

(Edited by Suho1004 on 08-12-2005 11:50)

And on a final note for today, thanks to Moth's sig for encouraging me not to give up.

quote:

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Moth said:

Life's too short to put up with bad art.

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(Edited by Suho1004 on 08-12-2005 11:59)

That last one really screws with your eyes
I'm getting similar feelings as with the traditional rotating spiral...

<getting whooozzzzzyyyyy... THUD! >

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{Proudly running OSX, Debian, WXP, W98, well not so proudly on the last 2...}-
-{ ?There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson" }-

quote:

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DmS said:

That last one really screws with your eyes

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Is is somewhat hypnotic, isn't it?

I really like the last one, Suho. You used less displacement and increased the guassian blur as the rings expanded? Great idea! I'll try that out on a non-contest sig.


I wonder what would happen if you diminished the displacement as the rings expanded?

Glad to be of encouragement.


Life's too short to put up with bad art.

(Edited by Moth on 08-14-2005 00:59)

Another way to decrease the amplitude of the displacement with the distance from the center is to put blurred grey holed on top of the displacement map ( with the circular rings going outside ). Then you merge the displacement map on a single layer before using it.

[edit]
Just a little test for the shape, with only 4 frames.
[/edit]

[edit2] Well 4 frames is really not enough. But all in all it's not that ugly for a quick test made at 3am. [edit2]

outcydr: I love your sig. The 'O' makes me thing to a StarGate.




(Edited by poi on 08-14-2005 03:29)

(Edited by poi on 08-14-2005 03:33)