Preserved Topic: Cool Matrix effect... (Page 1 of 1)

I found a tut online that gives you "sort of" a Matrix effect but I tweaked it a bit to make it better.

1. Start with a photo of you or anyone else. If it's small, size it up to at least 700px the distortion won't matter because we'll be filtering the hell out of it coming up.

2. Filter > Texture > Grain (Intensity: 100, Contrast: 100, Type: Vertical)

3. Filter > Stylize > Glowing Edges (Width: 1, Brightness: 3, Smoothness: 1)

4. Reduce to the size you want

5. Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask (Amount: 500%, Threshold: 0, Radius: very high just play)

6. If there's too much white you may need to reduce the brightness at this point for the next step.

7. Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Hue: ~140, Saturation: 100, Lightness: As desired)

That's about it. Here's the result:



:::krets.net:::

[This message has been edited by krets (edited 05-15-2003).]

For crying out loud.
Put a shirt on

Only realize the truth... ...there is no shirt.

:::krets.net:::

And now for something completely different;



How to make it:

1) download http://www.mahjqa.com/stuff/matrixlines2.gif and save it somewhere

2) open the GIF in amageready. If everything went well, you'll have a layer for every frame of the animation.

3) find yourself a photo. make a new document in PS, one that has the same size as the animation has. paste your photo in there.

4) if you have read a certainDisplace tutorial at the gurusnetwork you'll quite have an idea what to do. If you haven't this might be a good time. you don't really have to for this 'tutorial', but it's good to read sooner or later. because it's useful. We're going to use the displace filter to make it seem like the matrix symbols follow the face. make a duplicate of your photo layer, and make it greyscale. This is going to be your displacement map. All you'll have to know for now (if you haven't read the tutorial) is that the white parts of the picture are going to be moved to the top-left, and the darker parts are going to be moved to the lower-right. the 50% grey parts will stay in place.

My displacement map looked like this: http://www.mahjqa.com/stuff/matrixheightmap.gif

now, save your PSD at a place and with a name you'll remember (the next 5 minutes or so) and go back to imageready for the animation you have. click to the button to move it to photoshop (it's the lowest button in the tools-bar, it has a nify arrow on it).

when you've landed in PS, click [filter>distort>displace]. set horizontal scale to 10%, vertical to 2%. as the displacement map is the same size as the animation, you don't have to worry about the other settings.

click OK, specify the PSD I told you to remember, and check if the effect is to your liking. If not, go back to your heightmap and tinker with it, or try some other settings with the displace filter.

If you're happy with it, run the displace filter on all layers (frames) of the animation. you can simply press CTRL-F, it'll repeat the last filter you used.

Move for imageready for a second, and check if in frame 1, only layer 1 is visible, in frame 2 only layer 2, and so on. then get back to PS.

then, go back to your 'displacement map' PSD, take a look at your original photo. copy it, and paste it on top in the animation PSD. desaturate the photo, and fiddle with opacities and blending modes until you have something you like. I recommend Overlay on a 30% setting.

Now, you've got a nice matrix effect, but no color. make a new layer on top of your photo layer, fill it with green (any green) and set the blending move to color. now, use [image>adjust>hue/saturation] to fix things. go back to imageready, and check if the changes you made have effect in every frame. (If you need to tamper with it any further, do it in iamgereay, in fame 1. Everything that's changed in IR in frame 1 will also be changed in the other frames.

Now, resize your image, check for all the export settings (check here for reference), test it, and rework anything you think that might needs work.

This concludes the mini-tutorial. don't archive it in the FAQ yet, as some people will undoubtedly have questions...

So.. if somebody could try this... ? I'm kinda curious on how it will turn out. comments? suggestions?

Edit: I'm prefectly aware the monalisamatrixanimation jumps in one frame, but I'm too tired to fix it. sorry.



[This message has been edited by mahjqa (edited 05-15-2003).]

i tried to do a mtrixy thing a while ago it came out kinda choppy though. at least on my dialup. http://nunhunter.lookingat.us/10.html

thanks mahjqa good stuff as always.


[This message has been edited by EzRa-D (edited 05-16-2003).]

While that is certainly a neat trick, mahjqa, it doesn't quite make sense to me. The code you see scrolling through the matrix is two-dimensional and doesn't flow over contours or anything like that.

That being said, it's still a nifty effect, and the skills used are certainly worth knowing.

Good one mahjqa. Thanks

haha nice one.

Nice one! here's my effort. I was struggling to get the file size under 50k (I had to reduce it to 8 colours) but the "Tutorial" was great. TY.
A couple of odd things happened while following the instructions you gave. When I tried to convert the duplicated layer of the portrait (me) to greyscale I was given the option of flattening the image or preserving the layers (which turns both layers to greyscale) Is that normal? and when I imported the matrixeffect from IR to PS for the first time (where you recommend)
":when you've landed in PS, click [filter>distort>displace]. set horizontal scale to 10%, vertical to 2%."
PS would not let me apply ANY filter!! I eventually discovered that if I simply select a different layer and then selected back I can then apply filters (strange, but it took me nearly an hour to figure out)
I used a photo of my head expanding with delight at learning this effect for the image.
Thanks again Mahjqa for the insights.



[This message has been edited by Taobaybee (edited 05-17-2003).]

A couple of odd things happened while following the instructions you gave. When I tried to convert the duplicated layer of the portrait (me) to greyscale I was given the option of flattening the image or preserving the layers (which turns both layers to greyscale) Is that normal?

Yes. Other options to do that would be using [image>adjust>hue/saturation] (CTRL-U) and to set the saturation to 0, or to press SHIFT-CTRL-U.

and when I imported the matrixeffect from IR to PS for the first time (where you recommend) PS would not let me apply ANY filter!!

What I think what happened is that you tried to run a filter on a layer that was invisible. If you select a layer in PS, it'll automatically be set to 'visible', that's why what you did (I eventually discovered that if I simply select a different layer and then selected back I can then apply filters ) worked.

Anyway, glad you liked it. I thought this would be a nice opportunity to drag some of you into IR. (and the displace tutorial, heh)

Cheers Mahjqa,
I didn't want to go to IR, kept on "putting it off". Every time I tried to create somthing it would soundly thrash me, question my sanity and my humanity. Untill I quit the app, to wander how the beautiful and profoundly beaudacious PS7 could have such an unforgivingly cruel and mysterious sister!
Thanks for introducing us to her "sweeter" side
Tao

one word:
cool.

mahja, holler when you want to place it in the faq, I'll upload the images to the faq then as well.

so long,
TP

If nobody else has anything to add, it's OK by me. Otherwise, it can always be edited later on.

In reloaded the code forms contours all the time. Good work, Mahj.

I just want to drop in a quick warning about using a greyscale photo for a D-Map: it doesn't always work and will sometimes not look right.

For example, trying to use a close up photo of an eye. You will get a funky crater or pit where the iris and pupil are. Or the reverse with the pupil and iris looking okay, but the rest of the eye will be funky.

One of these days, I'll go into more detail.
This is yet another one of those things that I've been meaning to address.

see then new, shiny :FAQ: for this tutorial.

^^ came out with this one...got a lot of troubles with the displacement
thinggie :-/