Preserved Topic: Mahjqa....

Can you post the tutorial for your ungodly cool fire sigs?
I remember it being posted a long time ago, but it wasn't archived, and I couldn't handle it back then.

The PSD's:
http://www.mahjqa.com/stuff/Torch_PS5x.zip (PS 5.x or below) http://www.mahjqa.com/stuff/Torch_PS6x.zip (PS 6.x or higher)


A little explanation with this *.gif:
the mask was airbrushed, together with some touching up with the smudge tool, and the pattern was made with the clouds filter. whenever you use the filter clouds on an image with the size 128x128, 256x256, 128x512 or samething which is a multiple of 128, it creates a repeating pattern. In the animation of the *.gif, the pattern goes upwards, which, together with the mask makes it seem as if the fire burns. Since it's a repeating pattern, the animation loops forever.

Any more questions on this? if you have, please ask. I'd love to see someone else making one.

wow! i didnt know that the clouds filter makes repeating patterns. but good to know! thanks, mahjq

uh, mahjqa, im stupid again.
how do you apply the clouds-pattern on the mask?

AH! I knew it did that i just have forgotten the numbers.... Cool bean-o's

The layer isn't really a mask, I just call it a mask since it cuts away the black parts. It's set to color burn, that's all to it.

The clouds layer is a bit trickier... I think I first started with a 256(width)x128(heighth) canvas, and did [filter>render>clouds] some times until I came up with something nice. (maybe you can try throwing in a [filter>render>difference clouds] Then I resized it to 128x64, and put several of them on top of achother, and tested it with the 'mask' layer on. if your clouds layer doesn't work, you might want to try [image>adjust>curves] (CTRL-M) and try give the curve a 'M' shape... sorry if this is a bit vague, but there's no infallible way to make it right...




[This message has been edited by mahjqa (edited 12-02-2001).]

mahjqa: Any chance of working this into a tutorial for the GN? You seem to have everything in place, it would save you having to repeat yourself all the time and it really is the some of the best fire I've seen.

Emps

this technique is awesome!



but one final q, mahjqa: in your psd the clouds layer is bigger than the image itself! how did you do that?
in my case, whenever i try to enlarge the clouds layer everything outside the image gets cut away.

This is the *^%$&^## THIRD TIME I try to type and submit this post, so it's going to be rather short, sorry.

Emperor: the rules&guidelines of a GN tutorial are rather tight, so mybe I'll try GN, maybe I'll make a little page like this one.

Grumble/iguana: got any tips? what were hard parts to do/to find out?

Grumble: looks great! good job!

The problem you might have is that when you crop the pic everything gets cut off. you can cure this when you make a new image, drag the layer you don't want to be cropped to that image with the move tool (it'll be copied) crop the original image and move the layer back again.



[This message has been edited by mahjqa (edited 12-03-2001).]

mahjqa: I'm sure Pugzly and others would be open to your ideas on a tutorial - pop in and see what you can negotiate (or something like that dolphin tutorial would be cool) - I can't see that something like this would be too restrictive (but it is your call!!):
www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorials/photoshop/rocktexture.html

GRUMBLE: That is a nice sig!!

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

thanks, emps. but i wont use it as a sig. just tried out the technique.

mahjqa: dificulties?
well, finding the right cloud-shape and doing the right adjustments with curves, levels, etc.
so that it looks fire-like.

My try:



OK, 50 KB, too heavy right?

My problem is that to repeat the flame (mask) is 64 pixels, so I made 32 frames moving the repeating flame (Mask) 2 pixels each frame....



[This message has been edited by Wakkos (edited 12-08-2001).]

Ohhh!!!! how stupid!! what about reducing the mask height? hehehe, BRB tonight!

looks nice wakkos. but where is there a problem? i also have 32 frames i think.
maybe you could make the whole thing a bit brighter.

Magic Layer - copy, offset, polar coords. I haven't had the gumption to try it yet, but should give a burning planet or zero g type look. Well, the mask layer would be radial in nature. Know what I mean?

No, wj. Not sure I do.. Explain ?
I was wondering how to do the radial thing. Flames radiate out from the center..

weeee! If only I could animate this fire....

Wakkos that looks cool. I like it a lot.

Hey mahjqa, you know what would be really cool? If this was a tut (pronounced toot) in the Gurus' Network. What do you say?


These eyes have walls.

I've been practicing, this is too heavy (91K) but I like it!

What do you think?



Edit> Yeah, yeah, I noticed the transparency...

[This message has been edited by Wakkos (edited 12-20-2001).]

i am very interested in the technique.
how did you make that 'W' being in foreground sometimes and in background other times?
maybe i could have a look at the psd?

don't mean to butt in, Wakkos...but I'm here.
Grumble, if you look closely it is not in the foreground some TIMES and in the background some TIMES; it is in the foreground some PLACES and in the background some PLACES.
Very tricky indeed.

Nice work, all of you. I'm impressed and I've learned something new today! I love this place.

mobrul

Okay, DB, let's say you have your repeatable magic pattern.

Copy it, offset by 8 straight down, Polar Coords : Rect to Polar.
Copy again, offset by 16 straight down, Polar Coords...
Copy again, offset by 24...

That should start in the center and radiate outward, as oppossed to scrolling up. It should scroll outward. Something like that. I'm pretty sure the above steps are correct. At the very least, you should be able to figure out what I'm talking about.

I just played with what mahjqa calls "the mask" layer, it's almos white the W but it has a feathered borders.

Just play with that layer, it's amazing all the effects that you can archive!

Edit > Grumble, I'm sorry man, but I was looking for the PSD and looks like it's in some far far away binary system

Sorry.....

[This message has been edited by Wakkos (edited 12-21-2001).]

I get it now. Thanks, WJ. There goes my free time this weekend....

Mahjqa how did you make that mask that you set to color burn?

I started with a white stripe on the bottom (where the fire's supposed to start) and used the smudge tool (press 'R' to get it) to... err... smudge it.

The main differences in the masks with PS6.x and 5.x is that the 6.x version is black with a white 'blurred flame' shape in the middle, and the 5.x version is black and has a transparent hole where the flame's supposed to go.

If you've got PS5.x, you'll need to make the mask first in black and white, and if you're done, go to the 'channels' palette, and control click on one of the color channels (red, green or blue) By control-clicking one of them, the white parts of the picture will be completely selected, the 50% gray parts will be 50% selected, and the black parts unselected.
Create a new layer, press CTRL-SHIFT-I (or click select>inverse) to invert the selection, and fill that with black. Here you go, a mask.

Did that help?

I dont know how Mahjqa did his but I used a softbrushed airbrush and smugde (and some liquify).

Cheers

edit => bugger. 1 minut too late

[This message has been edited by PunisherOlsen (edited 02-13-2002).]

Not really... I've been trying to get this for a while and I've come up with this:

but it just doesn't have the same effect.

edit: how do you get yours transparent?

[This message has been edited by InSiDeR (edited 02-13-2002).]

Warjournal => I tried your polar radial fire method....the "magic pattern" is radial allright but how am one supposed to place/arrange the layers in Imageready to animate it? I've tried to overcome this task for the last hour...and I stil don't get it. With Mahjqa's "tutorial" it was easy because you only had to nudge the pattern layer in every frame....but with your method I have something like 6 pattern layers...what do I do with these?
cheers

edit>> Insider I think your layer mask is too wide...I also had to c&p the link but didn't get any popups

[This message has been edited by PunisherOlsen (edited 02-13-2002).]

Doh! Getting 404 Insider. So I did a C&P and got pop-up galore! Ahhh!

Do it again, and you die.

edit: Wait... something weird is happening. That aside, PO, I'll get back you later.


[This message has been edited by warjournal (edited 02-13-2002).]

Well would you look at those time sequences, 1:03, 1:04, 1:05 well I'll be damned.

warjournal I uploaded the gif after I posted that so you should be able to see it now.

PunOlsen I wasn't trying for the smooth rounded off fire, I was just trying to get the basic animated fire look so I made the mask all the way horizontal.

Mahjqa your a god.

Mahjqa hilfe! I can't make the cloud pattern repeat itself. Its 128x128 pixels and I nudge it 2 pixels up in every frame...still it doesn't repeat itself. I cant even make the pattern in the PSD I got from you to repeat itself. Arg!

WJ => I'll look forward to that

Repeatable pattern is fairly easy with Clouds/Difference Clouds. It's either powers of 2 or increments of 64.

Alright, I lost my PSD and I'm not in the mood to go through that ordeal again. I'm running on my memory right now.

My doc was 256x256. Clouds/Difference Clouds spit out a tileable pattern. Since I went 256, I decided on an Offset of 16 for a total of 16 frames. Base pattern, copy, offset 16, polar coords. Base pattern, copy, offset 32, polar coords. Etc for all 16 frames. Actually, I only copied 15 times, then polar corded the base pattern w/out Offset, if that makes sense.

Then I made the mask layer set to Dodge (or Burn, I forget which). This was kind of a star pattern, or radial if you will. Looked kinda like a star with tentrils.

Under that is the G-Map to color the Polar Coorded layers beneath it.

Save and move to Image Ready. Somewhere around 17 layers total. For each frame of the animation I turned the PC layers on and off. So, for frame one, the bottom layer is on and the rest are off (except for mask and G-Map layers). Frame two, layer two is on and rest are off. Frame 3, layer 3 is on and rest are off. Etc.

When it was done, it was pretty slick. I was mostly happy. The only problem was that the middle didn't look right. So I added another layer under the G-Grad and above the PC layers. This extra layer was set to screen with some white painted in the middle.

:whew:


[This message has been edited by warjournal (edited 02-13-2002).]

Well I should go to bed.....but damn that sound faschinating....better get cracking then. Thanks man.

edit>> oh regarding the thing that i couldnt get the cloud layer to repeat itself...if I by accident move/nudge one frame 1 pixel instead of two...can this cause the cloud pattern not to repeat itself?

[This message has been edited by PunisherOlsen (edited 02-13-2002).]

Hmm maybe Im too tired to understand this...but the cloud layer should repeat itself with your method WJ right? well it doesn't...but it looks very cool!


edit>> tired

[This message has been edited by PunisherOlsen (edited 02-13-2002).]

LOL Almost what I had. Not sure what you are doing to get that jump in the anim. I just might have to take a crack at it again later tonight or tomorrow. I might actually record an action this time around.

Wow. Went faster than I expected once I recorded an Action to help with the grunt work.



Only 20k. I'm impressed with myself on that. Too bad I didn't bother making it transparent. Could also use some other tweaking, like playing with the mask some more and the G-Map. With a little work, I'm sure I could get it to look more like your, Punisher. Man, my G-Map is *way* out of whack.

If anybody is *really* interested, here is the PSD: blowout.zip ~2.6 megs. It's pretty self-explainatory with previous things said in this thread. If you have any questions about the PSD, ask and I shall answer.



[This message has been edited by warjournal (edited 02-13-2002).]

Oh, transparency... yes. Y'see, that's not possible. The place where the flames aren't visible (so where the background's supposed te be visible) is covered by the black of the flame mask. What you could di is exporting it in *.gif, loading that gif again in imageready, and cutting the background color in every frame.

Simple way of doing this: go to PS, and record an action. Pick with the eyedropper tool the background color from your picture, click on [select>color range], set the fuzziness to 0, click 'OK'. Press delete, and your background will be gone. Repeat with the rest of the frames.

PunisherO; the whole deal about the repeating pattern is that when you've got a pattern that repeats itself every 32 pixels, you've got to move that layer up 2 pixels in 16 frames (16*2=32) before the same pattern shows again. If you move it just 1 pixel, the pattern will be only halfway before the animation jumps back to the first frame.

edit: but really well done, everyone! and Insider... you might want to add more black to the mask... what also helps is working on the mask when it's still in color dodge, so you can see directly the effect of your changes.



[This message has been edited by mahjqa (edited 02-13-2002).]

Warjournal ya definitely da man! Man polar coordinates and you...what a couple . The sun is actually shining here (very rare for this season) so I better take myself for a walk for the sake of my eyes...I'll be back.

Mahjqa> Thanks. It explains a a lot why my first try wouldn't work.

cheers

Polar Coords good.

If you run Polar Coords the other way (Pol to Rec?), you can get a fountain/spout effect. I might try this later for a flamethrower effect.

oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh. I would LOVE to seee that.

Its supposed to be transparent....


Edit> Darn Apparently not!

[This message has been edited by PunisherOlsen (edited 02-14-2002).]

LOL PO. Sometimes I have major problems with transparency on an animated gif. Even if I re-import the gif, select colour and delete, I still have funkiness. One of these days I'll iron it out.



Flamethrower ahoy! Not too shabby. The cool thing about Polar Coording the other way is that the pattern bends at the end. 'Course, I had to rotate 90° to get it. No big deal. I used Mahjqa's G-Map because mine just plain sucks. On the mask, I ran Ocean Ripple and Gaussed it slightly. 16 colours. Blah blah blah.

I'm having a lot of fun with your technique, Mahjqa.

Yeah that technique is definitely k.e.w.l Mahjqa.

WJ=> Regarding the "funkiness"...I also had mayor problems with the transparency. Imported gif > switch to ps > action > imageready > *that looks right* > preview > darn! I have no idea why it won't work...

BTW WJ your flamethrower rocks!
cheers

Edit> WTF! the word k.e.w.l (without periods) gets replaced by ****??


[This message has been edited by PunisherOlsen (edited 02-14-2002).]

WJ did you use rec to polar or polar to rec when you did the flamethrower? I can't seem to archieve the same movements...

Edit> You may call me "the master of typos and lost words"

[This message has been edited by PunisherOlsen (edited 02-14-2002).]

the master of typos and lost words: looks like polar to rectangular to me..

i've been known to be wrong though

edit: testing ****.. **** ****.

[This message has been edited by Raptor (edited 02-15-2002).]

Yep. Polar to Rectangular for the flamethrower thingy.

kewl? I don't see any censorment

But I swear it did it...lets try again > ****

HAH! See!

Mahjqa i did that idea for transparency and i had little white lines at the edges how did you save yours?

edit

[This message has been edited by InSiDeR (edited 02-17-2002).]

Easy there, InSiDeR... I doubt that Mahjqa lives by his computer just on the off-chance that you have a question. He'll come back. I mean, the thread's named after him.

Patience, hopper of grass...

Sorry you had to wait, Insider... (By the way, did you notice most people are more willing to help if you ask nicely?)
Anyway. So, you saved your gif, and it had the background color of this forum? (the average of both BG colors, #2B0404)
in the [select color range] box, did you set the fuzziness to 0? and, when you exported it again (without the background), did you set the matte color to #2B0404? Could you post what you've got so far? (or if you don't like to post it, you could mail it to me)

[This message has been edited by mahjqa (edited 02-15-2002).]

Sorry I was a little rude... But I've had a really bad day. Anyways I'de be happy to post what I've got so far let me just upload it in another post...

As embarrassed as I am here it is.



I've made everything from scratch and did my own sort of techniqe with the layer settings but I've also tried really hard to make it transparent but it never works...

One thing you could do... if you load your anim in imageready, you see in the frames palette something that looks like a bouncing ball. Select all frames, and right-click on the bouncing ball, and you should see a menu popping up saying 'Automatic/Do not dispose/restore to background'. choose 'automatic'.

When you exported your animation for the first time, without transparency, did it look like this?

Yea, only animated...

edit: wait what do you mean by export? i used save optimized as to make it a gif...

[This message has been edited by InSiDeR (edited 02-16-2002).]

Odd.... could you send me the unedited *.gif? I can't really think of anything that could've gone wrong with it... Unless you've resized inbetween.

I can send you the .psd, I'll do that later this evening...

edit: 56k sucks, this could take a while...

[This message has been edited by InSiDeR (edited 02-17-2002).]

Alright I think I got it this time...


Edit by mahjqa: The gif was quite big, so I replaced it with a smaller version of it to save the 56k'ers... if you still want to see it, it's at http://insidershak.hypermart.net/firesigs1.gif
Insider, I hope you don't mind.

[This message has been edited by mahjqa (edited 02-17-2002).]

Insider; again I apologise for editing it out, but anything exceeding 200K is killing for 56k'ers (been there) so I hope you don't mind.

I optimized your sig a little. I turned the color depth from 256 to 16 colors, and deleted half of the frames. The original animation was quite slow, and well, gif animations tend to grow really big when you've got a lot of frames. Also, 256 colors is quite a lot when you only need a few shades.

But, did you figure out what went wrong with the first?

Yes, double post.

I'm closing this one, you can go on at http://www.ozoneasylum.com/Forum14/HTML/000833.html .