Step 17
I decided that more flashy effects were needed. By luck, I just finished creating a pack of fractals with ChaosScope. ChaosScope is open source software that generates colorful fractals. Below are some fractals I made with the software, which I then used in the piece. I simply desaturated the fractals by hitting Ctrl-Shift-U, and set it to a linear-dodge layer mode. The types of fractals I used are shown below. If you are generating your own fractals, be sure to use those with edges, and not smooth flowy fractals. You want to give the effects a sharp feeling.

Step 18
Looking at the piece, the “raw” parts that stand out most are the pentooled lines. They form the framework for the piece but are looking lonely right now. Using the ChaosScope fractals, align them on linear dodge to the lines so you create a sort of ‘rushed’ effect. Erase anything that looks bad with a soft brush. I get something like this.

Step 19
Time for some fine detailing. The piece is quite solid, but everything is stuck to the main frame. To fix this I added 2 small bits of detail.
Using Pentool > Elipse, I drew a circle. Hold down Shift while drawing the pentooled lines to make this circle a perfect one. Right-click the pentooled lines, and “Create Vector Mask”. On the normal layer, I then go to Image > Apply Image and hit OK with the default settings. Although you applied the whole piece so far, only a little circle of it will show. Unlink the layers (as shown below) so you can move the layer or the layer mask around seperately. Below is an unlinked layer. As you can see, the chain between the layer mask and layer is gone, allowing me to move it around. The two added circles are shown below. Other than a clipmasked area, I also added a blue colored solid filled circle behind.

Step 20
For more detail, I downloaded a set of bird brushes from web search. There are many sets of bird brushes on Deviant Art, so find one which has many smaller birds. I brushed and erased a little, and here is the outcome. I decided to add birds in the middle.

Step 21
Now to add a little more shine and detail to the piece, add some little sparkles. I like to add night sky stocks to the piece, since the stars in the sky work as good sparkles, and usually there is a glow to photos of the night sky. The flow can add shine to your piece. I used a few night sky stocks taken by a friend, but you can easily find stocks from Deviant Art. Nebula stocks will also work. I arranged the sparkles to come off the mountains, and as you can see, the sparkles are VERY slight and hard to see. Don’t worry, the sparkles will really show soon enough. In this step, I also added some random 1 px pentooled lines in parts of the piece.

Step 22
The background is looking a little flat, so going back to the background layer, I created a new layer above it and brushed the edges black with a very soft brush (I used a 1500px soft black brush). Do the same with white on the seperate layer, but brush in the middle. Set both of these layers on 35% opacity for the black and 40% for the white. This gives the effect that there is a spot light on the piece.

Step 23
Using more chaos scope fractals, I added a blue effect to the background. The type of fractal I used is slightly different though. I created more explosive, effectual fractals for this. These are desaturated before I add them.

Step 24
Finally, with everything in place, it’s time to make the piece’s atmosphere really solid. At the moment, it is slightly bright, so we will add a curves layer to darken things up. Using a curve layer on quite extreme settings, I darkened the whole piece.

I also added two gradient maps, both are black and white.
1- From Black to White – Set on luminosity – 12% – Adds a little contrast
2 – From White to Black – Set on Normal – 20% – This desaturates the piece slightly

Step 25
The piece is almost complete! I gave the piece another black and white gradient map to desaturate the blueness of the piece’s edges (again use soft brushing!), because I felt it was taking attention away from the center. After that, create a new layer, go to Image > Apply image and now you have your whole piece in one layer. Sharpen this layer and set it on 60%. And there you have a complete, polished piece.
Conclusion
I actually added some shiny effects that I made myself. These are simple to make – just draw random lines with a hard white brush, and motion blur it alot, and you get these fast, blurred effects.
And there you have it, a snow-themed abstract piece.

Save

Page: « 1 2 3 View All »