OpArt by Miavir

Absolutely beautiful! Preset number 2 is very impressive the way the grid flows over the sphere. Excellent filter!

Got some cool things going on in this one Nice work!!!

you definitely have a way with spheres and curves, miavir. very cool! if i didnt know better, i'd have guessed you were rendering in a 3d program. the speed on this one is better than the amulet, so, that's a good one. on the down side, this is definitely one you're going to have to learn in order to use well. my first random click produced a very dull set of flat circles. so, this is not a beginner's filter, which is probably why it didnt get an editor's pick.

also, in your description you mention something about 3 colors only being used when 'colorify' is set to 7. but, there is no control set with that name. and, when you've got some controls that only work when another control is set to a certain position, it's a good idea to somewhat group and offset those controls. i use a 'checkbox' control plugged into a switch control. just put it in a location on the switch nodes that wont be active in the switch. the control will still show up but wont do anything. it's just a label when you do this. i use it to demark a group of controls that need another control before they are active. i normally just label that one demarkation control with something like "----------- 1" or a text label saying what it is.

so, bottom line on this one is, i love the effects you have in the presets, but the interface needs some work.

it's been my experience that 30 days on the demo isnt enough time to get three HU's. and that's not because a given filter isnt good enough; it just takes some time for folks to find any one filter out of 3800 and have enough use to push it up the ranks.

so, get an extension to the demo. it's VERY common to get an extension of a total of 90 days on the demo. just write the support team and ask. this is not a big deal and quite common. no one's going to accuse you of being a mooch or freeloader or something like that. just get the extension and give your filters a chance to climb the ranks.

oh, and the other thing about HU's. there is a built in timer to filters in the library, a mandatory 'waiting period', if i remember correctly, wherein any given filter cannot get an HU within that first waiting period. i believe this is done to see if filters really will stand 'the test of time' and not some initial rush of 'ooh, that's pretty'. so, get the extension!

and here's the original rose image:

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Kraellin wrote: so, get an extension to the demo. it's VERY common to get an extension of a total of 90 days on the demo. just write the support team and ask. this is not a big deal and quite common. no one's going to accuse you of being a mooch or freeloader or something like that. just get the extension and give your filters a chance to climb the ranks.

Hmm OK, will try that. I hadn't realized it was quite this prevalent. So expect a day or two delay while I ask them, and I should be able to add feeps after the red tape is cleared away. If anyone else has a good idea what they want, post here or send e-mail.

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Kraellin wrote: oh, and the other thing about HU's. there is a built in timer to filters in the library, a mandatory 'waiting period', if i remember correctly, wherein any given filter cannot get an HU within that first waiting period.

Yes I understood that much from the webpages. Do you know how long the period is though ?

Your modification to take pics as source colors is something I did for Cathedral Window, but I hadn't gotten around to adding many feeps to Op Art yet. I started working on it Sunday morning knowing the license period would expire Sunday evening after all I'm happy with what I got done in that day, but BOY was I tired this morning And if you had a look at Cathedral Window yet, you'll understand that adding feeps and controls to do things comes natural to me. Hell, it's got so many feeps I had to disable anti-aliasing on many presets just to make it run fast enough to get accepted. its also the one I've worked longest on.

Oh, and whats 'steviej's cup' ?

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Kraellin wrote: you definitely have a way with spheres and curves, miavir. very cool! if i didnt know better, i'd have guessed you were rendering in a 3d program.

Well, if you take a close look, Filter Forge is a 3D rendering program, its got a plane for rendering, and uses height above the plane to help it render, so strictly speaking it IS 3D.

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Kraellin wrote: n the down side, this is definitely one you're going to have to learn in order to use well. my first random click produced a very dull set of flat circles.

Yes I know. Randomize tends not to toss anything useful at you. My best results have come from taking an existing preset, and iteratively changing effect control values until I see something I like shapewise, then iteratively change interior control values until I like the colors too. Finally, do grid colors and you're all set. try randomly changing a few controls at this point, sometimes neat things happen Just as it creates art, finding nice Control values for Op Art is less a science than an art

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Kraellin wrote: also, in your description you mention something about 3 colors only being used when 'colorify' is set to 7. but, there is no control set with that name.

The full name is 'Interior Colorify', and since its the only Control with 'Colorify' in the name, I had hoped it would be clear. The description for the filter is allready as full as you get to make it, I had to be brief.

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Kraellin wrote: it's a good idea to somewhat group and offset those controls.

Noted, and a good idea. Soon

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Kraellin wrote: i love the effects you have in the presets, but the interface needs some work.

OK. Now tell the Filter Forge people I need *way* more space to give the users proper documentation. AND the capability to write comments on every control, and possibly every component in the filter
tt

Don't know what I'd use it for, but this is pretty cool!

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Miavir wrote: whats 'steviej's cup' ?

Something I use to protect the family jewels LOL....

I use the cup and rose pics because they are both technically flawed images that have prominent depleted areas on them.....which tells me how well a filter will do with a really poor image. The upper handle of the cup and a front pedal on the rose are where the bad areas are located.....

cool beans, on both points!

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CFandM wrote: Very nice work on this one..

And thank you very much, high praise indeed from an accomplished Filtersmith. Btw. everyone, now that I have found the Wiki , what do you think, should I add a better explanation of OpArt into it ? I don't want to promote my filters over everyone else's, but OpArt has so many feature I couldn't document them all in the small info section.

On the other hand, if everyone has already figured it out by looking inside the filter, no need to waste my time

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Kraellin wrote: well, adding to the wiki is cool, but i'd be concentrating on getting those three HU's first Wink

Working on it, believe me. Just a few more presets to file away at on my next major filter. Too bad Constantin beat me to Chain Mail, I was still in the research phase on that when he came out with it And an Editors pick too to boot. Not that I'd likely have gotten that last, I have absolutely no idea what they look at to choose those. Nor would my version have been as polished as his likely. But it was all my fault for not working on the idea as quickly as I could, and no hard feelings