Request for filter tips

Hey ronviers I'm sure you will get a hang of it, I suggest you download some filters that you like and open them up, checkout how there constructed - also the snippet filters might be useful........... good luck and I'll look out for your first filter............ Carl

Hi Carl,
Good advice, I found one by Richard Bartlett called Wartorn that is a close approximation of what I am trying to do – although not exactly. I opened it in the editor and so far have found it a little confusing.javascript:emoticon('')
Question Thanks for the tip, I will study it and hopefully make some sense out of it.

Hi Vladimir,
Not quite – but only because I did a terrible job of describing what I am trying to do. That said, I learned a lot from your example and hopefully my next question will be better.

Thanks,
Ron

BTW, Richard Bartlett; member in good standing of the of FF user forum and author of Burninator – is the man.

ronviers and persidio, welcome to FF

the key to all of this here in FF is knowing the individual components and what they do and secondly, how things interact. there are a lot of help files now with FF, including a growing wiki help section. i'd suggest taking one item and working with that for a while till you can predict how that one item when plugged into another is going to look. when you can predict the outcome, you've got it nailed. when you plug a perlin noise into a threshold using the standard default settings of each, it's going to look a certain way (before moving any sliders). if you can predict that outcome, move on to the next thing.

i've been at this a while and i still get fooled by certain outcomes. stop right there and examine why it looks like it does and you'll get the hang of it. read the helps. learn the individual tools. that's the key. it's great fun to just 'plug and play' and come up with something interesting, but when you get to the point where you actually want to produce a distinct, particular effect, you HAVE to know the tools... or do a LOT of hunt and peck hunt and peck can be fun, but is also time consuming.

steviej's work is actually a pretty good example of how to learn filter forge. steveij, since coming here, has been working almost exclusively with curves. he's produced a lot of filters in a short time and most all of them are fairly simple and most all of them dealing with the curves components.

it also helps to post here. wiki's are fine. help files are fine. tutorials are fine. but, sometimes you just need to get some feedback. this is a pretty good group of folks here. the devs are extraordinarily helpful and accessible and so are the forum members. so, post away. we've not bitten too many heads off here

Thanks for the welcome Kraellin,

You are exactly right. The advice I gave was for someone who doesn't understand filters. Help files are great but for newbies experience and clicking around is learning in itself; then they are ready for help files.

Now I'm an old graphics gal so I am ready for Filter Forge help files. In my years making graphics I've always painted heavily with filters and that's what I was trying to say- because it helps significantly to have a knowledge of how the filters interact, absolutely. I started out on Adobe PhotoShop, then Paint Shop Pro and finally Ulead Photo Impact when it was "Version 4"... this version is now up to 12- ... version 4 was 9 years ago. I think Adobe was Version 5 or so at the time- I can't remember. So I think I know filters, LOL. (((I'm a filter addict))). Just never got to make them before.

If you look under my user name you can see the ones I've made in 3 days. I've got something like 27 days left on my trial. One of my filters has 11 downloads already and the rest have no takers. Oh well I like 'em. (I know the downloads do not make a filter popular- it's filter use after the time period it comes out of the average stage- of which they don't say how long that is- but downloads are good )

And oh... LOL... mine are not playing around, I do know exactly what I'm doing. Maybe not with Forge Forge, LOL. But with graphics.

I made a filter (just now) that sounds like what he wanted. (Graphics I can do) but... how do I attach a .ffxml of it to the post??? I can't find it in the help file- I'll look again. ((Looked again and no info on this)). But if you could tell me that would be oh sooooo great~

The one I just made was sent for upload so it won't be on-line for a bit. It's called "Moon Cheese". Figured he could look at the filter layout and get some ideas for what he wanted to do since I think this could be what he is thinking about.

Thanks again for the warm welcome,

Persidio

P.S. Ronviers- I made a filter set like the one you want to make- if I can't figure out how to post it here in this thread then you can search for it tomorrow. It's called "Moon Cheese". Then click on "Edit Filter" and you can see the components used. Hope you like.

Hi Persidio,
Just got a chance to take a look at Moon Cheese, it’s very cool and nicely done but not exactly what I had in mind. I am attaching something a little closer but still not what I’m after. I did this, like I do almost everything, with styles not filters. With CS3 we will have smart filters so they will be easier to integrate into my workflow.
You certainly are prolific! Seven filters already – gosh. Keep up the good work and thanks for the valuable tips.

Brgds,
Ron

Hi Ronviers & Presidio

Quote
Persidio wrote: Fun to make; also makes me feel good that others can use them. Submitting them to the Gallery makes me feel part of the community- verses if I just made them in the program saved for personal use only

I feel exactly the same way about it

Welcome to the neighborhood

Quote
StevieJ wrote: Quote Persidio wrote: Fun to make; also makes me feel good that others can use them. Submitting them to the Gallery makes me feel part of the community- verses if I just made them in the program saved for personal use only I feel exactly the same way about it Smile Welcome to the neighborhood Smile

+3 on that one Stevie..

Welcome to all the fun...
Persidio and ronviers

ronviers,

it takes about 24 hours from the time you submit a filter to when it will be accepted and show up in the library for download. except, if you submit on friday or the weekend, it generally wont show up till monday.

Ok Persidio, here it is. Let me know what you think. ssamm said it was "nice" and after looking at his/her work this is high praise.

I just bought a domain but I don't have any space yet. It's called interboundgraphics.com. I have a google web album but I mostly use it to post files to on a temporary basis. I have only been working in graphics for about a year, a year in July, and really haven't done anything worth looking at yet.

I feel bad for your hubby, I have made mistakes like that and you just can't take them back.


Brgds,
Ron

Oh my Gosh!!!!!!!! This is so good!! And you have no idea how much I'll use it. I have some photos to enhance today for my Mom- and I'll let you know how they turned out. ((Photos are of my child and I don't put her photos on the net at all- not even forums)). Otherwise I'd show you. You know what- I have some photos of my yard last summer with flowers; I'll try the filter out of some of those pics and ... I can post that if you wanna see how they look in action.

When I went inside the filter and saw all the work you did my jaw dropped~ Ron that is one sweet filter!~

Oh Hubby- he's the best. I didn't mind taking them down for him- but it was when he changed his mind and ... then.. ARGH... all gone! ROFL

Nice domain name A year in a graphics program is a turning point- from that year on out it just gets better and better. Congrats!~

Gotta run be back later,

Persidio

(((Hi))) Well I made a little something for you with your filters.

This is a daylilly from my yard last year- giving you the copyrights to the image as well as the entire display. It's a present for hitting your first year in graphics. If you can get thru that first year the rest is down hill. LOL Graphics are fun now.

The work you put into this filter is amazing. If you plan to make more photo filters I'll give you some more flower photos (just you though).

You did good Very professional~

Persidio

Persidio Persidio! You are so nice. Of course I want the PSD. You can send it to ronviers@gmail.com when you get some time. I still have to earn it by sticking with graphics until July but now I am reenergized – not that it was ever in doubt.
I tried to follow some of you filters but each step comes as a complete surprise. It seems anytime I look at other peoples filters they seem so clever and creative while my steps are so simple and obvious. I like, for example how you got the gradient to tilt in ‘Luxurious Silk’ by using noise. I tried and tried to tilt a gradient and never did figure it out.

Ron

I guess you’re right, in my previous pre-graphics life I was an access guy. This is someone that deals with highly technical equipment such as CSU/DSU’s, muxes, routers, switches, servers etc. and while there is a lot of latitude for creative solutions the fact is they are not encouraged. To avoid burdening the technicians that will follow, access people substitute creativity with an approach called best practices. It took years to get my brain furrowed into this state and I expect it to take years to get things back to normal. Fortunately I don’t have anything better to do and the good news is that I don’t come by the best practices approach naturally - I remember how things used to be.

I had to take a few days off forging too because I’m trying to make enough money to purchase PS CS3, but I am back until Wednesday - hopefully I will get one done. I have an idea for a new one but I don’t want to jinx it by talking about it. I am still hoping to earn a free FF but with only 1 filter and 8 downloads it has become obvious that I will need to design filters with a much higher coolness factor to them. So that’s what I’m working on now.

I’m not in any hurry- take as long as you want. I’m not going anywhere. Best wishes go to your Mom.

Ron