Photo Crystal Marbles Maker by SpaceRay

Hello, I have seen in others places crystal balls made with images inside and I wanted to make my own ones, and as there is no filter already made in the library, I have made it and want to share it with you all.

You can load your photo, image, texture or whatever and use the presets to modify it or customize it with the settings.

Please, read the About text in the filter

This filter would not have been possible without the help of:

Tergiet and his Marvelous Marbles filter
Inujima and his Spherical Projection filter

Thanks very much Tergiet and Inujima for making this two great and well done filters.

If you have any suggestion or idea to make this filter better, please feel free to put it here, as is open to other possible ideas.

Thanks Morgantao, glad you like it.

Yes, You are right I will add a clarity control, if I can make it to work right, as now I have tried it and applying contrast or levels it looses the reflections and 3D effect, so I will see how to make it.

In this filter is very important to use all the available settings in the Lighting tab to get the best results, as I tried to make the best looking presets but perhaps can be made better.

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Morgantao wrote: I do like the reflections on it, and that everything looks INSIDE the glass, and not ON the glass

Yes, exactly, that is the effect I wanted, as others I have seen have the photo as it was glued to the glass and does not look as crystal ball, I have tried three different ways to make it and finally decided to make it like this.

Only the letters H and U?, I do not know what this could mean

Well I have asked another fortune teller, and she has told me that sees a beautiful and cute happy cat that is kind and very good in what he does.

And here a cute white baby polar bear

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Morgantao wrote: I imagine you also found the original image on google images

I am sorry, but you are wrong, this is a photo of my neighbour that is a fortune teller, I just made a quick visit to her

Juicy orange Marble

Another example

Nice examples Ghislaine, by the way, as I have said in the the text in the about tab, if want you can colorize and change the black color of the background ball.

If you select in the Lighting settings tab the "Lighting Elements: ambience" by only selecting with the mouse the outer round circle fr om the inner ball, you can colorize and change the colors of the marble, see preset 3 that has been done this way in green.

Although is only a shade of the color and not the full color as it would look bad on the full color and not shiny at all.

Here below I have used one of your Spirograms creations inside the crystal ball

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Skybase wrote: I dare you to knock out 20% of those nodes and get exactly the same thing

Oh yes, of course that it surely can be done, as I did not optimize the filter and have just made it to work right but there are nodes that could be replaced or merged to make the same thing, but really do not have the expert knowledge that many of you experienced Filter Forgers have to know how to do it yet, I am still learning.

Looks good, well done

nice one SR, What about more glow to it as an option

OH!! Thanks very much for optimizing the filter and get rid of the components not needed, I tried to optimize it as suggested by Skybase, but do not have enough knowledge to do it.

Again Thanks, I will see how you have the optimization so I can learn more.

Here's the file. Have fun.

Crystal Ball Remake.ffxml

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Morgantao wrote on June 22 2012 I took the crystal ball to a fortune teller to tell me what the future holds. She said it must be broken because all she keeps seeing are the letters H and U..

Well the fortune teller of Morgantao was right when she was seeing the letters HU on the crystal ball, as after a year and a half, I have got a HU reward for this filter!!!

Thanks very much to all the ones that have used this and glad that you have found it useful and like it.

HU = High Usage

Thanks EAdams, glad you like it.

I have just seen that the filter that is in the library is the original one, and I forgot to upload the new version suggested by Carl or Skybase, but I do not have it anymore after I had to change the windows, so will have to make it again.

Thanks to Carl and Skybase for helping and suggesting to make the filter better