Amethyst's Beginner's Sandbox

the three 'bead' filters shld do very well. they are clean, tight and have some depth. nicely done. the last is quite a switch, but it also follows your clean, tight, with depth style. so, good there, also.

amethyst,

hmmm, messing up a bit... if you liked it well enough to post it... and got good comments on that, then leave it alone there's nothing says you cant do a second one... messed up a bit

yup, hdri is cool. the rule for doing your own is, keep the imported image small, like VERY small... 200 x 400 pixels or so. i've also done square ones, 400 x 400; otherwise, be prepared to leave your computer on all night rendering them out.

and yes, i have quite a few custom ones, but like you said, no one else can use them unless you send them to someone. cant use them in filters you submit to the library and still send to the library. it will reject them. this is another reason i think we need an independent filter forge site. we could post them there so others could have and use them.

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I am at the "two year with a box of crayons" stage with filter forge.

yeah, but they're such fun crayons

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I'm still fascinated that I can get anything out of that blank canvas in FF that when I do it feels like a work of art all ready to be pinned up in the gallery! Later, I am the grown up and realise it wasn't all that great afterall

the solution to that is, quit being a grown-up

i dont know about an independent site. it's something i've given a fair amount of consideration to and still not sure. i like the idea, but i do think it would be fairly small. i dont see it as a big money maker, but it could generate a bit. mostly, i see it as a place for authors, where authors could congregate, post their filters WITH FULL COPYRIGHT PROTECTION if they wanted that, since they wouldnt be bound by the FF eula's, be able to exchange routines and other editor stuff and be able to exchange HDRI environments and other ideas. i was hoping maybe FF, inc. would do something along those lines, but vlad and company seem more interested in the actual product development, and that's fine, but it pretty much leaves it up to us, then, and so far, no one has stepped up to do this. i might do it if i knew more about web design and coding, but i dont, and to pay someone to do it seems a bit of a bad idea when i'm unsure if the thing could even pay for itself. still, i like the idea of it. we could call it, 'The Author's Lounge' or something

who would frequent would be the authors that show up here, me, steve, jffe, uber, dilla, KG, you, 3D and so on. there is more you can do with filter exchange on an independent site than you can do here. for instance, you mentioned custom hdri's. we could provide filters WITH custom HDRI's. we could offer non-standard construction of filters. that one's not a big seller, but nonetheless has a use now and then. we could offer custom HDRI's by themselves. authors could sell their filters outright without the FF eula being in the way. we could sell texture packs and do profit sharing (royalties and so on). we've even been offered free software to do this. we could have a forum, as you mentioned, but have private areas for authors only for the exchange of ideas among authors. and i'm sure there's other things we could do. take a look at some of steve's ideas he's proposed to FF. some of those would work on an independent site.

FF is only, what, two or three years old? i think we're coming up on the third year. so, yes, still in its infancy.

no idea. steve is all over the place try the general discussion thread.

You forgot that I'd drop in, Kraellin!

A WIP pendant:

No 2:

No 4:

I think you should continue to work on it and upload it, just by looking at the filter's page, It's not similar enough to have copying issues. Techno Lights is more grungy, has to do with lights, and is more of a wall or ceiling, where this (to me) looks more like tiles on the floor. I wouldn't use it because I don't use anything but my own stuff (that mindset where if I can make it, I'm going to use my version), but I think other people would like to use it.

Have a slider to adjust vertical placement.

Thanks for your suggestion, Betis. That is what I did in the end so it is up to the user where they place the ring at the top. I've now uploaded the pendants and a few other things that were hanging around in the My Filters folder.

Include refraction, glass thickness, snow at the bottom, a curvy base (using the lathe snippet), and maybe a generated snowman.

Thanks Betis and Craig. Don't shake your monitor too much or you might find more pieces on the floor besides snow!

I had a play with the lathe snippet but I still need to work on this. If the globe is too rounded, the photo distorts too much and I'm still not too keen on the base.

that globe in the second one looks better.

thanks for submitting that one, amethyst. shld be a fun one to use