You've all seen my starfield from the other day right? Well there it is again if you haven't. I did take some time to work through the planet tutorial I mentioned having trouble with earlier, and while I didn't get exactly the results I wanted, I have to say I am pleased with what came out of the program. On a techncial point I'm impressed with Photoshop Elements, but it still won't make me go out and throw away six hundred dollars or more on a full version of Photoshop. I do have to thank whtdragon for her tips on getting that textured planet surface to show up.
This planet is just a start, I will be trying to do it again, because there are a few finishing steps I could have done but didn't do for this one. I can't think of everything when I'm tired, so I'll give it a fresh look when I'm more awake later, and hopefully get something that looks better. I do still have to figure out the planet's atmospheric glow, but I can just as easily do planets without atmosphere as practice while I look at other programs and available settings to see just what I can come up with to pass for that effect. Right now, I'm not really bothered that I can't do it, because I know I'll figure something out, one way or another. I'll keep posting the results of my experiments as I do them, I kind of like showing off my attempts at things. Once I get this planet thing down (with or without the atmosphere I don't care), I'll them be able to move on to some tutorials whtdragon wrote up (check her portfolio for them) and see what I can do with them too.
I couldn't resist taking the planet attempt and putting it with one of my starfield attempts, just to see how it looks. I think it'll take a lot more work to make the two look good together, but I have a really nice start in that direction. Funny, when watching Star Trek back in the 80's and 90's, I never thought there would be a day when I could make my own snapshots of space like you'd expect to see in Sci-Fi. And while I'm getting the idea how to do these things in Photoshop Elements, I am also trying to figure them out in other programs too. I would like to be able to make something that looks like it came from Photoshop, but actually didn't. That's going to be the biggest challenge for me.
Sunday and yesterday, I was helping a friend of my sister move, as I mentioned. The building he was living in had a fire, and everyone was pretty much told not to expect to be aloowed to live there anymore (HUD was coming down on the landlord hard). Let me tell you, walking into that building was like walking into "Nowhere" in the original Silent Hill game. Everything about the place just looked like a creepy scene from the game, and it smelled like burnt wood. the walls from the ceiling to about two feet down were stained with dark ash, one fluorescent light's UV shield/cover was twisted and contorted from the heat, the smell was so strong it reached outside the building, and penetrated clothes. It was more than a little unsettling to have to walk right by the door of the burned apartment to go up the stairs to my sister's friend's apartment, and even though the rest of the building is clean in appearance, the smell is in everything, and every floor (the building is 4 stories) is it's own brand of Silent Hill creepy. I'm just glad the moving is done with, being in a haunted building like that when it's empty is murder on the nerves. Aside from numerous glimpses of shadow people, at one point during the moving process, I heard the voices of a few nuns (the building used to be part of the Catholic Hospital that's in town) either praying or practicing Gregorian chant. My mother heard a male voice calling to someone on the stairs, and my sister's friend would always hear his own door being opened and closed, even when it was shut and locked. At any rate, that building's spirits have been stirred up, and I hope for his own sake that landlord (he's a shady character, let me tell you) didn't have anything to do with the fire, because he'll have an interesting time of dealing with those spirits if he did.
So basically, I'm tired right now, and I'll be tired for a while. My arms are sore too. I'll be off for a couple days to take some time to rest up. I missed a whole bunch of pages yesterday, and I'll probably not comment for the next few days because I'll be offline and away from the computer as much as possible. Mty apologies in advance, but I really need the rest.
Comments:
Magnus Lensherr
It was amusing to read. Feel free to cut loose like that here any time.
No there's no really deep meaning, I just happened to mention that Photoshop Elements doesn't have all the tools to make a planet like the tutorial I linked, but I would try anyway. As you can see, my attempt at it does lack the "atmosphere glow" that the tutorial put in, and I didn't take the time to do the embossing thing to give the planet a 3D texture like the moon and all, but I'm still figuring that tutorial out.
Actually, he didn't really like the old place (the landlord or his neighbors mostly), but it was close to some things downtown that he walked to (he doesn't drive), but his new place is bigger, and I think he does like it better, though it's up just as many stairs as his old one was. Actually, no, he's getting help with rent, so HUD found it for him I think. I guess it's permanent, I don't think even he would want to move again.
I think so, it's kind of nice to sit with the family for a change.
I can't promise anything, but I certainly hope I've got a new theme by then. This last one was inspired by a comment from Yensid when I posted a picture of the statue a little while back. My previous one related to my dragonish self, that's all I'll say about it ~_^
You too.
Yensid:
He's been a world of good for my sister, that's all the reason I need to help. A kind heart, and an honorable spirit, that's me.
Oh, one of those. People like that get on my last nerve from the start, and he's a liar to boot. Flash is poison for websites. I've had to leave sites because their Flash apps were choking my browser, and Mozilla Firefox doesn't get along with some Flash apps at all. I don't know about file sizes, but they do not load fast. The Flash apps are the last things that load on any web page I go to with them, and I'm on 1Mbps DSL. He also didn't consider that not everyone is paying for an unrestricted file hosting service, where are you supposed to put those files so you can use them in blogs or whatever? That guy's head is screwed on backward and upside down or something, a real life QUACK if ever I heard of one.
You can do animated GIFs in Photoshop Elements too, but I'll stick to Microsoft GIF Animator, it's simple for me to use. I tried to do a GIF in Photoshop Elements once, I had to make the thing in GIF Animator eventually. But, I remember my first experience with Pixia, man was that something. The whole layers thing was new to me and I had to get used to it, now, I work with programs like that, and don't even realize I'm doing it anymore.
I saw your link, and checked it out, nice work. I'm not really a fan of "people" in fine art, like portraits and what have you, but I can still appreciate seeing that kind of art done well. I think you do have to be a member to comment on DA, and not see those annoying ads (they do more harm than good to the site), as well as other things. I am seriously considering joining up over there, if only to post my photos somewhere, I need the exposure. They do photos over there on DA right?
scorchbird12:
The most interesting thing is, most people who are allergic to red strawberries can eat the white ones without problems. It seems the allergy is triggered by the protein that makes strawberries red. White strawberries don't have that protein. I haven't tasted the white ones yet, but if I see some in a store, I'll have to try them, just to know. People say they do have a different taste to them than red strawberries though. There is food grade silver leaf, I suppose dusting a white strawberry with that would in effect turn it silver, and would look really cool too. A blue one would be harder to come by because it would have to be grown (scientists out there, start playing with those genes already), but would also look really cool. Never apologize for your imagination. Being imaginative is never a bad thing.
Sure thing, I like to do that for people, even if my methods are unconventional.
I love Lestat:
Actually, he got most of his stuff before I helped. I was just the muscle for the big heavy stuff like his snake's aquarium, and some other furniture. He's doing all the annyonng pack and upack stuff himself.
alphonse13:
I know, and while we were in the building he was showing us how thick the smoke was on his floor(about three feet from the ceiling down, it would have been right over my head, and I stand six foot tall) and really creeping us out. It's one thing to just hear about it, but actually having a person describe it while your in the place it happened, that's unsettling. The only thing worse was having to walk by the burned out apartment to get up the stairs. You are right, it's a real blessing that no one got hurt, even the guy who lived in the burned apartment is all right. Guess I didn't really do a good job of not wearing myself out, I'm beat.
Sage of Magic
That is the best thing about the whole situation, everyone got out, and no one was hurt. The tenants of the building may not have been the most fortunate people, but at least they had level heads on their shoulders to handle getting out of the building on their own, or to help the ones who couldn't get out make it too.
Yes, please try the challenge, I've only got one submission so far. Let me help you out with some image reference courtesy of Google. A soda jerk is something like you'd see on an older TV show or cartoon. Think 1940's and 1950's ere stuff. Lizardmen are staples of video games and sci-fi I hope the links work. Don't worry about making it look great, just try, that's the fun part, trying to do something you don't normally do.
sikaurai
She doesn't realize it herself, but yes, given all that's happened to her recently, yes she's very fortunate to have a friend like him. I agree whole heartedly, it's just a miracle that they all got out and no one was hurt.
It's nice to have someone to count on sometimes, and I like being the guy people count on to help too. I helped the guy more into the apartment, and I helped him move out of it. When he thanked me for helping both times, I responded with "Anytime." And I meant it. If he had to move again tmorrow, I'd be right there helping him all over again.
Well, there's a lot of coincidences and conveniences dealing with this fire that make it seem like no accident. HUD was going to shut the building down because none of the apartments had thermostats in them, and there was little to no heat in any of the apartments (aside from space heaters the tenants themselves used), the apartment that caught fire was right across the hallway from the building's business office, and it was between the main stairs leading up to the upper floors and the back exit, the damage was localized to one wall of the apartment, the damage was only severe enough to force the tenants out of the building, while keeing the majority of the building intact, and get this, the guy who was living in the apartment that burned had right outside his door two things, a fire extinguisher (hanging right on the doorframe of his apartment), and the fire alarm (straight out the door on the opposite side of the hallway). He used neither one to either attempt to put out the fire (which he claims was a candle left unattended or something like that), or alert the fire department to the blaze which doesn't make any sense. It was my sister's friend who called the fire department while he was on his way out of the building. I don't think this landlord is relocating anyone, only because HUD is involved and they have certain standards that have to be met, so they're relocating the tenants. There's a lot of things that just don't add up to this being an accidental fire.
Edit
Sage of Magic
It just came to my attention that whtdragon put together a Lizardman soda jerk as well as my only other submission so far, done by Breakfast Squid, so I have two submissions instead of just the one.
