After trying my hand at those tutorials, I think it's time I put Photoshop Elements on the back burner for a while. I do like learning how to make effects like that look good, but I just don't really have the energy to experiement with things to get my PSE2 to deliver a similar look to what a full Photshop program can offer. I have to say I surprised myself with what I was able to produce following those tutorials, and I would like to have another go at making those things again, maybe when the holidays are over and I'm not feeling so weighed down with myself I will try a few more things.
Actually, with this lazy week, I'm behind with my writing project, the novel I briefly mentioned in a post weeks ago. I'll have to spend a lot of time working on it if I want to meet the Christmas deadline for the first draft. I am nowhere near the point I should be, so I might have to take a couple more days off just to get caught up. I'll decide that after I put a good hour or two into it this weekend though. I may get ahead of myself which will be a good thing.
I am well rested now, though I do still feel the effects of lifting heavy things. Since I'm not used to doing that, I probably will feel that for a while to come yet. Overall though, I'm doing better than I was before, and I'm glad to be back on here again, I kind of missed it.
Comments:
Yensid:
I finally broke down and joined up there, I sent you a "note" so you'll have my info without me having to post it here. I don't want to link to my dA gallery here yet because I'm already so annoyed with DeviantArt that I may just delete my account and say F[Censored] it! They really need to fix that gallery thing so it actually refreshes and shows all of the newest submissions under the "newest" sort option. I don't think they have a guestbook over there, but they do have comments on practically everything, and the "notes" system is closest to a PM system that I can tell. I have a lot of issues on the technical level with dA right now: I couldn't upload any of my tunnel pictures, because there's at least three different places they could "correctly" be catergorized based only on the descriptions on the upload page. The requirement of keywords for submissions is just nonsense, the lack of pop up tool tips, or text tags for anything in the backroom areas (like the friends list) is frustrating, there are no FAQ or site help pages anywhere, but my biggest issue with DA is their rather callous "pay us money to not see ads" garbage. I think I'll turn on my adblocker for DA, just on principle alone.
I have no issues with figurative art in general, I just don't do "realism" in my art when it comes to people. That does not mean that I am so blinded by my dislike for doing that style that I automatically don't like figure drawings and the like, quite the contrary. I like to see good figure drawings, portraits, and so on. At any rate, even if I wanted to go that direction with my art, there's no place near me that does "drop in" sessions or anything similar. My local "art center" is a sham, oops, I mean scam, no wait, I think I meant both . . . yeah, I did. They want some ridiculous figure of money to become a "member" to only knock $5.00 to $10.00 of the cost of everything they offer in terms of the few classes and other things they offer. They do nothing for the benefit of the community (pro bono, free) either, and to me, that's just not worth it. There's a semi-local artists/photographers group, the Allied Artists of West Virginia, that exhibits at the art center once in a while, but they want money for people to become members of that too. Someone just starting out in the art community isn't going to be able to afford a "status symbol" club like that. The organizations that claim to support the arts should be willing to give a little if they expect to get something back, especially in an area that's not to keen on the arts. Oh there area lot of wannabes and players in the "fine arts" community here, but no one's overly serious or passionate about the creative process, or giving up and coming artists the exposure they need. They're all just out to make a quick buck on someone else's labors, that's all West Virginia is good for.
The star and planet tutorials are not whtdragon's just links she posted to someone else's. She did sparkles, flames, water and a few others that I'm in the process of learning. Those are in her portfolio here. She does have great ideas when it comes to faking some of the more advanced Photoshop effects using only Elements, and her suggestions have been immensely helpful to me. I am satisfied with the resulting images I got, but I am still working on getting a few things to look right by my eye. Hopefully I'll have a planet with atmosphere up in a couple days, I'm fine tuning some tips whtdragon gave me regarding that. If you run into any snags, you can ask me, or whtdragon about them, preferably whtdragon since I'm learning this stuff myself right now, and one of us could probably figure something out.
My biggest gripe with both PSE and CPE is that the resize selection tool is not intuitive. You have to manually choose the tool in Corel Painter Essentials, and I still can't find one at all in Photoshop Elements. That should be a matter of hovering over the dotted selection line and being able to click and drag to resize, not a complicated routine to do something that simple. It makes it harder to fix the slight mistakes to move on to the more important parts of creating.
I've slept till really late the past few days. My arms are still sore, but I guess I am rested up enough to get back to my routine here.
Angel Slayer:
Never saw the movie, and never will. Movies based on video games are all trash, I laughed all the way through both Tomb Raiders, and neither one was supposed to be funny. Anyway, Horror isn't my thing with movies.
Two weeks till finals huh? That's great, best of luck with studying up for those. As for me, well, I'm doing better now that I've got my rest.
scorchbird12:
Yeah, I like the planet, but I can do better if I really apply myself, so I'm still working on it.
Oh yeah, just like Silent Hill. The first floor has about three foot of smoke stains from the ceiling down the walls, and long thin drip marks like black tear tracks where the fire department sprayed water on everything on the first floor near the burned apartment, the line of smoke stains actually goes up the stairs to the second floor, the floor is covered with ash footprints, going up and down the stairs too. It's an older building, so the natural wear and dinge adds to the effect too, as well as the dim lighting and the fact that the building was completely empty both days we were there.
The haunting is completely unrelated to the fire, but something like that is bound to stir up the activity. People report spies in activiy when they remodel an older place sometimes. The building was part of a Catholic Hospital, it was used as a rooming house for Nuns, and there are many deaths which occured in the building when it was apartments. There's a lot of energy there. I'd love to get back into the place with my camera and DVR and do a real paranormal investigation of the place, but that's not likely to happen. Even if I asked the landlord, the guy is a complete idiot and probably wouldn't allow it.
That would be neat. I wonder how much food grade silver leaf costs.
sikaurai
I'm back to my abnormal self now I think. Thanks for the wait.
In my case I have so much idle time I have to teach myself stuff like that just to keep my mind occupied. It is a neat effect, and when I get it all together, I'm sure it'll look even better. If you want to use them as wallpapers, go ahead. I uploaded signed versions of both the planet/star combo picture, and the plain starfield one. The neat thing is, if you resize these up (original pics are 800x600), the blurring of the edges actually helps the pictures out. They look more natural. I'm using the plain starfield as my wallpaper right now myself.
Magnus Lensherr
"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is an area as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears, and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call the Twilight Zone." - Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone; Season One
I've told US Senators that I don't feel at home in this farce of a state, I've told people in the State government that West Virginians are the rudest, most arrogant, ignorant and self-absorbed people I've ever met. I stand firmly behind everything I say, when I say something, I mean it, you can count on that.
As for the contractors, we won't know till it rains if those idiots did the job right. If the roof still leaks, I'll have to insist a more professional crew be called in and the bill sent over to the iditots for their neglecting to do the job right twice. There's no way I'll allow them back on the property.
The building is creepy, it is very unsettling to be in, to walk by the burned apartment, to see, smell, and feel it all, but it'll only be the Twilight Zone for the landlord, and maybe the guy who lit the match too.
Actually I'm doing better now, I think I just needed a little rest, that's all.
You too.
beyblader
I suppose the planet thing is kind of random, even for me. The tutorials were brought to my attention only recently and I had to try them out just to see what I could do.
It's very easy to overcomplicate simlpe things in Photoshop, which I think is what the planet tutorial does in most respects. I'm not as patient with Photoshop as I make it appear I am, I just want to be able to fake my way through some of the basics should the need arise.
Yes, Adobe thinks that people will use something like Photoshop Elements and be so impressed with it that they'll go out and spend $600.00 on the latest Photoshop version. More like be annoyed that there's nothing overly useful in Elements that is. At any rate, I could get a whole computer, running Windows XP for that price, and when one software program that's not an operationg system costs as much as a computer, that's when you know that program is garbage.
Anyway, I like the think of myself as "gray hat" when it comes to the whole net download thing, since what I do falls into the "of questionable repute" (a long story you won't get me to give details on). I'll have to decide if having a full version is worth the risk, but I have thought of that before.
alphonse13:
The only reason those baboons in The International Astronomical Union (IAU) did that was to appease their own agendas. I REFUSE to acknowledge the very definition of the term "dwarf planet" as applied to Pluto. Pluto is the ninth planet from the sun right now, it switched back from being the eighth in 1999. If you don't know, Pluto's orbit is kind of wonky, and for a person of about 20 years every so many years, Pluto actually orbits inside of Neptune's, making the two "switch places" in terms of planet numbers. As for the other planetary bodies, I haven't really been keeping up with those, so I can't really comment on them. If they fall under the bogus "dwarf planet" thing, chances are I'd have to know more about them before making my own conclusions as to what I want to call them.
No, I haven't seen the Silent Hill movie, I don't think I want to. As I previously mentioned videe game based movies are usually so absurdly out of character that they end up being giggle fests. I laughed all the way through both Tomb Raider movies when I caught them on the TV.
I've had people who are definately in tune with the spirit world tell me that members of my family are more in tune to spirits than most people are. In my case, it's usually just those really heavy feelings, you know how you can tell when someone's being a jerk and walking right behind you in a store? It's kind of like that for me when I'm in an area that's know to have activity, and sometimes even when it's not known. My sister and mother are more likely to see, hear and feel things, but I do hear and see things on ocassion too. Actually, one of my cousins has a Gypsy put a curse on him and my Aunt (his mother) when he was really little. My Mom always talks about my aunt saying something like "I should have let the Gypsies have you" or words to that effect when he was getting into trouble. Basically, the curse thing doesn't surprise me, it's your choice to tell it if you want to or not. There are times I don't like to deal with spirits and all that, but there are times it's actually a blessing to experience those things. My only thing is, I can't really stick around in cemetaries for too long. That's a little too much for my senses to handle right now. As for the apartment building, only the one apartment was burned, and the door to it was closed and locked (Fire Marshal probably still investigating it), but the smoke damage was everywhere, and the smell was in everything.
I'm rested up now, and feeling much better. Thanks.
