I am no visual artist, so take this with a grain of salt:

The mandala crystal effect looks great on each "petal", but when put together into the mandala make lines of brightness emanating from the centre that dulls the effect; perhaps if these were more random they would resemble light reflecting off the facets of crystals from different angles better...

I don't even know if my description is clear or if that is simple to do - or even useful at all!

Great work again! And what I meant by banner was incorporating these pictograms into one

JBArk

Yeah I totally get what you mean, and I already mentioned it that the overall petal light-scattering should be randomized in the finished product. It's all gonna look alot better don't worry.

As for the banner, that's a great idea, but it would need some more stuff aswell because of the aspect ratio... After this is done, it's definitely worth trying out.

I had a feeling i was either pointing out something unnecessary or being redundant and pointing out something obvious.

Can't wait to see the final work!

(this is my 2000th post, and an honour to be doing it in this thread )

JBArk

Congrats on number 2000! I got some catching up to do...

And you're absolutely right about the random scatter effect- in fact, it's been brought up a couple times already. But it's never redundant to get confirmation from a broader base of observers.

... And a banner featuring the key could be cool... But I'm also starting to imagine animated GIF versions of this.

Ah, the war against time!

That's so cool! I'll be uncharacteristically brief, when I say that I have personally befitted from many of your thoughts, ideas and various musings. Keep 'em coming, brother!

The lock...

Whoa!! that looks great! Lock stock and sleeping deity!

And Rising Spirit - likewise. Thank you. I have been concentrating on finishing a book I have been writing for 20 years off and on (gulp), so my writing energy of late has been elsewhere. I look forward to more banter here though!

Cheers,


JBArk

Congrats jbark!

And yeah great touches on the lock. It took awhile but I managed to make some photoshop time, so here are a few comparisons. And you just had to mention animated GIFs didn't ya.. So here's a little bonus (lol I'm a junkie for flashy animations)

I could also email you the layered PSD file but I guess you already had one?

Yeah, exactly!

So, here's your storyboard. Simple version: mandala is iridescent but not pulsing; key starts out off-camera, emerges from right side. It glides into place, engages lock, face wakes up (you'll only see one eye), mandala pulses (as you have it), maybe 10-15 sec; pulsing slows down, key fades to transparency, vanishes. Pulsing stops. Back to beginning.

Fancier version: we add color pulsing in the rubies(orange/red/magenta spectrum), key shimmers... Mandala slowly pulses. When key engages lock, pulsing speeds up and the layers of the mandala start counter-rotating.

Can this stuff even be done with GIFs?

Anyway, back down to Earth: the non-animated version. I guess we're just about there. As far as color on the mandala goes, I like the warmer pink/ red/ orange/yellow approach. Plus that sounds appropriate coming from the Explorer Of Pink Realms. I think it should be saturated more, then we need to work on the random scatter effect. I need to do a couple final things with the key, then we snap it all together. Maybe a white glow around the key, separate it from mandala? Anyway, soon. I have to work on my real work tonight.

I wanted to comment on something Daedaloops said earlier in the thread: basically, that it may seem silly to try embodying something like the DMT experience in a simple piece of art, but that the act of trying can lead to positive things. I couldn't agree more. I've seen a number of posts here and there with a "it's not possible, don't even bother" kind of attitude... And although I can understand where these folks are coming from, I believe that the opposite is true- that attempting to bring back some of the hyperspace visual language is something that we must do... It's part of the human imperative, IMO. This key thing is really just a fun trinket, not a serious attempt to articulate a hyperspace journey. But we'll work our way there... If we can get a strong collaborative spirit going among the nexus folk, all kinds of things could be possible.

WOW amazing stuff!

That is insane 0_0

hahaha that animation was the perfect thing to wake up to after a 16 hour slumber

Love it!

16 hour slumber? Wow, went to bed at two, baby got up at 4:15... But 16 hours sure sounds refreshing.

Man, I could watch that .GIF for days! Something deeply hypnotizing in it... cant.. stop.. watching...

also loving the smiley face in it Awesome job!

That is really cool. Good work.

Wow, after a week away from the Nexus I find all this new stuffs! It gets better and better!

I agree. Strong blacks around each petal can catch the eye too evenly and flatten the whole thing out.




I was wondering what you guys were planning for the background. I personally think it would be interesting to put it on a darker, less detailed but still sandstone background that mimics some of the line work done in the face so that it doesn't seem like the entire thing is floating but rather part of a larger network.

Also: that animated gif is awesome.

I am digging all of these getting better through the thread thank you.

I think the face is the perfect add, i am always seeing things with faces in the psychedelic world.

You have put a lot of work into this keep it up.

OK, here is the mask template I PM'd you about. You'll need to put it together into the whole mandala- try to make it line up as close to exactly as you possibly can with your colored version.

Once you've got that together, merge all the gray mask layers. keep the color mandala layer underneath, and start a new layer above that one called "scatter" or something. Click on the Magic Wand tool, then use it to select a few disconnected facets in the gray layer. Hide the selection, hide the gray layer, make sure you are on the Scatter layer, then airbrush the facets. Use your judgement with the colors; keep it sort of within the range of what we have already, but have fun, maybe push the range a bit. We are going for iridescence here.

Next, Deselect, then repeat the process with more facets. Work through a third to half of the mandala, then flatten and save it as a JPEG. Also save the gray mask as a separate JPEG. Be sure to post them both at the highest resolution you can. I'll then take a turn at airbrushing the random scatter effect.

The gold border around the mandala needs more work too... I believe that part is also your turn.

Meanwhile, I'm supposed to be working on the key. Hope to have it posted soon.