Wow, this is smoalking hot!

Amazing work you guys, you need to turn it into a banner for sure! If I could offer a humble suggestion...it may be cool if it was inset into the background like some kind of ancient monolith that cracks open when you turn the key revealing the knowledge...I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy!

AWESOME. That key is amazing!!

OK, so here's a modified version... I brightened the glow around the key and added that lens flare effect I was talking about... not sure if it's the right effect but I wanted to accentuate the idea of there being some kind of light or energy when it comes to that key entering that lock.

I've also done a crop on the image, and I wanted to get a few opinions on that matter. In Daedaloop's last post, the mandala was centered in the page, with a fair amount of background happening around it. It made for a great epic overall look (like for a poster or something) but in the process, I think lost a little bit of the emblematic look that we originally set out to create. Most importantly, I think the key has become too small and is being swallowed by all that detail. The close crop was meant to bring the visual focus back to the key, as was the glow and lens flare effect.

Opinions anyone?

Looks great! I like it cropped better it makes it look much more like an emblem than an unfinished full image. I think the flare could be changed up a bit by making it look a bit more abstract rather than having the definite star shape. The glow is nice also makes the key pop.

I was originally thinking more like a realistic lens flare effect... the one in my version of Photoshop is lame- anyone know of a good lens flare filter?

Why not make the glow from the lock instead of the key?

Yea I was definitely thinking some cropping would have to be done, I just uploaded it in whole so we would have more choices.

The thing is, what exactly are we making this for? If it's for a logo/sticker then it shouldn't have a background at all. If it's for a work of art/animation, then your cropping is fitting. If it's for a poster, then my cropping is fitting. If it's for a banner, then we would actually need more of the background horizontally. So forth and so on...

Yea I guess we're gonna make all of those anyway lol. But having a primary function for this would be good.

The stronger key glow is better, and I tried a more realistic lens flare like suggested. But shouldn't a real lens flare be on top of an object instead of behind it? Therefore it shouldn't be too bright or it will block some of the rubies. Also maybe the molten gold should be left out of this crop version, it just looked weird.

onethousandk, you mean the keyhole would have shine coming out of it? I thought about that but it made the keyhole kinda indistinguishable from the rest so black is better, altho it could have some subtle colorful rays coming out of it like I tried here...

Purpose? Hmmm...

I still love the idea of a hologram card, and there may be an interested party.

As far as creating a version that will get a lot of open source web circulation, the GIF is our best bet, probably with this crop. Could be simple- just a pulsing color thing. Animating the key is a cool idea but makes for a much larger file (actually, you tell me- I've never made a GIF)

If we make a banner version, we should see how it looks to do a close crop, so we'd lose a lot of tge upper and lower parts of tge mandala but would get a much more detailed view of the key/ keyhole.

I still like your liquid gold idea, but maybe a more electrified version, based on electrical discharge? Although that might look too static in the animated version...

I'll contact the hologram card guy today and send him a link to this page.

No the full animation can easily be done, and can even be pretty intricate, without the file getting too big.. It's just about the resolution mainly, so I was thinking something in the lines of 500x400.

And for the hologram guy: I was thinking something like this. The one on the lowest right. Each facet of the crystals would have its own reflection like that. I'm not sure how holograms are produced but would we just need to make a version where each facet is a flat color and differs from all the neighbors? And the gold and rubies would have shine too, so basically we would just make a version with flat colors and no detail/glare?

The hologram card basically has a number of different frames (7 maybe?) that cycle through as you rotate the card back and forth. Hopefully you'll get that package soon so you can see an example! But we will need to create each frame. I think the twinkle effect would be actually pretty simple- I bet if you just rotated the hue through all the facets, like that early GIF example you posted, it would twinkle really well, since the existing colors are far enough out of phase with each other. It might also be cool to slowly cross dissolve from one background to another- sandstone when the key is fully out, and a neon FOL placed the same way, possibly with stars and galaxies and stuff, when the key is all the way in. And the lens flare effect would be nonexistent when the key is out, and brighten in intensity as it moves into position.

Just some thoughts...

In fact, I'd be really curious to see how the current version reacts to a simple color cycling...

If you mean the full-on pulsing that I showed earlier, then this is how it looks now:

Gee, that doesn't look terrible at all... But if you have other ideas, I'm open.

As long as we have our grayscale mask, we have options...

here is another version, where I forced the hue progression a bit... want to try pulsing this one?

Also, maybe slow the effect down a bit?

Yep, it's better. Looks more like it's expanding from the center now. Also 50% speed.

Brilliant work guys!

That's great... Tonight I'll send you the full rez version- going to use the gray mask, select a random 10% of the facets and take the hue halfway around- should amplify the twinkle effect further.

Also, the slower the pulse, the more twinkle action will be visible.

i kind of like the original because as you stare at it, it seems to strobe and change directions from expanding from the center to contracting back, which i think adds to the 'psychedelic' aspect.

also would it be possible to get the ruby-petals to spin? preferably in different directions (i.e. the very back one spinning clockwise and the main hexagon directly inside it counter-clockwise, or vice-versa)?

that would be incredible.

maybe even at different speeds, but it is hard to imagine if it would look better at a uniform speed or not.

plus this may be too difficult a task (my skills are limited to ms paint )

To be honest I did like the faster pulse because it seemed more violent like dmt, but the slower amplifies the twinkling more like Guyo said. But maybe we could have both, like when the lock opens it's like warming up, going from slow to fast. Or vice-versa, it's very fast first and then it stabilizes. I'll have to experiment with that when the time comes.

Hmm, ruby-petals? You mean the rubies on the key? That's a cool idea but unfortunately that wouldn't have a noticeable visual effect, because even if they rotated, the white dot in the corner would have to stay in the same place because it's just a reflection of light.

Guyomech, here's the new twinkle you sent. The thing that's weird about the RGB-colorspace on computers is that the blue is alot darker than the green, which is what causes the pulsing effect on hue cycling for example. So in the version you sent me with 10% having opposite hue, it looked very unnatural, like just dark spots appearing and disappearing. I tried to move them closer back to the original hue, but still not that good I guess. Hard to get a realistic twinkle it seems..

Hmmm... I see what you mean. Very rich blue... Maybe the thing to do would be to create an independent transparent layer that is just white facets phasing in and out... We could control the bling effect without messing with the colors that way.

And yeah, slow pulsing as the key approaches, maybe gradually getting faster to full warp pulse mode?

I think what Parshvik was talking about was making the layers of petals counter-rotate, like I described in that storyline post. How tricky would that be? I know it would involve exposing parts of each layer that we haven't actually drawn, so we'd need to separate the layers and fill in those parts. But that would be an insane effect...

As far as the rubies go, maybe pulse them through red/orange/ yellow?