Agh, too many aspects for one brain to handle.. ok so first of all:


I thought the pulsing would start only after the key is fully in and the lock has been opened? Until then it would just shimmer very subtly.


Ah yeah ok, that would indeed be doable.. And it gives me an idea that it would be like a stargate, each layer would dial into place after the last one, and when fully engaged it would open a portal to the unknown..


I think it's better to leave the key alone as far as color cycling goes.. Somehow that would seem like a bit too much going on.

And lastly, I just received your package! And ookayy, now I see what you mean by a hologram. That is really insanely cool , it looks like it's a digital screen just changing frames. And yeah then we could have the whole animation on it, reduced to 5-7 frames. But I also like the other definition of a hologram, like in the picture I linked. I'm not sure which would be cooler..


*Edit* You know what, could I just make the whole animation as I see it in my head right now, and then we would make the adjustments on that framework? Even if the lotus or background get changed it would be easy to incorporate the changes to it.

As far as doing a true hologram, that would be super cool... But this type of effect, we actually have the resources for.

At this point, I think you should just go for it, do your thing... Post it and then we'll talk more. Can't wait to see what you've got in your head!

i was referring to the lotus petals

also this is getting better every time i check this thread.

you guys are seriously amazing

Here's what I have so far, to demonstrate what is possible. I decided to make it in Flash because you can keep the layering so the filesize stays very small. So it took awhile cos I had to get reacquainted with it and actionscript. We can still convert to GIFs if need be, but they would be half the resolution and still 10x bigger file.

You need the latest flash player to view this correctly: link

TODO:
-make the lava veins pulse into the lotus
-add sound fx for the lock opening and crystalline fluttering
-stargate petals and a portal (not sure, might be too complex)

Amazing!!!

On your todo list, it says make the lava veins pulse into the lotus. I was thinking it might be cool to make it pulse from the lotus/mandala to make it seem as if the molecules are being released from the lotus.

You two have done a truly amazing job with this piece and it has been a joy to watch it unfold.

Thank you very much for sharing it with us!

Wow, great to see it in action! I especially like the color pulse effects- nice "peak experience" vibe. The blinking eye is a nice touch, along with those little drifting "dazzle" marks.

I still think the gold lightning effect looks fine in a still but weirdly static when the rest of the image is animated.

Also, is there a way to have the key on-screen longer? Maybe start the whole sequence with it already visible?

I think of we're going to do an animation for a card, we'll want to go with a closer crop and of course have to say more with less. Possibly it would make sense to just create the individual frames by hand- there are so few of them.

I know how to create the Stargate spin/lock effect in Final Cut, but I've never used Flash. Final Cut exports space consumptive Quicktimes, pretty much the opposite of the mean and lean GIF we had originally aimed for...

Melodic, yeah that's a good idea I dunno why I thought into the lotus..

Guyomech, I agree the key needs more focus. I updated the link with the key pausing for a while before continuing (will be smoother), and also fixed the non-seamless looping. As for the gold staticness, not much we can do about it unless we want to animate it by hand.. Which I think is gonna be way too much work compared to the achievement. But yeah for the card we would just make the frames by hand. Could you ask what's the maximum number of frames? On the card you sent it seems to be about 7.. And the stargate effect itself is easy, I just need to draw abit more of the petals like you mentioned before. Also have to design some kind of portal..

So I dunno is it better that I'm working on this or should we just finish the original artwork first? OO I just noticed the banner deadline is in 6 days, so yah we should make that right now atleast.. If I upload some banner choices with different text placements and stuff, then we would choose the best, and you would make your stuff on it ? Or should we both make our own submission?

*EDIT* Well here's a few quickly made examples on the placements/colors..

I love it!

Fantastic Work my friend

Superb work, they all look great but I really like the middle one.

Good skills Nexians.

Yeah, the middle one gets my vote.

I'd love to keep working on this, but any GIF action is going to be in your hands. I can animate in Bryce and Final Cut but that's it. If you can think of any effects or overlays that I might be able to help with, though, let me know.

As far as the gold lightning thing goes: it looks to me like you've created 6 different gold plasma bolts. If every few seconds they cross dissolved to replace each other, that would animate nicely. Put all 6 of them on their own layer, then cross dissolve it into a version of the same layer that's been rotated 60 degrees... repeat 3-4 seconds later... after the sixth swap, change to a new layer that's a horizontally flipped version, giving you 6 new variations... etc. I know this is sort of a confusing description...? If need be, you can send me the layers and I can create a demo in Final Cut.

I'm going to ask my wife the electronic musician about sound effects... maybe she can help hook this up.


Amazing job, I can tell you've really been putting the hours into this.

Allrighty then, the middle one it is.. and made the colors fit with the forum theme. Is this ok or did you have some other ideas?

About the gold staticness, nevermind I understood completely wrong I thought you meant the gold on the key and lock.. The 6 things on the outside aren't lightning bolts, they're veins of lava and they wont be static for long..

My God! How have I been missing this thread?!?! Awesome work guys! I dig the crystalline chrysanthemum keyhole.

Really really good stuff.

Hmm last post 2 weeks ago.. where did all that time go?!

Anyways I had big troubles with the lava animation, and now finally that I figured out how to do it with the Erase -blending mode, it turns out it's too expensive for normal PCs. So I worked my ass off for nothing.. System requirements: the sneakiest enemy of the digital artist!

So yeah I decided to stop working on it since it's a dead end, anything I add would just make it more expensive. Well here it is anyway but it'll probably get sluggish on older PCs when the lava starts comin: http://sta.sh/01er2xkiz2sy

So I'll just attach the whole artwork with the new lava stuff and the dazzle effects.. So as far as I'm concerned we could just wrap this up finally? (sorry about the meaningless 2 week delay)

daedaloops, I wish my vocabulary was large enough to describe how moved I am by this effort. Your work is brilliant and I am so glad to have you around these forums.

Much love.

Thank you a1pha for such words.

But I don't really deserve it, I just tinker with stuff, Guyomech made the big work here and I can't say enough how honored I am to have been able to work with him.. Especially on such a cool project. My current goal in life is to reach his level of awesomeness.

the word awe and also awesome and awe inspiring and awe, man that's great! - all come to mind. bravo bothayas!

JBArk

Awesome! Is that image at full resolution or is a higher-rez version available?

Beautiful work guys!! That is super rad, I really appreciate all the work you two put into that to give us something pretty to look at.

I look forward to seeing more projects like this, I really enjoyed watching the evolution of this masterpiece.

Whoops, I had uploaded them at half-size.. I updated the packet, now it's in full size. And yea it's not the visible attachment, it's the "newbg_packet03.zip" link right above it.