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tadp0l3 — Emperor
Published: 2009-06-04 23:28:01 +0000 UTC; Views: 9238; Favourites: 200; Downloads: 727
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Description
Layers: +90Time: Sun/supernova 6 intense hours + 3 hours on the starfield + 3 hours on some of the explosion effects = 12 hours
Software: Photoshop CS2
Asteroids by hameed
Inspired by [link] - though our executions are very different.
First deviation in a couple of months, and first space piece in ages.
Please do tell me what you think - the amount of time put in should warrant at least a little comment.
Advance critique welcomed....
Cheers...
Edit: Slightly updated with the nebulas. Was in the original making, but decided to leave it out. Changed my mind.
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Comments: 28
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Wow just wow - the light is so eyecatching.
How big was your psd-file in the end after you finished this piece with 90 layers?
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Hi, so many great pictures! Would you mind me using this one and maybe some others for CD-covers for my Electronic Music Label? Best regards
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would you mind if i could use this and change it a bit?
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With due credits I guess It'd be okay. This is a real old work of mine, so go ahead and use it
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ok, thx XD its not much, just was messing around in photoshop
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Amazing image! It looks like the moment a white dwarf implodes into a black hole. Very good work!
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Wow man very awesome composition and those flairs are way too great
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Thanks. People tend to think they're to hard and crisp - I kinda like it though, glad you do too
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Nothing like a burning blue star 
Texture - the texture itself on the main sun looks pretty cool (or at least what I can see, in real life it would be very bright and glary anyway)so all I would do is maybe make it a bit less-contrasted and more de-saturated too, also select and "spherize" the main body of the star if you havn't done so.
Glow - one thing everybody does which close by stars is they make the star appear really bright around the edge, even I've done it and have only recently acknowledged the fact that in reality - it should be the opposite...The middle should be brighter and the sides dimmer, because you ar elooking through more flaming gas when staring in the middle than you are looking at the edge. The best non-photographic example I can find would be this [link] shading it that way also gives the impression it's more spherical too
Flares - using Fractals for solar flares isn't a bad idea, I think they even did that in the movie The Chronicles of Riddick but the types of fractals yoou used here are too sharp and look more like scratches on glass than plume sof neon gas. Softer-detailed fractals with more "flow" to them would be better. Also, to hide the black background that they are rendered in, set their layer to "linear dodge" after you finish making them...that way only the glowing areas will show
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Gee, thanks for the advance critique priteeboy. Much appreciated.
I'll try to respond to the critique and tell you how I've thought when I made the piece.
Texture - It's spherized fully one and a half time. Though that was before the dust and fractals were added (the dust and fractals that actually illuminates the body). Perhaps that why it doesn't look spherized enough...
Glow - I actually thought about how absurd it is that the brightness is concentrated to the edges, the parts furthest away from the spectator - I browsed around before making the piece and noticed most people make it like I did though, and followed suit - but you're right, I'll keep it in mind.
Flares - Hmm, I kinda like that they're looking a bit aggressive rather than flowing - it does take away from the realism though. How about if I try giving them more glow? They do look very flat, and don't know how to get away from that...
And the fractals are brushes, and not with any black background. I started out filling the whole piece with stars - but removed the parts around the fractals and closest to the star - thought the bright light from the gas would make the stars around it invisible.
Every fractal is duplicated 3-5 times and set at various blending modes (and low opacity). Mostly linear dodge and color dodge if im not mistaken (not at my PS computer atm).
Yet again, thanks a bunch for responding with such a lengthy post Priteeboy.
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Yeah, the bright outer-glow thing on stars seems to have arisen when space art became more digital in the past 5-10 years...but even if you look at a lot of classic, traditional space art, like say - this gallery [link] (there's categories on the left, two dedicated just to stars 
The flares can still be made to look strong and violent, and yeah - you could use sharper fractals for that impression, but perhaps have less sharp ones and have them surrounded by a smoother, fainter ones, like a gassy layer around the main burst of energy...not sure how it would work, I've never tried. But too many sharply detailed fractals at once can look more like electricity than glowing plasma
Well, at least you know the blending modes, Masking out stars behind where it's too bright to see was a good idea. But can be hard (which is why I thought the problem was with the fractals and not the stars) I guess after you mask or erase them, just add in a few here and there to simulate those occasional bright stars that are still visible...you wouldn't need a lot and thus could even "dot" them in manually
anyway, just practise and observe others, that's what it comes down to
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Thanks a bunch for all your advices Priteeboy. Won't do anything with this piece - but will (and have - there's a couple of new additions to my gallery since this one) keep the advices in mind for future works.
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Love the effects and asteroids, but I believe the planet is wayy oversaturated. It really ruins the composition and prevent you from really getting a very space-ish feel.
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It's a sun/supernova - not a planet, hench the saturation
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Ah.
Then why are there asteroids so close to it? o.O
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Well, from the looks of it the supernova is only just begining. Perhaps thats not astroids but a moon blown to pieces (yes, I made that up just now...)
It's really a piece of imagination more than of reality
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Haha, yeah I know how that is totally.
GJ on the exposion effects nonetheless.
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Thanks man, is what was the training purpose of this image. I could clean out all the +20 layers of cloud, dust, fractal and paintbrushed layers that make up the saturated parts of the sun to give it a more clean look - but to be honest, I like it more this way. Can't all have the same taste - imagine how that would look like
Thanks for commenting and giving criticism though - the only way for someone to learn
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Yep, this is true.
Keep up the work, man.
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