These are not the droids ...

[delpart]

'Elo all,

Thanks for creating yet another nook for collaboration on PDN outside of the main forum. My only post there is a howdy message at this time. I think I covered some basics with it so I'll be super lazy and link to it for reference: delpart intro on pdn main forum

Slight recap: I'm not sure what the heck I'm doing, but I'm trying to do it while embracing PDN as the medium.

I can be a little odd since I recall a different time in sharing info, the internet in general, life before cell phones, and keep winding up almost steam-punk in my approaches to technology. I just noted that I have 630 gigs of usable storage unused online ... Now I just need to figure out how to leverage it over a simple file sharing method as I dont trust the whimsy of the photobuckets of the world.

My favorite form of art is based on computer dreams. Random associations and improbable math. Order in chaos. Not all of it is abstract, but that's a whole book to flush that one out ... I've fallen pretty far in the last couple of decades from knowing 1/2 the math I used to but I understand more about sane mundane things now and there was no room left upstairs for all of it. That and it used to need a super computer to do what I wanted so I never followed Alice down this path ...

Favorite method of text is stream of consciousness. Which means an excessive amount of ellipses from time to time ... <-- (yeah, those things). If done right, my posts will make sense. If not, well, just pretend you're dealing with a small child and smile.

Okay, I'll stop there. No sense trying to use all 60,000 characters. (But it seems like an easy challenge.)

Best regards.

[Goonfella]

Whew! What an intro!

Anyway, welcome to the forum delpart . Looking forward to seeing some of your work.

[barbieq25]

Thank goodness there is someone else in this world that uses ellipses & can blow any word count in the world!

Welcome to here too. Looking forward to seeing your style of art too. We have been exploring ways of creating steampunk works - Tarnished look thread.

[lancemcknight]

Welcome! Looking forward to your computer dreams, whatever that is.

[delpart]

Goonfella -

Thank you. Hopefully I can get myself sorted sooner than later. Worse case is I have to edit a gallery post ... not sure why this bothers me.

@ barbieq25

I should reply to that thread over there. Keep meaning to then I get distracted. Thanks for the double welcome.

As for steam-punk thats more a state of mind. I'm still trying to get some basics in composition down ... not sure I'm up to that level of work in PDN just yet. Though I do have a few ideas on that theme.

@lanceii

Thank you. Hopefully it will make sense in the long run. Right now I'm still focused on using random generation instead of brushes and the like simply because it allows me to not focus as much on the what, but the how of the PDN tool-set. Oddly enough, the only fractal in PDN I've used extensively is the diamond-square algorithm: plasma/clouds. Though, rats, now that I think about it, dents is based on perlin ... argh. Guess I should have thought about that a little bit more.

My thought on favorite art there was based on a description of fractals from several decades ago. I cannot recall where it was published, but essentially someone did a ray-trace of a complex composite Mandelbrot set heightmap extraction in chrome with some orbs thrown in reflecting this "landscape." The basis of the article was about how it related to this and that with a caption of "Is this what computers dream of?" ... Roughly attributed to the "Do androids dream of electric sheep" concept.

Since then there are tons of works based on that theme. A pretty good example is probably the electric sheep project: LINK: About electric sheep collaborative fractal explorations

Another recent example that took into account some relative cognitive psych concepts was based on displaying movements picked up by a motion detection camera. Sort of a hybrid idea, but rather nifty: Click on the LEAVING link on this page. Sorry about the odd link. Site is in flash. While neat, makes it difficult to target a specific.

Hopefully that helps clear up my muddled approach on that intro without having to turn it into a book.

[lancemcknight]

Oh, I gotcha now.

I happen to know a wonderful program that can do that for you. It's called Apophysis. There are several versions of Apophysis. I use Apophysis 7X, and if you look in my gallery, you might see some fractal based manipulation. One of the best, in this forum, would be PeterPawn. Check his gallery, it's very impressive.

If you are interested in the 3D part of it, there's Apophysis 3D Hack.

Read through the blog I linked and see if that doesn't strike your fancy.

There's some nifty 3D fractal program out there, Mandelbulb or Incendia.

[PeterPawn]

Glad to have you delpart. We're a friendly bunch. We keep each other out of trouble.

[delpart]

Thanks for the links. Just recently grabbed Apophysis to figure out what math was making flames. For some reason I'd avoid it. Been re-exploring the fractal generator world a little after taking a few years away from it. At one point I was a heavy Fractint user before I got side tracked away from it all. Kind of wish I'd delved into that passion instead of trying to do other things a little. Especially since UltraFractal realized several of them. And there was a market for it of sorts after the fact. Bah, hindsight is evil.

Though what I'm trying to do right now is avoid diving into them completely as a basis for most things of course. Well at least that's the idea. I probably should pose that philosophical question here and see what ya'll think about. (In its own thread.)

Got an eye on Blender to hammer out some ideas that I cant draw. I've got an eye so to speak, but I lack that connection with my hands to even get a crude sketch to come out. Mainly I have a block that says I cant do it, and that's what happens. That and some pretty acute carpal tunnel issues when I try and use hand implements beyond a trackball and keyboard. I get to thank using a keyboard for over 30 years for that one. There's some irony here I think.

The bulb was something awe inspiring. I somehow got caught up in things since 2008 and missed that.

Well, not somehow. I was helping my mother beat cancer and all that. Amazing how much time it takes to keep up with the world.

Right, why am I still blathering on.

Short version: Got em. Appreciate the links and the time it takes to be so thoughtful. I'm really glad I opted in here.

[Helen]

At first, I thought this was spam, but for some reason, it lured me in. After I read what you wrote, I had the biggest smile on my face. It's great to have another person with a great sense of humor on this board--we all try to keep it as friendly and happy as possible. Welcome!

[venicet]

Welcome delpart. It's great to have another person on board. Can't wait to see what you accomplish with PDN. You picked a great time to join as everyone seems to be on the steampunk kick lately. They haven't lured me in..... yet LOL

[barbieq25]

Steampunk thinking or art - gotta be a good thing. Venice, we will get you ;D With your skills at doing photo manips - a breeze for you.

Delpart, cool links - very different perspective on art.

[delpart]

Nov 18, 2011 0:54:55 GMT Helen said:

At first, I thought this was spam, but for some reason, it lured me in. After I read what you wrote, I had the biggest smile on my face. It's great to have another person with a great sense of humor on this board--we all try to keep it as friendly and happy as possible. Welcome!

Thanks.

I'm still laughing actually at the idea that would be spam. But then, I thought about it (more laughter) and realized that they've gotten so clever that is hard to tell anymore.

I try to keep my sense of humor. I lost it recently and I sure did miss it. Didn't realize how important it was to look at the world from a different angle without it having to be snarky or full of vitriol to be considered "humor." ...

Lets see, I guess I should post a universal @all thank you for the welcome ... but it doesn't show that you read stuff if you dont @{name} ...

@peterpawn
Thank you. Oddly enough I was delving into this to work out some things. Funny that ...

@vinecet
Thank you. I hope my scribbles will evolve with a place I can ask questions at. Sure seems like WB's recommendation to drop in was more to my liking than I thought it might be.

Which reminds me that I forgot to mention that in my post ...

Argh, btw WB drew me in with a personal invite from the main forum and I took him up on it. Another part of my personality ... if I start a conversation someplace I keep thinking everyone was there in the room sometimes.

Ooops. Think I'll skip the modify post though. That always seems cheesy.

[Helen]

lol. And writing to each person separately is something the PDN forums adjusted to--especially this one.

[Leif]

Welcome aboard.

[Pixey]

Welcome to the Fans Club Looking forward to your gallery

[blackpenny]

Welcome, delpart. This is a fun place to hang out. ;D

[barbieq25]

Nov 18, 2011 3:48:37 GMT delpart said:

Another part of my personality ... if I start a conversation someplace I keep thinking everyone was there in the room sometimes.

I know what you mean. Hubby calls that the Virgo in me.

[TheBad1]

Good to see you here DelPart ... yay another ellipse user ;D

I haven't got the patience for fractal renderers, but I enjoy looking at the work of people who do

Loved the title of this thread ... I think you may be mad enough to slot right in here

[delpart]

@ all (cheating cause my head is about to split open - migraines are a fun thing to live with ...)

Thanks for the welcomes. I'm struggling with learning the basics still on composition so my gallery will consist of what most of you will probably think of as textures and such for now.

Now if I can only figure out how to get the tags to work like I keep thinking they should work I can post something without it being a disaster - read oversized.

From what I've read so far it seems it may be how this proboard is setup/configured.

Of all my forum travels, I rarely needed to do this. But this is a primary need here. So frustrating to think you know what you're about and then run into a roadblock.

Since I'm off kilter, I just recalled there is a thread for forum issues to ask about this. I'll re-ask there as it may help someone else in the future.

Modified post (wish these would date stamp these changes):

Resolved image resize, now to get a layout going ...

[Sargon III]

Welcome to here delpart, can't wait to see your work, I hope it is like your words ( in good way), from your sig I can tell you like the 3D too, BTW what does "ellipse user" term mean ?

I have many text (written) tutorials, too, but I like the video ones in some cases when the work requires to show the possibilities of some plugins and effects and when it needs a trial and error for some effects to achieve, some 5 minutes video tutorials need may be many pages and images to cover them, and a one another important thing is to help the viewer on some tricks and short cuts, they usually don't have an idea about them, like they ask me on how I am doing some steps with one click or without any click or using some of tools or settings in different ways than they use to use them, so then I know not everyone is using everything as everyone. I hope you will understand what I am typing because I am not good in English.

[delpart]

@ SargonIII

No problems at all with understanding you. I know how difficult it is to work outside of your own language. Especially when you have to deal with American English. ;D

Videos without speech in them are perfect for conveying loads of information to an International audience for things like this.

Speaking of American English, The ellipses is the use of the three periods in a row like these: --> ... or . . .

Its proper uses vary a little in modern English. The most common use is to omit and link sentences or words. The press likes to do this to highlight dissimilar statements made in the same presentation. For instance a speech from a politician might end up looking like this:

"I love my children ... since they are like dogs ... and that's why I am running for President." Candidate Fluffer's remarks were met with skepticism at his press conference today.

That is an extreme misuse, but I love to pick on the press.

It can also be used to indicate a pause, transition, or a fade in the thought being expressed in the written form. This use is usually not correct but it is one of the few ways to try and communicate that you took a moment between the text before and after when writing scripts and other forms of verbal communication.

And I'll stop there or I will go off on the tangent about how the written language really needs to be more like how we speak to one another ... but I'm sure that is best placed in the rants section. Heck that might actually be a fun topic.

Oh, and 3D art. I'm still working on how to make 3D effects using PDN a little. I'm not happy with my sig, but I felt I needed something and went with the vanity approach to see what I could come up with. And I over-sized it somehow. I'm thinking about cropping it etc. Signatures seem to be a great way to learn technique and hopefully I can come up with something that is more an expression of my inner thoughts as I learn these tools.