Stroker

Man, getting some cross-over ideas from several threads around here. Before getting into some things, I want to get this one out first.

Awhile ago, there was a thread about making borders. I dropped a quick mini-tut that went something like this:
1. White square in an Alpha channel.
2. Gaussian Blur it.
3. Run a filter on it.
4. Apply as a Layer Mask.

Quick, dirty, and works... sometimes. There is a problem. There are a lot of filters that just don't work well with a blur.

So, let's figure out a way to toss in some randomness so those filters will work much better. At the same time, kind of fade out the randomness at the edges while leaving the inside just fine. Know what I'm saying?

Let's start with two Alpha channels:
1. Blurred: a square that has been Gaussian Blurred.
2. Clouds: a bunch of Clouds/Difference Clouds to taste.



The trick is combining them to get what we are looking for. That can be done with Image > Apply Image. Copy Blurred and activate it. Then hit Apply Image:



Should end up with something like this:



There we go. Now we have a much better base for running filters. It's random, yet fades out.

Now it's just a matter of running other filters to jazz it up, other tweaks, and applying it as a Layer Mask. I'll leave that to you.

Thanks go to Kai for ChOps.

wbiss

Awesome Stroker! I appreciate the write up! [righton]

Stroker

Here's a real quick fiddle.

Instead of using a square and blurring it, I painted a bunch of white and smudged it all over the place.

Then I went through the motions with Clouds/Difference Clouds and Apply Image.

Used Dry Brush on the resulting Alpha, and Dry Brush on the subject.

Tossed in some Texturizer > Canvas just for giggles.

wbiss

[righton] Really great effect Stroker!... must find time to play!!! 3[