Raven

8[ First check out Moth's excellent Giger FX tute over in the Tutorials Forum. He has written up a concise set of steps you can use to get some incredible Gigerish-looking other worldly imagery -- thanks for your effort in bringing this back to us all, Moth! -- and a beautiful artwork example of his own he's created there too. Check it out! [righton]

Please give his tute a try and post your own experiments/imaginings!

Here's a couple I did...the first one I tried with sort of a Lovecraftian/Dagon/Cthulhu feel (lower image)....the second one using similar techniques, added colors, and additional image of a coyote skull I modified greatly incorporated into the technique.....
---Maya

Silky

Ok, I tried his wonderful tut [righton] and had some fun.

Blinky2004

Nice work guys. :}

Raven that first one is borderline "alien guts". [bustagut] It almost makes me squeemish to look at it.

RLDWV2003

messed with some of the modes and added more layers till i got this floaty odd thingy but i like let me know what you guys think

Raven

:} [righton] Hey Sean, that's so mysterious and cool....looks like eyes and creatures and all sorts of things hidden in there...the more you look the more you see! B7

Hey Mark, [bustagut] I don't want to ruin anyone's appetite here [bustagut] [innocent] but the images do have a living, kinda organic feel -- and playing with these techniques can really be addicting, relaxing and surprising. 8D

ooptea -- Ooooooooo I like, and the metallic texturing is really interesting....sorta makes me think of some sort of amphibian eggs floating in a sort of soup.......and weird faces in there toooo..... :} [righton]

Okay...if the other ones I did were too icky, here's one that's kinda "cute." }P Kinda sorta..... [bustagut]
My new pet.

RLDWV2003

lol nice name raven "frogbat" does kinda look like frog eyes at the top. all of these look great guys.

Raven

[innocent] lol ...ooookay, now here's one inspired by the sea --- itself an amazing place full of incredible lifeforms.

Here's my current spawn to life...something swims in the depths.... 8[ 8D (how would you say... sea serpent in other languages? \:] I'll try it in French: le serpent de mer B7 )

Silky

Yours are great too, Maya! [righton]
I like your cute froggy pet! I saw one of them in a pet store once.
The second one at the top looks like one of those creepy monster...ya know like the kind that live under your bed at nite. [confused]

Raven

[bustagut] Thanks Sean! I wish we had frogbats in our local petstore! Actually when I created that image one of Stephen King's short stories out of his "Skeleton Crew" collection came to mind...been a long time since I've read from that tome but it was something to do with a big storm and a weird fog/mist overtaking a town...then out of time and space weird winged creatures from another dimension invade the place and all heck breaks loose. 8[ [bustagut] This little frogbat sorta reminds of that.

The coyote skull one creeps me out even....yet I really like it, sorta the tunnels into a scary underworld --- brrrrr! Don't look under your bed! 8[ [bustagut]

Looking at yours again I just discovered a koala bear! Yep -- look in the right lower portion....and then there's owls in there and all sorts of things!!! [righton]

huma

Great works everyone!! Thank you, Raven, for starting the thread. I am flattered you found my tute so interesting. ;\

Just some thoughts. Not necessarily expressed in order.

My tutorial should be treated like a recipe, not a formula. You read through a recipe, get the gist of what is happening, then make changes as you see fit to make it suit your tastes. In my tutorial, look at each step and see what is happening and why. Then make changes as you see fit.

There are three great blend modes for constructing the base. These are lighten, darken, and difference. The same goes for the layer interactions. Check them out.

Circular gradients make globes but you can use a brush to make other shapes.

Polar Coordinates is not the only distortion filter. Try some of the others.