Gimpdome

I'm working on test script that creates an animated "lava-looking" thingy.  Funny thing is, it looks more realistic when I manually move the layer by tapping the arrow keys.  Not sure if this is worth pursuing, but thought I would post it for input.  One of the main problems is to make the "blobs" appear to morph, you've got to have a lot of layers, making the file sizes too large.    At any rate, here's two examples that have had their color counts highly reduced to make the file size smaller.  It also makes the animations look....well, not so good.  Is it worth pursuing?

Blend mode on screen



Blend mode on Grain Merge

That would make a cool background for use with the green screen thingy.

Thanks, guys!  I really like the effect, but wished it could be more "web" friendly.

@CO:  if this is something you're interested in using as a background like that, I'll try and modify the script to allow the layers to be saved as individual images of a chosen type.  This way the quality won't suffer in the video output.  I've never attempted saving images directly in a script, but it's something I've been considering learning for awhile now.  Just let me know.

BTW, if anyone is interested in creating the effect yourself, here's what you do (it's simple beyond belief!  )

Add a layer to your image and go to Filters > Render > Clouds > Solid Noise and click on Randomize, Turbulent & Tile (I left the other settings at default) -- then click OK
Now, add a new layer above that one and do the same thing. 
Set the blend mode of the upper layer to your desired setting. Some good ones are Screen, Overlay, Dodge, Grain Merge, Lighten and Addition.
Click on your move tool (4-headed arrow) and then click on the image window and then use your up/down arrow key to move the layer.
That's it.

The only thing I did differently in the script was move both top and bottom layers (one up, the other down) and added some color.

If you have any other suggestions for the script, let me know and I'll do my best to incorporate them.

Art

Posted on: May 13, 2008, 10:59:06 AM

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Modified the script a little and am much happier.    Much "blobbier" Here's the results of the doctor evaluating my waistline fat levels 

You can do it with GAP, but the reason I wanted a script is so that everything can be done so quickly.  Click a couple buttons and you're done.  Plus, Mac users can get in on the action (not sure if GAP has been ported over to Mac yet).  I've even modified the script so that you can change the noise levels interactively so you're not just stuck with the presets.

Haven't thought about the kaleidoscope option, but that might be very interesting.



Posted on: May 13, 2008, 03:33:58 PM

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Here's a variation on the same theme, but with some other "goodies" added in!  Rather than "globs" of "lava", this is more of a solid, thick, viscous lava or maybe like "flowing sand".  At any rate, here she is:

where do I download the script?