litany

Most of the pictures on these pages were made in a very similar way, using Adobe After Effects, and are heavily based on use of the Fractal Noise Effect. Here, for your delectation, is a sequence of images which demonstrates the development progression of one of these animations.

This shows my initial idea for this image – a visual similar to the Game of Life. I started with a simple Fractal Noise effect, using Threads as the Fractal Type and Block as the Noise Type, and putting the Complexity down to 1. Next is a Levels effect, to increase the contrast, clipping both black and white points, then finally the image is coloured with a Tritone effect.

At this point I decided I didn't like the Game of Life idea. I like to use filters to produce a more complex image before obscuring that with various types of blur - here we see that process in action – a Colour emboss effect (Relief 4.8, Contrast 79, Blend 33%), a Glow (more or less default settings) and finally a Dust and Scratches, one of my favourite filters. On top of this, for which you don't get a picture, is a Gaussian Blur Effect, which softens the edges produced by Dust and Scratches.

By this time I had achieved the shapes and movement that I liked so moved on to colour – my initial idea had been for a primary colour Game of Life thing, but now I decide to go more fleshy. Therefore – a Curves – using a wiggly graph to mess up the colours, and then a Hue and Saturation, which is actually just adjusting the hue, then we add another Glow, settings tweaked a little this time, but most importantly with Glow Operation set to Soft Light, which I settled on by trial and error.

Now in the home stretch I use a Change Color effect to get rid of the greenishness and then play with the Channel Mixer until the colours came out as wanted. Finally the image lends itself to a kind of fake microscope view – achieved with four simple feathered circular mask

The End.