Is this kinda cool, or kinda cheesy?

First thoughts on this effect? Cool or cheesy? Here's a variation on it.

seems a little bit like something you might see on a tool album... its a little blurry though.

What about this? TPsaltnpepper
This started out as that same effect, then after a lot of tweaking, it's now completely different.

The first two ones are cheesy, but that last one is completly different!

Actually I like it alot, and I like even more the zoom of it, it looks like some chemical reaction seen with a microscope.... It looks so real and smooth. You gotta tell me how you made that :D

(I'm dead serious)

really like the last one.the effect really works here..def has that under the microscope look to it as said above.

Thanks. I think maybe I should nix the blue hue on the inner portion, but other than that I'm pretty happy with the effect.

If you're really interested OnCleSAm I'll type up a quick "how-to" for ya. It wasn't very difficult.

Definately liking the latest one the most. Not something Ive really seen done before. Who knows... with a little more tweaking you might have something really really amazing.

Yes, I am. That'd be very nice of you

looking good. I like the last one the best.

E

[QUOTE=OnCleSAm]Yes, I am. That'd be very nice of you [/QUOTE]

Ok, here's how to do this effect. Sorry for the delay, I've been kinda busy with stuff.

First thing I did was redo this image to make sure I remember what all needs to be done (and there really ain't much). Here's the new image that these instructions will create:
Microscopic salt 'n pepper

The real key to this effect is the custom brush tip. Since there are quite a few controls to set when setting up this brush it'll probably be easiest for all of us if I just show you all the settings that are used:
Custom brush settings

After making the brush, it's a simple process of stroking the path repeatedly, each time using a smaller brush and reversing your foreground/background colors.

One of the drawbacks of this technique is the way the image dimensions will affect the outcome. A file that has a width/height that is too small will not work well so it's best to start with a fairly large image and if necessary you can reduce the size after you've finished with this process. The image you see here was 2000 x 2000 pixels as I worked on it.

I simply plopped down a path in the shape of the TP logo, then started with a very large brush, foreground/background colors of black/white and a background layer of solid black. Each time I stroked the path I made a new layer just in case I wanted to go back and adjust the brightness of some layers without affecting all of them. Anyways, here's the layers I laid down one on top of the other and the brush size and F/B color used on each:

• - new image 2000px X 2000px, black background layer
  

Create a new layer and use the custom brush you just created at the indicated size and stroke the path.



• - brush size 200 - black / white
  

Create a new layer, shrink your brush size, reverse your F/B colors, and repeat...



• - brush size 150 - white / black
  

and so on and so....



• - brush size 100 - black / white
  
• - brush size 75 - white / black
  
• - brush size 50 - black / white
  
• - brush size 40 - white / black
  
• - brush size 30 - black / white
  
• - brush size 20 - white / black
  
• - brush size 10 - black / white
  
• - brush size 8 - white / black
  
• - brush size 5 - black / white (3 times)
  
• - brush size 3 - white / black (5 times)
  
• - brush size 1 - black / white (6 times)
  
• - brush size 1 - white / white (8 times)
  

Now that I'm about done I found I did indeed want to adjust the brightness of a couple of the layers so it's a good thing I created a new layer each time. The first two white layers I simply needed their opacity lowered to dim them for better depth perception. If anyone wants to see the full size image you can do so here (warning: 500+KB).

And there ya go. I've yet to experiment with any colors except black/white. If any of you play around with this technique I'd be interested in seeing what you do with it. ;)