Galleries Fractal Gifts

Ultra Fractal Tutorial - The Making of "Lords of Arrakis"
Part 6. Creating the "planet edgelight" layer.

    Pages in Part 6:
1. Preparation and assessment.
2. Create new layer.
3. Remove Lake transformation.
4. Apply solid fill transparency masks.
5. Apply Clipping transformations.
6. Create opaque white disk.
7. Adjust transparent disk Clipping transformation.
8. Adjust layer properties.

Layers Chart: Click to view.
Tutorial Map: Click to view.

Page 6. Create opaque white disk.

Step 13. Develop white opaque disk.

In explanation of the Clipping figure settings, in a coordinate system where a unit is the same physical length along both the X- and the Y-axes, an ellipse with equal width and height becomes a circle. But in the Clipping transformation, the axes are scaled so that the lengths of both the X- and Y- dimensions of the fractal window are equal to "1", even though these dimensions might differ physically, depending on the window size settings in Ultra Fractal. Thus, in this particular figure, the values of the coordinates in the X- and Y- directions have to differ from each other to produce a circle.
 
A. In the Mapping tab, temporarily disable the Clipping - transparent disk transformation by clicking on its Enable icon, located at its left edge.

 

B. Click on the Clipping - white disk transformation, then click on the black swatch in the Solid Color parameter.

 
This will cause the "Select Color" dialog box to appear.

 

C. Drag the Red, Green, and Blue sliders all the way to the right (255, 255, 255).
This will change the color in the swatch to white.

 

D. Drag the Opacity slider all the way to the right (255).
This will remove the transparency area in the color swatch, turning off the solid color transparency masking.
Click OK.

 
The image should now look like this:

 
The white star in the "star" layer, which is above the "planet edgelight" layer, is hidden because, though it is technically visible, it is lost in the white background of the "planet edgelight" layer, below it. Also, since the merge mode of the "star" layer is "Lighten", theoretically the white star in this layer has no effect, a moot point in this situation.
 

E. In the Clipping - white disk transformation, set the Clipping Region parameter to "inside".

 
The image should now look like this:

 
With the entire area of the "planet edgelight" layer now transparent except for the white disk, which is superimposed exactly over the planet in the "nearby planet" layer, the scene in all of the layers that we have built thus far is visible, with the exception that the planet has been occluded by a white disk.
 

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© 2005 Troy R. Bishop