Kaleidoscope

I've always been fascinated by color. Even today I can sit and stareat rainbows for hours, if they'd last that long. This tutorial cameout of some experiments with one of the Filter Factory V effects, PosterGradient I. Finally there is a good freeware rainbow gradient maker.

Let's take a look at some of the effects you can get using this filterand PSP 5's layers feature. Start by opening a new file, 200x200 pixels,16 million colors, with a white background. Draw a circle that almost fillsthe box, starting at the exact center. You can see the position of yourcursor in the lower left hand corner of your screen.

Now go to your plugins. Apply Poster gradient I from Filter FactoryV. Here I've used the settings Colour Cycling = 34, Steps = 24, i-Dependence= 0. The settings aren't crucial here, and any settings should give greatresults.

Next, go to the Layers Menu, and Duplicate your background layer(Layer: Duplicate), then rotate it by 90 degrees Right (Image: Rotate,then click Right and 90

degrees)

Here's where we get the interesting effect. Go to the Layers Menu:Properties, and change the Blend Mode from normal to Difference or Multiply.The results from my graphic are shown below.


Difference	Multiply

I really liked the Difference effect, so I decided to play withit. I merged the layers, duplicated the background layer as above, andagain set the Layer Blend Mode to Difference. If you try this, don't besurprised to see the whole graphic turn black. Then I started rotatingin 45 degree increments. Any of these could be the start of an interestingButton, Texture, or Sidebar.


45 degrees Right	90 degrees Right

135 degrees Right	180 degrees Right

Next, I decided to use this technique to make a Seamless background.I repeated the steps above using a square 100x100 pixels in diameter, mergingthe layers when I was done.

I then assembled a seamless background by by pasting 4 copies ofthe tile into a 200x200 pixel window, flipping and mirroring the tile asneccesary to create the effect. If tyou're not sure how to do this, seemy Pastel Backgrounds tutorial.

This image can also be the basis of other patterns. using the stepsdescribed, I got the kaleidescope of colors shown below by using variousdegrees of rotation.


10 degrees Right	20 degrees Right

30 degrees Right	45 degrees Right

The image resulting from 45 degree rotation was then used to createthese.


Rotate 20 degrees	Color: Negative, then Rotate 20 degrees

The colored patterns you can get are virtually endless. And youdon't need to start with a simple rainbow pattern either. Try combiningwith Sine Blobs from Greg's Factory Output, or the Pinwheels from FilterFactory Gallery L. Experimenting can lead to some incredible results.

Email me at State_of_Entropy@hotmail.com

e-Ticket . simplicity

Tutorials for PSP 4, 5, 6, and 7 as well as presets and tutorials for the BladePro plugin.