Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I'm hoping to create an infinite clock, found some useful tutorials on how to create that with the pixel bender and droste effect but the plug in is not available on Photoshop cc. Is there another option to create this?
I'm amazed this has gone so long without an answer. Our Dave must have gone out for the day.
I don't know of any plugin, but you could maybe use Free Transform Step & Repeat. This is rough and ready to make the point, and there is a bit of a problem.
I don't know if you know how step & repeat works, but you make the first layer like so. I should have made my segment cover a little more than 30° to overlap the repeating layers. There's a wee trick we use to make it accurate. Place the cent
...
Trevor.Dennis wrote
.....Dave must have gone out for the day.
Back in now though
I was interested to see if I could do this on a photograph without any plugins. The answer is yes.
I masked an image using an oval selection and divided into four each quarter on a separate layer and masked separately
I then used Transform Scale on each layer transforming the horizontal and vertical differently . Each I aligned to the previous so that after four transforms my quarters made the first loop of a spiral
I
...Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Pixel Bender was an experimental plugin for CS4 and CS5 only.
If you've got a Windows PC you could use the GIMP with the MathMap plugin.
A tutorial: Droste - Effekt mit GIMP und MathMap - YouTube
If you are interested:
MathMap installation creates a folder in Windows > User - you shouldn't change the path.
Just make a new plugin folder entry in Edit > Preferences > Folders > Plugins.
Tested with Windows 10 / 1703, 64 Bit.
Fenja
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
If your a fan of Gimp, then the GMIC plugin is a must have and includes a Droste filter.
The Filter Forge plugin for photoshop has a Droste filter,
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I'm amazed this has gone so long without an answer. Our Dave must have gone out for the day.
I don't know of any plugin, but you could maybe use Free Transform Step & Repeat. This is rough and ready to make the point, and there is a bit of a problem.
I don't know if you know how step & repeat works, but you make the first layer like so. I should have made my segment cover a little more than 30° to overlap the repeating layers. There's a wee trick we use to make it accurate. Place the centre guides and drag out the grid to the intersection. That lets place the rotation point in exactly the right place.
So we copy the first layer, and Free Transfor it thus:
We Alt click to place the centre handle at the guide intersection, and then make the X: and Y: fields zero. That gives the perfect centre point.
You'll need to use trial and error for the size reduction, and -30° is the angle between clock numerals.
OK the transform.
Now use Shift Ctrl Alt T as many times as you need to repeat the pattern, which produces something like my first screen shot. But like I said at the beginning, there's a problem.
To make this work without too much trouble, you need to make the background segment and type layer into a Smart Object. I am sure this used to work with Step & Repeat in older versions, but I find it unreliable now. Sometimes restarting Photoshop and going straigt into the process makles it work. Then you just need to open each SO in a new window by double clicking, and change the number. I rasterized the type and background segments to do the above.
There is another way that does work, and that's to lay down the type layers separately. There's no problem with layer order, so fairly easy.
Then you'd need to clean up the spiral with the pen tool and make it a coninuous band on one layer. It would be an interesting project, but a few hours work to do nicely.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Trevor.Dennis wrote
.....Dave must have gone out for the day.
Back in now though
I was interested to see if I could do this on a photograph without any plugins. The answer is yes.
I masked an image using an oval selection and divided into four each quarter on a separate layer and masked separately
I then used Transform Scale on each layer transforming the horizontal and vertical differently . Each I aligned to the previous so that after four transforms my quarters made the first loop of a spiral
I put those four layers in a group, duplicated the group and transformed it, so that it aligned with the first layer
This I repeated several times
Finally I put a scaled version of the original layer in the centre and turned back on the original as the background
I hope that helps
Dave
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Thank you for your help.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Thanks so much for the very detailed instructions, I'll give it a try.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
There is an Droste action on the adobe exchange that might interest you as well.
https://exchange.adobe.com/addons/products/7992#.WYo9SIqQyRs
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
For this, I took a clock face image, and ran Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates [Polar to Rectangular]. I then Transformed it to 25% in height, and skewed the right edge so that the upper right corner was at the same Y location as the lower left corner. I then dragged two copies, each just below the previous, so I had three parallelograms. Finally, I did a Stamp Visible, and ran Polar Coordinates [Rectangular to Polar]:
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Thank you so much. I will give that a try
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Some clever ideas coming up here. If I was doing it for real, I think I'd be aiming for something like this iStock version — the OP did ask about an Infite Clock after all. I love that the numerals align, but that's going to be a consequence of the steps always being held at 30° even as the size reduces. I prefer the perspective effect of ever reducing size, and I love the 3D effect of the iStock image complete with shading. I wonder if it is a 3D render or pure illustration?
The non rotating numerals work well, and I am not seeing an wutomatic method of achieving that with Step & Repeat. If you made the spiral in a group below the numerals, and were working at a scale similar to the above, S&R would position and scale the numberals, so that you could then rotate each one individually (-30°, -60°, -90° etc.). I supect you'd still need to do some fine tuning because of the way type layers behave with Free Transform, but a practiced 'eyecrometer' would be close enough.
[EDIT] This thread was marked as Assumed Answered, but I think we can get some milage out of it yet, so I cancelled it.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
That's pretty much exactly the image I was hoping to create.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
The classic Droste effect is a Logarithmic spiral. The thing I did is more of an Archemedian spiral, and the numbers are distorted as you get towards the outside edge. This is a problem I've run into before with Polar Coordinates. I wonder if you could do this with scripting somehow, seeing as how JavaScript has all the math functions needed for a Logarithmic spiral.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Semaphoric wrote
The classic Droste effect is a Logarithmic spiral. The thing I did is more of an Archemedian spiral, and the numbers are distorted as you get towards the outside edge. This is a problem I've run into before with Polar Coordinates. I wonder if you could do this with scripting somehow, seeing as how JavaScript has all the math functions needed for a Logarithmic spiral.
I found some spiral math on Wikipedia, but that's more your sort of thing. I was thinking that a script solution might work back up the thread, but that is also not my thing. It's interesting stuff though.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Looking at Droste images, it looks to me like you'd only have to do one "Sweep", and then you could just nest smaller and smaller copies towards the center.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Seeing that we are all doing clocks I did the same method as in post 3 (divide into quarters and scale different on horizontal to vertical) on a clock image). Trevor will recognise the clock it is something I made to try and duplicate an issue he was having with nested SOs last year.
This time I also added a drop shadow to the layers
I may have got a smoother curve if I'd divided into eighths instead of quarters.
I'm going out today but will have a play later to see if I can do something with a 3D extrusion
Dave
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
OK, I'm now feeling really quite giddy/dizzy or whatever the word is. It's like on of those mazes that you see and _have_ to solve, even when your eyes end up going in different directions at the same time.
Filter Forge looks interesting, and the Pro version is an affordable $79. Do you need to know how to script to use it? Methinks I'd better go and investigate properly.
I had to buy it. Now I'll get nothing done for days
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I've had Filter Forge for a while, but I confess I've only played with the already built filters.
Seing as how I have CS4 installed, I might give Pixel Bender a whirl, too (No pun intended).
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I said I would have a go and see what I could do in Photoshop 3D.
This is based on a twisted and tapered extrusion, with the clock face numbers placed onto the extrusion material in a smart object. Then the UV scaling adjusted to get the letters to sit in the right place (e.g all the X's to align).
I hope another idea helps
Dave