Tutorial #2 Page 3 Adding a Masked Texture Layer

1. Duplicate Layer 1 and rename this new layer Texture. Next pull up the gradient for this layer and replace it with a Grayscale. Turn off the visible icons for Layers 1 and the Background layer so we can concentrate on this texture layer. Go to the Outside tab and reset the S.F.B.M.II parameters by pushing the little down arrow and click on Reset Parameters.

2. Change the Transfer function back to Linear. Then go to the Noise function and change it to Checkerboard, change Flavor 1 to String-sharp, Flavor 2 to Strings, and the Mode to Convolution. Tweak the gradient until you get something that looks like this:

3. Now we are going to make a mask for this layer so the texture will only fall on the large diamond shapes. Duplicate Layer 1 again and rename it Mask 2. Turn off the visible icon for the texture layer and any other layers that may have come on inadvertently when you duplicated Layer 1. Pull up the gradient for this layer and right-click in the opacity window and insert a color point around the border of the pink and maroon colors. Make sure the opacity for this control point is 255. Add another control point just to the right of this one and pull it all the way down until the opacity is 0. Add another control point to the far right around position 399 and leave the opacity set at 255. Add another just to the left of this one and pull it down until the opacity is 0. Your diamond shapes should be opaque and the area around them should be transparent.

4. Click on the icon to Use as Mask and change the merge mode of the texture layer to Overlay. Turn all the layers back on and this is what you should have:

5. Notice that part of the texture falls on our blue/white ribbons. I want to change this so I need to "mask" the texture away from that area. This is very simple to do since we have already made the masks. Simply go to your Mask 1 and right-click on it and select copy. Then right-click on Layer 1 and select paste. Your mask will paste right above it and attach to your Mask 2. Now the texture is no longer falling on the ribbons. Click the transparency icon just to the left of Mask 1 off and on, and you will see the difference it makes. You can now save the parameters for this fractal and call it Tutorial 2a.

There are many other formulas which can be used to make abstracts depending on what you want: Gnarls, Vines, Martins, Popcorns, Glyphs, and Hopalongs. These can be found in mt.ufm, sam.ufm, gnd.ufm, sdc.ufm, and tma2.ufm. If you want to go more geometric, try the formulas in kpk.ufm, kpk+akl.ufm, and akl.ufm. There are many more and really you are only limited by your artistic imagination and creativity.  :)  The upr is below so that you may compare your results.

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