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eternityunicorn · 6 years ago

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Elijah’s Eternity: New Orleans - Part Nineteen

Author: eternityunicorn

Genre: Romance/Drama/AU

Pairing: Elijah Mikaelson x OC

Warnings: Violance, Smut (*Smut chapters marked +18)

Summary: Sequel to the AU Elijah’s Eternity - Ten years have passed, a mournful Elijah has finally started to move on without his lady. In that time, he has gained a reunited family and has also found a new lady love. Yet, all is not well as danger comes for the smallest member of the Mikaelson family: Hope, and it prompts Niklaus to call upon the white goddess, drawing her back into Elijah’s life. As they reunite, can Elijah really say he’s truly moved on?

NOTE: OC and original elements are from my up and coming novel series! Masterlist link to all my fics is in my blog profile. Thanks and happy reading!

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Jor!

This man was Eternity’s eldest child, the one whom sided with Loki. He recalled what Eternity had told him about the young immortal. He hated his mother and worshipped his father like the god he was not.

From what Elijah understood there was a long line of contention between mother and son over this fact. Jor believed Loki to be the wronged party and believed Eternity had forsaken the Trickster with malicious intent. In other words, in the younger immortal’s mind, him mother was the villain and his father was the victim, when in truth, it was the other way around.

Physically speaking, Jor was a spitting image of his father. There was barely any distinction between the two. He was of the same height and slender build. He had the same aristocratic features, same twisted smile, same pointed nose and thin lips. He even had Loki’s bright red hair and wore the same silks and leathers his father did. In fact, the only thing that was from his mother were his sapphire blue eyes.

“Jor? What are you doing here?” Eternity asked her son warily.

“I heard you were getting married,” he replied, with a lighter version of Loki’s voice. “Word has spread through the cosmos of the Universal Queen’s unusual husband-to-be. An Earth-based immortal, to be exact. I had to see if it were true and let me say, what a downgrade from Father! Really, Mother? Surely you could do better than...this.” He gestured at Elijah with disgust, “or better yet, you could have simply stayed with Father instead of murdering him.”

“Your father was lost, Jor, to his darkness,” Eternity replied calmly. “There was no coming back from it for him. He was a threat to the innocent and I had to do it. I had to kill him. He wasn’t going to stop and I, as a guardian, had to put him down as I would any enemy. Duty before the heart, my son.”

Jor’s face twisted into a horrible snarl as he shouted in a fury, “He was my father!”

“Yes he was and I can see his darkness in you,” she responded just as evenly, with a hint of sadness in her tone. “You are your father’s son. Be careful of the footsteps you follow. There is nothing but misery down that path. Now, what is it that you have come for? Besides to be angry with me, of course.”

Jor grinned sinisterly.

It was so foreboding that it sent chills down Elijah’s spine, whom stood beside his lady during this exchange. He was immediately set on edge with worry for his lady. He bristled at the threat before them, wishing more than anything that he wasn’t so helpless against the higher classes of immortals. That and he didn’t care for the boy’s condescending regard of himself, as if he were less than. It was rather insulting and wounded his pride as an Original. If only they weee more evenly matched, then he’d teach Jor some manners.

Then the younger immortal turned his hateful gaze on Elijah. “So you are the husband-to-be. I could crush you so very easily,” he sneered at him. “I do hope you never expect me to call you my father, as you are not only unworthy of my mother, but you are also unworthy of my respect or to be part of this family. You are beneath us all.”

Elijah was infuriated by his cruel words. His jaw tightened and his hands balled into fists, as they itched to retaliate. However, before he could respond, his lady stepped between them protectively.

“Enough, Jor,” Eternity growled warningly.

Loki’s mirror image turned his attentions back to his mother. “Or what? You’ll kill me?” He taunted and then snickered.

She stepped closer to her son, “Do not tempt me, child.”

Jor only grinned wider, seeming to be unafraid of his mother’s threat. “If you do, Mommy, then you shall never see your beloved middle son again,” he murmured down to her cruelly, causing her to gasp and take a step back.

“What have you done?” Eternity sounded horrified.

“Nothing much, I only tried to make dear Fenrir see the errors on his ways in supporting you one more time, after I learned of your horrid plans to replace our father,” the insane young immortal shrugged nonchalantly. “I wanted him to side with me, so that maybe we could talk sense into you for this terrible decision. Unfortunately, he’s as stubborn as you are, Mother, and still refuses to join the right side.”

Provoked, she lashed out in a rage. With psychic powers, she threw her own son across the room, sending him through the wall and into the parking lot. Jor’s body left a considerable hole there. Eternity followed his path with the grace of a panther, ready to strike again.

Elijah and Kol both chased after her. One brother wanted to make sure his lady stayed safe, while the other simply wanted to enjoy the show. The younger Mikealson did get a thrill seeing chaos unfold; though usually he was the cause of said chaos.

“Where is he?” Eternity demanded of her son, as he staggered to his feet. Her katana appeared in her hand, unsheathed and ready for use. “Speak quickly!”

Jor only laughed, “Denounce your ridiculous engagement to that inferior man and I’ll tell you, Mother!”

She wasn’t about to do as the young fool demanded. Instead, she attacked her son, forcing him to conjure his own sword - a broadsword to be exact - and defend himself against her relentless assault upon him.

Jor was a good swordsman, but Eternity was of course better. She didn’t give him any room to counter her, only to block her blade strokes. They moved with equal speed, evenly matched in that regard. However, one single misstep had Eternity’s insane son flat on his back with his sword tossed away from him, out of reach. That one miscalculation had him defeated.

Elijah’s lady stood over the boy with the point of her katana directed at Jor’s throat. “You will tell me where your brother is or so help me, I will end you here and now,” she hissed threateningly.

Elijah was impressed and turned on by Eternity in warrior mode. What made it truly sexy in this instance was the fact that she had fought her son in her short sweater dress and wedges. She was truly remarkable to be able to fight in any apparel and he found he could watch her fight all day long.

“The warehouse by the docks,” Jor groaned up at Eternity with a defiant gaze, despite having been defeated. “You’ll find your precious Fenrir there. This is far from over. Till we meet again, Mother.”

Then, as quickly as he had come, Loki’s lookalike vanished like a coward.

The ethereal beauty let her blade disappear from her hand and turned worriedly to Elijah, whom had been near by. “I have to go get my son,” she said urgently.

Elijah only nodded and proceeded to go to her side. He was of course going with her, not wanting her to make the journey alone. He wanted to support her in everything, especially if he was going to become her husband soon enough. That and he was rather curious to finally meet this other child of his lady’s. He wrapped his arm around Eternity’s waist and raced off at vampire’s speed to the warehouses by the docks.

Once there, his lady sensed out where exactly Jor had stashed Fenrir and together, they entered the warehouse cautiously. There was no telling what lay ahead, if her mad son had left traps for them. He did yield rather easy and Elijah wondered as to why.

“Because Jor wants to believe himself to be a ruthless villain like his father, but he doesn’t actually have the stomach to follow through,” Eternity whispered to him, answering his thoughts. “The only reason why he kidnapped Fenrir in order to try and turn him against me is because, well because my younger son is vulnerable, an easy target as he is rather timid and not at all interested in fighting or leading or anything that has to do with conflict. Jor has always bullied his brother into yielding to him. Though, it would seem Fenrir finally learning to stand up for himself as my eldest wasn’t able to get him to give in this time.”

They moved quietly through the warehouse behind crates and stacks of pallets, sticking to the shadows until they knew it was safe to venture about without worry of ambush. They went around in stealth until Fenrir came into view.

The boy was tied to a chair with his arms shackled with strange gold bracelets. He looked bruised and bloody - unconscious by the way that his head dangled downward.

Elijah and his lady waited near by, until they knew that nobody else was there. Then as one, hand in hand, they still moved in with caution, just to be safe. There was no telling what could happen in enemy territory, even a defeated one’s.

“Damn,” Eternity muttered as she reached her son, her eyes automatically falling to the golden bracelets upon his wrists. “These are very special,” she told Elijah, “very rare trinkets that can render any magical being powerless, myself included. Jor no doubt put them on Fenrir and then proceeded to beat the hell out of him. My poor boy.”

“Can you removed them?” Elijah asked as he watched her stroke the boy’s curly white hair in that loving, motherly way.

She gave a small grin as she answered, “Of course.”

Immediately the shackles were on the ground with a loud, echoing clank. Almost as quickly did the young man awaken, as if reviving from a sleeping spell. He blinked rapidly and groaned, before his eyes widened in relief at the sight of his mother before him.

“Mama!” Fenrir shouted, throwing his arms around her tightly. His wounds upon his pale skin were healing instantly, as he held her and she held him. “Oh, it was terrible, Mama! Jor, the bastard, cornered me on the way to meet Hel and clamped those horrid shackles on me, only it drag me here to beat me into submission - which I didn’t give him, much to ire.” He pulled back and looked proudly at Eternity. “I will never let Jor or anyone else turn me against you,” he cupped her face in his hands with an adoring gaze. “Hel and I will always be your greatest champions, no matter what.”

Eternity took his hands in hers and pulled them from her face gently, holding onto them tightly. “I know, my darling,” she said softly. “You are a brave boy, my brave boy.”

Fenrir grinned at his mother, before Elijah’s shifting behind her caught his attention and he looked up at the vampire with wide, mistrusting eyes.

Elijah smiled gently in the most nonthreatening way he could manage. He found the boy fascinating, quite frankly. He really was a male version of Eternity. He had all the same ethereal paleness, though to a lesser degree like his sister. His hair was a curly mop top of white hair and he had the same big sapphire eyes she did, along with the exact plushly rose pink lips too. He was small like his mother too, but certainly broader. His voice was deeper, yet soft spoken just like Eternity’s as well.

Yes, a male version indeed.

“Are you the Earth-based immortal whom will be marrying my mother, I’ve heard so much about?” Fenrir asked him cautiously.

“I am. My name is Elijah Mikaelson,” nodded Elijah. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

Fenrir got up from the chair with his mother’s help and approached him slowly. “You are a product of dark magic, a violent creature with much blood upon your hands,” he said, in a slow, hypnotized sort of way, reading the vampire’s mind. “However, you detest the violence, reserving it for your enemies, including those whom would harm your loved ones. You are the devoted sort of monster. I can certainly see that you are completely devoted to my mother, a fact that truly matters to me, which is why I welcome you, sir, to our humble little family.” He grinned and held out his hand to Elijah.

He clasped hands with the young immortal readily, glad to see that this son was actually quite sane, as well as kind and accepting of him. “Thank you for your acceptance of me,” said Elijah. “I do hope that we get along splendidly.”

“Of that I have no doubt,” Fenrir nodded.

Eternity came to stand beside Elijah, taking his hand in hers with her fingers threading through his. She smiled adoringly up at his and then at her son. “Come along, son. Let’s get you out of here and somewhere safe.”

“Actually, I should go meet Hel,” her son replied. “I’m recovered enough from Jor’s tricks to get to her. She’s probably wondering where I am and with her, I shall be safe.”

The enteral woman nodded, “Aye, you’re right. You should. Your sister is a worrier. She’ll send a search party after you, if you don’t show up to greet her.”

With that said and one final farewell between parent and child, the younger immortal vanished from the warehouse, leaving Elijah and Eternity alone together.

The ethereal woman turned to him and smiled, “Thank you for coming with me. I apologize for our evening being hijacked by my out of control son. I’m sure Jor left quite the impression into the family you will be entering, my darling.”

He smiled back and brushed her hair back from her face as he replied, “I’ll follow you anywhere, Sweetheart, and your family is no more crazy than my own, so I am not scared off at all. As to the evening, the night is still young. We should probably get back to the club. We did leave a Kol and Davina behind. They might be wondering what became of us.”

She kissed his lips briefly and agreed, “Aye, we did. Besides I wasn’t quite done dancing the night away with you, my love.” She gazed at him flirtatiously.

Elijah smirked, pulling Eternity to him bodily and plundering her mouth with his own until she was moaning and clinging to him. Then he pulled back, before he got too lost to his never ending passion, and rested his forehead against hers.

From there, without a word, he whisked them away back to the club to find Kol and Davina back inside, being merry together with the rest of the patrons, as if the threat of Jor hadn’t ever happened. The club was in full swing as if nothing amiss had happened. Typical of the supernatural community, Elijah supposed.

“Well, it seems we weren’t missed,” Eternity quipped good naturally, unpin their reentry.

“No, but I’m not all that surprised,” he replied as he held up his hand for her to take. “Shall we, Sweetheart?”

She beamed, “We shall.”

Then upon her taking his hand, Elijah lead them back into the fray, where they joined his brother and Davina in their merriment on the dance floor, into the wee hours of morning.

To Be Continued....

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cards-and-creatures · 2 years ago

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Art Piece 2: Narcissus and Rasputin

This piece of art came from the conclusion of my first art study where I was inspired by artists Hirohiko Araki and Piotr Jabłoński to do a character styled like Araki’s work but rendered in Pitor’s dark matte shadows present in his Destiny conceptual art. With that piece, I was quite pleased with the outcome, and realising that I had already lost such a tyrannical amount of time, I went straight onto the next piece in that style, choosing it for my project instead of going further, as I was by doing a piece to Ming Doyle for my second study, but I was already so strapped for time. While I think it’s quite sad that I couldn't pay homage to her in a piece that was going to be inspired by her husband's song Spiral of Ants, I was going to slightly reference it by painting the characters in a deep red and blue, however this didn't quite turn out as planned, so I instead left the white colouring to save on time.

This piece took up considerable time in my project, and sadly I think it has been a let-down. While I put my all into the piece, trying to develop my skill by making the characters poses and bases by myself, only referencing clothing and an old image, I think that it has come back in a negative sense. I tried to add more depth by making some pieces of their bodies appear in the foreground, enlarging them and making them stand out, hopefully making the piece feel my dynamic, alas, I see that it looks quite uncanny, especially the human character, (Narcissus,) whose right hand looks abnormally long, what could have worked if the arm was more outstretched but due to its slack nature, it looks goofy.

Thankfully, I do like the rendering I did on the piece, a complaint with my previous work was that I doused it too much in shadow, leaving barely any detail in his torso or legs, so in this piece, I actively made it much lighter, leaving to a more detailed image, with some areas being bleached in shadow with only the light source leaving highlights, this was to make the piece less samey sue to there being much less darkness, as seen in his boots and hair.

I, again, made the characters a simple and rushed Tarot inspired card for the actual game based segment of my proposed game, I, again, Believe this was less successful than my last piece, mostly due to wanting to incorporate both characters in the piece, due to them being far longer than the last piece’s character’s head, that had to appear smaller on my proposed stock tarot card, taking far less space horizontally, making them seem quite squished even when they aren't taking half the card.

I tried to further innovate on this piece, especially on the background, using a more unique star shape for the pattern and using perspective warp to make it seem to flatten out into a floor, like a tarp thrown over a wall. I like how this came out, as it gives the character a floor to stand on what doesn’t need to be rendered as hard as the last pieces that IO left out due to time. I also, on the card design, slightly tilted the stars, giving a more dynamic look to the card than before. I also tried my hand at better clothing, adding areas of tension and shagginess, what actually came out quite nice, even if some of them might not be humanly possible.

Altogether, I can't say that I'm disappointed with the outcome, as I believe it is still held to a high quality that I expect in my work, however, I would be lying if I said I thought it was better than the last piece, even by incorporating more characters, trying more detail and trying to further my skills, it just looks far less interesting with far more errors. Things that could have led to this is lack of highlighting on normal materials due to the softer light, the use of blank white instead of a sun bleached variant and a lack of a secondary colour to show complexity and change in skin and clothing durability and / or thickness.

To improve, I could try to add more fragments from the previous piece into my next projects that were excluded here for time purposes. I could also try more interesting posing, which these characters have less of, just standing looking straight on, whereas the previous piece was more interestingly posed on their side.

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suzanneshannon · 6 years ago

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Making a Realistic Glass Effect with SVG

I’m in love with SVG. Sure, the code can look dense and difficult at first, but you’ll see the beauty in the results when you get to know it. The bonus is that those results are in code, so it can be hooked up to a CMS. Your designers can rest easy knowing they don't have to reproduce an effect for every article or product on your site.

Today I would like to show you how I came up with this glass text effect.

Step 0: Patience and space

SVG can be a lot to take on, especially when you’re just starting to learn it (and if you are, Chris’ book is a good place to start). It’s practically a whole new language and, especially for people who lack design chops, there are lots of new techniques and considerations to know about. Like HTML, though, you’ll find there are a handful of tools that we can reach for to help make SVG much easier to grasp., so be patient and keep trying!

Also, give yourself space. Literally. SVG code is dense so I like to use two or three new lines to space things out. It makes the code easier to read and helps me see how different pieces are separated with less visual distraction. Oh, and use comments to mark where you are in the document, too. That can help organize your thoughts and document your findings.

I’ve made demos for each step we’re going to cover in the process of learning this glass effect as a way to help solidify the things we’re covering as we go.

OK, now that we’re mentally prepared, let’s get into the meat of it!

Step 1: Get the basic image in place

First things first: we need an image as the backdrop for our glass effect. Here we have an <svg> element and an <image> within it. This is similar to adding an <img> in HTML. You’ll notice the dimensions of the viewBox attribute and <image> element in the SVG element are the same. This ensures that the <image> is exactly the same size as the actual picture we’re linking to.

That’s a key distinction to note: we’re linking to an image. The SVG file itself does not draw a raster image, but we can reference one in the SVG code and make sure that asset is in the location we point to. If you’ve worked with Adobe InDesign before, it’s a lot like linking to an image asset in a layout — the image is in the InDesign layout, but the asset itself actually lives somewhere else.

See the Pen SVG Glass Text Effect - basic image in place by David Fitzgibbon (@loficodes) on CodePen.

Step 2: Distort the image

Straightforward so far, but this is where things get complicated because we’re going to add a filter to the image we just inserted. This filter is going to distort the image. If you look closely at the difference between the demo in the last step and the one in this step, you’ll see that the edges of objects in the image are a little rough and wavy. That’s the filter at work!

First, we create another <svg> to hold filter. This means that if we ever want to reuse our filter — for example on multiple elements on the page — then we totally can!

Our first filter (#displacement) is going to distort our image. We’re going to use feTurbulence and feDisplacementMap, each explained by Sara Soueidan much better than I can in this post. Beau Jackson also wrote up a nice piece that shows how they can be used to make a cloud effect. Suffice to say, these two filters tend to go together and I like to think of them as when something needs to appear "wobbly."

With our filter container in place, we just need to apply that filter to our image with a filter attribute on the <image>, magic!

See the Pen SVG Glass Text Effect - image distorted by David Fitzgibbon (@loficodes) on CodePen.

Step 3: Clip the text

We don’t want the entire image to be distorted though. We’re going to clip the shape of our distorted <image> to the shape of some text. This will essentially be the portion of the picture seen "through" the glass.

To do this, we need to add a <text> element in a <clip-path> and give it an id. Calling this id in the clip-path of our <image> now restricts its shape to that of our <text>. Wonderful!

See the Pen SVG Glass Text Effect - text clipped by David Fitzgibbon (@loficodes) on CodePen.

Step 4: Reveal the full image

OK, so it’s bueno that we have the distorted <image> clipped to the <text>, but now the rest of the image is gone. No bueno.

We can counteract this by adding a copy of the same <image> but without the clip-path or filter attributes before our existing <image>. This is where I like to add some nice comments to keep things neat. The idea is like placing a transparent layer over what we have so far.

I know, I know, this isn’t very neat, and we’re repeating ourselves. Ideally, we would set our filter straight on the <text> element and use the in="BackgroundImage property for feDisplacementMap to warp what’s behind the text, without the need for extra elements. Unfortunately, this has poor browser support, so we’re going to go with multiple images.

See the Pen SVG Glass Text Effect - warp complete by David Fitzgibbon (@loficodes) on CodePen.

Step 5: Place the text... again

Next, we’re going to duplicate our text just as we did for the image in the last step. Unfortunately, because the text is in a clip-path, it’s now not available for rendering. This is the last time we’re going to duplicate content like this, I promise!

Now we should have something that looks like a normal image with black text over it. If the distortion filter on the <image> we’ve already made is what we can see "through" the glass, then our new <text> is going to be the glass itself.

See the Pen SVG Glass Text Effect - text in place again by David Fitzgibbon (@loficodes) on CodePen.

Step 6: Creating the dark edge of the text

This is where things start to get exciting, at least for me! 🤓

We want to create a dark edge along the text element which, when paired with a light edge (we’ll look at that next), will add depth to the appearance of the text against the image.

We want a new filter for our <text>, so let’s create one in our filter's SVG element and give it an id="textFilter and link it to the filter attribute of the <text> element.

SVG works from the background to the foreground, so the first thing we’re going put in our filter is the shadow that the glass would have, as that is furthest back. I’m gonna level with you, this one is pretty complex, but we’re going to go through it one step at a time.

For this effect, we’re using four filter primitives: feMorphology, feOffset, feFlood and feComposite.

feMorphology is first. We’re using this to make the text fatter. In the demo below, comment out the next three primitives ( feOffset, feFlood, feComposite ) and play with it. I have the value radius="4" to achieve the glass effect, but see what happens if you set it to 1... or 100!

feOffset is used to move all the "pixels" in the previous primitive ( feMorphology ) across the x- or y-axis. The values dx="5" and dy="5" move the "pixels" right on the x-axis and y-axis, respectively. The higher the number, the further they move. Put in negative numbers for dx and the "pixels" will move left. Negative dy and they’ll move up! Again, the is the sort of thing you start to learn as you play around with them.

The reason I have quotes around "pixels" is because they’re not screen pixels like you might expect in CSS. Rather, they refer to the dimensions we set on the parent <svg>. I think of them as percentages. We have used these settings viewBox="0 0 1890 1260" in our example. This means our <svg> is 1890 "pixels" wide. If we set dx="189" it means we’ll move our element 10% of the way across the SVG (1890 divided by 189).

feFlood is great. If you want to fill the screen with color, this is the primitive you need! You might wonder why we can’t read our text now when we apply it. That’s because you can only see the result of the last filter primitive that was created. The result of each of the previous primitives was related to our <text> element. The result of feFlood is just like its name: a flood of color. It doesn't know what you did before and it doesn't care — it’s merely going to fill an area with color.

This is where some people start getting frustrated with SVG. It’s hard to work on something when you can’t see it! Trust me, as you work with SVG more you’ll get used to this. In fact, the next few steps will need us to rely on this and trust that everything is still in place.

feComposite is going to solve this issue for us. What does it do? MDN describes it as:

The SVG filter primitive performs the combination of two input images pixel-wise in image space using one of the Porter-Duff compositing operations: over, in, atop, out, xor, and lighter.

That to me is jibba-jabba. I think of it as affecting the alpha layer of in with the color/alpha of in2.

With this in place we can once again see our text spelled out and, because the color we used is slightly transparent, we can even see the distorted "glass" effect coming through. Great!

See the Pen SVG Glass Text Effect - dark edge by David Fitzgibbon (@loficodes) on CodePen.

Step 7: Let’s do the light edge

This is essentially the same as what we literally just did, but we’re going to shift the shape up and to the left using negative dx/dy values. We’re also setting a slightly white color this time. We’re aiming for a nice depth effect.

We’re again in a position where what we can see is the most recent result from a filter primitive, but we can’t see our dark edge! feComposite isn't what we want to use to bring them together because we don't want the alpha of the dark edge colored by the light edge… we want to see both! Which leads us to…

See the Pen SVG Glass Text Effect - light edge by David Fitzgibbon (@loficodes) on CodePen.

Step 8: Combine the edges

feMerge! It’s a hero. It lets us take any number of primitive results and merge them, making a new image. Woohoo, we can now see both dark and light edges together!

However, we do want them to be edges rather than both filling up the entire text, so we need to remove the space that the original <text> takes up. What we need next is another feComposite to chop out the original SourceGraphic. Because we used feMorphology to fatten the letters for our edges, we can now chop the original letter shapes out of the result of our feMerge.

See the Pen SVG Glass Text Effect - edges combined by David Fitzgibbon (@loficodes) on CodePen.

Now we’re starting to look like glass, with just one piece missing.

Step 9: Yes, a bevel

We have a pretty good 3D-looking glass effect. However, the letters look flat. Let’s add one more effect and make them look more rounded.

To achieve this we’re going to create a bevelled effect.

First we’re going to use feGaussianBlur. This will blur our existing filters slightly. We’re going to use this blurred result as basis to add some feSpecularLighting. As usual, feel free to play with the numbers here and see what effects you can get! The main one you might want to change is the lighting-color attribute. The image that we’re using here is slightly dark, so we’re using a bright lighting-color. If your image was very bright, this would make the letters hard to read, so you might use a darker lighting-color in that case.

See the Pen SVG Glass Text Effect - bevel by David Fitzgibbon (@loficodes) on CodePen.

Step 10: All together now!

Finally, with all the pieces ready, we do one last feMerge to get everything in place for the finished effect!

Here’s everything together, nicely spaced out and commented:

<svg viewBox="0 0 1890 1260">  <image xlink:href="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s.cdpn.io/5946/kyoto.jpg" width="1890" x=0 height="1260" y=0 ></image>  <image xlink:href="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s.cdpn.io/5946/kyoto.jpg" width="1890" x=0 height="1260" y=0 clip-path="url(#clip)" filter= "url(#distortion)"></image>  <clipPath id="clip"> <text x="50%" y ="50%" dominant-baseline="middle" text-anchor="middle">KYOTO</text> </clipPath>  <text x="50%" y ="50%" dominant-baseline="middle" text-anchor="middle" filter="url(#textFilter)">KYOTO</text> </svg>  <svg> <filter id="distortion"> <feTurbulence type="turbulence" baseFrequency="0.05" numOctaves="2" result="turbulence"/> <feDisplacementMap in2="turbulence" in="SourceGraphic" scale="20" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G"/> </filter> <filter id="textFilter">  <feMorphology operator="dilate" radius="4" in="SourceAlpha" result="dark_edge_01" /> <feOffset dx="5" dy="5" in="dark_edge_01" result="dark_edge_03"/> <feFlood flood-color="rgba(0,0,0,.5)" result="dark_edge_04" /> <feComposite in="dark_edge_04" in2="dark_edge_03" operator="in" result="dark_edge" />  <feMorphology operator="dilate" radius="4" in="SourceAlpha" result="light_edge_01" /> <feOffset dx="-2" dy="-2" in="light_edge_01" result="light_edge_03"/> <feFlood flood-color="rgba(255,255,255,.5)" result="light_edge_04" /> <feComposite in="light_edge_04" in2="light_edge_03" operator="in" result="light_edge" />  <feMerge result="edges"> <feMergeNode in="dark_edge" /> <feMergeNode in="light_edge" /> </feMerge> <feComposite in="edges" in2="SourceGraphic" operator="out" result="edges_complete" />  <feGaussianBlur stdDeviation="5" result="bevel_blur" /> <feSpecularLighting result="bevel_lighting" in="bevel_blur" specularConstant="2.4" specularExponent="13" lighting-color="rgba(60,60,60,.4)"> <feDistantLight azimuth="25" elevation="40" /> </feSpecularLighting> <feComposite in="bevel_lighting" in2="SourceGraphic" operator="in" result="bevel_complete" />  <feMerge result="complete"> <feMergeNode in="edges_complete" /> <feMergeNode in="bevel_complete" /> </feMerge> </filter> </svg>

See the Pen SVG Glass Text Effect by David Fitzgibbon (@loficodes) on CodePen.

The post Making a Realistic Glass Effect with SVG appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Making a Realistic Glass Effect with SVG published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

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onwesterlywinds · 8 years ago

Text

Dawning

For the first time in weeks, she savored her cup of coffee. To be able to sit and not do anything at all was such an unexpected but welcome pleasure, compounded by the fact that no other Riskbreakers were awake to disturb the peace. Argath was even content to share her presence, lying sprawled on the cool wooden floor as his paws twitched in sleep. Once it was clear that her momentary leisure would not be thwarted, she returned her papers to her office and forsook her customary table for a seat by the bar's eastern window, that she might watch the sun rise over the Goblet.

A heavy sense of unease weighed on her the longer she remained there, try though she did to combat it. At first she might have mistaken the feeling for restlessness, for the need to be at work after weeks of coordinating the Ishgardian campaign. Yet when she blinked against the glare of the morning sun on the stem of her teaspoon, she saw in her mind's eye the manse in its entirety as viewed from the Goblet's northernmost entrance and understood that the feeling was not her own.

Though he could recall so little of the path he had taken to the Shroud after stowing away aboard the Riskbreakers' vessel up in Azys Lla, his journey back to the Sandsea had been an easy one. He had permitted himself simply to walk for the first time since he had left on his mission for the XIIth, and his feet had carried him back to the manse as if of their own accord. Walking had given him more time to think about what he could begin to say.

The Sandsea was a prominent fixture along the Goblet's northern skyline, but any twinge of pride he might have felt was undone by his anxiety. The closer he came, the more he felt her presence saturated in every ilm of the land. He was reminded of how stupid it had been to think her dead, far from any trace of her though he had been.

He blinked upon reaching the house's front steps and was abruptly sitting at a table in the bar with a cup of black coffee, watching a shadow approach from somewhere out in the garden.

He raised a fist to knock on the front door and hesitated.

The door opened for him all the same.

Ashelia stood framed in the threshold, her violet eyes intent on him. Here, lit by the morning sun and standing only a few fulms away as she was, he could take measure of her far better than he had in the Dravanian ruins. She was tall, not quite Tia's height but certainly above Alma's; her hair, tucked back by a black beret, was of a lighter shade than that of the child in his memories.

When he beheld her face, he was ashamed to have mistaken her for Alma for so many years, even if that time had been spent seeing through her eyes. He saw much of Alma reflected there, yes, but so too did he see Tia in the curve of her mouth - and the slight quirk in her eyebrow as she surveyed him in return was the very picture of Brynhilde, his own mother, dead now for decades.

Somewhere in the bar beyond, a puppy began to bark.

"You're here," she said.

Her voice was of no surprise to him, as he had dreamed so often of speaking it himself. He nodded.

"On their orders?"

She seemed to already have sensed the answer, but he gave his reply nonetheless. "...No."

Her shoulders relaxed. Behind her, the dog continued its yapping.

"...You've come a long way."

So have you, he longed to say. "I stowed away on your airship up in-"

"I meant from Garlemald. You've seen Bernard, then?"

"Last evening. Just north of Baelsar's Wall."

At that, the barking rose to a volume and intensity that would render any further conversation between them futile. Rounding on the small shape crouched over the rug, he shouted "Argath, no!" just as Ashelia snapped "Quiet, you!"

Argath looked between them, doubtless confounded to be addressed thusly by a stranger, and offered one last defiant bark before scampering off into the basement. A quiet chuckle escaped Ashelia as she watched the pup depart - and as she turned back to face him, he was stunned to realize that he was laughing as well.

"Come in," she said at last, and held open the door for him.

It was eerie to watch him move about the Sandsea. He helped himself to a cup of coffee at her urging and knew without hesitation where each object necessary to the process could be found: mug in the cabinet above the sink, spoon in the leftmost drawer, kettle already warm on the stove, cream in the icebox. Judging by the continual furrowing of his brow with each step he took around the bar, he seemed just as confused by his own foreknowledge as she did.

"Muscle memory?" she offered as she handed him her own mug for a refill.

"Ashelia." They had taken seats at the booth by the window, and he marveled at the simultaneous ease and impossibility of it all. To say her name, let alone to say it to her... "You'll find me changed from the man I was twenty years ago."

The words came out sounding far more useless and trite even than he had anticipated, and the scowl she shot him in response was well-deserved.

He had walked a good many malms to tell her what he had to say and wondered if she already knew most of it.

"Doubtless you've wondered why I never followed you out of Ala Mhigo. Please know, Ashelia, that I would never have forsaken you willingly. The truth is that what I remember of Ala Mhigo's fall differs greatly from what actually transpired. For many years, what I knew was that you and your mother were dead - murdered by Bernard Undertaker - and that Alma went missing in the siege."

Ashelia's eyes widened, doubtless at the mention of Bernard.

"Only when we met in Dravania did I recall things as you do, as they actually took place - but even then, I cannot say for certain what became of me after we said farewell in Ala Mhigo. I was captured, tortured, I think-"

"No one else believed me," she whispered. She clasped her mug with one hand, holding it to the side of her face as she stared out the window. "I told anyone who would listen that you had saved me, but they thought me delusional after all the horrors I had seen that day. And then-" He had seen this expression on her face in the Dravanian ruins: a quiet loss, and a fear of losing still more. "I dreamed, night after night after night, that the Garleans were torturing me. Experimenting on me. I knew it was happening to you, somehow, though I couldn't understand it or put it into words. And Tia trying to end the dreams only made them worse."

Tia. She called her mother by her first name. Bernard had said nothing to indicate damage to their relationship - which meant that something unspeakable had come to pass between them.

"...Your mother."

She had dreaded the possibility of this moment for years. So often had she struggled to imagine what her father would have thought of her, been haunted by what he might have said for how their relationship had deteriorated. When she had been but a teenager, those thoughts and fears had been the only thread keeping her and her mother together, until even that had at last been severed. He must have seen something on her face, because his expectant face filled with concern the longer she fought for words. "She... things are better now. Or at least, they were. But she was never the same after Alma... after Alma..."

"What happened?"

Tears were the last thing she wanted.

"Alma was with us up until we entered the Shroud." She could not keep the tremble from her voice. "But the elementals wouldn't let her through. She tried to follow us, but the trees kept forcing her off the path, kept bringing her back to the highlands. And then the Garleans came, and we heard... we heard her screaming. She was begging for us to run, to leave her behind... and we never saw her again."

Were those tears in his eyes?

"And I know I wasn't the easiest child to care for, especially with the dreams. I would cry so loudly at night that half the camp proposed to throw me to the Amalj'aa. Tia started taking somnus, at first to sleep a little easier... and one thing led to another. She... she started..." She could not say the next piece without incriminating him for the same offense. "She started mistaking me for Alma as I got older, whenever she was on the pipe. When I was about fifteen or so, I couldn't take any more. My hair was still in braids at that point, like the ones Alma wore; I took my knife and cut it all off, down to the roots. We didn't speak for years after that."

He thought he recalled the years that followed: foul-smelling potions brewed in mesa walls, ventures and heists amid the blinding sands, and an abiding, gut-wrenching disdain for anything that did not further the ambition of home.

She took a sip of her coffee as he reflected on the nature of those dreams and winced as his own lips were burned.

"Bernard said she left the camp."

It was several moments before Ashelia could respond. "Things were improving between us after I founded the Riskbreakers. I don't know what changed, but she threw away her pipe. Only a few weeks ago, I received word from Gundobald that she had disappeared. It was as if she had stood up and walked away, though she's struggled to walk anywhere for ages. No one has heard from her since then, and by now, it's... it's been so long that we fear the worst."

"She was ill for some time," my bloody arse. Go fuck yourself, Bernard. "What's the likelihood of kidnapping?"

"There's been no word from Mil-" Milleuda Folles, he knew, sister of Kingsguard knight Wiegraf Folles. "-from the Corpse Brigade, or from any separatist Resistance factions, at least not thus far. If she were taken, ransom likely isn't their goal."

He sat in silence, turning his thoughts over and over for any possible answers and finding none. "I'll start looking for any trace of her as soon as I'm able," he promised. He would need to take considerable precautions to ensure that his presence in Eorzea remained undetected by any Garlean frumentarii, and perhaps two weeks was an impossibly cold trail, but this would at the very least give him something with which to occupy himself. Another task, another objective, another mission.

For only a moment, Ashelia's eyes lit up with hope.

"Can I trust Bernard?" The question spilled out of her rather abruptly during a tangent on his journey back from the Shroud.

Her father stopped, breathed a deep sigh, and lowered his gaze to the table between them.

"You said he... you said you remembered him murdering me and Tia." Even as she said the words, she strove to firmly remove the picture from her mind; it did not bear thinking about for a man who had once insisted on watching her sleep.

"The memory was the XIIth Legion's doing," he insisted. "Their means, I imagine, of turning me against Ala Mhigo once and for all."

It made sense. If her father and Bernard had been as brothers - her father, Bernard, and Marco - it stood to reason that the fracturing of a bond between two people so rooted in loyalty to their homeland would have been devastating to his deepest convictions.

Argath returned from the basement, triumphantly carrying an appropriated sock in his mouth.

"Bernard's been an ornery shite his entire life, but if he's even a fraction of the man he was twenty years ago, he wouldn't so much as think of doing harm to me. Or to my flesh and blood."

"Unless he saw it as a necessity, you mean."

At that, he smirked. "You've come to know him well."

"We have to think back." A slight frown crossed Ashelia's face as she did so. "Aside from the earth wyrm in the Shroud, what near-death experiences have there been that we've each recovered from?"

Her gaze fell down to a spot near the table, and he realized she was looking at the gash along his upper arm left from where the wyrm had swiped at him. "I nearly starved when I was about ten," she admitted in a voice quiet enough to make his heart break. "There was no food to be had in the camp for days, none at all. I went out into the desert and saw a dead peiste. It was half-rotted, but I supposed it would be safe from all the buzzards on it. The meat poisoned my stomach for a week. Gundobald told me it was through the grace of Nymeia that I survived."

When she was ten. "That would have been fifteen years ago." Fortunately he did not have to rack his brain for a corresponding incident. "There was a feast held in Ala Mhigo for all sorts of visiting Garlean dignitaries. One moment I was fine; the next, I was violently ill. Directly outside the ballroom doors." Ashelia gave a devious giggle. "I was in the infirmary for a week with what they figured was some sort of flu. But that care must have been what kept you alive."

"Something I've been curious about: I don't always see things from you when I'm asleep. It's usually when you're engaged in battle, I would say - though with you, of course, that's a relatively frequent occurrence. Would you say the same of your dreams?"

He paused for a moment to think. "Yes," he said cautiously, "and no. The most vivid dreams I've had were of... running across the Sagolii at sunrise."

"My morning exercise," she mused. "It was a form of meditation in its own way." She gazed out the window at the sky now turning from orange into blue, and he could not begrudge her her wistfulness for the memories they shared of color and light. "I imagine I was drawing on the Echo without realizing it. Perhaps that's the key to this connection, above all else: a connection to the Echo, be it through battle or meditation, or..."

"Anxiety," he finished. "The ruins were proof of that."

She nodded. It was the first either of them had spoken of that meeting, their first in twenty years.

"Do you think there could be a way to sever the connection?" he asked. The look she gave him was one of surprise, but it was not for his own sake that he posed the question.

"I... I don't know. Of all the people I've ever met with the Echo, I've never heard of anyone losing their gift. It could be this is something we'll have to simply... make the most of."

"Ashelia, I-"

"Don't," she snapped, and her voice was firm for the first time. "Don't apologize. Not for this. For all the pain it's brought us both, it's saved our lives."

That was certainly true.

"What now, then?" she asked at long last. The pause between their questions had been substantial enough for them to find time for a light breakfast: toast, bacon, and rolanberries. Though her father had savored the food, as he had doubtless seen little more than prepackaged Garlean rations for the past several moons, he had eaten only in moderation.

"I don't know," he admitted. He stood to her right at the sink, washing the dishes they had used. Already he was a better houseguest than half the residents of the Sandsea. "I do intend to look for Tia... but I have to determine first that the Garleans have no means of affecting my memories from afar."

It was a thought she had not imagined before: that she might regain her father after twenty years, only to lose him once more to the Garleans. "Do you want to stay here?" There was, after all, no safer place in Eorzea for anyone in hiding from the Empire.

He blinked in surprise, but thankfully, he made no displays of self-reliance. "I'd be grateful."

And so, in truth, would she. "What would you have me call you?"

"Whatever you wish in private, though 'Rosenheim' would be for the best among the rest of your company."

She nodded; though she longed not to care about what the rest of her subordinates thought or knew of her personal life, neither was she ready to reveal that the man who had inspired so much of what the company stood for had served for twenty years as a Garlean, willingly or otherwise.

He set the last plate into the cupboard and sighed, staring around at the bar as if he were truly seeing it for the first time. "This is all of your own making, you know," he said. "Whatever else our connection may have given you, I had no hand in this."

Argath sat down on the floor and scratched himself so vigorously that he toppled over.

"I hope you're proud." He placed a firm hand on her shoulder - an Ala Mhigan expression of solidarity - and she returned the gesture. "You've done far more than I could ever have achieved. And even had you not, you would still deserve to be proud."

Though it had been years since she had striven for his praise, she nodded. Her eyes began to sting with tears.

He laid his free hand along the side of her face, and she was in no way affronted when he leaned in to press his lips to her forehead. For only a moment she wondered if this touch might hold the means to finally sever their connection, if repeating the last contact they had had would be enough to dismantle the consequence of twenty years; then she felt a pressure against her arm and realized she was grasping him more tightly than she had thought.

#Undertakings #Ashelia Riot #Ashley Rosenheim #Argath the Wolf Pup

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hollyguelchi · 7 years ago

Text

Bibliography

Red Planet. (2000). [film] Directed by A. Hoffman. Australia/USA: Warner Bros. Written by Chuck Pfarrer (story), Chuck Pfarrer (screen play) | Jonathan Lemkin (screen play) | Timothy Pyle (special effects illustrator/animator)

I needed to get some inspiration for my planet designs, so I started to watch some space films, are films that had a space/planet part within them like my main source Red Planet, Fantastic Four etc. The effects are just so real and life like I wanted to know some of the artists which took part in these. So I began to look into there special effects animators. Which is where I came across Timothy Pyle. He featured in the two films mentioned above. Once reading about him, he is mainly uncredited for most films but mainly known for his very intricate detailed space work for NASA. He is one of the main Science and Art Illustrators working for this world wide known company. He has a majorly important job in teaching us what the world above looks like. Because of him, all our visions of space come from his imagination.

However, watching this film, taught me of all the planets details that I may not have thought of. Like surface, colouring and just the main properties a planet needs to make it up. However, I know this isn’t a proper source to go by because once again the effects are all made up, but I figured going off of a proper, professional NASA illustrator is the most reliable out of all the artists, because he’s used to basing NASA’s official images off proper scientifically correct facts. But people could still argue that there not everyone’s representations of space, and that everyone could come up with more ideas of space if given the precise evidence of the findings found of planets.

Not only did this film teach me about the planets forms, it taught me about the surrounding areas. The big black space, stars, rocks and asteroids all within the gaps between the planets all take their own personal roles in how the lightening and shading lie on the planets, also making sure to remember the movements of the planets. Its important to make sure it is all believable because there will be critics out there ready to criticize the work.

Given that this film was made 18 years ago, the technology and equipment was not advanced as it is now, so comparing this movie, to the most recent movies, you can gather changes and start to fill in where the missing blanks are and start to gage more details in which must have been discovered between the years.

After reading many reviews on this film, there are many very bad reviews to do with the acting and storyline, but all positive views on the effects and views. Which is why I chose to have this film as one of my reliable sources for my work, it may not be a stable, solid piece of evidence, but its one of the closet I could get.

[Online Article] “NASA has discovered 7 Earth-like planets orbiting a star just 40 light-years away Website title: Vox” URL: https://www.vox.com/2017/2/22/14698030/nasa-seven-exoplanet-discovery-trappist-1 Updated by Brian Resnick@[email protected] Feb 22, 2017, 1:58pm

This is a website I have recently used to try and understand Exoplanets. No matter how much information you can read, you wont really ever fully understand what they are, what they do, why we need them or why there so important. One thing that is clear is that the naming system for the Exoplanets is impossible to follow. But this website has given the correct rules the scientists follow, I have tried many times to name my own exoplanets for my work, but it just proves how difficult it is to fully understand.

This article teaches the first step in finding “life” out of our own planet and or solar system, it is to discover a “small and rocky” planet, very much similar to our own planet, Earth. It is also to be known that you must look for the planet to be the right distance away from the star, that liquids, such as water could possibly exists on its surface. Which would explain my question earlier about their importance.

On 22nd February, NASA made a very exciting announcement, that the space agency, with other space partners all the way around the world, has found, which they believe to be seven planets. Potentially to be planet Earth like, found 40 light-years away orbiting a star. It is expected to be suitable for life.

“It’s the first time that so many planets of this kind are found around a same star,” Michaël Gillon, the lead author of the Nature paper announcing the discovery, said in a press conference. “The seven planets … could have some liquid water and maybe life on the surface.”

This information helped me in designing my own planets, in which I took colour into consideration, blue to represent water etc. Obviously we will never really know what everything looks like up there, and mostly everything that we do see all over social media is more than likely fake and made up anyway, even though they will be based on facts and existing information. So in the meantime, we must use our imaginations to fill in the gaps, which is what I have chosen to do for my work. I have decided to make my own discovery of planets, based up on reading this article. This online article is an exciting piece of text which could be inspiring to most artists who are Space based so they can apply this information within their work practice. It teaches that Exoplanets have an amazing statistic record, of 3,558 Exoplanets that have actually been confirmed, 4,496 candidates, 881 terrestrial planets and that we have 2,650 solar systems. Which is honestly mind blowing, considering I alone only thought that it was our solar system which was the only existing one known of.

Written by Adam Mann [Online article] ‘The Art and Sciemce of NASA’s Best Exoplanet Illustrations” https://www.wired.com/2014/05/artist-rendering-exoplanets/ Website WIRED and owner Condè Nast

Upon reading this article, it made me realize the importance of managing to create illustrations of these planets when we don’t actually have a clue what they look like. How hard it is to master the combination of something that’s beautiful, realistic and scientifically accurate. Whilst not copying any other already existing images from artists, that have taken there own imaginative of past planets. To show the public something original, something that they’ve never seen before. Something that will make them wonder into the thought of the word Space.

“We’re in the job of telling a story with these pictures,” said visualization scientist Robert Hurt of Caltech, who works with NASA to make exoplanet renderings. “The science visualization process is always starting with one or two data points and trying to make an engaging illustration.” Its an idea of telling a story through photos. As some people find it hard to imagine what’s up there, and we will most likely never 100% know, its exciting to put something out there that people will start to gage and piece together what space is actually like, based on real life facts/discoveries.

This article challenges and combines the facts of science and the art of imagination, it just goes to show the importance of combining the two and how powerful it can be, to put an impression on the world. Until starting this project, I never did realize just how much of the scientific photography you actually see are all fakes. I would just assume that in this day and age we would have the technology to capture something like that. People are just too taken back by the density of the photography to even question it. This article is very helpful in learning about illustration and the reasons behind, but it isn’t the most reliable source, because obviously the artists can only go off as little truths as they can. Its more 30% evidence and 70% imagination.

A professional Illustrator, who works for NASA, called Robert Hurt said “color is a powerful part of the artists’ storytelling toolkit, and the closer the overall palette matches Earth’s, the more Earth-like the world is implied to be. Painting an exoplanet’s oceans, the same cobalt blue of our own world will make a viewer naturally feel that it's more like home, while lighter or darker blue shades could imply exoticness.”

From this article you will also learn that for a realistic shot, its not just about the colour. Its about how the planets are positioned, how light is reflected and how the shadow falls. Because if it doesn’t all line up, its not scientifically correct. In this article it begins to explain how most artists use a planet, with the stars light glowing on the opposite side. When in real life it would make that side of the planet appear to be in the pitch black, with very little daylight.

REFERENCES

1) Theawakenedstatenet. 2014. The Awakened State. [Online Blog]. [15 December 2017]. Available from: https://theawakenedstate.net/shooting-stars/ Written by Ashley. In-text citation: (Theawakenedstatenet, 2014)

2) [Online Article] “NASA has discovered 7 Earth-like planets orbiting a star just 40 light-years away Website title: Vox” URL: https://www.vox.com/2017/2/22/14698030/nasa-seven-exoplanet-discovery-trappist-1 Updated by Brian Resnick@[email protected] Feb 22, 2017, 1:58pm

3) Written by Adam Mann [Online article] ‘The Art and Sciemce of NASA’s Best Exoplanet Illustrations” https://www.wired.com/2014/05/artist-rendering-exoplanets/ Website WIRED and owner Condè Nast

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