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DMT symbol project (work in progress)

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Electric Kool-Aid said:
Colours might be off. Sorry about that!
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No hey, any suggestions are better than no suggestions, it gets the juices flowin.. ya know? :D Thanks for taking the time to make that, the crystal is almost what I was trying to get at, and yeah the lock is either gonna be shiny metal or sandstone I think , so thanks for illustrating that aspect!

CosmicFool said:
Might I suggest playing around with Flower of Life -esque mandala?
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Well our lotus already has that hexagonal "flower of life" structure, especially if you remove the last layer. But I love the FoL and will try more ways of incorporating it.

vardlokkur said:
Many of you have probably seen this around the internet, I believe I've seen it linked to the Nexus Chat before.
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I haven't actually seen that before, thanks. That's awesome, maybe we can take some ideas from it...


And I dunno if Guyomech has recharged his batteries yet, but I'll try to post my personal color scheme suggestion tonight.
 
I've got a pretty clear picture in my head... But rendering it is another story.

Imagine the iridescent scheme in Electric Kool-Aid's post... But each facet will react differently, some will be richly colored, a few will be mostly pure white... Gemstones have this great random scatter effect that makes them twinkle. I'll see what I can rough together tonight.

Let's go with gold/brass for the lock, sandstone for the glyphs... Seems to make sense
 
Double post... yeah, I know, I know...

So here is a new version of a single petal with that "twinkle" effect I was talking about. You get a couple really bright facets, a lighting scheme that generally favors lighting from inside/underneath, and some random scattering. Not much color variation here, but it's just for the sake of playing around.

I've also included a full mandala made from these. The twinkle effect starts to break down when the same effect is repeated in every petal. To really do this right would require giving the whole thing a lot of attention... but we're getting there.

I guess before I put much more time into this, I need to know it's the right direction... thoughts? As of yet I'm not attached.

In this version, instead of each layer having a bit of shading behind it for depth purposes, it's light instead. This works well for a self-illuminated gemstone like this, although you do give up some graphic readability in exchange for the lighting effect.
 

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Sorry something unexpected came up, I'll try to get back working on this asap. Guyomech that gem texture: I'm sold. Thank you. :) This is precisely the kind of scatter I meant, and I dunno if you're reading my mind or something but that is also exactly the tint I had planned, from yellow to pink. Just needs a few prism sparkles here and there, to get that crystal feeling like in the pictures, and the scatter needs to be randomized. And yeah I realize these are all just crude prototypes at this point, the final product will be polished beyond belief. :D

I like the self-illumination but I just wanted to test how it would look with shadowing, and also made quick and dirty tests on the other colors aswell. Please anyone say if they don't like these colors, or that face, because they were just totally random ideas and I guess they could be alot better/spice-like.
 

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Absolutely, my unknown light-filled-friend, daedaloops!!!

I'm onboard with ۩, hehehe... I'm having a "beingasm" as well. It might be the Cappi tea 1/4 & of mushies I ate the other night (sweetened by ganja and clean mountain air)? Mmm... well yes and no. :thumb_up:

Why, just take a look at Indian Vedantic metaphysics (and IMO), it's quite obvious that there are significant universal elements involved. Upon comparative analysis, if we are completely objective, this implies the grand opening of "enlightenment".

Intrinsically and without a shadow of a rational doubt, the path is open for all to travel. There is but ONE thousand petaled lotus of Cosmic being, but one eternal current, flowing throughout all dimensions, simultaneously.

It's so delightfully uncanny how close to the mark this idea/pictograph truly is (as a symbol and/or avenue of visual linguistics). So sublime and beatifically enchanting. Drawing us into the ever-expanding awareness of self-being, existential desire and our hunger for awareness itself.

As is the penchant of humanoid existence, consciousness adamantly wills itself to expand, awaken and blossom. May the crown of the Sahasrara fully bloom in resplendent glory, within each and all sentient beings, in all due course (but of course). This thread makes my heart smile broadly and effusively. He smiles. 😁
 
It seems I have come in contact with a Long Wind Blowing Cosmic Dust. I thank you for your meaningful words, but they would be more appropriate directed towards Master Guyomech, I am merely the padawan. :d

This also reminded me that I wanted to say in general that I know it's silly to try to box a sense-transcending experience into a visual symbol, but... hey why not? I mean it's challenges like these that make creating "art" so rewarding and euphoric, otherwise we'd all just be drawing the same stick figures over and over again.

Your post made my mouth smile broadly and effusively. 😁
 
If we're going to shade behind each layer, maybe use magentas instead of black?

I'm also starting to wonder: should we put this whole thing in front of a dark background? If so, we should look at the shaded vs backlit variations side-by-side.

I'll be messing around with the key a bit. If we go with a shaded mandala, we may want to keep the interior of the key open and bright... if we go with the backlit variation, the key- at least the business end of it- would be silhouetted against a light background- allowing for some glowing ruby effects. Anyway, just some thoughts.

Also, the first version of the key had a hole in the handle... I realize this is a metaphorical key and all that, so you don't need a hole to put it on a keychain. But it does help with the visual recognition aspect of trying to create an effective icon. On the other hand, the cube labrynth is pretty awesome. Feedback anyone?

Will post key soon.
 
Guyomech said:
Also, the first version of the key had a hole in the handle... I realize this is a metaphorical key and all that, so you don't need a hole to put it on a keychain. But it does help with the visual recognition aspect of trying to create an effective icon.

Will post key soon.
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Remember this molecule is the key to unlocking your consciousness. So I dont think it needs to be traditional. People will just "know"... ;)
 
That's what I'm hoping... But part of our objective here is to create an icon that is self explanatory even to people who have no idea. It's easy for us to signal to each other- but can we break past common cultural boundaries?

...but yeah, it's pretty obviously a key even without the hole, and now I'm reluctant to mess with the cube labrynth.
 
Guyomech said:
OK, so I wasn't supposed to spend the whole night on this...
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Wow that looks so polished already.. great work. And I see you made the bigger labyrinth more like a cube, nice. If we want a hole maybe we could modify the cube a bit and put it at the center? But I don't think it necessarily needs a hole. I messed up the way I saved the mandala last time so I have to make it from scratch to test out the different shadows and backgrounds, but in the meanwhile here's your key with labyrinths that look more like they're cut through the key.

And what about outlines? I like the ones on the key, it gives it that logo feel. So I guess we should aim for the same in the mandala.

And sorry if I'm delayed with things, there's now too many things going on, and I've declared war against time once again.
 

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Awesome work and great ideas! How about making the little labyrinths on the key recessed and hollow, so we can see through them to the other side? Just an idea.

I love that you guys are doing this and collaborating - should we expect a banner from all this? 8)

JBArk
 
A collab banner? Well I think Daedaloops and I are engaged in the same war against time... Argh. But it would be cool to see more Nexians collaborating in general.

As far as the outline goes, that's partly just to make the key stand out from the mandala. In tattooing, I use strong black outlines very selectively, and keep many outlines downplayed... Line strength is a great way of assigning priority. If we use lines around the mandala, maybe red or magenta instead of black?

I'll play with the key some more, see if I can strengthen the cut-through effect. If a central hole can be incorporated without disrupting the cube too much, I'll do that.

I can't tell you how many times I've saved PS projects without preserving the needed layering. 15 years of Photoshop, and I still make the same mistakes. Lack of formal education and all that.
 
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