Aaron S. said: Thanks, Tiffany! I wish I had even basic talent with photshop stuff. It's like an ancient mystery, full of secret handshakes and such. You all amaze me. Well... I learned almost everything I use now as a teenager by doing free art on forums, so it's not really that ancient of a mystery. About a 15 year old mystery. And I will answer any questions. This for example, is very easy. I used a 'ribbon brush' that looks like a rope and then I tinted it red, because everyone wants red thread for the purpose you describe, it's the cliche. :D The circle was also a brush I already had. The only thing I did was draw a straight line with Brian Flyland Studio's rope brush, then make a new layer, and put down two of the metal circles. I then duplicated the metal circle layer, and on the LOWER one, I blurred it and darkened it to make the shadow. Then I did this to the rope layer. Then I adjusted the 'hue' to make it red on the upper layer, and saved it as a transparent png. So some of it is that I had the assets pre-made. But if you wanted to make an asset like this, you would take a photo of a rope, remove all the background, then push the rope 50% to the left, duplicate that layer, push it 50% to the right, and then use the clone tool to correct the connection in the middle until it looks seamless. Crop it, save it as a transparent png, and now you have a seamless rope loop you can turn into a ribbon brush or manually place! Then to make the orb you would select a circle from a metal texture, and then do a fish-eye distortion with a filter, and probably paint a bit of shadow manually around the edges. If you don't paint, you could also then make a new layer, do a 'stroke' around the selection of the circle, and then keep the selection on so you're only working above the orb and not spreading the shadow on top 'outwards' as it were. Use the smudge tool or do a gaussian blur to make the shadow blend. Finally, duplicate the orb, and on the bottom layer, gaussian blur and then change the luminosity to be darker, and maybe move it over a few pixels, so you have a shadow underneath it. Maybe I should do a pre-made map pack of connected strings in family tree arrangements so that you don't have to connect them all. But it's not super hard, once you realize what tools in the program you'll be using. I am happy to answer any questions about my techniques. It's no secret. I learned for free online. I was homeschooled and have no higher education. Nothing I know cost money, only time and sweat. :) (Buying the Flyland Studio brushes for Clip Studio Paint cost me a couple of dollars, similar to buying a marketplace item, but the stock art expense is something I swallow as a professional, since I use so many assets!)
