Guess i've been on a binge, created a couple items from viewing tuts on here, so this time showing a tennis ball. Note: I'm using v .47 so I don't have the jitter nodes effect that v .48 has, had to do the jitters manually! That got tiring after awhile, lol, so I added a little pixel smear in for good measure, still, I like the outcome. This tut comes from the famous Heathenex, he does great tutorials!
dee

flamingolady wrote:Note: I'm using v .47 so I don't have the jitter nodes effect that v .48 has, had to do the jitters manually!

Are you sure about that? Inkscape 0.47 does ship with the extension 'Extensions > Modify Path > Jitter Nodes…', as well as with 'Extensions > Modify Path > Add nodes…' (often used in combination to get a more fine-grained jittering) and 'Extensions > Modify Path > Fractalize…'.

These three extensions already had been bundled with Inkscape 0.46, though in 0.46 they are listed under 'Effects' instead of 'Extensions' (the tutorial by heathenx -- Episode 082 - Vector Tennis Ball -- was recorded with Inkscape 0.46).

On which platform are you working on? For the Inkscape version, check menu 'Help > About Inkscape'.

I'm using 4 47. Ah, you are correct, it's under Extensions, I looked under Filters, changing the wording to Effects threw me off! I did use add nodes though, at least. thanks

I think you'll have better results using the filter listed here.

The funny thing is, when viewing the ball in it's original SVG format, and smaller, it looks great (well, to me anyway, but I'm easy to please, lol), it lost something in the png translation.
DC1 - I do like your sponge effect, as there are various brands of tennis balls. I am really in awe of the wooden (table) leg you made, that's impressive, both the wood and the bottom metal part, please let us know if you have a tut on it.

I think it looks great!
I know what you mean about it looking better at a smaller size. That....I'm not sure if it would be called an illusion, or what, exactly....but it gets me every time! I'm always zooming in so that I can see the details, and get them right. So I work very hard, and make it look absolutely perfect at the zoomed in level. But when I zoom back out, it doesn't look right at all!! (And vice versa.) Arrggh!

I have a couple of suggestions to improve further, if you want to display it at this size:

At the bottom, where the ball is in shadow, I think we should see more "fuzz". Because the background is a similar color to the fuzz, it seems to kind of blend into the background, around the sides and on top. So we don't see as much fuzz as there really is. But at the bottom where the shadow is, I think we should see most of the fuzz, because the shadow gives enough contrast to see it.

And also a similar comment about the seams on the ball, although it's hard to say for sure what is needed, without having the file to fool around with on my own. We do see some fuzz overlapping the seams, around the sides of the ball, because there's more shadow there. But in the front of the ball, I think we should see....not necessarily fuzz, because it might not show up due to the highlight. But maybe shadows of fuzz, ie - a darker color of fuzz, if you understand what I mean. Or maybe a little bit of both fuzz and fuzz-shadow....?

Or as far as the fuzz over the seams, it might be that the highlight is a little too bright? Maybe if it were not so bright, we might see more fuzz?? Again, hard to say without hands-on....??

I hope you don't think I'm being picky. I think it's a really nice image, and really only see these 3 small areas where it doesn't seem to work. (I tend to be detail-oriented.) But like I said, display at a smaller size, and these problems probably disappear!

Thanks for comments and suggestions Brynne, can't hurt to hear them, that's for sure. I noticed the same things you said, it looks so much better in SVG and smaller (though I hadn't noticed the bottom shaded area needing fuzz), I do need to re-do that one. I changed the highlights on the seams many times to get it just right, and boom, like you said, it zooms out and gets lost! lol. I may stop placing my files in the finished thread, lol.

Nice work!

Nice editing work.. !!!!