Abstract Dimensions: Layers

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Layers

Open an image to use as your background.

Let's add the first layer.

Press tab on your keyboard to open the control boxes.
Select the Layer Control box
Select the Add New Layer button indicated in red.
Layer Blend Mode: Dodge

Add a sphere using Picture Tube

Select the Picture Tube tool from the toolbar.
Select the Controls control box.
Select the Tools Controls tab
Select Colored Spheres from the drop down box.
Press tab to close the control boxes.
Position your curser over your image and click to produce an instant sphere!

Lets put a filter on layer one now.

Select image/plugins/filter factory G/ Circulate

Note when the filter window opens that only layer one is displayed in the filter box and only one layer is affected by the filter.

Add a second layer the same way you added the first only this time use Blend: Luminance

Now lets add a spider using the picture tube.

What happens if we change Luminance to something else? Go ahead and give it a try. Press the tab key to open your control boxes. Locate Layer 2 and browse through the Layer Blend Mode drop down box.

(Place the control box out of the way of your image and you'll be able to watch the changes as they occur without going back out to the image).

Now I'd like to make a change to the background, so before we leave the control box, let's click on the background layer. Hit tab to get rid of those pesky boxes.

So, here we are at the background, but we can't see it very well with the other two layers on top of it. Go to Layers/View and select Current Only. Much better, now all we see is the background. I used Filter Factory J/Window Screen to demonstrate how only the background layer is affected by the filter.

Put it all together by going to Layers/View and select All.

If you're satisfied with your results it's time to merge the layers. Go to Layers/Merge and select Merge All (Flatten)

Save, and you're finished!