August 2023 Show Off Thread - Effects

[Agent0013]

Welcome to the August 2023 Show Off Thread! Post all of your wonderful images for this month here for all of us to see, and enjoy, and comment on. Please remembers to keep your images PG, as children can and do view these threads.


I'm rather happy and proud that the July thread was as successful as it was. We got a nice number of images posted, and many were for the challenge which was "Siblings".
Our challenge this month is "Effects", often shortened to "FX" even among professional productions. If you choose to participate in the "Effects" challenge, your image must include an effect, or more than one. The effect can be an energy effect, either magical, natural, or manmade; such as fire, plasma, lightning, magical abilities, glowing metals, laserbeams, soundwaves, vortices, etc. It can also be an effect of smoke, clouds, vapor, rain, etc. Or maybe you want to show how something unseen is affecting something you can see, like wind blown hair, the bubbles in boiling water or other liquid, the blast zone of a meteorite or explosion, the effect of an Earthquake, How flooding can affect the landscape and architecture. the effect of wind in a sail, etc. The possibilities are many, and if you can come up with an effect I have not thought of, please if you are able, implement it in an image. I will look on with great interest.


The challenge does not have to be all you post in this thread. You may post other images as well, as always. This thread is open for any image that meets the PG requirement. We will surely be happy to see whatever you post.


Please remember to keep the image size and memory size within the allowed limits. Our host imposes these limits, so we must comply.


Now due to the length of the story for the starter image, I am posting that one in the second post of this thread. I wrote a lengthy piece about the image, so it deserves to be a post on its own.


So let's get to posting those images! Let's have lots of fun!


Now I need to get my first one posted!

[Agent0013]

Arrival At the Ready


One extremely strange way to go to other worlds does not involve the use of any type of space ship. Rather it is by using an Extra-dimensional Wormhole. While there are means of travelling faster than light, those means cannot compare to how fast a wormhole can get you to the same destination. So as the technology to open wormholes through extra-dimensional space became available, building the connection on all worlds our species occupies also became practical. The use of FTL drives is still the cheaper means of travel, but cannot compare to the reduction in time between initiating a wormhole jump and arrival at the destination. The jump last's just 4 seconds, and the distance between the departure and arrival locations does not show any measurable difference in that time. Just 4 seconds, and you are there! The problem is that the energy consumption for a jump is extremely costly, on the order of a thousand times that used by an FTL drive.


What does the Extra-dimensional Wormhole Technology actually do?

This technology finds the extra-dimensional points which exist physically together in one or another extra-dimensional reality, and forms a bridge across the normal space gap between those points through that other dimensional reality. So when the destination point is chosen and the wormhole technology is initiated, the actual jump takes just four seconds. For the technology to be worth using, only certain types of things or occurances are deemed as making it necessary. Otherwise, since FTL is far less expensive, it is still the usual way of travel to other worlds in inter-galactic space.

FTL is dependent on how much mass exists in the area being traveled through, and that has the direct cause of affecting how fast the drive can move the ship. Thus within a galaxy, the density of matter having greater mass makes travel speed much less than in the space between galaxies. The same amount of energy used to move a ship from one edge of a galaxy to the opposite edge, through that galaxy, can move the same ship, from a point just a few thousand light years from a particular galaxy to another point the same distance from a galaxy several million light years from the departure galaxy. Example:
It takes a ship using FTL 40 hours to travel from one edge of the Milkyway Galaxy to its opposite edge. That is roughly a distance of about 120,000 lightyears. But from a point 1,000 lightyears outside of the Milkyway Galaxy, to a point 1,000 light years outside of the Whirlpool Galaxy, (which is approximately 25,000,000 light years from the Milkyway Galaxy) it takes FTL nearly the same amount of time; in this case 42 hours, due to the fact that mass is almost nonexistent in the areas between the galaxies. And practically the same amount of energy is used.


In the case of Wormhole Technology, mass does not matter. Energy, however, does matter a lot. But it's not due to distances within our own normal space. Rather is is due to the fact that all things in all dimensions of the universe are in constant motion, so two points in normal space being close to the same distance away for as much as centuries or even millennia only works in our normal space for us, allowing FTL travel times to remain the same for long periods of time. But as there are infinite dimensions, most being extra-dimensional to us, those points are moving in many different directions at the same time, most at unimaginable speeds. This allows different dimensions to bring the same points together at different times. The Extra-dimensional Wormhole Technology has to find which dimension is doing this at the time when the jump must be made. Once it finds it, a wormhole is opened up between those two points, bridging our normal space distance, through the dimension the two points are currently together in. It is the search through the infinite number of dimensions that necessitates the super high amounts of energy needed to find a dimension where the two points currently coexist together. And if the jump by some effect were to need more than 4 seconds to complete, the technology would not be of any use. This is because the two points would be too far apart after that much time.


Here on a world in the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300, a viciously evil enemy has found one of our worlds where we have built an Inter-dimensional Wormhole Portal. If they find it, they will gain the technology, and use it to further their goal of genocide against all other species. This is of course a true emergency, and can only be resolved by using the Inter-dimensional Wormhole Portal to get as many of our enhanced operatives on the scene as quickly as possible.

This operative arrives ready to do battle. The weapon he is holding is a very powerful one for its size; able to take out dozens of enemies in one blast. They will have to come through an entrance that can act as a bottleneck, allowing no more than five at a time to pass through into the Portal Chamber. The operative plans to remain in a good position to keep his weapon trained on the Portal Room entrance. When other operatives arrive with enough firepower, he will lead the push to oust the enemy from that world. Once that is done the push will expand to push the enemy out of the star system, and eventually the galaxy itself. Then a blockade will be established to prevent any attempted return of the enemy.

[Llola Lane]

Great one to start us off Agent!  I'll be working on some too :)  wait for it.. waaaaaaait!!!  lol

[CathyY]

Great work Agent.

I did this one for Llola's challenge before I found out it was kiss instead of glass.

[Llola Lane]

Great work Agent.

I did this one for Llola's challenge before I found out it was kiss instead of glass.

Haaa.. sorry about that Cathy... I have a glass one in the works also... I must have been looking at 2022... My fault for posting when I'm tired and eyes are hurting... lol.

Your glass is awesome... soooo pretty!  Thanks for posting it here :)

[Agent0013]

Cathy, your image qualifies as a type of effect! Glass has properties that have the effect of refraction, and can do interesting distortions to whatever is seen through it. Your Glass Figure in it's awesome pose is working refraction in some cool looking ways! Very well done!

[jammixx]

Wow, two really nice ones to start right off.  I am outclassed in this category, but I'll do a couple for fun.  Here is a magical ring to ponder.

[Agent0013]

Jammixx, that is an amazing ring! It is really hard to get the twisted look to be seamless on a toroid or just about any ring. And again we have the added effect of refraction. Well done on both counts!

[CathyY]

Thank you for the encouragement guys.

Great render jammixx.  It doesn't have to be complicated to be good.

[Llola Lane]

WOW... awesome everyone... I'm diggin' that ring Jammixx... I've never seen anything quite like it :)  Well done.