The Artfkt collection library
Velvet Reef
Grow a coral body from your image
Choose one part of a photograph to become a feeding mouth, or let colonies and ridges run across the whole frame. The original light and color give each surface its pigment.
Included in the Artfkt desktop app. All collections, one desktop studio.
Choose how much of the animal to see
Place a single feeding mouth on a peach, an eye or the center of a spiral. Its outer rim holds still as the tentacles curl inward. For a wider view, use Polyp Choir and move the disturbance. Watch the first cups reopen while their neighbors are still tucked shut.
Find a surface that reads in silhouette
Velvet Maze leaves long, connected valleys through the image. Raise Swell to press the two walls of a valley closer. Pearl Mantle breaks the surface into separate rounded tips. Tilt the view across them and look for the moment one catches the light in front of another.
Catch the moment after release
Start with Spawning Hour on a dark photograph. Sweep Release phase until a small gap opens between the bundles and their mouths. Hold that pose for a still. Add Actinic Ink after it and sweep Pigment selection to find which bundles catch the light.
Effects in Velvet Reef
6 effects to explore and combine.
Feeding Crown
Turn a patch of image into a ribbed oral disc with a fixed rim, curved feelers and luminous bead tips.
Polyp Choir
Divide the picture into irregularly spaced cups. Near the disturbance, their rims contract into dim centers before opening again.
Velvet Maze
Build continuous winding walls across the image. A second, much finer set of ribs crosses the walls while deep tissue stays visible in the valleys.
Pearl Mantle
Short rounded lobes rise from the image surface. Tilt the view to see nearer tips cover their neighbors and the image tint their bases.
Actinic Ink
Map a selected color family into two emissions. Broad dark areas remain quiet while fine light and color differences survive inside the fluorescence.
Spawning Hour
Small pearl-like bundles form at fixed openings, lift off together and drift away. Hold an instant or play the release as a loop.
Creative applications
- Make a fluorescent cover from a still life.
- Build a moving polyp pattern from a flat graphic.
- Give lettering a fine maze of ridges.
Starting workflow
- Add Feeding Crown and place its mouth over the subject.
- Set Reach and Grip, then scrub Feeding phase to hold a pose.
- Add Actinic Ink after the crown. Sweep Pigment selection until a few rims catch the light.
Make it part of your next composition.
Combine Velvet Reef with other collections, images, and editable text in the Artfkt desktop app.