Plasma lines texture

Question

I recently found an amazing fractal image that apart from his beauty it fascinated me for the texture present in the petals:

The problems is that after days trying with the wave filter (and some other techniques) applied to some lines, I realized that is impossible for me to imitate the neon-like effect.

I have made countless searches in Google, without any luck; so this is my last resort.

Question: How can I replicate the texture, or where can I find something similar?

Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

Wow, that original fractal image is amazing.

I think you should be able to make something like the portions you’re after, just using Photoshop and a few filters. Here’s a really quick and hacky attempt.

And here’s how I made it.

Make some fibers

Blur 'em

Motion blur 'em

Levels 'em (more contrast)

Add a gradient map

Because, gradient maps are the best thing in the world.

And you're pretty much done. I just did that again on another layer, used a little bit of Filter → Distort → Wave, and painted some soft dots on another bitmap layer under the gradient map.

The PSD!

Download: Plasma lines.psd.zip

I hope that helps!