PDN Tips and Tricks

[david.atwell]

(Note to all: This is an acceptable necropost, as this is a pretty useful thread)

[Ed Harvey]

If you hold down shift when you draw a line, the line will automatically snap to a series of predefined angels.

Shift also 'snaps' the angle chooser in effects to 15° increments.

A few 'hidden' features in the Ed Harvey Effects (where appropriate)...

* Color Wheel

• 
  [*:3enxn5vg]Shift - 'snaps' Hue to 15° degree increments
  [*:3enxn5vg]Ctrl - locks current saturation/effect-amount
  [*:3enxn5vg]Alt - locks current hue
  [*:3enxn5vg]Shift & Ctrl can be combined

* Right-clicking on a primary/secondary color button selects a color of the 'opposite' hue. For example, if the button is red then right clicking selects cyan.

* The up/down control on Hue wraps around from 359°<->0°

[The_Lionhearted]

If you hold down shift when you draw a line, the line will automatically snap to a series of predefined angels.

Shift also 'snaps' the angle chooser in effects to 15° increments.

A few 'hidden' features in the Ed Harvey Effects (where appropriate)...

* Color Wheel

• 
  [*:3utxiq57]Shift - 'snaps' Hue to 15° degree increments
  [*:3utxiq57]Ctrl - locks current saturation/effect-amount
  [*:3utxiq57]Alt - locks current hue
  [*:3utxiq57]Shift & Ctrl can be combined

* Right-clicking on a primary/secondary color button selects a color of the 'opposite' hue. For example, if the button is red then right clicking selects cyan.

* The up/down control on Hue wraps around from 359°<->0°

Snapping a wheel to 15 degree increments would be awesome on an angle chooser... :?

[barkbark00]

I'm pretty sure Ed's effects already do that...

Edit:

Same with IndirectUI's angle chooser. Just hold Shift.

[The_Lionhearted]

I'm pretty sure Ed's effects already do that...

Edit:

Same with IndirectUI's angle chooser. Just hold Shift.

Really? I could have sworn I tried it before and it didn't work... *opens up PDN and checks*

EDIT: Well, I'll be. I stand corrected. How did I miss this?

[Ed Harvey]

I could have sworn I tried it before and it didn't work... *opens up PDN and checks*

EDIT: Well, I'll be. I stand corrected. How did I miss this?

Why do you think I put it in a tip?

It is easy to miss...

[MiguelPereira]

(Note to all: This is an acceptable necropost, as this is a pretty useful thread)

Sorry for the offtopic but why isn't this sticky'd?

[david.atwell]

There are way too many sticky's in the GDQ forum already.

EDIT: Huh. Never mind.

Sticky'd! (for now; it might get moved or unsticky'd by another mod later)

[MiguelPereira]

There are way too many sticky's in the GDQ forum already.

EDIT: Huh. Never mind.

Sticky'd! (for now; it might get moved or unsticky'd by another mod later)

honestly it makes perfect sense that this thread is right on top with the other stickies on GDQ cause, well.. tips and tricks are the answer to many questions (just like 42)

[Blooper]

Thanks for the sticky, david

[Lego]

Making a render blend with the background layer is essential to a tag/signature. It is as easy as making a gradient, setting it to overlay, and turning the opacity to around 50-ish, or making the render slightly transparent. Letting the background overlap onto the render is also a well used technique, usually by champjev.

Wait - are we supposed to be giving advice?

(Warning, mine is very vague, but thats the way i did it with my recent one.)

Also, expressing emotion within signatures usually helps their effect. People within my gallery say the best works of art I have made are the ones I was expressing my anger in.

You should try to show emotion, like I cluddered renders and transparencies of colors, along with different effects, to make an anger look. Mixing different colors to make a cool effect shows good emotion, or Mood.

If you want to be lazy and cut out renders using the magic wand, it is essential that you use basic antialias, feather, soften edges, or any other type of plugin that softens the edges of the render.

Do not use any type of blur, unless you are trying to move towards that effect! Personally, I advise the tutorial, "Cutting out Pictures, the easy way".

[punisherjb]

wow bloopper this si great will help lots of noobs also we should have people asking kinda like a ask the guru thing

[david.atwell]

wow bloopper this si great will help lots of noobs also we should have people asking kinda like a ask the guru thing

That's not quite the point of this thread - this is for people to give their advice. Questions that can't be answered via F1 or searchpaint.net should still be asked in a new thread in GD&Q.

[Blooper]

Making a render blend with the background layer is essential to a tag/signature. It is as easy as making a gradient, setting it to overlay, and turning the opacity to around 50-ish, or making the render slightly transparent. Letting the background overlap onto the render is also a well used technique, usually by champjev.

Wait - are we supposed to be giving advice?

(Warning, mine is very vague, but thats the way i did it with my recent one.)

Also, expressing emotion within signatures usually helps their effect. People within my gallery say the best works of art I have made are the ones I was expressing my anger in.

You should try to show emotion, like I cluddered renders and transparencies of colors, along with different effects, to make an anger look. Mixing different colors to make a cool effect shows good emotion, or Mood.

If you want to be lazy and cut out renders using the magic wand, it is essential that you use basic antialias, feather, soften edges, or any other type of plugin that softens the edges of the render.

Do not use any type of blur, unless you are trying to move towards that effect! Personally, I advise the tutorial, "Cutting out Pictures, the easy way".

What I usually do, is make a shape using the ( :ShapeInterior: ) to make a white shape in the middle of the render on a new layer, and then copy and paste it on a new image, blur it, as=dd a black background, flatten. Then I go back to the render, duplicate it, set the lower one to about 70 opacity and then use alpha mask with the blurred shape as a mask on the top layer of the render.

[salu]

i did you know you could draw a stright line if you hold down the left button on the mouse and use the arrow keys to navigate with the arrow keys

[Blooper]

i did you know you could draw a stright line if you hold down the left button on the mouse and use the arrow keys to navigate with the arrow keys

As in move the cursor with the arrow keys?

[harold]

Isn't it far easier to use line ( :LineCurveTool: ) and hold shift while dragging (snaps the angle to 15?)

[david.atwell]

Far easier, but not as precise.

[Blooper]

Far easier, but not as precise.

Useful if you want to draw a gradient at an exact point, too.

[Individualized]

A simple way to create a grunge like backround, if I got that expression right.

Use a canvas of 2400*1800 pixels for this.

Make clouds with black and white (settings: Scale 850, Roughness 1.00).

Create a new layer and ctrl+f.

Change the top layer to xor.

Do fragment with default settings on the top layer.

Optional: Flatten and Gaussian blur with setting of 1.

I don't know how to do thumbnails, I'll just link it.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/7379/grungerq2.png

[MiguelPereira]

This one was already posted on another topic, and it was posted by Pyrochild or BoltBait i think (sorry if I'm wrong)

When creating a gradient, if you don't want to leave it to look too blocky, or to much straight use Frosted glass (yes that's right) at low (really low) settings and work from there, and it will give you a nicer gradient.

bluring gradient it is also really fun, try radial blur for suns plus zoom blur

[harold]

You can use feather to resize things quickly a little bit if it almost fits and you don't want to go through the trouble of resizing it properly (which may require panning)

[Blooper]

You can use feather to resize things quickly a little bit if it almost fits and you don't want to go through the trouble of resizing it properly (which may require panning)

You mean true feather? I guess.

For those of you out there who don't like to use C4D's that are someone else's work in your signature, just render clouds in the color you want your pseudo C4D to be, and dent it with a high stretch setting. cut out on of the "spikes" and use them as a flow C4D:

Make sure to use blend modes and the like.

[Klexon]

To rotate an image with more control you can right click your mouse and drag it while you are on the (move tool). I believe this also works with the (move selection tool) even though I don't know what use it would be.

[Blooper]

To rotate an image with more control you can right click your mouse and drag it while you are on the (move tool). I believe this also works with the (move selection tool) even though I don't know what use it would be.

You mean, drag the nubs. It works with the "Move selection" tool too, it's good for making aliased crooked rectangles.