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Thanks Red! Great tutorial. Here is my try :

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it Hello paint.net users. This is a tutorial on how to create a nice, cool looking lava texture in a simple and easy to follow manner. For this tutorial 3 additional downloaded plug-ins are used and these can be found on the getpaint.net website. (here!) Plug-in links Essential: Flames (aka Burninate) by Bolt-Bait : Flames plug-in Grim Color Reaper (only needed for the smoke effects) by Jotaf:Grim Color Reaper plug-in Color Filter by Ed Harvey (not essential but it helps): Color filter This tutorial is in two parts. Part 1: Lava and Part 2: Smoke effects Part 1:Lava 1.Firstly open paint.net and press Ctrl+N to open a new image. You can choose whatever image resolution you'd like. I am going with 800 x 600. 2. We'll be using the Clouds texture in paint.net (a good old classic). So go ahead and click Effects > Render > Clouds and make sure your colors are black and white 3. Set the blend mode to "Difference". The default value of 0.5 for roughness is fine but you change it (Important: Don't set the roughness too low or too high.) A default scale value of 250 is fine, although I used 200. You can experiment with this scale value but I would suggest avoiding very low values for scale (Like 15) 4. Now use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F to repeat these difference clouds. Do this about six times Ooo. Its looks like some gray alien mud. Don't worry, we'll be flaming this up in a bit. 5. Optional: Apply Brightness/Contrast (under Adjustments) and set the increase in brightness by a small value (such as +8). This will just make the lava more 'fiery' and hotter. You may also want to adjust the Contrast slightly but I just left it as it is. 6. Now let's start stoking flames here with BoltBait's Flames plug-in. Go to Effects > Render > Flames. (aka the Burninate plug-in) 7. I went with a roughness of 0.60 and a scale of 150 for the flames. You can try out what suits you. Avoid very low values for scale and very high roughness values. And make sure 'Black and white is off' because you will have really boring 'lava' with this on! Cool but it just needs a few touches. You will notice a few 'white patches' that you might like to get rid of. Also the lava needs some more 'glow' 8. To fix the patches go to Effects > Color > Color Filter Hue: 30 to 50 Filter density: 110 to 150 Preserve Highlights : zero (and exact zero or maybe 5) 9. To make the lava glow. Go to Effects >Photo > Glow and run glow with settings similar to these 10. You may also want to do another Color Filter That finishes off the lava. Part 2: Smoke effects The lava at this stage looks goods but you may want to add some smoke effects. 11. To do this first add a new layer 12. On this new layer run Effects > Render > Clouds. We are using normal clouds and not difference clouds. Scale is up to you but keep the roughness in about 0.50 to 0.72. We'll need some 'detail' in the smoke. 13. So now you have a cloudy blanket. But how does this become smoke? Go to Effects > Color > Grim Color Reaper and experience automatic color destruction. We need to lose all the black, most of the grey and just some of that white. So Color tolerance at 1.00 won't do. Decrease the tolerance to about 0.3. Yes this will make the white more transparent but hey its what we want for smoke. 14. Neat but we do not want smoke all over the place. Time for the Eraser tool - set its hardness all the way down to zero. Adjust the size to your liking and remove some smoke. 15. So here is your smoke. (optional) But you may want a more 'transparent' smoke effect. If so follow the images below. The Opacity is the value to alter to make the smoke more transparent. 16. Well that's all. The end-result = Thank you very much for reading my tut.

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download the PDF Polygonal (Gossamer) image I will try to keep this simple but there are many possible variants and alternatives to explore - please do experiment!... and post your results/tips in this thread. Required plugins: My Red ochre plugin pack and MJW's Edge-expander 1. Choose an image with a distinctive outline. Even better, draw and scan an original image. For this tutorial I will use this CC0 image from Pexel.com. If using a photographic image, try to choose one with a contrasting background. It will make turning it into an object much easier. If using a scanned drawing, convert it to black and alpha, (my Two-tone threshold can do this). You can of course draw the dots (vertices) where you wish this way. Tracing paper is very useful when scanning artwork - but that would be another tutorial. 2. Crop the image. 3. Resize the image - something in the range of 1000 pixels maximum dimension or less should work. (Image/Resize). 4. Select and delete the background. I used the magic wand in additive mode and clicked on the background till all was selected. If it selects parts of your subject, reduce the tolerance.The subject is now an 'object' (opaque pixels on a transparent layer). 5. Name the layer 'kingfisher object' or whatever is relevant for you. Do this by double clicking on the layer in the layers window and typing a name into the text box. 6. Save this image as a .png file (you don't want to do all that selecting again!). 7. Save as a .pdn file (always wise to save regularly). 8. Create a new layer and fill it with black. Either 'select all' and backspace or use the fill tool. Name this layer 'background'. 9. Create a new transparent layer and add some noise - Effects/Noise/Noise choice (the built-in one can't put noise on transparency). Name this the 'small dots' layer. 10. Move to the object layer, select the magic wand tool and click on the transparent area around the object. Now move to the small dots layer and press delete. 11. Copy the object layer (at stage 4) to the clipboard by moving to that layer then use Edit/Select all/Copy. 12 Move back to the small dots layer by clicking on it in the layers window. 13. We now need to apply the colours from the clipboard to the small dots. Many plugins can do this but I will use Effects/Tools/ClipWarpNew, with no warping. 14. Duplicate this layer, Name it 'big dots' and apply Effects/Object/Edge-expander with settings shown. 15. Hide the big dots layer by unchecking the visibility box. The small dots layer should now be active (highlighted in the layers window). 16. Run Effects/Iterative lines/Gossamer with the settings shown. Feel free to experiment though! 17. If some of the thin lines generated have obscured the edge of the object they can be deleted by first selecting the transparent space around the object on the object layer. Then move back to the Gossamer lines (small dots) layer and hit delete.The same idea as at stage 10. It also looks good to erase some of the lines with the eraser tool. 18. Turn the 'big dots' visibility back on. 19. Drag the object above the other layers and set its blend mode to multiply and lower the opacity. 20. Save as a .pdn file. Then select Image/Flatten then save as .png or .jpg file. Done!

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it A few fellow forum members suggested I make a tutorial after giving shading tips on a different thread. No plug-ins needed. This will work on colored images as well to accent the highlights and shadows, but I tend to play with it the most on my sketches. First, start with your base image. Add a new layer for shadows and set the Blending Mode to Color Burn Add another layer for highlights and set the Blending Mode to Color Dodge Using a dark gray on the Dodge layer, color where you want highlights. The lighter the color, the brighter the highlight. If it looks too bright, try a darker color. Black will probably not show up at all. I like to lower the hardness of the brush to get a softer edge to help with blending later. If you want distinct highlights, you can try a harder brush. Using a light gray on the Burn layer, color where you want shadows. The darker the color, the deeper the shadows. Use Gaussian Blur to smooth out the shadows. Play with the slider to see what works best for your image. Do the same to the highlights. Using the eraser tool, clean up the edges of the highlights and shadows so they don't creep beyond the borders of your image. If you find a section that needs a bit more adjustment, you can color where needed, use the selection tool to choose just that area, and then blur again to smooth it out. Another option is to reduce the hardness of your brush and adjust the opacity to make it slightly transparent, if you want just a subtle change. And then, you're done! You can adjust the opacity of the Dodge and Burn layers if the highlights and shadows are too bright/dark. This same technique on a colored photo (done quickly for this tutorial, not because my daughter needed any dramatization to her face):

Thanks Pixey! Congrats to Max and the other entrants. Some great entries this time. Go ahead and flip a coin, I'm sure you'll be fair!

And the Winners are: 1st Place - @Woodsy & @Maximilian with 10 votes each (and @Maximilian for two entries) 2nd Place - @AndrewDavid & @Pixey with 7 votes each 3rd place - @sashwilko & @Scooter with 5 votes each As we have a tie I will post in the Discussion Thread of how I'd like to choose who picks the next theme A big congratulations to the Winners. Thank you for participating and thank you to all who voted

Scooter, The Model T ford - a design classic! Thanks for posting the image. Feel free to adapt and tweak the tutorial to get the best result for each image. The second version is easier to recognize. Enjoy that nap! Eli, great image! - perhaps I'm biased, being a Leo myself. And do I see some 'Highlight' for the stars? Thanks for posting the result.

OK I tried it and because I are an bit of a village idiot, it took a while to get it right (NOT Red Ochres fault ). so here is #1 ( as directions called for) Then because even I had trouble "seeing" the original, I did another version with an addition of a second layer (of the original subject); changed the blend mode to overlay and reduced the opacity by "? just enough?" . looks a bit more like a Model T Ford I tired now need to go nap time TOOTLES

Thank you for this tutorial @Red ochre - it really got me thinking. I'd never (ordinarily) think of those steps. Thanks for explaining .

No problem, always glad to help!

Sorry to bother, @Pixey, but I would say that next Saturday is the 20th of May, not the 19th

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it Bear with me, this is my first tutorial. This is a fairly simple way to make this effect, originally done with 3 different colored filters, it highlights motion with changing color. Here's how you do it: First, take your pictures, depending on how sharp you want the color differences to be, you should take 3 pictures, either in rapid succession, or over a long term (for clouds perhaps) also depending on how crisp you want the color differences you can change your shutter speed, longer for smoother color changes or faster for more distinct color changes. you're going to want to use a tripod to stabilize, as this process highlights motion. Import your pictures, and open all three of them in paint.net copy your second image into a new layer on the first (ctrl+shift+v) repeat this with the third image. you now should have something like this: Select the background layer go to curves (under adjustments) click on the drop down menu and set it to RGB. Deselect the red check box and slide down the line from the top right to the bottom right the layer should be all red. (sorry forgot picture) now select the next layer, and again, open curves, be sure to be hit "reset" and then deselect the green box, and make the red and blue checked, if not already. Now select the top layer and open curves again, hit reset, and unselect the blue checkbox and flatten the line, it should now look like this now here's where the magic happens select the top layer and edit it's properties (right click, or in the bottom of the layers box) and select the "additive" blending mode: repeat the process for the second layer, and viola! the non-moving part of your picture should be normal colored and the moving in several colors. Here is the final result: Another example with longer exposure time: What can happen when your camera moves during the three pictures: Hope you like it! I'm sure others will have more comments to improve/add to this process, but I have still to experiment very much with this effect myself. You can do this with as many pictures as you like, as long as it's in multiples of three. Anyone have have any idea to make the special colored areas darker/ more vivid?

Uber Noobie here. Love the tutorial. So simple, even "I" can do it!

Hello. You will want to cut the kids out from the background, unfortunately those shadows could prove to make that difficult. Pictures with a well defined and very plain background would make the processes easier. Either way, with whatever images you choose, there are lots of ways to separate objects out from their backgrounds. And I will show you how.... First, you will need to know Paint.net's User Interface http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/MainWindow.html, Layers http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/LayersWindow.html to cut out your object, and how to install plugins http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/1708-how-to-install-pluginsgeneral-plugin-troubleshooting-thread/. Now, here are several ways to cut out objects, click "show" to view them. Hidden Content: * Erasing to Cut Out Objects You can use the eraser tool (which is improved in paint.net 4.0) or you can erase with other tools, such as the paint brush & line/curve tools. Change the tool's blending mode from “normal” to “overwrite” (see toolbar), and have your color for coloring with set to “Opacity – Alpha 0" (see color window). http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/Cc4FuzzyHuggles/Other/CutOutimagesExamples_ErasingWithPaintBrushampCurveTools_zps0a740f62.jpg * Outlining To Cut Out Objects You can trace/outline an image to cut it out. See this tutorial as an example : http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/13796-cutting-out-images/ However, for your image, you may want to trace/outline in a way that works best for your photos. In this picture, I tried to use an easy to see color, lowered my outline layer's opacity, and traced along the edge. If I finished my outline, I would select the outside of it, and then invert the selection (ctrl + i), copy (ctrl +c) the object, add a new layer, paste (crtl + v) the object. http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/Cc4FuzzyHuggles/Other/CutOutimagesExamplesOutlineTrace_zps5d380ff1.jpg * Grim Color Reaper Plugin You can use the Grim Color Reaper plugin (GCR plugin) to remove colors (in your case, the gray background). The plugin : http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/15595-grim-color-reaper-plugin/ For your image, I selected the outside of the hair, zoomed in really close, used the Color Picker tool to pick the color I wanted removed, then I zoomed out a little, and ran the GCR plugin. I had “What Color” set to “Primary Color” and I adjusted the "Color Tolerance." http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/Cc4FuzzyHuggles/Other/CutOutimagesExamples_UsingaSelectionampGrimColorReaperforAroundHair_zps87c0777e.png * Cut Color Plugin Similar to Grim Color Reaper, this plugin helps to remove colors. The Plugin : http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/18769-cut-color-effect/This plugin uses your primary color as it's color sample, but a bonus feature is you can also tweak the color by using it's own built-in color wheel/sliders (note : clicking the reset button puts the color sample back to your primary color). For your image, I selected the outside of the hair and ran the plugin. I set "Type of Effect" to "Remove Color as the Background", then I tried to match the plugin's color sample to the gray that I wanted removed, and I adjusted the "Tolerance in Color". http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/Cc4FuzzyHuggles/Other/CutOutimagesExamples_UsingaSelectionampCutColorforAroundHair_zps7e7a9586.png Depending on the picture, you might prefer the results of one plugin over the other. And, if after using GCR or Cut Color there are areas that look like they still have a faint transparent color, simply using the eraser tool for touch-ups should work. * TR's Alpha Cutter Plugin This is a plugin made to cut-out objects, but it takes some practice to use. TR's Alpha Cutter : http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/26966-trs-alpha-cutter-v304-april-7th-2014/ Once your image is cut-out, select everything but the ends of the hair, and run these edge smoothing plugins : First Basic Antialias. – The Plugin http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/7644-basic-antialias-version-11-bug-fixed-january-14-2008/ Then Feather with radius set to 3 (not the old feather). – The Plugin http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/2140-feather-plugin-now-with-source/ Last AA's Assistant with default settings. Optional, run it twice. – The plugin is part of this pack http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?showtopic=16643 Here is an example picture of the selection : http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/Cc4FuzzyHuggles/Other/CutOutimagesExamples_Selecteverythingbutthehair_SmoothEdges_zpsf6fda4ac.jpg This is My Cut Out Result I mostly Erased to cut out this object (your cute baby), but I used the GCR plugin for around the hair. I then smoothed the edges as suggested above. This is the Result and I saved it as a png with a transparent background. http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/Cc4FuzzyHuggles/Other/BabyCut-OutFromBackgroundExamplePNG_zps93b9e23b.png To make the cut out object a solid black shape... Go to Menu Bar > Hue/Saturation > And lower the lightness all the way to -100. http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/Cc4FuzzyHuggles/Other/CutOutimagesExamples_HueSaturationBlackShape_zps5276d4f8.jpg If the edges of the hair don't look as smooth as you'd like, make a selection around the hair, then go to Menu Bar > Blurs > Smooth. After smoothing, you will notice a little quality loss, to get back some quality, go to Menu Bar > Photo > Sharpen. If you want the rest of the Black shape to be a little smoother too, invert the selection (ctrl + i), and run one of the smoothing plugins again. I ran feather, radius set to 1. Black Shape End Result http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/Cc4FuzzyHuggles/Other/BabyCut-OutFromBackgroundBlackShapeExamplePNG_zpsa2806827.png I would encourage you try doing things on your own, but you are still welcome to have and use any of these images. Edit : Added the Plugin "Cut Color" and an explanation for it. I also have re-edited the Cut Color's explanation, since you can use the color picker tool to set your primary color, and the plugin uses whatever color is your primary color.