PDN Tips and Tricks

[Blooper]

The crash dialog isn't modal, so nothing stops you saving your changes before you click OK and PDN closes.

RAAAAAAAAAAH! I hope you're kidding.

[Jayed]

The crash dialog isn't modal, so nothing stops you saving your changes before you click OK and PDN closes.

RAAAAAAAAAAH! I hope you're kidding.

I don't think he is

:evil: :evil: that should be in the "very important read first dummies" file Next to the "read me"

[Sarkut]

On page 1216 of The <off topic> thread, Rick Brewster explains how to change icons and

cursors in Paint.NET v3.36.

This may be of interest to anyone who has felt frustration with the PanTool cursors used by

the Line/Curve tool.

The hotspot of these default cursors isn't easy to determine, and the cursor

blocks the view of the line, node and underlying image. When going mouse-button-down on

an adjusting node the line tends to jump towards the cursor a bit. None of this is helpful.

With my new cursors I can place the arrow tip in the center of the adjusting node, so the line

doesn't jump when adjusting. The cursor turns into a tiny cross-hair with mouse-button-down,

which doesn't block the view of the work being done.

Very nice to work with now.

Edited April 7, 2010 by Sarkut

[Sarkut]

That.

Edited April 7, 2010 by Sarkut

[Blooper]

That's neat, Sarkut. Can you post your cursors here?

[Sarkut]

This shows the only two cursor changes I've made so far.

The top one was originally arrow_l.cur, copied from Windows Vista Cursor folder, and

renamed as shown. The bottom one was extracted from PaintDotNet.Resources.dll

using DotNetResourcesExtract.

It was originally named PaintDotNet.Cursors.RectangleSelectToolCursorMouseDown.cur

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/dot_net_re ... tract.html

[flip]

Here's a way to do a gloss button. It's pretty easy, but there's enough official tuts.

First make a filled circle and then use the align object to align in to the center. Then duplicate the layer.

On the top layer, go to Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and turn the lightness all the way up. Then use a transparent :LinearGradient: , then a transparent

Make a new layer and make a partially transparent circle that starts near the top. The use align object to align it horizontally. Then use a transparent gradient. You also may want to use the outline object plugin.

Just to make people get into the habit of searching, how bout everyone SEARCHES for the plugin I'm talking about.

[Axle]

actually, that looks suprisingly good seeing asa how easy it is

[epic epiphany]

Make a seperate folder to store the brushes you're not using. Otherwise it really bogs down Smudge and the Custom Brushes plugin.... And they disappear if you update.

Do the same with plugins.... This way they don't all go *whoosh-bye bye acculmilated brushes and plugins* I learned the hard way....

[Onemorelevel]

Making part of an image blurred:

Have you ever got an Idea for a blur gradient? Like when you drag the gradient it starts out as a big blur and gets less and less intensive? Well think no more, to do this:

Duplicate your layer, then guassian blur/unfocus at ANY settings on your duplicated layer:

On your duplicated layer, pick the gradient tool, and set it to transparent mode: :AlphaChannel:

do a gradient on the image! This is REALLY useful for making images where you want a focal point.

[Sharp]

Making part of an image blurred:

Have you ever got an Idea for a blur gradient? Like when you drag the gradient it starts out as a big blur and gets less and less intensive? Well think no more, to do this:

Duplicate your layer, then guassian blur/unfocus at ANY settings on your duplicated layer:

On your duplicated layer, pick the gradient tool, and set it to transparent mode: :AlphaChannel:

do a gradient on the image! This is REALLY useful for making images where you want a focal point.

http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=26985

[Onemorelevel]

Making part of an image blurred:

Have you ever got an Idea for a blur gradient? Like when you drag the gradient it starts out as a big blur and gets less and less intensive? Well think no more, to do this:

Duplicate your layer, then guassian blur/unfocus at ANY settings on your duplicated layer:

On your duplicated layer, pick the gradient tool, and set it to transparent mode: :AlphaChannel:

do a gradient on the image! This is REALLY useful for making images where you want a focal point.

http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=26985

Ah, haven't seen that before, thanks.

[Kemaru]

Posted this in the Pixel umbrella, thought I'd post it here, for the sake of having all tips nearby.

Open a new layer under whatever your working on.

Pick 2 colours you want to blend.

Make a linear gradient, from one edge to the other.

Use the posterize effect, and choose how many colours you want to use.

And you're done! Now all you gotta do is pick the colours with the colour picker and use them. You can delete the gradient blend layer afterwards.

Some might call this cheating, I call it creative use of advanced tools.

EDIT: Example.

[Wilson]

Posted this in the Pixel umbrella, thought I'd post it here, for the sake of having all tips nearby.

Open a new layer under whatever your working on.

Pick 2 colours you want to blend.

Make a linear gradient, from one edge to the other.

Use the posterize effect, and choose how many colours you want to use.

And you're done! Now all you gotta do is pick the colours with the colour picker and use them. You can delete the gradient blend layer afterwards.

Some might call this cheating, I call it creative use of advanced tools.

EDIT: Example.

I like it! because it works!

Thanks for sharing Kemaru.

[alex.manchester]

This in response to the first post actually, There is a much easier way to remove all of the white [or any color for that matter] from a picture. Select the Magic Wand and Shift+Click a white spot and the wand will select all white spots on the picture. Then just hit the Delete button and presto!

[0(-.-)0]

I just use the isolate lineart plugin...

[Kemaru]

This in response to the first post actually, There is a much easier way to remove all of the white [or any color for that matter] from a picture. Select the Magic Wand and Shift+Click a white spot and the wand will select all white spots on the picture. Then just hit the Delete button and presto!

That would leave white pixels around the edges. Or it might get aliased. :AntiAliasingOff: :AntiAliasingOff:

That is why blooper suggests using the Alpha mask plugin.

[Blooper]

I just use the isolate lineart plugin...

That method is outdated, gradient mapping yields (or at least yielded, I don't know about the new version) better results. Isolate works too.

[0(-.-)0]

O.O Outdated? I'm hurt

[Blooper]

I meant mine

[olav.k.m]

Not sure if this is in here so:

If you have an aliased circle, radial blur at around 2px is an effective way of "feathering"(easiest if circle's center aligned).

If your circle-shaped picture is not one solid color you might mess up the image with this method (obviously) so making a selection using ellipse select, containing all but a few pixels along the edge of your circle. Then invert selection and run radial blur, like so:

^ click it!! ^

[Blooper]

Not sure if this is in here so:

If you have an aliased circle, radial blur at around 2px is an effective way of "feathering"(easiest if circle's center aligned).

If your circle-shaped picture is not one solid color you might mess up the image with this method (obviously) so making a selection using ellipse select, containing all but a few pixels along the edge of your circle. Then invert selection and run radial blur, like so:

^ click it!! ^

To get the perfect selection, select the transparent area with the magic wand, fill in the selection on another layer; run Gaussian blur (~5px radius), and use the magic wand's tolerance to have an optimal selection, as opposed to relying on hit and miss.

[Sozo]

And sometimes duplicating the layer and then radial blurring the one underneath will yield good results, especially if you feather the one on top.

[Frontcannon]

I don't know if this is obvious or not, but it works for me

Varying the Alpha value when using the transparent gradient gives you better control over the strength of the gradient.

Use either primary or secondary colour alphas for diefferent results!

[flip]

Here's a way to make a nifty vector circle thing. You'll need the align object plugin and BoltBait's flip plugins.

First, make a new layer and make a circle outline of the color you want the inside to be. Then use align object and make it in the middle.

Then, duplicate that layer and go to Hue/Saturation and turn the lightness all the way down to make it black. Make sure this black layer is on top. Now your canvas should just look like a black circle.

Make a new layer under everything, and make a filled circle to be inside the outline. Make sure the color is the color you chose at the beginning.

Go to your colored outline layer, and go to hue/saturation to make it lighter a little bit. Then, use the arrow keys to move it down, right, down, right, until it looks pretty good.

Erase everything that's outside the black outline.

Duplicate the crescent layer and flip it vertically and horizontally. Then adjust the lightness using hue/saturation and make it darker.

I think it looks pretty good. You can probably use it to emboss text and stuff too.