Ishi

Try using Revo Uninstaller Free to remove the previous version of Paint.NET. Use the Advanced option in Revo. http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html It will hopefully remove most of its components during uninstalltion. Then try installing the newest version of Paint.NET after.

Boom! You had it there. I experienced the same thing many dozens of times, having modified changes to the wrong layer. I think a nice little feature under the settings somewhere can be added to either allow or not allow the shifting of active layer once the current one is made invisible. That along with my other suggestions on this thread would be nice: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/30374-merge-visible-feature-for-layers/#entry419390

You might have to use a free program called Revo Uninstaller with the Advanced mode to rid off Paint.NET's remaining components then do a fresh install of Paint.NET after that.

I have noticed this too. If you turn off a layer, it switches to the next active layer below. Its sometimes a nuisance. Sorry, but I don't think PDN has layer lock function.

I think the Ripple plugin that he mentions isn't the best motion distortion effect to be done on clouds but we'll see how he does it anyway, if a video is uploaded. I had my theory on how it was done but I don't wanna spoil the party 'till the video is there.

Upload it on Youtube and link it here. I think that is interesting. You could use the concept not only on flags but also water or even wind.

Can you perhaps upload a screenshot of the image you want to add tilted text on?

I support a decent part of this idea. A plugin manager is cool and such a tool was suggested before. I imagine a two column dialog box. The ones listed on the left column are all the plugins whose corresponding DLLs are detected to be present in the Effects directory. The ones listed on the right column are the plugins currently allowed by PDN to be loaded and appear on the Effects menu. Then you have an arrow ---> that says Add and another arrow <--- that says Remove. Its pretty much self-explanatory, I got this idea from the ribbon customization setting of MS Office. PDN would be more sophisticated if it had this. Here's a screenshot.

Thanks Maximilian. I'm just not a technician with the complex stuff using plugins with calculated values and other tricky stuff. I'm not trained on the technical stuff. But at least, people like you have generously called me an artist. That means so much to me.

This link explains a lot. http://www.printingforless.com/color.html It turns out that common industry-type printers use cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) inks so pictures must also be CMYK to have maximum color match with CMYK ink. RGB modes tend to have ranges of colors that cannot be imitated by CMYK so you might have some color issues after printing. And yes, its easy enough to just use a commercial photo-editing program to convert an RGB picture to a CMYK. CMYK hopefully becomes natively supported on Paint.NET in the future.

Thanks Limon. The blueberries had Clouds with white/gray colors rendered to make that seemingly realistic texture.

Thanks for the link too, Seerose. That's an interesting tutorial.

If you are able to create such a glare, I suggest you toy around with the Glow plugin under Effects>Photo. It really brightens the glare even more. You can also change the blend mode of the glare layer to Glow or lighten and maybe tweak its luminosity using the Curves adjustment tool.

Well thanks barbieq and Helen. @Helen I think the leaves were the most realistic leaves I have ever textured and rendered on PDN. They have one master leaf that was copied on different parts of the picture and on different layers, then resized, distorted and recolorized to make many of them different from one another. Clouds and Frosted Glass effects have done so much for them.

The one with the butterfly and flower, did you use Inner Shadow plugin for that? That's interesting. Kinda makes me think that the picture was printed on overlapping and interlocking layers of cardboard.

Well thank you Seerose. Its been such hard work and patience.

So here is my new PDN masterpiece for this fall. I have somehow succeeded on my attempt with complex textures and shadows. Its actually my entry for this week's SOTW. I was impressed by the result of my work with those maple leaves. Everything in it is PDN 100%. Its a still life entitled "Autumn Bounty". Enjoy.

Here is my recent still life PDN masterpiece entitled "Autumn Bounty". It was originally made with a resolution 3 times the maximum allowed size for SOTW but I'll post that on Page 2 of my gallery soon. All of it was made, rendered, drawn and designed on PDN. Its 100% PDN. Hope you like it.

I think its better if a crop selection and a crop command are two separate things. I personally like the crop selection of PDN, only that I sometimes accidentally press it instead of the Deselect button. I crop command should be a separate thing in the UI where you get resizing handles for a selection and the areas outside the selection are darkened. You also got preset aspect ratios in what you would allow the selection to be. If it is possible on a future version of PDN or through a plugin that opens its own window on the UI, that would be great.

Form all them Scottish folks out there.

I totally watched the first movie of Back to the Future Last night. I remember the sig of someone from some forum with the crazy Doc Brown in it with the "flux capacitor" thing. But I'd rather want the next SOTW theme to be like the coming of autumn or something instead of a movie because I think its better if the concept is original. If the theme is about a movie, you'll more likely have to borrow elements and pictures of that to incorporate on your art.

Very neat and looking and healthy too.

After you have sucessfully placed the new face over the old one, I suggest you create a new empty layer on top, rename this layer to "skin tan". Change the blend mode of the "skin tan" layer to Overlay or Multiply. Make sure you select this "skin tan" layer before proceeding. Pick a moderate brown color from the pallet. Use the brush and manually paint over the face you want to tan. Lower the opacity of the "skin tan" layer to what suits you the best and what looks most realistic. See which among Overlay or Multiply blending mode works better. You may user Effects>Blurs>Gaussian Blur a little bit to smoothen the edges of your paint job. Go to Image>Flatten if you are happy with the results. You can use this technique with other colors and pretty much with recoloring certain parts of a picture.

Perhaps send him a PM about this? I really think this deserves to become native on a future version of PDN. Its some of the main bits that should be on the Tools menu like other image manipulation software.

Oh my word! This reminds me something out of a Salvador Dali piece. Would be nice for surrealists out there. You could make spirals from flowers, seashells or galaxies with this...