Cc4FuzzyHuggles

Which brush plugin are you talking about? The abr plugin that lets you load brushes into paint.net? Or the custom brushes mini plugin that lets brushes be used to draw with? Either way, even with both of these plugins, paint.net still can't use photoshop brushes to draw with on the actual PDN canvas. If I understand you correctly, I think what you are requesting is that you want a way to have more brush shapes to draw with on the actual PDN canvas, and not just more brush shapes, but also custom brush shapes, sort of like how we have the new "Custom Shapes" with the Shapes Tool. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a way for plugins to make new paint.net tools that can interact directly on the PDN canvas, which is what you might need in order to draw with custom brushes. That means paint.net it's self has to have upgraded tools or new tools added if you want to draw/paint with something other than the default round brush on PDN's canvas.

Paint.net's UI works fine with 125%, would there be a way to have that ability for plugin's UI, such as shape maker?

An increase in the display settings is what I would also recommend to make paint.net's UI easier to see. I have been using my dpi set to 125% for a long time now. Unfortunately, it sometimes effects plugin UI, for example, at the moment the shape maker plugin's UI and also zoom in/zoom out functionality is a bit off (I posted about it here).

Sorry, I still don't think I'm really understanding. But, by any chance, do you just want to make the background of the gear-shaped object transparent? Or do you want the gear-shaped object to be black with a transparent background? Remove background using the Alpha Mask Plugin: You can use the alpha mask plugin to make backgrounds transparent. 1) First, duplicate the gear-shaped object's layer, and then turn most of the object on that layer into a solid black shape using brightness/contrast, or levels, or curves, and then use the paintbrush or line/curve tool to paint any remaining white spots of your object black. 2) After your duplicated object is black, select all (ctrl + a), and copy (ctrl+c). 3) Then turn that layer off, and click on the layer that has the normal version of your gear-shaped object. 4) Run the alpha mask plugin and check-mark the "invert Mask" setting. Your white background should be erased. Please note, the checkerboard pattern = transparency, there is nothing there, there is no background. (please see the bottom of this post to know about saving transparency.) Alpha Mask Alternative: Instead of using the alpha mask plugin to remove the background, you could try using a color removing plugin to remove the white background. Your object has some white on it, this means some of the white spots of your object might become transparent too. So, before you use a color plugin to remove the white background, you might want to place a temporary layer below your object's layer and fill the temporary layer with an easy to see color. That way when you remove the object's white background, you can see the effects of the plugin easier, and adjust a plugin's tolerance or threshold sliders, to lessen how much of the object itself is effected. If you do end up with holes in your object, sometimes duplicating the object's layer several times can fill-in the holes. Here are some plugins that remove colors... -- The Two Tone Threshold plugin, based on your primary and secondary colors, this plugin can remove white backgrounds and at the same time turn an object black. -- The Color Replacer plugin can change colors as well as remove colors, but it doesn't do both at the same time, and it might be tricky to change your gear-shaped object into a solid black shape. I would recommend this plugin to remove the white background, then change the object black with one of paint.net's adjustments. -- The Grim Color Reaper plugin is one of the simplest plugins there is for removing white or black backgrounds. If you need to clean up the edges of the object after you remove the background, then I suggest the Feather plugin or AA's assistant (already mentioned in some else's previous post). If you use the above color plugins to remove your object's white background, but you still want your object black, then you can change the color of the object using paint.net's adjustments: brightness/contrast, or levels, or curves. Save your work: First save your work as a pdn to keep your layers. Then, as the final step... You can make any lower layers and unwanted layers invisible and then save the image as a PNG to keep it's transparency. Here is a tutorial that's about saving images under different file types... http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/12189-how-to-save-your-images-under-different-file-types/

There aren't any images showing this plugin, so what exactly is this plugin? And does it work with paint.net 4.0+ ?

@ shumi31 Paint.net doesn't have a spot healing brush. If you like a spot healing effect, then you might like this plugin : http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/25146-selection-obscureremovinghiding/ I think there was another plugin very similar to the one above, but I don't remember what it was called.

I don't think I fully understand what you want, but if you are trying to work with masks, then you might want to try the alpha mask plugin. The plugin can be found here: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/1854-alpha-mask-import-plugin-20/ (how to install plugins?) If you want more help, can you please try to explain more about what you want and are trying to do?

If there won't be images showing the toolbar for several tools then I guess never mind. It's not that explanations are missing so much, it was images of the toolbars, or demonstration images, to go with the explanations. And also functionalities and features that are the same across multiple tools, like the little square box with arrows to move things, I like seeing that feature shown. It would have been nice to see functionalities explained on each tool's page since not everyone is going to view the entire document, they might view only one page or another. So I thought for newbies it would have been helpful if each tool was explained individually, all of it's features, even if the features are already mentioned elsewhere in the documentation. Or, if each feature wouldn't be explained for each tool, then I thought some cross-linking might be good. For example, there are a lot of toolbar explanations on the toolbar page, so linking to that page might be sufficient. I understand if adding such things would be way too much work, so I wasn't trying to expect the documentation to become that thorough. The tolerance bar, image/layer sampling, and the little square box with arrows tend to be things I want to reference and show people the most, so I guess those were the main things I had on mind and wanted to see on the Fill tool's page and Magic Wand tool's page. As for the Fill tool and it's features... It has the white square to move the fill around. (there is a tip about this, but no demonstration.) The Fill tool has the sampling layer or sampling image in the tool bar (I re-checked the page just now, and it seems I overlooked the mention of this feature because you have the wrong icons shown. When I saw the bulls-eye and primary/secondary icons, I thought the explanations under those icons would explain the functionality I experience when I click those icons in paint.net for the Re-color tool. But then it dawned on me that the Fill tool does not have the bulls-eye and primary/secondary color icons in it's toolbar, I verified this by going and looking in paint.net. So, I re-read the explanations under those icons, and then I realized that that's where the image/layer sampling modes are explained. Sorry! It was my own confusion!) The Fill tool has the new live-functionality, for changing color, blending modes, moving the fill, unlimited undo, and then commit the changes, but those are new features for all of paint.net. For the Fill tool, you do have at least the blending mode drop down list and some icons, which are from the toolbar (Yay!), but then you don't have demonstration images. For the Fill tool, some places are explanations, some places show icons with explanations, some places show demonstration images, but not a lot of places have all of the above for a single feature. Which is fine and understandable, but perhaps cross-linking to where some features are explained and demonstrated would be ok? The blending modes are mostly the same as the layer blending modes, so maybe give a small comment and link to the blending modes page? And on the blending modes page, you can add links to the mentioned tools. (just some ideas.) And, I was mistaken, I thought the tolerance adjustment was new to 4.0, but it's not, I just forgot about it in 3.0+. Tolerance was in the older versions of paint.net, what's new is how it functions though. But, that functionality is mostly the live-functionality. So, I guess for the Fill tools new functions, they are actually just 4.0 new functions, many of which are the same for multiple tools. The Fill tool is really cool, but I feel like it's potential isn't really brought out into the light. And although I personally think the Fill tool is cool, newbies tend to find it's way of functioning unusual compared to other programs, so I thought the documentation might help show people and give people understanding of it's good but unique functions as a whole. Sorry, this ended up being longer reply than I intended. Thanks for your time!

I had this happen to me again, this time I wanted to show someone the "tolerance" for the magic wand tool. But there was no picture of it in the documentation. The Magic Wand page mentioned the fill tool, so I thought perhaps a tolerance image would be on the fill tools page, however, it wasn't. And actually, some of the fill tools new functions weren't mentioned either. Here is an old reference to The Paint.net 4.0 fill tool.

You have it, your outline worked. You just need to use the Magic Wand, on the Outline Layer, to select the outside of the outline, and then click on your image's layer and run the replace colors plugin. To help you out a bit, and others who might read this thread, I went through the replies of this thread and tried to re-compile the suggestions into steps. (please note, I might modify the steps still. The below steps might change and be edited.) How to change the background of a portrait? Add a Layer. 1) Add a new layer above your image's layer. This will be your outline layer. Look at this picture's layer window. It shows you the background layer is your image layer, it shows you a new layer has been added above the background layer, and that the added layer is the outline layer. While tracing, the outline layer is the active layer. http://img110.xooimage.com/files/4/4/5/hairline-01-4d7601a.png 2) Trace your subject. How to trace? 3) Be sure you are tracing on the correct layer, your outline layer. In this screen capture, it looks like the tracing might have accidentally been done on the wrong layer. (Look at the layers window. The outline layer is not the active layer.) http://www.subirimagenes.com/imagedata.php?url=http://s2.subirimagenes.com/privadas/2338848asus-18112015-1622.png In one of the attempts to make a selection, it looks like the magic wand was also used on the wrong layer. (Again, look at the layers window. The outline layer is not the active layer. When you get to the magic wand step, you need to use the wand on the outline layer.) http://oi68.tinypic.com/2gydjjr.jpg It is very important to make sure you are on the correct layer while trying to do the steps of removing a background. 4) Continuing with how to trace... -- You can use the paintbrush tool for freehand tracing, or use the line/curve tool as an alternative tool if you aren't very good at freehand tracing. -- Then Pick a color. -- Then start tracing. http://img110.xooimage.com/files/2/f/d/hairline-tracing-4d7a3a3.png 5) When you trace, trace on the inside of your subject. http://img110.xooimage.com/files/4/4/8/hairline-04-4d7ba9e.png 6) Use a variety of brush widths. This picture wasn't originally used to demonstrate outlining, so ignore the removed background and which layer is the active layer, the outline is still on the outline layer and the outline layer should be your active layer when you are tracing. Anyways, my point here is I want you to look at the outline. An outline doesn't need to be super small or thin, it can be almost any width. Just make sure you keep your outline on the inside of your subject. In this picture a variety of brush widths were used and the subject was painted over. The outline layer's opacity was also lowered a little, so that the subject, and where to trace and paint, were easier to see. (To lower the outline layer's opacity, double click the outline layer to open it's layer properties.) http://s5.postimg.org/ns7dp405z/0294948b_f976_47a5_9eaf_c07b1fb3f5a6_zpsmbsyu2r3.jpg 7) Finish outlining your subject. Be sure it is a completed outline, no gaps or thin spots. 8) Make a selection. 9) To make a selection, first choose the Magic Wand tool . 10) Lower the Magic Wand tool's tolerance. 11) Be sure you are on the outline layer, then click on the outside of the outline. 12) If your outline doesn't protect your subject, and things you don't want selected become selected, then try these ideas : Try lowing the tolerance of the magic wand, then try selecting again, and see if that helps. (try a tolerance anywhere from 0 to 15) If you still have an issue, your outline might have a gap or thin spot somewhere. To find the gap or thin spot, -- Temporarily add a new layer below your outline layer. -- Fill the new layer with a color that helps your outline be easy to see. -- Then zoom in super close and look around your outline to see where it might not be connected or might be too thin. (note: Sometimes outlines aren't finished near the edges of the canvas.) -- Fix your outline in any potentially poorly outlined areas. (when you fix your outline, be sure you are on your outline layer) 13) Once you have a successful selection, keep your selection on, and then click on the image layer. 14) You can remove the background by either simply hitting delete on your keyboard (this will cut off some details like hair), or you can use a plugin that removes color (this is a good idea for subjects with hair or fur). 15) For this particular subject, the Replace Colors plugin was used. For most color replacing plugins, you can use the color picker tool to first pick the color you want removed, and then run the plugin. This is a quick and rough example of removing the background with the Replace Colors plugin. Look at the settings to see what was adjusted. The "Effected Color" was a shade of black. The "New Color Transparency" is set to 255. The "tolerance" is set to 23. Larger version of the image : http://s5.postimg.org/524dbdwwn/Person_Subject_Replace_Color_Plugin.jpg 16) If the plugin doesn't remove everything, you can use the color picker tool again on the leftover spots, then run the plugin again. (reset the "effected color" by clicking the blue arrow button.) 17) If there are still some spots of the background, use the eraser tool to erase and clean up any remaining background that the plugin didn't manage to remove. 18) After you remove the background, you can deselect and try running the feather plugin to soften the edges of the subject. Congratulations! You have removed the background from your image and cut out your subject. 19) Add a new background. Add a new layer under your subject's layer, and insert your new background. Your layers would be like this: Outline Layer. Subject Layer. Background Image Layer. I'm not able to give screen captures of adding a new background at this time. If someone else would like to finish things off by going into details about adding a new background, then that would be nice. 20) Turn off the layers you don't want or need. And then save your image. Save as a pdn to keep your layers, then save again as a png. EDIT... For anyone else who reads this, alternatives to step 19 for different ways to add a new background, can be viewed in these posts : -- http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/32538-change-the-background-step-by-step-to-a-portrait/?p=434024 -- http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/32538-change-the-background-step-by-step-to-a-portrait/?p=434032

I love snow! These snowflakes are great.

Congratulations Si Borg! And congrats for the runner-ups! Cool entries this time around. Nice job everyone.

Try lowering the tolerance of your magic wand tool. Also, try to thicken up your line. Look for thin spots, use larger brush widths, color as much as you need to. As long as the coloring is done on the inside of the subject, and traced along the edge of your subject without going over the edge, then how thick your line is doesn't matter. Ignore the replace color settings for a moment, and look at my outline in this picture. I used a variety of brush widths and then I just painted my subject. I used a careful hand near the edges and small brushes for tight places but used thicker brushes to then re-trace along the thinner lines to thicken them up. The thin lines set a boundary and guide for me that I could go along with a thicker paintbrush to make things thicker. You can use big brushes for places that are not tight though. In my picture I used big brushes for the top of the head, small brushes around the ear, and thickened up thin lines by simply painting entire areas. This helps to ensure that an outline is solid and won't have gaps or weak points.

Marilynx, I think you need to read the forum rules. http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/2932-read-first-the-rules-yes-you-read-this-2013-12-21/ Rule # 11) " Don't reply to very old threads. Also known as "reviving" or "resusitating" old/dead threads. Also called "necroposting" (eww). If there has been no discussion in a thread for, say, 3 months ... then it is dead. Do not reply to it -- pretend like it is locked. If you reply to it, then the thread will be immediately locked and your post may be deleted. Please just create a new thread if you have something to say about that subject. However, this rule does not apply to The Overflow, Tutorials, Pictorium, or Plugins sections of the forum. " You can start a new thread about the topics that have your interest, and then use quotes and links to reference to old threads.

The metallize plugin, I think it mostly just adjusts an image's brightness/contrast to attempt to give something a metallic appearance, similar to what you can do manually with the Curves Adjustment. The metallize plugin doesn't always work very well for everything though.

Did you want to cut off the corners of the second flag? The bottom flag's corners would then show through. EDIT, Assuming I've understood your question correctly, here is an idea that might help you. Layer One - Bottom flag (background) Layer Two - Second Flag Layer Three - Outline the Second flag. On layer three, Make an outline by tracing along the inside edges of the areas you want of the second flag, and exclude the areas and parts you don't want. Be sure you make completed outlines. While still on the outline layer, use the magic wand to select the unwanted areas. Then click on the second flag layer and hit delete on your keyboard. You can see examples of the outlining concept in these tutorials. I realize these tutorials are about removing backgrounds, but the idea of outlining can be use to cut out and remove almost any unwanted parts of an image. http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/13796-cutting-out-images/ http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/28305-mini-tuts/?p=409110 And here is a thread that talked about outlining. http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/32538-change-the-background-step-by-step-to-a-portrait/

@ lynxster4 I like the heart you made. Thanks for sharing it!

Not everyone uses After Effects for cool effects and to animate things. A lot of people actually use video editing software, as most video editing software can add cool effects and animate things. Even Microsoft Windows basic Movie Maker software I think can do what you want. For making something like the light rays animated, you can make the individual pictures in paint.net, and then put them all together in a video software. The process of placing lots of pictures in a row can create an animated effect, like how to make gifs, but with video software you can save in any format, including higher quality ones. Here is youtube video showing off a video software : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcfgl0KCRn4 Here is an example of animating with windows live : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1vFhgo7Is0

I think paint.net can do what you are looking for, but I can't think of the process at the moment. Maybe the Two Tone threshold plugin can help? http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/29450-two-tone-threshold-new-30th-july-2014/ Since you mentioned inkscape, inkscape does have a tracing feature which might give you the look you want, see here: https://inkscape.org/en/doc/tracing/tutorial-tracing.html. If inkscape doesn't produce what you are looking for, then you probably are better off with paint.net, as it's got a lot of effects and plugins to try and help you get something cool looking.

I know there is already the default heart shape in paint.net, if that's what you are talking about. But I liked the shape of the heart in that pic more, it's a little more curvy. If it's not available for download somewhere then never mind, I was just wondering.

@doughty Hi, I saw this pic, and I love the heart shape. Is there a properly functioning fill version now? And is it available for download?

Paint.net's Logo probably won't be changing anytime soon. However, if you like to play around and make your own logos just for the fun of it, then you might like the Pictorium. You can make your own gallery http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/forum/16-the-pictorium/ Or here is the general gallery where you can share logo creations http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/8129-image-umbrella-signatures-avatars-logos-text/

The alpha mask plugin for that tutorial is outdated. The updated plugin is found here http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/1854-alpha-mask-import-plugin-20/

Those are really nice and really cool! I can't download at the moment but I probably will later.

Nice Ishi, videos are a good idea. I don't always care for some of the techniques in some videos, but videos are good to help people become familiar with paint.net. Carrito, if you like the idea of videos to see how things are done, here is one where instead of using the lasso tool to remove the background, the person used the line/curve tool to trace the image, and then removed the background. (we've been talking about tracing, so this video sort of goes along with the tracing concept.) There are lots of ways to remove backgrounds, which way will give the best looking results varies greatly depending on the image you are working on. You may also like this tutorial about using layers. The video shows some of paint.net's features while explaining how to use layers. It also shows how to remove the background of a subject and give it a different background using layers. (you can skip to 8:34 for part 3 of the video, which is where the video removes the background of a subject.)