minni

Interesting to know there's someone else around here who is (sorta) where I'm at! The difference is that I'm beyond the point of wet-eyes. That was in my past. At this time, they're way more parched than they're wet. I too prefer paper (never owned kindle) and preferably no more than, say, 40 pages geared to basics such as logo's and posters. ...and, yea, bumper stickers The majority of the world don't understand us old fogies with sensitivities. It's why they're not rushing to make Chemical-free, ZeroBacklight LARGE tablets. Sorta like Fit-PC2 coupled with Larger Pixel-Qi displays (and chemical free) With all that, I've no doubt the book must be fantastically well-written, given the numerous concisely-informative responses by Scott on these forums!

well it seems to have worked well with the "dummies" on that recipe exchange, not to mention the geeks on slickdeals ..................................................................................... what the heck, if y'all are OK with it, no problem.

I see. Don't suppose there's any demo's of merely curving simple text? Yes, I can see where it would be handy. I'd love if there were video's with tutorial demo's of these various plugins all comprising one simple video ...again, are there tutorial graphic-or-video demo's of many of these plugins? I don't quite follow - again, an animated demo would come in handy. Or an Ehow-type of tutorial, since Ehow is often geared to newbs like me. As an aside - while on the topic of "Layers" - I have a quick, simple & humorous idea for a Layers tutorial geared to Wet-Newbs, which would have saved me weeks of not-grasping-Layers-concept, had it only been available on YouTube. If anyone here is interested & expert it cranking stuff onto YouTube, it would serve to help both Newbs, as well as offering publicity to Paint.net. Thanks for the tips Your word-finder signature is cute too, and there oughta be a tutorial of how you achieved that As for the 3 phrases: Either of the phrases which contains the word "NIH" was intended as the ear-piece for the White-Mini-Blinds. But the left-slanted ear-piece was not able to fit in the word Yet ..(since there was no room for it. So I included both, in order to demo either option for feedback purposes. ...and taking into account that the Checkmarked & XX-ed phrases need fitting in as well.. My original intention had been: So many eyes are blind with no sight Yet NIH guys are blind to their plight The trick for me, is figuring out: The prettiest way to fit that all in with the Check-marked and XX-ed slogans. (in case it sheds light, graphically-speaking, to understand the background for this - my dad has macular degen. so last year I found out about Dr.Lanza's NIH controlled study, and requested the forms mailed to me. But when I saw the ridiculous hoops which the NIH requires people to jump thru, on the offchance that they'd be among the minuscule percent of those who just might get sufficient SC's necessary for true regen. I flipped out & gave up. You had to be the most twisted-minded person just to figure out their stupid requirements!

Suggestion - It might be easier for people to learn, if they could browse thru the main forum for questions close to their level, categorized by code words as follows: On Subject-Line, these code-words would appear: BEGINNER ADVANCED For precedents of what I mean, see Gardenweb Recipe Exchange below (classified by LOOKING FOR, and RECIPE). But I've seen at least one if not more other forums which offered even more categories plus a more professional look. Unfortunately, I can't recall which they were. Then there's also the Deals app. in slickdeals forums (see below). http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/recipex/ http://slickdeals.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=9

This is probably a dumb comment, but just wondering if you might have tried Restoring your Win7 computer to an earlier Restore-Date.. that's if Win7 offers that the way Win XP does (I'm backward and still using XP, with AVG a.v.

Hi, please don't mind if I can't respond readily. I spent a lot of time attempting to crank out a bumper sticker such as you see in my signature pic. but it's far from ideal. Ideal might be rectangular eye pieces (so the mini-blinds look more realistic). The nose piece, and texted-ear-pieces are also far from ideal (perhaps different fonts? How to get the text to fit uniformly, plus curve the text for more curvy ear-pieces? Other difficulties were because I'm inexperienced at: Masking (I awkwardly Magic-Wanded & selected an oval eye-piece then transferred the selection to Imported miniblinds then pasted the miniblind Oval on top of Right-Side Eye-piece (something like that) Black-outlining of the oval mini-blind selection (for contrast) Other tricks necessary for professionalizing Is this question too much of an earful? Any preferable way to word it?

I guess that makes me an anti-CS-Nazi.. and baked-in PS is better than 1/2 baked any day Regarding the inefficiency of segregating newbs & advanced, I totally see your point, so perhaps I should have posted an alternative wherein some forums offer classification within the same forum. For a simple version of what I mean, see Gardenweb Recipe Exchange below (classified by LOOKING FOR, and RECIPE). But I've seen at least one if not more other forums which offered even more categories plus a more professional look. Unfortunately, I can't recall which they were. Then there's also the Deals app. in slickdeals forums (see below). http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/recipex/ http://slickdeals.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=9 In a similar vein, I used to use mail2world email which (at the time) enabled color-coding senders, so that Sender-John might be Blue (in your Inbox) and Sender-Jane might be Red.

I see - I hear - I conked out (mostly from trying to decipher what a CS nazi is. P.S. Aside from marketing, what's the radio of newbs to pro's dabbling in Paint.net? If there's more of the former, it may be nice to classify forums by levels such as newbs, intermediates & advanced. That way newbs & untalented dummies might feel less like nursery kids amid collegiates.

Uh, since the topic of marketing is brought up, here's some comments, the first of which I hope won't upset. I remember reading someone online mentioning that paint.net is too intertwined with Windows, instead of more independent, which therefore causes it to either use more memory, or take over memory. (I forget which...The guy's lingo was quite technical). ...the point is, I'm sorta curious if there's a way to make paint.net more independent, which could then make it popular with tech geeks, and I guess also with those who have very slow computers. Secondly re: marketing, Paint.net can offer very clear (dummie-friendly) YouTube Tutorials explaining to people how to create bumper stickers, including a link to the cheapest place to buy vinyl decal paper. Furthemore, the subject of the bumper-sticker tutorial should be an Designing an Adorable Paint.Net Logo. So if anyone goes to YouTube, and keys in: "how to design stickers" or "design stickers and print" or other such permutations, then the Paint.net bumper-sticker tutorial would display, and people could design, print & stick them on their bumpers. Voila - publicity. I personally wish there'd be sites which let people print bumper stickers re: futuristic health repaircare vs. sickcare. A futuristic example is this, though actually bone marrow (not fat) is way more regenerative - http://www.lifestemgenetics.com/_img/use-your-fat-stem-cells-for-treatment.jpg

The thing is - Windows 7 is supposedly not so available in stores anymore, and people are hating Win-8 compared to Win-7. (sorta like people hated Vista compared to XP) This is just a repeat of what i've read others saying, so don't ask me to elaborate

Weird - the different things people chuckle about. Ironically, what's been causing me to chuckle (in a dry way) is that my aims are on a different track than people assume. Most every other paint student, usually does so aiming for perfect esthetics, so people are assuming that about me. Whereas actually, my main wish is simply to convey pictorial messages (even if only 60% pictorially realistic) as long as it spotlights the ridiculousness of the status quo, compared to how it could & should be. Better yet, would be audio-video. A song such as "dust in the wind" accompanying eye-opening pics. I mean, for crying out loud, there's people who have blindness (or headed for AMD like me) yet the creeps in the field are creeping ever so slowly, even though the technology has been there for years. Sins of omission are often worse than commission.

FH, I see anyway, here's my final ughy version (including the wimpy pic posted previously) I also have more pics & ideas on similar themes, but which I doubt will ever get professionalized. - - - Any suggestions for easily improving the following image? as easy as Ego Eram's above instructions? http://oi58.tinypic.com/30kafr5.jpg Because at this point, i'm forced to detour (busy trying to either figure out Linux, or else attempt to shop for a tolerable Win7 system, due to MS warning they're soon stopping MSE support for XP. Maybe they already did... Firstly, I'm still too dummie to grasp concept of juggling 2 jobs on one App. Any video demo's on YT geared to dummies on that topic? Also: I have 1.7ghz processor + 2gb memory on this particular thinkpad. For some reason its slow. Could be due to malware, not sure. For example: Sometimes, when I click the Red X to delete a layer, it just keeps trembling, without deleting it. So I then click another layer, then go back to previous layer, & double click RedX again. Bingo. Or else I try to push up the layer (Up-arrow), and again it doesn't cooperate. And when I click the Arrow to move image around on canvas, it moves like staggering drunk.

Look, I'm sure anyone else would have been embarrassed to post the below, but hey, here's the pitiful pic. I eventually achieved after hours and hours of fooling around with my very-blurry eyes (they get blurry when viewing fluresence, due to sensitivity caused by autoimmune condition). The irony: If I could only get to detox (via Earthing in PULLing MudPool shipped from Salton Sea, or 325mesh bentonite) ...plus Infrared.. .....followed by stem-cells, then maybe my entire anatomy would be in better shape to learn Paint.net! I actually used Pixlr this time, because Paint.net was occupied with other images, which I did not want to lose. What was supposed to be here, were TWO POLES with infrared lites strung up on crossbar connected to two poles. ...in my backyard (Or else - per my O.P. - a crossbar connected to two tall pine trees) http://oi58.tinypic.com/o0qvq1.jpg

Wow, I guess some people take to swimming the sea of art, like a fish takes to water. I'm too newb to grasp this: and the part about transparent gradient & black/white mode is also baffling. I assume you cloned the prettier parts of the pool's rim to superimpose on the uglier parts? But confusing to me, is why the gradient tool was applicable. I also browsed your Gradient Tool link, with all the gradiated car versions but couldn't grasp it. Perhaps a video version (if done slow & with close-ups & with narration) would get thru to me.

FuzzyHuggles, I see, thanks! Which special effects plugins did you use? If I remember correctly, I think I was searching for the plugins you listed, such as "smudging" etc. etc. but couldn't find them. BTW, if you rendered your signature logo, it's amazing! Ego Eram, I saw the various packs-listings, but the list was huge for newbs to swallow. For starters, I think I'd be most interested in plugins which "potently" accomplish goals (for example "glow"). I'm not so good at catching on to the more subtle ones, many of which seem to overlap. I had found myself going down the Effects menu in the basic package, but sorta baffled as to what some of them were supposed to be doing. For wet newbs, it's best to reference a compact list (the more compact the better) of "before & after" conspicuous demo's of those Effects which achieve the most evident transformations. At least that's my unsolicited opinion As for Linux Puppy, oh boy, does that mean I'd be vulnerable every time I use Paint.net in XP (due to termination of MSE support?) What a disappointment [sigh] there's just no end to the obstacles I run into with high tech.

OK, I downloaded & used EFE & glow & your instructions. Result: http://oi60.tinypic.com/9uvywx.jpg I guess my eyes are too old, since I found it hard to discern thru the 125-opacity mud where the earthy rim surrounding the water began. But I've found it interesting to see how you go about it! Maybe I'll try lassowing again, this time using EFE & glow. Which effects (and adjustments) do most average users find themselves using a lot? Is there a listing anywhere of most widely-used plugins? Also, I'm not sure if I should go on to my next question on my step-by-step list? Or maybe I should take time out instead to learn Linux Puppy since XP is stopping MSE support. Can Paint be used in Linux Puppy?

OK, now, down to business. Firstly, Pixey, no problem! Fuzzy Huggles your pics are beautiful and must have been lots of work! Is there a reason they're cut off at the right? I see I must stick to one step at a time, I don't want to overkill immediately with the entire idea. So... as to the color, realistically speaking, genuinely PULLing (drawing) mud would either match: (1) the PULLing (quicksand-type) mudpots at the Salton Sea (searchable via Google & Youtube) for example: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=614&q=salton+sea+mud+pots&oq=salton+sea+mud+pots&gs_l=img.3..0l2j0i24.1990.6493.0.6690.19.12.0.7.7.0.168.1446.1j11.12.0....0...1ac.1.37.img..1.18.1361.agMGgVjdFIE OR: (2) perhaps this @Dead Sea: http://blog.newscom.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/upiphotos993242-JER2010021315_.jpg Now, a followup question to EER: Is Edge Fader Extreme the edgefader.zip file found here? http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/26479-trs-edge-fader-extreme-v-505-dec-262013-pm/ ...which I assume automatically should load into my Downloads folder? Then what to do with the zip file once it's in Downloads folder? How do I incorporate the EFE plugin into Paint 3.5.11? BTW, I tried understanding the YouTube video demo of EFE, but since my vision is starting to fade, and since there was no narration, I couldn't catch on. It skimmed over visuals way too fast for me to absorb. P.S. uh.. perhaps some more PMs may be in order, regarding explanations beyond scope of thread.

Rick, David & everyone, speak of delays, my own delay was a whopper due to a horrible prolonged flu +cough (still not over it). Please bear with me as I'm about to read over the above responses. And thanks to everyone for all your time. I apologize if I seemed impatient - it was more like I was trying to figure out how best to convey what I was attempting to achieve. For future reference, how long a time period should pass before "bumping" one's post (or whatever? P.S. Rick, thank you so much for your wonderful program. I've already experimented with several, including Pixlr. and found yours practically neck & neck with Pixlr (yet even easier in some respects. For example, the nodes you provide within straightLines for curvy lines, is ingenuous. The flexible way people can position text is great too. There is something I've found convenient via Pixlr, though, and that's the way you can quickly maneuver your image by "gauging" its positionng on the mini-canvases at the right, to position it just where you want it. That's convenient when you have a small 15" screen like mine, or smaller.

Moderator, I'm confused. Is my type of question outside the parameters of this forum? since the below-linked Q has not yet been resolved, can you please advise me how to word my below question so that I can get to learn how to combine the pics of: (1) mudpot ... (2) grassy bank Without changing the appearance of either (1) ....nor changing (2) What I do want is this: ....only the edge of mudpot should softly blend with the edge of grassy bank Believe me, I tried finding strategies via YouTube and search engines, but was not sure which key words to search for. once the below Q is answered, I can then proceed to the grass-expanding issue. And beyond. One step at a time. http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/28023-lasso-a-pool-blending-tree-trimming-and-placement-etc/#entry406147

OK, I see. So how about if I back up, and rephrase my request as follows: Can you please show me what steps to take to achieve the above without perfection? Just semi-realistic - as long as your average non-perfectionist Joe "gets it" To give an analogy, I jot down a note in my not-so-perfect writing, and hand it to Joe. So he "gets it" because it is legible. So consider that my revised request. Alternatively, can someone please direct me to a forum where there are less-perfectionist experts willing to guide someone aiming for not-such-perfection, as long as the message gets thru? Even if that goes against the grain of artists? Please understand, this isn't a frivolous request.

I see. The thing is, as per my O.P., I really just would like step by step tips on how to achieve: a well defined Mud-Pool (i.e. "mud" vs. muddy-water... it should have the well-defined mud depicted in the above Mud-Pot image ...and the Mud-Pool should be inside well-defined grassy bank as shown in above Grassy-Pool image. If anything - the grass should look even somewhat prettier than the grass-bank shown in my pic. Because it should look a bit like John Doe or Jane Shmoe's back yard (since that's exactly what my aim is). Once that's achieved, I can then take it further and ask how to Expand the grass, and place the trees & strung-lights. I can't understand why/how that takes years to learn?? As for the Gradient tutorial, I'm not quite sure how the 2 pics were merged if neither of them was transparent. Unless the Gradient forces the uppermost layer to become [at least partially] transparent? It's interestingly coincidental that I had recently used the Gradient feature to achieve a similar effect on a "sketched" version of aforesaid pool. In my case, I used a reddish color for the gradient.

Wow, thanks... I needed to send you a PM msg by way of explanation, but not sure it got thru, since no "Sent Msg" displayed.

Hi, since this forum excludes big pics, I needed to use Tinypic to demo this. I cranked out this mud-hole: http://oi57.tinypic.com/2q15emg.jpg from the combo of these two: (1) Mudpot: http://oi62.tinypic.com/2iaahkz.jpg (2) Grass-pool: http://oi62.tinypic.com/23ualhd.jpg As you can see, Lassowing the pool for deletion didn't turn out too perfect. I'd also wanted "continuum" to blend rounded edge of mudpot with the bank. So I tried using Gaussian, but (as you see) it turned out blurry & ill-defined. The Grassy Bank should have remained as is - rather than blurry. I also clicked "Soften" and adjusted Slider for Warmth. And so on... I'm wanting to place the attached pine trees at either side of the pool. As well as double the size of the surrounding grassy-bank (not sure how). Then connect a crossbar (or wire) from left tree to right-tree. Then string-up shining lights on the crossbar/wire to flash on the hole. Also - I want to leave it as a daylight pic. even if shining lights are illogical by day. Perhaps it should be a dimmer daylight effect with Strung lights flashing on the hole? Feedback appreciated. I.E. what steps would pro's take to achieve my goals? Thanks