BoltBait

It wouldn't do you much good. Once you flatten the layers there's nothing to be learned from the PDN file. Just read over the instructions given above and try to duplicate the final image. Show your results and tell me where you had trouble and maybe I can help.

You can save a picture in 8-bit by selecting .GIF format.

I'll try to describe the process from memory. It took about 1/2 hour to complete. [*:6321f]Create the background sky by making a fade from sky blue to red (in the middle) to dark red (under the water). [*:6321f]Create the clouds using pink/red with gray outlines. But, don't blur yet. BTW, clouds look best with flat bottoms. [*:6321f]Create a red circle for the sun (use the shift key to constrain to a true circle) [*:6321f]Adjust the position of the sun and clouds [*:6321f]Flatten the image [*:6321f]Guassian Blur the whole image (I used ~22-25 I think) [*:6321f]Draw a blue square for the water on a new layer [*:6321f]Select that square and add noise to it [*:6321f]Then, add a motion blur (direction 0, distance 10-20ish) [*:6321f]Change the opacity of the water to about 85-90% so the red shows through in spots. (Not too much) [*:6321f]Draw a half circle for the reflection of the sun on a new layer (red) [*:6321f]Add noise to it and do the same direction blur as your water [*:6321f]Guassian Blur the sun reflection (4-5 I think) [*:6321f]Magic wand "some" of that half circle. This is the only really tricky part. You will need to play with tolerance a bit so that when you use the wand, randomly about 1/2 of the red half-circle is selected. Delete it. [*:6321f]Adjust the opacity of the sun reflection layer for desired effect. [*:6321f]Flatten the image [*:6321f]Select the horizon by selecting 2 pixels high and all the way across (1 pixel of red and 1 of blue) [*:6321f]Guassian Blur (2). That should soften the horizon a bit.And, you're done. Resize the image down from 800x600 to your final size and output as JPG (85-90% quality).

You are only limited by your imagination and technical know-how. I can't help you expand your imagination, but reading this will help with the latter. :wink: Seriously though, if imagination is part of the problem, a specific project usually helps. Try your hand at a Bliss parody.

Picc84, this is for you... I can send you my .pdn file if you like.

Select the layer where you want some transparent area. Select the area you want to be transparent. Press the "Delete" key.

Thanks! Yes, I drew it in 2 parts. I drew the face using Sketch It! on my Pocket PC. Then, I drew the clothes and colored it in MS Paint. Sketch It! has a great feature in that the line width while drawing changes based on how fast you are moving the stylist. When moving slowly it draws fine lines. When drawing fast it draws fat lines. It has a very natural feel. BTW, if you want to see how close my drawing is to me, look at this page: http://www.geocities.com/boltbaits/picture/

Agreed. I remade my drawing with blue (like the sky) outlines on the circles and it turned out much better.

Nope, just made them. My secondary machine refuses to update from the menu and I'm too lazy to go download the file manually. Don't worry. My laptop is fully up to date.

Make several layers of white circles. Change the opacity of each layer for a varied effect... Image > Flatten Effects > Blurs > Guassian Blur (~20-40) I'm not sure how "cool" it looks, but, there ya go! EDIT: For best results, you could just GIS some clouds and copy/paste... :wink:

I found that string in the registry under: HKEY_USERS\[snip]\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\MUICache\ Key name: C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\PaintDotNet.exe Value: Paint.NET v2.64

I train people how to use computers (one of my many jobs) and I always recommend Paint.net as a good, free graphics tool.

Feel free to copy my sig exactly.

In 3.0, since you've moved the primary/secondary color indication out of the Tools docker, how will you know what your primary and secondary colors are when the Colors docker is hidden? Will this indicator be moved to the tool bar?

Will those colors be preset or will we be able to set them (like in Paint) or will it be a history of the last colors selected? Will we be able to left click on them for primary color and right click on them for secondary color? BTW, I recently tried out the new GIF output and must say, I'm highly impressed. Thank you for making that great improvement. (You may recall that this was something that I asked for back in the old message board.)

I'm running version 2.70 upgraded from 2.64 through the built-in upgrade menu. When I right-click on a .pdn file the context menu says, "Open With > Paint.NET v2.64" Looks like something got missed in the upgrade step. :wink:

OK, here is the GIF file (15.5K): And, here is the JPG file (15K): Which one is better? I looked at both using Start > All Programs > Accessories > Accessibility > Magnification. Honestly, the JPG file is *way* better quality.

...said the guy with a sig so blurry that it gives me a headache to look at it. I'll try to save it in GIF format on Monday when I go back to work just to see what kind of file size it generates.

Meanwhile... your sig is 140K bytes and mine is 10K.

The third one is the one I'm using now. It is just as wide as the second one, but shorter. You can't see as much of the scoring pad.

Looking at all 3, I'm starting to lean toward the middle one. I don't know. It just bugs me that its so large.

My sig used to look like this: [Play Dominoes] I hate large sigs, but since this is a graphics site, I finally made one. Ugh. I keep trying to make it smaller... And, smaller...

Thanks. As simple as the picture looks, it was actually quite complicated to create. I arranged all the dominoes on my desk and took the picture with my cell phone (I have a Razr, which is not bad). Then I had to move the dominoes around. All of the dominoes that are standing on end had to be moved (along with their shadows). They were originally placed too far away from the "snake" and would not have been in the cropped picture. Finally, it was resized down and text placed over the top. And, the text has a drop shadow (that you can't really see). BTW, Gaussian Blur is the best thing since sliced bread.

My new signature is made with my cell phone camera and paint.net

Wow, barkbark00! That is REALLY good. 8)