crosswalker

You could always just draw the line on its own layer and then move it as a selection. Then it remains editable by itself.

out of curiosity, does anyone know of a good algorithm to fix a blur like that?

Sure, except you still have to mess with the tolerance to compensate for anti-aliasing. Aye, that's a possibility...sept you lose the makeitlookgood effect of anti-aliasing. :wink: Works well for a simple shape, not so much if you're attempting to mask things like people or trees. :?

Here's my conundrum: For some tasks (mainly alpha masking) that require a custom filled shape, I have to do two things, draw the the subject outline, and then fill the shape with a color. Currently, after drawing a custom outline using the line and/or brush tool, I use the paint bucket tool :PaintBucketTool: to fill the object and have the tool's tolerance set at 70 to compensate for the anti-aliased edges of my outline. I'm just wondering if it would be possible to have the paint bucket recognize when it reaches an edge of the same color (in this case, the custom outline) and automatically adjust itself to compensate for anti-aliasing (without having to adjust the tool's tolerance manually.) The effect would be the same as setting the tolerance of the paint bucket tool to 70 and left-clicking, but the tolerance wouldn't have to be messed with (if you go above 70, the whole image gets filled.) Not really a necessity, but it could be a time saver and a bit more intuitive.

You'll get better results(for anti-aliased text) if you use the Alpha Mask Plugin suggested above. Your basic method would be as follows. 1: Make your gradient. 2: Add a new layer :AddNewLayer:, and on it, type your text in black. 3: Double click the text layer :Properties: (in the layers window) and adjust the opacity down to around 50% (so you can see through the text but still see it's outline) 4: Move your text around until you like the gradient that you see through it. Set the layer opacity back to 100% (255) 5: With the text layer selected, press ctrl+a to select all. :SelectAll: 6: Press ctrl+x to cut the selection and ctrl+alt+v :PasteNewImage: to paste it into a new image. 7: Add a new layer :AddNewLayer:, fill it with white :PaintBucketTool:, and move it below your text layer. :Down: 8: Save the image as a png :Save: (in a place where it will be easily accessible, like the desktop) 9: Go back to your gradient image, delete all layers except for the gradient. :Delete: 10: Select Effects->Alpha Mask and use the text image you just created as the mask (You'll have to check the invert mask box) :Save: Save your finished image and you're done! Given the # of steps, it seems like quite a bit of work, but once you get used to using keyboard shortcuts, it really doesn't take that long at all.

In the keyboard/mouse controls page. Copy is listed as ctrl+x and cut as ctrl+c.

My recommendation would depend on what kind of filters and effects you're going for. If you just want basic photo manipulation, management, and effects such as sepia, tints, etc. I'd say go with Google Picasa. If, however, you're wanting to do advanced edits to your pictures, I'd highly recommend Paint.NET. One thing to keep in mind is that not all image editors/managers are the same or have the same purpose, with that thought in mind, it may not be a bad idea to download a couple different ones and give them a try, if you like it, keep it, if not, try another. I'd recommend you start with the above two and make your way from there. Hope that helps!

Non-destructive editing generally refers to a form of editing where the original content is never changed. You apply filters and edits, and when viewed in the editing program it appears that the image has been changed, but the content remains the same unless you export it to a png or otherwise. Google's Picasa photo manager is a good example of this, you can crop/tune pics in Picasa, but the effects don't change the base picture, and can be undone at any time. To define by negation, destructive editing is when any change that you make to an image (or other document) immediately(or upon saving) affects the image permanently. Usually non-destructive edits require a specific file type and program that recognizes the edits contained therein. @Rick: I totally agree layers are definitely the base of non-destructive editing. I guess I'm more suggesting a special type of layer, like Adobe's smart filter. I just saw the Photoshop CS3 smart filters demo and it looked incredibly useful so I thought I'd throw it out there for consideration.

If you're looking to blend two images together, I'd recommend using the alpha mask plugin You can then simple draw a black to white gradient (if you're looking for a simple linear blend) or something more complex, save it to a png, and import it as an alpha mask on your to-be-blended images. Once each image has the right shape and fade to it, just drop them into a base image, and your done!

Just thought I'd throw this out there. Obviously I'm not expecting non-destructive editing to make it to PDN for a while, but it would (or will) be a great feature nonetheless.

You're not missing anything. It's not currently possible in Paint.NET This would be an excellent addition to PDN though.

although really, it wouldn't be that hard to do, the flames effect that uses the dents plugin is quite simple to produce.

To change black to colors, you could also use the curves adjustment. Play around with different modification points to get different colors (use the rgb mode, not luminosity) Make sure you uncheck 1 or 2 colors before you make changes though (if they're all checked your image will only change shades of gray) Note: This won't work on pitch black (#000000) but it will work on various shades of gray (which is more likely to be in a photo)

How to take a screenshot Press prt sc or print screen on your keyboard and then open up paint (or Paint.NET if you can still access it) and press ctrl+v to paste it in.

Anytime, that looks great Kirk

For a cleaner look with the clouds effect method, just increase the contrast on the clouds layer. Also, if you vertically shrink the clouds layer (while retaining the width) you can attain a more horizontal looking wear pattern (which tends to look a bit more like a worn shirt pattern) I would recomend using the alpha mask plugin with a resized cloud-based image for best results.

For a cleaner look with the clouds effect method, just increase the contrast on the clouds layer.

You can change vector images to bitmap images with inkscape, but I don't think there's a way to turn bitmaps into vectors.

2 things. 1: The web is too wavy, a real cobweb is actually quite precise in its lines(one reason for the perception of disarray is the sheer number of individual threads) 2: The threads that appear circular are actually not concentric circles, but rather they are...for lack of a better term...whirlpoolish. The whole thing could be viewed as one continuous strand that is anchored at each of the spokes of the web. That said, probably your best approach would be to draw spoke lines, then, on a new layer, start drawing the "circular" lines, if you want to make it look like an old web, draw the lines at different angles respective to the spokes. (I'll include a pic that should explain this better) As spider webs are usually a little out of focus to the human eye, you might try a glow effect to give the web just a hint of blurring. Once you're done with the web, and you like the basic look, do a bulge distort effect on the "circular" lines layer (-10 or so) to give it a slight curve. You could also apply a twist effect on the spokes layer to accomplish a look of deformity (from wind, etc.) That probably muddled things more than it cleared them, here's an image that will hopefully bring it all together. This one's fairly simple, obviously you'd probably want to add more lines in your final version. Oh, also, if you make the web layers slightly transparent it makes for a more realistic effect as spiderwebs are, themselves, mostly transparent.

Related to .NET 3.0, Rick, does PDN draw any advantage from the new framework yet?

1: open up PDN create a new layer 2: On that new layer type your text, make sure the anti-aliasing is turned off 3: use the magic wand (with shift held) to select all of the text. 4: Create a new layer, press ctrl+i (to invert the selected area) and, on the new layer, use the paint bucket (+ shift) to fill the entire selection with white. 5: Create a new layer, move it down till it's underneath the white layer you just created and paste your picture on that layer. 6: Go ahead and delete the layer containing the original text, you won't need it anymore. 7: That should do it. PS: These steps will only work well for the non-anti-aliased text, if you're going for a full alpha blended effect, you'll have to use the alpha mask plugin on your original image. This can be accomplished by, Creating a new image, On that image, type some text in black. Save the image as a png. Go back to your original image (the one with the face on it) and use the alpha mask plugin with the text image you just created as the mask.

That's probably because your system doesn't already have .NET 2.0 installed. Try the 50MB version (long download, but once .Net is installed, you won't have to install it again for that version)

There is an alpha masking plugin. That may not be what you're looking for though.

I assume you're talking about a tool that slices an image into multiple pieces and saves each individually to put into an html table. If so, you can use the grid plugin to make a grid on a new layer, above the to-be-sliced picture. Then just use the magic wand to select the alternating square colors and cut it out(ctrl+x), paste it into a new image (ctrl+alt+v) and hit save. It's a bit tedious, but it can be done.

it's really pretty easy. I just applied this tutorial with a motion blur instead of a zoom blur to the sword layer. my image upload site is being buggy at the moment so I can't upload anything but it's really easy to recreate.