Litchi

I'm happy that someone "critisizing" Paint.net is aware that it is still new! It's often "I need that" or "It's useless, there's no this". I agree with what you say in your post (brushes would be nice and some effects are missing and I would loooove a gradient tool), but the developers have other things to do than make me happy Paint.net is still young and even if I will keep Photoshop for my big "projects" (at least to be able to modify the text), I will certainly keep in touch with Paint.net evolutions and use it as often as I can

Like said in the beggining of this topic : http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1100 Create a new layer. Turn off anti aliasing and select a brush size of 4 or 5. Chose a flashy color (to see what you're doing). Use the line/curve tool if you have rough outlines or the brush if you have a more complicated outline. Make sure you are on the good layer. Outline your subject on the outside (that's the long and difficult part). Once you've finished the outline, pick the magic wand and select inside your flashy shape (be careful to be on the good layer). Invert the selction (Ctrl+i), move to your image layer (you should have duplicated it before, if not, do it now). Erase the selection on your image layer (Ctrl+x or Suppr). You have now 3 layer : [*:36c13] Your original layer with background and subject. You will have to make it black and white or whatever you want to do with it. [*:36c13] The layer with only your subject. [*:36c13] The layer with the flashy outline which you should hide or remove (you should keep it until you have completely finished, just in case). And now, you should have what you want. I might do a complete tutorial about this if anybody needs (I like doing tutorials, it's fun ) I hope you have understood everything and you have what you wanted

I made a sigbar I just love to do gradients in my images ^_^

Well, that's easier, but I like to duplicate my layer in case I need it later

Well, I can tell you quite quickly. [*:cc119]Duplicate your layer [*:cc119]On the new layer, select the background and delete it (to cut the image from the background, look at this tutorial : http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1100) [*:cc119]Put the first layer in black & white (Layers > Settings > Desaturate or Black & White. I have Paint.net in French, so I can't assure you they're the right names) [*:cc119]Tadaaam ! You should now have what you want I hope I was clear enough. I don't have time right now to do a real tutorial, but I might if you need.

Thanks :oops: You're too nice It's the first time I really have something I can show, but if I have a comment like this each time, I might do more paint.net-ing (and less work at my office ) I already saw the water reflection effect but I couldn't figure how it worked. I tried again this morning (it's 9:30 in the morning in France) and it worked, but the result is not what I wanted, it's too twisted. Maybe when a plugin is out, I might use it

Well, I'll give this topic a try... This is my first "published" Paint.net graphism. I wanted to have a beautiful flower reflected on water, so I searched google for a flower : I cut the flower from the background (using this method http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1100), added a reflection, faded this reflection (http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1185), compressed it a little, added a tile effect (http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1150) and blurred it a little. I wished I had a water reflection script, but I did what I could... And here is the result : I know it's quite pink, but I wanted to keep the color of the flower for the background and the flower I found was pink ^^ So I know it's way behind some of your works, but I'm quite proud of it

Well... the airbrush is available in ArtRage2 only in the Full version (non-free). Maybe if you give money to Paint.net developers, they might have time enough to design an airbrush tool. Until then, they choose what they put in their program and you do with it or you just use another tool. I personnally use layers and effects and "advanced" options more often than I miss an airbrush.

I totally agree with these 2 points, even if I don't know if it would be hard or not. Of course, a dialog would be great too

Choose your foreground and background colors in Paint.net (like the default black and white), "open" the colors window and set the "transparency-alpha" value to 0 for the foreground/background color. And don't forget to select the layer you want to fade. I had to run the script many times to understand that :wink: I hope that helped you

That's a good and simple way to make thought bubbles They're cute (I like things to be cute )

It works well I could make a transparent fading reflection for my avatar orb (the fading isn't really visible, but it is here)

Sorry, I looked at a lot of request, but did not go back far enough. Anyway, it means more people want it

I agree, it would be nice to have it

There is one thing, quite simple I think, which Paint.Net lacks : The menu item Export as. When working on a pdn file, I sometimes need to save it to simple PNG and continue working on the pdn after. To continue working, I need to reopen the pdn file. I don't think it would be very hard to do a Export as or Save a copy as to keep the current file open. Anyway, I really like Paint.Net. I started using it to do little operations on file (resize, etc.) for which I didn't want to open Photoshop (it's longer to open it than to install Paint.Net :shock: ). I installed it at work because I can't use Photoshop (no license) and I am now addicted Keep the good work guys and thank you very much !