korteck

Thank you. It was indeed saved as a jpeg. Of course the predicted size would be different for different file types. I'm embarrassed this didn't occur to me. I'll look for the save configuration dialog you mentioned. I see. Then ultimately the save size is the true size and the only one I need to be concerned with.This was very helpful. Thank you again.

When using signatures in most forums, the size is restricted. I'm restricted to 15k in one such forum. Of course I know how to set the dimensions of a picture, but I need to know more about restricting the file size. I've recently noticed that in the top left corner of the image resize dialog, the predicted dimensions of the new size are given before you complete a resizing. The problem is, that number never matches what the actual size turns out to be when I check it later. For instance, a sig I made tonight showed that it would be 15k in the dialog box, but the finished picture was just over 10k after it was saved. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? P.S. May I ask a stupid windows question. When checking the size under properties, what's the difference between the "size" and the "size on disk"? They're always two different numbers. (neither of which match the dialog size in PDN) I will appreciate your help. Thanks

I had no idea if there were any other programs besides photoshop and mspaint. Being frustrated with mspaint, one day I decided to google paint programs looking for photoshop. I couldn't believe it was like 600 bucks or something. Disappointed, I continued to search and a few minutes later I was downloading paint.net. It turned me onto a new hobby that I've enjoyed ever since. I'm worried about one thing though. I don't think paint.net will always be free. What if my computer crashes and I lose my free copy? In the future, if paint.net is half the cost of photoshop, I'll never be able to afford it. I wonder how many CD's it would take to back this free version up?

Jake, you're making some really cool stuff lately. And Hellfire, I'm crazy about those psychedelic curvy things. I wish I had a poster of that.

Haha, we posted at the same time. I just beat you by seconds. Thanks again mastodoant

Thanks mastodonant. That is indeed the name of the animator program, but I need to know how to make and save a sprite. Since the animator program only accepts BMP and JPG's, saving a transparent picture as a PNG wouldn't help. The animator wouldn't accept it if I did. Sprites must be different than a regular BMP or JPG because the animator already accepts those formats as backgrounds. I'm thinking that sprites must have transparency...and the only way I know to save a transparent picture is a PNG with paint.net. I'm hoping someone will know a lot about sprites and tell me what format they use, how to save in that format, and maybe even clear things up if I have the wrong idea about sprites in the first place. EDIT:Hey, never mind. I finally figured it out. You just cut out an image, save it as a BIP or JPG, and when you load it into the program as a sprite, the program (or something) removes the BMP or JPG background and it becomes transparent again. Feel free to lock this one up Rick. Thanks

No, I'm not talking about the soft drink. I have this little animator program that can use sprites. I know sprites are two dimensional pictures, usually with transparency, that are used a lot in video games. I'd like to use PDN to make transparent pictures to use as sprites, but the animator program only accepts BMP and JPG formats. Can somebody fill me in on this subject. I've been reading everything I can find for the last two days and I can't get the answers I need. Thanks.

Thank you CMD. I had found that in 2.7 but I downloaded 3.0 a week later and never thought about it again. I can't believe I've had that available to me all this time and had totally forgotten about it.

Picc84, it's a little program called Pivot Stickman. This is my first attempt at using it. You should google and see some of the incredible things experienced guys can do with it. Thanks CMD, but I'm confused. You're not suggesting that it's a built in feature are you? I've downloaded tons of plugins but I thought file types were something you also had to download. Can someone direct me with a link, or explain this better? Sorry to be such a noob. Thanks

BuzzKill, that's absolutely amazing! And Crazy Man Dan, your sigs are fantastic. How did you achieve those diagonal lines? Is that a plugin?

Yeah MadJik, that would work too, but I did the same thing by searching for "post" instead of "title" in the main search engine. Great suggestion BuzzKill. That would have helped a lot. I wish I'd thought of that.

I had to pull some maintenance on my photo albums tonight and I broke all my picture pathways. Restoring them in each post was a major pain in the buttocks! I thought I'd be able to search for my posts and edit each one that way, but no... the search feature doesn't allow edits of individual posts. It only allows you to edit if you search for titles, and even then the search page expires and you have to search all over again between each thread. I don't know if this could be made easier in the future, but I hope you mention it to your designer sometime. Sorry for complaining, but that was an ordeal! Otherwise, it's an easy website to navigate.

oh thanks. fixed

barkbark00, I'm sorry but I had to break the pathway to my pics. I'm doing some much needed house cleaning of my photo albums. I've now restored the new links.

No, I've never heard of it actually. Thanks, I'll look into it. Unless you mean the alpha mask plugin? I have that.

It should have worked MadJik. That's how I did mine. You're correct Tom. That's exactly how I did it. I think I used increments of 5 degrees between each save. I also had to undo after each save, just like you said. Because if I didn't undo, the image would "jump ahead" because the image would not be starting off where I last saved it. The problem I had was that the image seemed to grow by about 20 pixels after I cropped it to size. I wish someone would repeat my steps and make a sig similar to mine. First, write down the exact pixel units of your canvas, and then write down the exact measurement of your "word." Do the math. Know your measurements precisely. Rotate the word until it's fully extended to the left side. I think mine was 28 degrees fully extended. Zoom in so you can see the exact pixels your counting. Now this is important: Count over exactly ten pixels from the left end of the word and write the precise measurement down. Now, rotate the word to the right side and do the exact same thing with the other side of the word, in the opposite direction. Now straighten out the word and crop it to the exact measurements you just took. Okay, now take the newly cropped image and rotate it to the same degree as before, until it's fully extended again. Here's where you'll see the problem. Look for those 10 pixels you left on each side of the word. They will have disappeared and the ends of the word will extend out past the border that you just cropped. This phenomenon doesn't happen when you crop a flat image, but if the image was skewed when you took your measurements, the measurements will be off. I tried it a dozen times, and that's just the way it is.

I wish you would do that Crazy Man Dan. I can't see how the two things are related. I use the alpha mask quite often, so if there's another application for it's use, I'd love to know about it. Thanks.

I've been doing some research on optimizing gifs. I need to be able to reduce the number of colors in a picture. Apparently other name brand paint programs will count your colors for you and have an option for decreasing the color depth. Are there any such things available in pdn? I haven't seen them if there are. Maybe there's something else in pdn that can substitute? Any suggestions? Thanks.

Thank you Tinsoldier. You definitely should get this. It's easy to use and good for lots of things besides water.

Thank you crosswalker. I appreciate that. Yeah jake, it's a great way to precisely cut something out. You can cut out the background or the target image, it doesn't matter. The coolest thing is that as you're applying the mask over your subject, if you make a mistake and cut too much, you don't have to use the back button and waste a lot of pixels you've already cut. You can just right click and it restores those pixels as you draw over them again. You can also save a used mask and use it again later if you decide to cutout the same picture. Trust me, if I can learn how to use it, anybody can. Here's the link to the Alphamask plugin: http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=2178

Try this: After you draw your text, use the magic wand and ctrl-select each letter. While the text is selected, use your gradient feature. It will only fill the selected areas. Alternatively, while the text is selected, you can manually place any color combination you choose and blur them together on one layer or several layers, one layer at a time. Hope this helps.

Haha, thanks. You guys have some awesome things posted. This thread's very entertaining. So far I've been trying to learn the technical stuff, but eventually I want to get more artistic like you guys. And MadJik...my post was too long. It wasn't laid out very well so I went back and squished it up as much as possible. I wouldn't want you to "fade" to quickly. ________________________________ Okay MadJik, this is the best I could do in a half hour of trying. I couldn't achieve the shininess of your statue. I think if my picture were of a close up shot, there would have been more details to play with. I didn't have a lot of darks to work with here. I'm all out of excuses, but I enjoyed the challenge very much.

I've only been using PDN for about a month now (or any paint program for that matter) and I've finally got a few things to show. Mostly it's just my screen name applied to everything I can think of. All my other pics are family & friends that I really shouldn't post online without their permission. There are also several other pics in the "bliss" thread.

I love this plugin! Thanks MadJik. I used the effect twice in this picture. I used it in the regular way to make the first (foreground) reflection, then I flipped the word vertically and made a second reflection. I used the second reflection to make a watery shadow behind the word.

What does a magnetic lasso do that the regular one doesn't? I'm just curious.