Eraesr

Perfect. That's exactly what I need. Thanks for the info!

Hi, I want to use the "Add Noise" effect but have it apply to a transparent layer. In other paint programs, this would just add generated noise pixels to the currently selected layer, but in Paint.NET it appears like it's using the source pixels as input for the noise effect. While visually this effect is pretty on existing image, it doesn't work on transparent layers. Is there a way to just add regular noise to my transparent layer? What I'm just trying to achieve is generate a television static effect, but have those pixels that were left untouched by the noise effect remain transparent. I need the transparency for use outside of Paint.NET. Is there a way to do this?

I just wanted to put an underappreciated feature in the spotlight. Paint.NET is the only program I've ever seen this do, and it's so simple yet so smart. What am I talking about? Well, the fact that Paint.NET asks you if you want to update to a new version right now or when closing the application. I love that it does this. So many applications just bug you with an update notification when you start the program, where you either can install the update directly or ignore it. Most of the time I just want to use the tool at that moment and I don't want to be bothered with waiting for an update to be applied. When I ignore the update, I usually am only reminded again when I start the program next time. This often causes me to postpone installing an update indefinitely. By updating when I close the program, I'm able to use Paint.NET right when I want it and have the update install in the background when I'm done. It's such a simple change, but to me, it has a lot of impact. Kudos to whoever came up with this brilliant idea.

After even getting private messages about the whole transparency thing, I've added extra text to the tutorial to explain how to do it.

awesome!

Nice to see it done on other pictures. Looks pretty good :-)

make sure the shadow layer is positioned under the waterdrop layer.

Paint Shop Pro uses "Save copy as" I think. Export, to me, sounds like a function to export the file to a format not natively supported by the software itself. "Save merged copy" seems odd, as the copy could just as well be in PDN format which is layered. "Save copy as" seems perfect, as it tells you three things: 1 - It's a save function 2 - It'll save the file as a copy (of the original) 3 - The "as" bit, in my perception, implies that the user specifies where the file will be placed (like the difference between "save" and "save as"). In that sense "Save copy" would be slightly less intuitive. Also, as has been pointed out earlier, "Save as copy" does indeed imply that your current working file is changed to the copy.

First point: You need to invert the selection (ctrl+i), so when first you select everything BUT the gradient, after inverting, you have selected ONLY the gradient. In the second bit I'm a bit less clear about it I guess, but when I say "select the waterdrop layer and use the magic wand to select the shape of the drop" I probably mean that you have to do that "select everything but the drop and invert" thing again.

Very nice buttons. Reminds me a bit of the large buttons in the Nintendo Wii Internet Channel:

Looks very realistic!

It's so much fun playing around with different effects and blends with this technique. Can create some really odd looking things.

This tutorial is awesome! My try:

To be honest, I find what I'm looking at right now at boltbait.com to be not that bad. A bit plain maybe, but it's a nice clean look that I like.