cjmcguinness

EDIT: *Sorry, just re-read the original post and you do not want all the corners rounded, the description below will round all the corners* The way I usually do something like this... 1. Open the image in PDN 2. Duplicate the layer [CTRL]+[sHIFT]+[D] 3. Set your secondary colour to transparent 4. Image > Canvas Size: By Percentage to 125% (make sure anchor is set to Middle) 5. On the top layer - Effects > Blur > Median Blur. Leave the Percentile at 50 and adjust the Radius to between 10 - 30 (depending on the curve you want). 6. Magic Wand the transparent area on the top layer, switch to the bottom later and press delete. 7. You can now delete the top layer and you have rounded corners on the original. You may need to feather the edges for a smooth finish. This might sound a bit complicated, but once you get used to it it's quite handy. Hope this helps. -CJ

@Gladi8or2 Cool, is this completely PDN, or is the skater cropped from a stock image. If it's 100% PDN then fantastic work!

More fun with Shape3D

Ash, very impressive; however, if I had one small criticism, you need to put a shadow under the chick as well.

With the introduction of the Shape 3D effect plugin Paint.NET has been taken to another level. Thought I might as well give it a try...

I've really started getting into photography and photo editing recently and took some impromtu shots while at a friends wedding last week. I've picked a couple and have edited/manipulated them. I'm planning on presenting the happy couple with framed copies as a present; what do you think? Can I borrow your hat? Edit Original Son of the Father Edit Original *The trickest part of this was removing the large blue bottle from the foreground

This has been asked and answered many (many) times... You need to open an account with an image hosting site like Photobucket, upload your pictures then post links to the URL's like this... [img=http://www.pictureurl.com] Photobucket even give you the code (with tags) under each picture so all you have to do is copy and paste. Please Search the forum before asking this type of question. -CJ

This piece owes a lot to your Gradient Bars plugin; it was the very first (of many) steps. Thanks.

I haven't posted anything here for a while, so here goes...

You can use variations of the Pencil Sketch effect, Ink Sketch Effect and/or Toon Filter effect. Apologies for not posting a link to the Toon Filter effect with the original tutorial; I have edited the main post with the link. Simply download the .dll and copy it to the Paint.NET Effects folder. Once you restart PDN it'll be available.

When you are preparing to delete the white areas you should have 2 layers. The top layer has the white areas and the bottom layer is completely black. Use the magic wand on the top layer, hold the [sHIFT] key and left-click to select all the white. Try this extra step... Uncheck the top layer so that it is not visible, you should now see the background (black) layer, with all the areas that were white still selected. The focus will automatically change to the bottom layer - now press the Delete key. The selected areas should now be deleted and you should be able to see the checkerboard in the empty spaces. Hope this helps -CJ

I tend to disagree with your opinion that this tutorial does not 'much' relate to Paint.NET. PDN is, after all, an image editing tool and used by many for cropping and enhancing digital photographs. I decided to submit this thread to bring this composition theory to PDN users attention as there are similar tutorials for other graphics programs and, at the time of writing, PDN had no tutorials of this sort. I do make reference, at the end of the tutorial, that this is not just for cropping purposes but the same principal can be applied to artistic composition: I, personally, would like to see more PDN tutorials that explore broader artistic concepts; rather than the mainstay 'cool effect' ones that are generally posted. There are already many incredibly talented artists using PDN to express themselves. I'd just like to think that this tutorial may have helped some of them to think differently when during the creation process and open them to new ideas when it comes to composition.

With it being SOTW #7 I think it would be quite poignant to do the seven wonders of the world. It could be based on 'NEW' seven wonders as recently determined in a global vote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Seven_Wonders_of_the_World However, Jerberet was a long-time front-runner for SOTW #6; passed over for Friday 13th (my suggestion after being victorious n SOTW #5). As is tradition, the ultimate decision lies with CMD as winner of SOTW #6. @CMD - If it's to be Jerbert, what would the rules be? New Jerbert family members? Jerbert Fun Facts? As you say, Jerbert is very near and dear. Would you have any do's & don'ts about what we can do with/to your creation?

As the 'water' effect applies a blur and makes the selected area kind-of transparent I would recommend that you duplicate the layer you want to apply the water effect to, then apply the effect on the top layer. You can then merge the top layer down or flatten the whole image. Hope this helps.

There were 7 'man-made' wonders of the world announced on 07-07-07. Voting is now underway regarding the 7 'natural' wonders of the world to be announced on 08-08-08. So, SOTW #7 could be based on the recently announced 7 'man-made' wonders of the world.

See the second screenshot in the tutorial: You need to make your secondary colour transparent. When you resize any canvas PDN uses the secondary colour to fill the new empty space. So making your secondary colour transparent will result in the new enlarged space being transparent.

I installed it for curiosity sake and it's an unmodified version (albeit an old one) but it installs in an OFFICE One v7 sub folder. I've uninstalled it but, but as far as I can remember the about box had the standard copyrights and was not trying to brand itself as an Issendis badged product.

I just bought myself a new Notebook PC today and on the box it advertised that it came bundled with "Picture Editor" software. It turned out to be Paint.NET. It was a really old version (2.73, or something) as part of ISSENDIS Office One v7, along with Draw 3D. The Notebook is an iQon with WIndows Vista Premium, AMD Athlon Dual-Core processor, 120GB hard-drive and 2GB of RAM. These have just hit the shelves in major stores and supermarkets across the UK and Ireland at really reasonable prices, so PDN is being exposed to a mass market. It's just a shame that it's quite an old version and, when installed, doesn't automatically offer the user the option to download the latest version.

I'm working on ideas for a new sig... ...any comments or suggestions?

^^ Better?

Another abstract background...(I'm going through my abstract phase :? ) This one has a kind of neon feel about it...and it's tileable, thanks to Madjik's Seamless Texture Maker plugin (in fact I used quite a few of Madjik's plugins in when creating this. If anyone's interested in how I made it, here's the steps in shorthand. KaleidoGen - 30:450:877 Duplicate layer Majority - 0:5:50 (both layers) Twist top layer +25: Twist bottom layer -25 Layer blend on top: Darken Flatten Seamless Texture Maker - 3:0:0 Duplicate layer Cross Blur top layer - 25:45 Layer blend top: Glow Adjustments - Sepia: Bottom Flatten Adjustments - Invert Colours New layer - fill black Add Noise - Max intensity: Max Colour Effects - Film (default settings) Layer Blend Mode - Reflect

It goes something like this... 1. White 800 x 600 canvas 2. Interlace (default settings) 3. Duplicate layer 4. Twist top layer +25, Twist bottom layer -25 5. Set top layer blend to lighten (a la 'Make a Wave') 6. Flatten, then Kaleidascope (4 per quarter) 7. Use Curves to colour then Duplicate layer 8. Bottom layer - zoom blur deluxe (low quality) 9. Top layer blend mode (? can't remember) 10. Flatten - duplicate layer 11. Top layer - edge detect - blend mode (overlay) 12. Bottom layer - effects > Weave 13. Flatten - duplicate layer 14. Top layer - shape 3D - sphere (scale down to fit in centre) This is roughly what I did (I may have missed something). Oh how I wish you could save a PDN history!

An abstract background I threw together in half-an-hour or so, when I was bored... It's a bit like looking down a well :?:

@ Jettyy & Farley ^^ Try saving your finished buttons as filetype .PNG, rather than .JPG and the background will stay transparent (rather than being white, as JPG doesn't support transparency) Otherwise, nice job both of you; I am glad that so many of you that are new to PDN are finding this tutorial easy to follow and producing great results. CJ