cjmcguinness

Started working on this for SOTW #4 (when it looked like it might be Vista theme). Everything's created from scratch (apart from the PDN screenshots, with my artwork in the frame).

Any update on SOTW #4? Looks like everyone is in favour of the Tron theme...

@ OmgWtfBbq Off Topic: Have you checked your Private Messages?

Shocker I have a solution that will work for this particular texture, as it is a horizontal pattern. Try this... 1. Take the image (512x512) make sure there is no white border, that the texture fills the entire canvas. 2. Select one entire half of the image (left or right, it doesn't really matter) using the rectangle select tool. The area should be 256x512. 3. Delete this section 4. [CTRL+SHIFT+D] to duplicate the layer 5. On the top layer select LAYER > Flip Horizontal 6. [CTRL+SHIFT+F] to flatten. 7. Now, select either the entire top, or bottom, half and delete it. 8. [CTRL+SHIFT+D] to duplicate the layer 9. On the top layer select LAYER > Flip Vertical 10. [CTRL+SHIFT+F] to flatten. You should now have a tileable image. This method should do the trick, but has essentially reduced your 512 image by 1/4 with it flipped and repeated. Seamless Helper If you want to use the seamless helper plugin for something like this, start with an image that has NO white border. After applying Seamless Helper you will see the seam running vertically down the middle (and across depending on the texture). You should use combinations of cut/paste, blends, clone stamp to best hide this seam (make sure to not touch the 1-2px at the extreme edge of the image, as these are the parts that match when tiled). Hope this helps.

Thanks, I didn't have Grid Maker v3 plugin installed at the time of writing. But given that even the new 'enhanced' Grid Maker can only render up to a maximum of 300 it wouldn't cope with cropped images taller or wider than 900px. So, if you're cropping to less than 900px sizes then, yes, by all means use Grid Maker plugin to save time; for anything bigger you'll still have to draw in the grid lines manually.

The irony of the advert on the side of the bus is not lost...

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it As PDN is more than a digital art creation medium and is used by many for enhancing their own photographs (myself included) I thought I'd post this tutorial regarding cropping of photo's for most pleasingly artistic composition. This tutorial will show you how to crop your digital photographs according to a tried and tested method known as the Rule of Thirds. The Rule of Thirds is a well known and respected compositional rule of thumb in photography. Whereas most 'amateur' photographers tend to place their main object in the centre of their view, the Rule of Thirds works on the principal that when an image is divided into nine equal parts (by two equally-spaced horizontal and vertical lines) and the main feature is positioned according to the four intersecting points it produces a more aesthetically pleasing and professional-looking result than simple centering of the feature would. The rule is usually applied by lining up subjects with the guiding lines and placing the horizon on the top or bottom line instead of the center. Although commonly known as the 'Rule' of Thirds this is really more a guideline than a hard rule. The picture below demonstrates these principals: You will notice that the main feature in the picture is the tower. This is perfectly centred on the right vertical dividing line. Also, the horizon in the background is positioned according to the bottom horizontal line. Cropping a landscape picture: The usual reason for cropping a picture is to remove extraneous material and leave a pleasing image for printing. This tutorial aims to produce a final image of 8" x 6", a standard photographic print size, but can be adjusted to suit any size. First, load the required image into PDN. I am using this picture of the Washington Monument. This image was originally 1024x768 - I have scaled it down to 600x450 for display purposes As you can see the monument itself is perfectly centred in the photograph. We are going to crop it according to the Rule of Thirds to produce a more professional and aesthetically pleasing look. Create a new image and enter the canvas size as follows: At 96 DPI your canvas should now be 768x576 Create a new layer and call it 'Thirds'. On this new layer we are going to create the grid. Position your cursor at the top of the canvas, at the position 256,0 (see below), and using the Line/Curve tool draw a line straight down the canvas, ensuring you finish at position 256,576 (you can go below the canvas). Repeat this, and draw another vertical line from position 528,0. Now, start on the left side of the canvas and position the cursor at 0,192 and draw a horizontal line across the canvas. Repeat this from position 0,384. You now have your 3x3 grid. Zoom out to about 66%. This will give you some space to work when you paste the original image in. Go to your original image and press CTRL+A, to select all and CTRL+C, to copy. Move back to the image with the grid, select the Background layer and press CTRL+V to paste. You will get the following dialog: Select 'Keep Canvas Size'. This will paste the image so that it is outside the bounds of the canvas. Use the mouse, click and drag the image to position the main feature (the monument) along the left vertical line. You should also position the horizon along the bottom horizontal line. You may wish to include more (or less) of the picture within the bounds. To do this you can click on one of the corner nodes and, holding the [sHIFT] button drag to adjust the image size. Press CTRL+D to deselect. You can now uncheck the 'Thirds' layer to remove the grid. Your image is now cropped and compositionally complies with the Rule of Thirds. Compare this to the original image; is this a more pleasing picture? Cropping a Portrait picture: If you are cropping a picture of a person you can follow the same 'Rule of Thirds'. Take this picture of a well know political leader (just a random picture that happens to suit my needs). The object is centrally positioned. If we create a canvas that is 6" x 8" and recreate our grid (same principal, only portrait in orientation) you should position the subject so that their eyeline intersects the top horizontal line and the bodyline follows the right (or left, depending on your composition) vertical line. This is a well established methodologhy for picture composition and I lay no claims to any inventiveness on my part here; I just thought that PDN could do with some different tutorials for those interested in enhancing their photographs. However, the same Rule of Thirds can apply to creative compositions as well. If, for example, you are creating a space scene - try positioning the main feature (planet, sun, etc..) according to these rules. I hope this tutorial is in some way enlightening and informative.

The top one is actually only a piece of concept artwork, you can find it here The bottom one is an actual prototype - the Peugeot 9009, you can find it here

I tried this on car images at various angles. It's do-able, but can look kinda weird. Like this.....

@ Someone2016 I like it, looks like it belongs in the Pixar movie 'Cars' Never thought of doing this effect on a head-on shot, cool.

Wow! Thanks BoltBait - I never expected in a million years that this would get sticky'd. Hope everyone has some fun with it. Here's my latest - Father & Son Bugatti

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it This isn't a really a tutorial in the strict sense, as it does not really demonstrate any type of effect or technique - it's just a bit of fun. We are going to take a picture of a full-sized sports car and modify it to look like a cool Toy Car. Start with a picture of a car - must be taken completely side-on for best effect. Start with the Rectangle Select tool and select the front area of the car - ahead of the wheel arch, from top to bottom of the picture. (If there is a flare on the wheel arch select outside that as well, it'll look better). Now, switch to the Move Selected Pixels tool and, selecting one of the middle points, contract the size of the selected shape by 50% (so, if your selection is 100px wide, squash it to 50px) Switch back to the Rectangle Select tool and now select the middle area of the car, the whole area between the front and rear wheels. Again, use the Move Selected Pixels tool to squash this selection to 50% of it's original size. Then, using Rectangle Select again, highlight the are behind the rear wheels. Once more, use the Move Selected Pixels tool to contract this to 50% of it's original width. Now, you need to move all the pieces back together, so that they join up neatly. The simplest way to do this is with Madjik's Gravity plugin. Press CTRL+D to make sure any active areas are deselected - alternatively you can press CTRL+A and select the entire canvas; either will work. Then go to Effects > Distort > Gravity: Select the direction as 'Left' or 'Right' and all the pieces will be moved back together. To get rid of the left-over space, use the Magic Wand tool and select the transparent area of the canvas. Press CTRL+I to invert the selection and go Image > Crop to Selection (CTRL+SHIFT+X) and voila - you have turned a full sized car into a toy version. This'll work for any car as long as the pic is taken directly side on... Like this..... or this.....

Congrat's The_Lionhearted, loved the sig (in fact, it got my vote!). I'd be in favour of any theme that concentrates purely on creative skills with PDN, rather than cutting and pasting (manipulating) other images. An O/S style theme would be good as you can render all your own buttons, bars, icons, controls, backgrounds, etc. However, as I've only ever used Windows 2000 and XP my knowledge of Vista, Mac OSX, Linux, etc would be limited (I'm sure the same would be true for other users). Saying that, I'd still prefer this to videogames or movies where you would be naturally drawn to using stock images. Anyway, the sooner we get started the better; I'm raring to go...

Check out the Paint.NET help pages. There is a description of how to use the Magic Wand Tool. It explains adjusting the tolerance to select the right areas and amounts to remove.

Buzzkill's Glass Buttons tutorial should give you some insight into adding this effect. Also, my own Round Glass Buttons tutorial uses similar methods of layer opacity.

Stock images: Album Covers Band Members

flyby, The ability to change the line style was introduced in v3.07b A stable release of 3.07 is now available from the Paint.NET website Download and install the latest version and you will have access to this feature.

If you've managed to add this yourself through the source coude perhaps you could wrap it up in a .dll and make a plugin out of it. I think (and I may be wrong) that, at present, you can only add plugins to the Adjustments or Effects menu's - and this would probably sit better in the Edit menu. Just a thought, though I'm not a programmer and have no idea if it's even possible to create such a plugin.

Yes, good suggestion. That would have saved creating the extra layer. You'd have to remember to change the Blending Mode to Overwrite as well.

How to make a Picture Filmstrip is now posted in the Tutorials section. Here's the outcome, I used some car pictures in the tut... ...but here's a Friends one also. Let me know if you have any trouble completing the tutorial. -CJ

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it This tutorial will show you how to create a filmstrip style frame for your pictures. You will need to download and install the Tube Oblique plugin to complete this tutorial. This strip will be setup to contain images in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Start with a canvas size of 420w x 440h. Set your Primary colour to Black and fill the canvas. EFFECTS > Add Noise: Intensity 64 (default), Colour Saturation 0. EFFECTS > Blurs > Unfocus at 50px ADJUSTMENTS > Sepia. This will give your 'filmstrip' a nice brownish camera film type of colour. Using the Rectangle Select tool, draw a rectangle area that is 420px wide and 30px high, positioned 25px from the top of the canvas. You can draw a base rectangle and use the Move Selection tool to resize and reposition. Use the information in the bottom right of the screen to get the correct size and position. Create a new layer (CTRL+SHIFT+N). Choose the Line/Curve tool, set Primary Colour to White, Secondary Colour to Black. Set your Brush Width at 30 and your line style to Dotted. Starting inside the left of your selected area, left-click and draw a line from left to right. Now, with the dotted line still selected press CTRL+C to copy and CTRL+V to paste. By default the Move Selected Pixels tool will have been selected, so use the mouse to click and drag this selection to the bottom of the strip, make sure that it is offset 25px from the bottom. Press CTRL+D to deselect and, EFFECTS > NOISE > Median: Radius 5, Percentile 50. Use the rectangle select tool again and draw a rectangle that is 400 x 300 pixels, positioned 10,70 from the top left. Fill this rectangle white. Select the Magic Wand tool and set the tolerance at 0% Hold the SHIFT button and click in the main white area; this will highlight all the white areas. Go to the Background layer and press Delete. You can now delete later 2. Use the Rectangle Select tool and, holt the SHIFT key to draw a square about 100 x 100 pixels. Choose the Move Selection tool and, right-click to rotate the square to 45 degrees. Move the selected square to the bottom right of your canvas so that it is only covering a small potion in the corner measuring 20 x 20. Press the Delete key to get rid of this corner. Repeat this process on the opposite corner. Now, you need to decide how many frames are going to be in your film strip. I am going to do five here. Set the Alpha Transparency of your Secondary Colour to 0 (zero). Then select IMAGE > Canvas Size. Untick, Maintain Aspect Ratio and make sure the Anchor is set to Left. You need to adjust the size of your canvas width depending on how many frames you want. I am using 5 frames, so I am changing the width of the canvas to 2100 (420x5). Zoom out to 50% so you can see all the canvas. Now, use the Magic Wand tool again and, holding the SHIFT key click anywhere in transparent area, then press CTRL+I to invert selection. Press CTRL+C to copy and CTRL+V to paste. Use the Move Selected pixels tool to move the selection to the right and position it. Press CTRL+V again to paste another copy and move this into position. Repeat this another two times until the canvas is filled. You'll need to have your filmstrip images prepared, cropped and resized to 400 x 300px. Open each in a new image within PDN. Go to your first image and press CTRL+A to select all and CTRL+C to copy. Go back to your Filmstrip image and press CTRL+V to paste. Use the mouse and the arrow keys to position within the image window. Repeat this by selecting your images one-by-one and copying them then returning to your filmstrip and pasting and positioning. Press F4 to access the Layer Properties and set the Opacity at 230 (this will make your filmstrip slightly transparent) - this is optional. Now, press CTRL+SHIFT+R to access the Canvas Size and, this time changing the Anchor to Bottom, change the canvas size to 2400 x 1200 EFFECTS > Distort > Tube Oblique: Horizontal 0, Vertical anything from 20 - 50, whichever suits best for your purpose. You can now resize and or rotate your image to suit. Try producing multiple strips with different curvatures using the Tube Oblique effect and adjoin them to make a longer curved strip. You can also add a Drop Shadow for effect - you will need the Drop Shadow plugin.

flyby, Have the basics done, working on the finer points of the wave effect. Will need to type it up and take some screenshots so, should have it posted, in the tutorials section, in a couple of hours. Cheers -CJ

Flyby, By 'film reel thing' do you mean something like this? If so, I could try to put together some sort of tutorial. -CJ

My latest Avatar and Sig based on my earlier orb.

As Orb's seem to be en vogue at the moment...