Ace Jon

This is the best I can make it while keeping the kimono white:

I mean that it just won't work.

It'll look bad if you have the white parts of the kimono cut out but the white background gone.

Magic wand Shift+click the white background Ctrl+I Now you have the logo and words selected and you can do what you like with them.

My entry:

The top right corner of the Paint.NET window has a thumbnail view of all your currently opened images.

AFAIK, Paint.NET 4 will have custom brushes, so expect the brush library to explode at that point. Until then, sit tight.

If the whole car looked like that door, with the shines in the correct places, that would look very good. Attention to some others: cars generally don't have a brushed metal look, just a metal look (brushed metal look is the one where you add noise+motion blur).

A quick do-up: It needs more shininess... If your car has a background, add reflections.

Change the gradient to a vertical one (so the darker colour is on the bottom). This gives it the shading needed. Now, add a new layer and draw two downwards-curved (like a smile) lines. Fill the ensuing shape between the curves and the edge of the bodywork with a 30% alpha white to a 10% alpha white. Delete the lines. This gives the metal a shine. If it looks too cut-out, give the shine a very soft blur.

The shine effects won't work well on a white backgrounded image, and your picture window isn't centred, which breaks the shadows.

Here's mine, took a long time:

It's beautiful. I'll have to try it sometime.

Maybe get rid of the blue highlighting and try a font colour that stands out by itself?

My exploding planet: If you use the Cloud :Clouds: Render Effect with a dark orange primary colour and white secondary colour instead of colour-inverted cracked mud, and otherwise follow the same steps, you get a sun: It lacks flares and such, but it's a good basis on which you could add more features.

jake2k, those planets are awesome!

I wish I had. I'm not a beginner, I just can't afford PS (and I don't plan to "acquire" it magically), and the other software isn't as good. Until recently, I've been using Flash MX 2004 for my images! Those were dark days. Thanks for the welcomes, all.

Yeah, there's nothing inherently wrong with any of them, it's just a bit of an overload. I bet it would look less daunting if it was categorised and included more friendly language.

That's quite the extensive list you've got there. Also, some really strict password rules too (both cases, must include numbers and letters, 8+ characters). I'm glad I've got [a browser that saves your passwords].

I just got PdN today, and I'm very happy. Too long have I searched for something like this (yes, there's The GIMP, but it has the worst UI ever). A GIMP user on a forum I visit linked me to getpaint.net earlier today, and it's great! I had a few goes on some tutorials (I saved my "rainbow eye" and "exploding planet" ), and I downloaded some plugins too. It all works lovely on Vista and I just wanted to announce how happy I am with it. So easy to use... Colour me impressed.