[Storm / Vortex Tutorial]

I love it, great tutorial, great result!

Here's mine:

[New & Improved 3D Text/Logo Tutorial!]

Very Very Impressive!

[Erode / Dilate filter]

Thanks for the plugin.

[Basic Antialias version 1.1 - bug fixed (January 14 2008)]

Thank you very much.

[Toli's Effects (v2.0.2, 20 Jan. 2008)]

Thanks a lot, really like it!

[Making a small (but fancy) Orb.]

@LFC4EVER

Thanks a lot, and I'm glad the tutorial was able to help.

@Mr.Whiskers

I like the orbs a lot, really nice. Thanks for the nice comments.

[Waterdrop]

I really liked the tutorial. I showed my mom the pic and she thought it was real . Very realistic.

[My new signature, (I think it turned out okay)]

How do you like my new signature? I made it with the help and suggestions of topHatslash's Gaming signature tutorial. Please post what you think.

[Making a small (but fancy) Orb.]

Cool tut!! I think it's awesome!

Thanks a lot. I appreciate the comment and I'm glad you like it. I like the result you had, and I think it's awesome you made it your avatar.

[Making a small (but fancy) Orb.]

Thanks for all the views. But I'd really like to see finished products of people who have done the tutorial.

Edit: Here's another orb I made for further inspiration.

[Making a small (but fancy) Orb.]

my try plus some extra stuff

Awesome, love the chrome.

Anyway, great tutorial. I love this more than any other orb tutorial on the board..

Thanks, I really appreciate that.

[How to Save Your Images under Different File Types]

Awesome, I had questions like these.

[Making a small (but fancy) Orb.]

Thanks Salu.

I want to show my gratitude to all who PM'd David and asked him to re-open this thread. Thank you very much .

[Making a small (but fancy) Orb.]

Making a small (but fancy) orb with PDN. We will be making this orb as our final product:

For this tutorial you will need v3.22 of Paint.NET, along with the Align Object plugin, and a general understanding of how PDN works.

1: Create a new canvas and resize it to 200x200.

2: Create 5 new layers :AddNewLayer: (or until there are six).

3: On layer Four set your primary color to black and create a perfect filled circle :ShapeInterior: using the Ellipse tool by holding shift and dragging it to the size of 190x190 (I started at 100x5 and went to 100x195 on the canvas). You can watch the size of the circle in the bottom left corner of PDN. Use the Align Object plugin and put it in the center of the canvas.

4: While still on the Fourth layer, choose the Gradient tool and select the Radial Gradient , and switch it from Color :AllColorChannels: to Transparency Mode :AlphaChannel: . Set your primary color to black and your secondary to white (it shouldn't have changed but you never know).

4.1: Place your cursor in the exact middle of the canvas (100x100). Hold shift and right-click and drag left to 6x100 (holding shift will make sure it travels a perfectly straight line). After you've done that, deselect it (Ctrl + D) and repeat it Eight more times (nine total). Now that that's over go ahead and go to Effects > Blurs > Radial Blur. Set the angle 25.00, and the quality to 5.

5: Next we'll do the inside of the orb. For that we move to layer Two. I generally like to do a gradient effect, so we might as well. Select the Ellipse Selection tool . Start at 100x6 and drag it to 100x194 while holding shift. We're making it a little bit smaller than the black outline, it looks better that way (in my opinion). Make sure to switch the Gradient tool back to Color Mode :AllColorChannels: . Now, I'm just going to choose a light red as primary and darker red for secondary, but you can pick what ever you like. Switch to the Radial Gradient and go to the middle of the canvas (100x100) and drag it left to the edge of the canvas (0x100). Now you have a little colored orb.

6: But we want it to look more fancy. So we're going to add a glare. Move to layer Six, and please switch to the Ellipse Selection tool . While holding shift draw the Ellipse selection from 100x8 to 100x192. Switch to the Gradient Tool and select the Linear gradient :LinearGradient: . Make your primary color white and your secondary color transparent. Make sure you're on the primary color, then start at 100x12 and drag it to 100x120, now deselect (Ctrl + D).

6.1 Stay on layer Six and go to Effects > Blurs > Radial Blur. Set the angle to 25.00, I also set the quality to 5 but it's not a requirement. While it may look nice now I think it still needs some help with the glare. Now go to Effects > Blurs > Zoom Blur. The default will be 10 but we only want it at 4. Now, that looks much better. You can then adjust the opacity for it if you like, but I think it looks fine.

Done: There you go, looks great.

If you like we can add a little more originality to the orb we just made. If so, scroll down.

Optional, 7: Move to layer Three so we can put a letter in it. You can put what ever you like, but I'm going to put a letter. Go ahead and select the Text Tool and put a letter anywhere inside the canvas, then use the Align Object plugin to place it square in the middle. I messed with it a little more but it's up to you.

Thanks for reading through my long explanation of a simple tutorial. I would love to see what you make with it. This tutorial can obviously be scaled to any size you like. It also looks good with a black, or white background. This is my first tutorial so I would appreciate constructive criticism, pointers, etc. The font I used in the tutorial is FairydustB and it can be found on dafont.com.

Here are a few more variations:

[Using New Fonts For Paint.NET]

I second http://www.dafont.com. I recently downloaded about 20 fonts from them and they all work great!