Kat

Yes, everything I show here is 100% PDN - made from scratch. The Ethnotext thing was supposed to come out as "firey text" (there's a tut about it in the tut section), but something went wrong, and I don't know what and where. I got so frustrated that I decided to take the text as is, duplicated the picture and on the 2nd level started to play around with effects until I got what I have now. I don't know if I can reproduce it (remember what I did) as I didn't take notes. *lol* I'm a beginner, you bet... :wink:

@worldnewser: that's sweet and funny!

I'm not this experienced in PDN yet, so please could you explain kind of step by step what you mean by that? Is there an option to choose "100%" (or less) of a color, and if so: where? :oops: Edit: I did it nonetheless -- just choosing the blue slightly lighter than the darker one (using the "S" slider and setting it to a value of 83 in the amplified color wheel window. Was that what you meant to say?) Anyway, now here it is .. I see the flaws on which I still have to work (e.g. getting that line nubs into a more centered position so the line looks more symmetric..) and also I should have used feather once more (I used it just once) to get the corners less "pixely" ...but then that was just the first one I ever did, so I forgive myself these little flaws.

This is a Chuzzle.

At which point do you get stuck? :?:

Saabo, I have an idea what connects wrong in your brain... First you work on the level where you have this black box ... then you select the box (meaning: you have the ants running around it). Then you change to the other level and on that other level you hit delete. That should solve your problem! Good luck, I'm looking forward to your result!

Wow Silver, you're really creative - and do very clean work! *taking my non-existent hat off*

Thank you matt, I'm just a beginner in PDN, and as to arts ... just a hobbyist.

Spring

Well, I don't know if this would be worth calling a *gallery* yet - hopefully it will develop into one over time, because up to now I only worked out tuts, and I posted the results already in the corresponding threads. So I won't put them up here once more. But lately, I did something quite on my own, made in PDN from scratch, no stock involved. And I thought I put it up here, as this is "my first work". (Granted, I used to make pics with a similar technique with *the other* P-software, and I tried to "translate" it into PDN... but I guess that's still okay, not?) When you have a look at these pics, please bear in mind that I have begun to use PDN only very recently.... and in "normal life" have nothing whatsoever to do with graphics. Anyway, this is the piece of work from which I cut out parts for my new avatar/sig. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Signatures and avatars --- Old ones, actually among the first things I ever did after I got PDN: Signatures I use sometimes to "sign" my pics: --- The most recent ones made from cut-outs of the above abstract image Update August 10, 2008 Here's one I just turned in for a little contest: Abstract images - playing with colors and effects (using a tut from here which didn't quite work out the way it was meant to be, so at least I "pimped" the text a bit)

Livewrong: I like what you did with the text in your sig, but as you said yourself: the background could do with some improvement. As far as my taste goes, I think when the text is arranged in a lively way (like yours definitely is), it would call for a more "quiet" background. Here, the background and the text are kind of competing for the eyes' attention, and that's a pity for both the background as well as the text. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I made a new sig and a choice of matching avatars: ~~~~~ Variation on my sig:

The tut has had some little traps for me, but I think I found the solution(s) to them all okay. Here's what I did: ~~~~~ Then I thought it might be nice to add some bevel:

Oh thanks a lot Ash, that really helped! My "normal" PDN version is a German localization so I had no idea which of the many blurs was to be the zoom blur! But using your explanation I could see what it's called in German. (Actually, lately I think I might better switch to the English version of the program, that would make following the tuts a lot easier - but then: I have to explain it in German to my little students. So I'm kind of torn between the English and the German version.) As to asking in the related tuts, my experiences lately weren't that encouraging, especially when the tut was not so new, some of them seem to be "abandoned".

Some days ago, I worked through Europe's tut "Make a Wave..." ... and in there s/he mentioned "zoom blur". Looking at the screenshots I see that it looks considerably different from the plugin "Zoom blur deluxe" which I've got. Has the latter replaced the "simple" zoom blur? I used search several times, but all that comes up is just about the "fast zoom blur" which seems to be related to this zoom blur deluxe that I've got. I just ask because I couldn't really reproduce the settings s/he indicated in the tut when using my deluxe version. Thanks for enlightening me!

Wow, that was way easier than the flag we did 2 years ago in the photoshop beginners' course! I just remember that I had a hard time getting the job done - but then: I can't remember if we used displacement there. Whatsoever - first I thought I wouldn't want to do this tut (remembering how difficult I found it in PS), but then, reading it, I thought I might give it a try. I didn't add drop shadow nor alpha mask because I still fell too much a beginner, and I haven't learned yet to use them properly. (Just one step after the other, and pls bear with my pic without the "last refinement" - leaving my piece of work with "unclean" edges. Oh well...)

Very playful tut - you can go on endlessly. Here's my first try... with a bit added... Edit: I didn't like the way my sig came out, so I changed the sig (cropped the text completely) and put it into another copy of the pic I posted yesterday.

Oh, thanks for the good advice! I will work it out again (did already all the flattening) and a little more exercise won't harm anyway. :wink: Just not now (kinda late over here), rather tomorrow.

I had difficulty doing the step where I should have used this gradient -- as soon as I clicked, the whole image would disappear from the layer, and whatever I tried to change in the settings: it didn't work out. Oh well, so I skipped this step ....and here's what I got:

Just tried this tut - after the "how to start a fire"-tut (which was so easy to follow through) I thought this might also be easy enough for me. Well -- no, it wasn't considering the result. Yes it was easy to follow, but it came out a whole lot different than it should have. It's by far too "orderly". So far, I have no idea what I did wrong for it to come out THIS way. :?: I don't know.. maybe I should have done the clouds over and over again? Maybe I should have used a different -not so straight- font? ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well anyway, I thought I might as well start playing around a bit and see what I can make of it - apart from the fact that I didn't get the letters to burn... so I created another level, copied the text on it and started playing (like always: didn't take any notes - I should be a bit more disciplined at my age *lol*). Well but here it is:

That was a wonderful tut - and in fact, I had no idea that this is possible! SO nice! Thank you very much for it. Here's what I did: Original stock used (from a free wallpaper site) ...and this is what it became after working through the tut: Edit today (July 22nd) I was looking for a thing called "Levels" in the correction (adjustment) section of the program but it's not there, so I did it by hitting crtl+L .... Question: Is "levels" a regular program feature and should be there or is it a plugin? Edit of July 23rd Today I realized that in the German release of the program the translation for "levels" (the shortcut of which is ctrl+L) is completely different from what "Levels" would normally mean, that's why I had trouble finding it in the Adjustments Menu. In German it says "Manuelle Anpassung". Maybe there are some more Germans here who are not so much familiar with the graphics slang... hope this helps. But I think I can guess why the translator translated it that way: probably in order not to confuse "layers" and "levels" which in German could be translated by one and the same word.

Thank you, that was very helpful for me as well. I just couldn't figure out how to use this tool, though I had also read the info I get pressing F1.

Thanks, I try that and let you know. Edit: I don't even have to wait this long! Just had a look into my win explorer and the zip pack in there says: 2008-04-27 ... so here we go. Thanks for your help!! Edit #2: Yesssssss! Now there it is! yippiiiiieehhh!

oooooh, you're getting me on the wrong leg ... If I understand you correctly, I downloaded (and installed) the wrong package altogether? That means I would have to DL it again, but better first get rid of all the pyrochild effects in my PDN program effects folder, right? Thinking twice about what you said, I remember that I got all the plugin packs and after that switched to the beta version, and then again, updated to the new version of PDN. Could something have gotten lost in this process? (Not very probably so, hm?)

Thanks BoltBait - Kat is just the abbrevation for Katharina! Oh, PS. I just followed your link - that's where I came from, and in there, if I click on DL, I am redirected here into this thread with the whole package (which I've got already). :?: :idea:

Hope my question/problem doesn't sound stupid. A few days ago, I DL'ed this pyrochild plugins package, and generally, I'm very happy with the new possibilities it offers. (Great job, thanks!) However I can't find the Smudge plugin - I looked into all places where it might hide ... no smudge. The extracted zip doesn't show any "smudge" file, within the effects folder, there is no "smudge.dll" and in the effects menu in the program I don't see it either. Has it been taken off from the DL package?