mmm

Okay, fine. I feel better knowing that we need to read stuff into the rules, and not take them verbatim. I'd hoped david.atwell would have explained it, since he's the one who locked my question. Gotta love the moderators, keeping us in line. :-) Peace out. mmm

I spend days searching for answers, experimenting with the tool, reading many incidental topics, then going back and making sure my question isn't answered or obvious. I spend a good amount of time deciding where to post my question. And then what happens? I get slapped in the face. Clearly, I need help understanding the rules. According to the rules (emphasis mine): 2) Post in the correct section. For instance, the Plugins and Tutorials sections are STRICTLY reserved for PUBLISHING ONLY. Do NOT post questions in there. Your post will be deleted immediately. If you don't know where to post, you should probably be posting in the General forum. I asked a plugin question in the General forum, because I didn't want my post to be deleted immediately from the plugin section, or to run afoul of any other rules. Fix the rule, follow it, or show me where the rules say I should be posting plugin questions in the section STRICTLY reserved for PUBLISHING ONLY. Thank you, mmm

The Textile plugin seems to overwrite whatever I have with a black-and-white canvas cloth. There is no dialog, so I guess I'm missing something obvious. I've tried on blank layers, filled layers, layers with full transparent and "something" on it (like the Render/Object/Outline needs) but nothing seems to change the outcome. I've searched the forum, and haven't seen any mention of it, other than it being announced as part of the plugin. (BTW, I really like this plugin. Then again... I like pretty much all of the plugins--can you get addicted to plugins? (Don't take that out of context, thank you very much, lol.)) mmm

If you need really fancy text spacing and writing along curved paths, I'd recommend Inkscape (that's dot ORG, not dot COM). But, it's a whole different way of working with graphics, compared with PDN. I started using it for fancy curved text, but am still getting used to it.

Ash gave an excellent example of cloth ripples in "I want to make velvet..." If you follow that thread, it starts simple, "Sine waves". Then "Sine wave" and "waves". Then, "Sine waves", "waves" and "gradient". I was never able to come up with anything close, and am wondering if someone else can explain how to go from a solid background with a few manual squiggles to something as wonderful as what Ash came up with. I've been experimenting with smudge, shadow, blurs, as well as the sine wave/wave/gradient, and different layers with different blend modes, but all I get is something that looks like multi-layered blurry shadow smudges of squiggles gradiating (new word) across a wave of sine waves. (And it looks worse than it sounds.) Actually, I'm not looking for something as awesome as what Ash came up with. I just want to know how to make everyday, run-of-the-mill ripples, wrinkles, or creases in a cloth texture. Ideally, they will be on a separate layer from the cloth itself. Thanks, mmm

Paint.NET is no longer open source.DOH! Of course--I knew that; I'd forgotten. Nonetheless, my comment about sharing (or re-using, I guess it would be) still stands. I.e., even if there were no technical challenges to PDN using Inkscape code for a common color-selector like the one in Inkscape, license issues might put the brake on it. But I'm not a lawyer, and don't play one on TV or on the internet.mmm

Both the spline and bezier curves are great, but I've occasionally wanted the ability to create a smooth curve that is more complex than 4 points determines. What you may be looking for is a different program. Have you tried inkscape? Yes, thank you. Inkscape is pretty clever, and I'm sure I'll use it more in the future. But I am having different challenges there. I just started with it, so it's probably my ignorance. I've having trouble getting my objects to be overall constrained to a 1024x1024 px region. I know I can resize at the end, when I export to PNG, but that will move things ever so slightly, and at the moment, I'm going for pixel-width accuracy. For that reason, I prefer staying in PDN. (As an aside, I would be very happy if the color-selection objects in PDN (and plugins) were standardized and as fancy as the one in Inkscape. Ironic--they're both open source programs, but the licenses probably preclude them from sharing code. The color wheel is awesome, and I love the way its color sliders preview the "color to be" if you were to move the thumb to that spot.) mmm

Both the spline and bezier curves are great, but I've occasionally wanted the ability to create a smooth curve that is more complex than 4 points determines. What you may be looking for is a different program. Have you tried inkscape? Yes, thank you. Inkscape is pretty clever, and I'm sure I'll use it more in the future. But I am having different challenges there. I just started with it, so it's probably my ignorance. I've having trouble getting my objects to be overall constrained to a 1024x1024 px region. I know I can resize at the end, when I export to PNG, but that will move things ever so slightly, and at the moment, I'm going for pixel-width accuracy. For that reason, I prefer staying in PDN. (As an aside, I would be very happy if the color-selection objects in PDN (and plugins) were standardized and as fancy as the one in Inkscape. Ironic--they're both open source programs, but the licenses probably preclude them from sharing code. The color wheel is awesome, and I love the way its color sliders preview the "color to be" if you were to move the thumb to that spot.) mmm

Both the spline and bezier curves are great, but I've occasionally wanted the ability to create a smooth curve that is more complex than 4 points determines. I end up doing it piece-wise, and am limited because the first 2-3 points of each subsequent segment is constrained, in order to maintain a smooth transition. I know Gauss can be my friend here, but so would the ability to add (and remove) control points. Then I could write my name in cursive, by adding (and removing) control points.As I write this, I realize that this probably should have a different subject line. I don't think it's a "simple" feature. :-)

Both the spline and bezier curves are great, but I've occasionally wanted the ability to create a smooth curve that is more complex than 4 points determines. I end up doing it piece-wise, and am limited because the first 2-3 points of each subsequent segment is constrained, in order to maintain a smooth transition. I know Gauss can be my friend here, but so would the ability to add (and remove) control points. Then I could write my name in cursive, by adding (and removing) control points.As I write this, I realize that this probably should have a different subject line. I don't think it's a "simple" feature. :-)

Both the spline and bezier curves are great, but I've occasionally wanted the ability to create a smooth curve that is more complex than 4 points determines. I end up doing it piece-wise, and am limited because the first 2-3 points of each subsequent segment is constrained, in order to maintain a smooth transition. I know Gauss can be my friend here, but so would the ability to add (and remove) control points. Then I could write my name in cursive, by adding (and removing) control points.As I write this, I realize that this probably should have a different subject line. I don't think it's a "simple" feature. :-)

Both the spline and bezier curves are great, but I've occasionally wanted the ability to create a smooth curve that is more complex than 4 points determines. I end up doing it piece-wise, and am limited because the first 2-3 points of each subsequent segment is constrained, in order to maintain a smooth transition. I know Gauss can be my friend here, but so would the ability to add (and remove) control points. Then I could write my name in cursive, by adding (and removing) control points.As I write this, I realize that this probably should have a different subject line. I don't think it's a "simple" feature. :-)

I'm with Jason--I can't figure out how to use the seismograph with clouds to produce Any hints would be greatly appreciated. I tried using different layers, and rotating the clouds, rotating the seismograph, changing blend modes, in different combinations, but couldn't come up with it. The closest I got was [attachment=0]mmm-seismograph.png[/attachment]1. On a white background, render clouds. 2. Set the blending mode to Screen, and duplicate the layer twice. 3. Apply seismograph (default settings) to the top layer. 4. Rotate the top layer 90 degrees. 5. Apply seismograph (default settings) to the middle layer. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks, mmm

I'm with Jason--I can't figure out how to use the seismograph with clouds to produce Any hints would be greatly appreciated. I tried using different layers, and rotating the clouds, rotating the seismograph, changing blend modes, in different combinations, but couldn't come up with it. The closest I got was [attachment=0]mmm-seismograph.png[/attachment]1. On a white background, render clouds. 2. Set the blending mode to Screen, and duplicate the layer twice. 3. Apply seismograph (default settings) to the top layer. 4. Rotate the top layer 90 degrees. 5. Apply seismograph (default settings) to the middle layer. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks, mmm

I'm with Jason--I can't figure out how to use the seismograph with clouds to produce Any hints would be greatly appreciated. I tried using different layers, and rotating the clouds, rotating the seismograph, changing blend modes, in different combinations, but couldn't come up with it. The closest I got was [attachment=0]mmm-seismograph.png[/attachment]1. On a white background, render clouds. 2. Set the blending mode to Screen, and duplicate the layer twice. 3. Apply seismograph (default settings) to the top layer. 4. Rotate the top layer 90 degrees. 5. Apply seismograph (default settings) to the middle layer. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks, mmm

I'm with Jason--I can't figure out how to use the seismograph with clouds to produce Any hints would be greatly appreciated. I tried using different layers, and rotating the clouds, rotating the seismograph, changing blend modes, in different combinations, but couldn't come up with it. The closest I got was 1. On a white background, render clouds. 2. Set the blending mode to Screen, and duplicate the layer twice. 3. Apply seismograph (default settings) to the top layer. 4. Rotate the top layer 90 degrees. 5. Apply seismograph (default settings) to the middle layer. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks, mmm

I make clothing images for Second Life. When I make a shirt (for example), I usually make several variations--men's, women's, v-neck, tank top, etc. If there's text or an image on the shirt, I usually have to change the position for the different style (lower for v-neck and tank top, higher for others) to compensate for the way SL renders. Currently I have a handful of PDN files for the men/women/tanktop/etc styles, and use layers to mix shirt/collar colors and text/image/patterns. This works okay, but some of the PDNs are 15MB in size (the layers are 1024x1024), and take a while to redraw when I Ctrl+Tab between open images. And, it's taking longer and longer to flatten the image when I finally save it out as a PNG, even though there are usually only 3-5 layers visible. My largest file has 80+ layers. Is anyone else doing something like this? If so, what are some suggestions for better organizing it? E.g., should I just save each version in a separate PDN file, and have a "i-love-sl-mens.pdn", "i-love-sl-womens.pdn", "i-love-sl-tanktop.pdn" and so on? Another thing I've considered is to just keep the flattened images around, and if I need to go through the work of recreating it, do it then, rather than keeping several huge, multi-layered PDN files that act as a repository of all of them. That would be a pain, if I ever need to do that, but it might be less pain than this increasing degradation of performance. Thanks, mmm

I make clothing images for Second Life. When I make a shirt (for example), I usually make several variations--men's, women's, v-neck, tank top, etc. If there's text or an image on the shirt, I usually have to change the position for the different style (lower for v-neck and tank top, higher for others) to compensate for the way SL renders. Currently I have a handful of PDN files for the men/women/tanktop/etc styles, and use layers to mix shirt/collar colors and text/image/patterns. This works okay, but some of the PDNs are 15MB in size (the layers are 1024x1024), and take a while to redraw when I Ctrl+Tab between open images. And, it's taking longer and longer to flatten the image when I finally save it out as a PNG, even though there are usually only 3-5 layers visible. My largest file has 80+ layers. Is anyone else doing something like this? If so, what are some suggestions for better organizing it? E.g., should I just save each version in a separate PDN file, and have a "i-love-sl-mens.pdn", "i-love-sl-womens.pdn", "i-love-sl-tanktop.pdn" and so on? Another thing I've considered is to just keep the flattened images around, and if I need to go through the work of recreating it, do it then, rather than keeping several huge, multi-layered PDN files that act as a repository of all of them. That would be a pain, if I ever need to do that, but it might be less pain than this increasing degradation of performance. Thanks, mmm

I make clothing images for Second Life. When I make a shirt (for example), I usually make several variations--men's, women's, v-neck, tank top, etc. If there's text or an image on the shirt, I usually have to change the position for the different style (lower for v-neck and tank top, higher for others) to compensate for the way SL renders. Currently I have a handful of PDN files for the men/women/tanktop/etc styles, and use layers to mix shirt/collar colors and text/image/patterns. This works okay, but some of the PDNs are 15MB in size (the layers are 1024x1024), and take a while to redraw when I Ctrl+Tab between open images. And, it's taking longer and longer to flatten the image when I finally save it out as a PNG, even though there are usually only 3-5 layers visible. My largest file has 80+ layers. Is anyone else doing something like this? If so, what are some suggestions for better organizing it? E.g., should I just save each version in a separate PDN file, and have a "i-love-sl-mens.pdn", "i-love-sl-womens.pdn", "i-love-sl-tanktop.pdn" and so on? Another thing I've considered is to just keep the flattened images around, and if I need to go through the work of recreating it, do it then, rather than keeping several huge, multi-layered PDN files that act as a repository of all of them. That would be a pain, if I ever need to do that, but it might be less pain than this increasing degradation of performance. Thanks, mmm

I make clothing images for Second Life. When I make a shirt (for example), I usually make several variations--men's, women's, v-neck, tank top, etc. If there's text or an image on the shirt, I usually have to change the position for the different style (lower for v-neck and tank top, higher for others) to compensate for the way SL renders. Currently I have a handful of PDN files for the men/women/tanktop/etc styles, and use layers to mix shirt/collar colors and text/image/patterns. This works okay, but some of the PDNs are 15MB in size (the layers are 1024x1024), and take a while to redraw when I Ctrl+Tab between open images. And, it's taking longer and longer to flatten the image when I finally save it out as a PNG, even though there are usually only 3-5 layers visible. My largest file has 80+ layers. Is anyone else doing something like this? If so, what are some suggestions for better organizing it? E.g., should I just save each version in a separate PDN file, and have a "i-love-sl-mens.pdn", "i-love-sl-womens.pdn", "i-love-sl-tanktop.pdn" and so on? Another thing I've considered is to just keep the flattened images around, and if I need to go through the work of recreating it, do it then, rather than keeping several huge, multi-layered PDN files that act as a repository of all of them. That would be a pain, if I ever need to do that, but it might be less pain than this increasing degradation of performance. Thanks, mmm

Splatter doesn't bear repeating. To repeat the problem, simply "do" a splatter, and then press Ctrl+F (or choose Effects, Repeat Splatter). The "Rendering" dialog pops up, and sits at 0% until you press Cancel. When you press Cancel, you get "Plugin Error...". I am using Paint.net 3.36 and Splatter1.5. The details of the error are: File: C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\Effects\Splatter.dll Effect Name: pyrochild.effects.splatter.Splatter Full error message: PaintDotNet.WorkerThreadException: Worker thread threw an exception ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at PaintDotNet.Surface.GetPointAddressUnchecked(Int32 x, Int32 y) at pyrochild.effects.splatter.Splatter.Render(EffectConfigToken parameters, RenderArgs dstArgs, RenderArgs srcArgs, Rectangle[] rois, Int32 startIndex, Int32 length) at PaintDotNet.Effects.BackgroundEffectRenderer.ThreadFunction() --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at PaintDotNet.Effects.BackgroundEffectRenderer.Join() at PaintDotNet.Effects.BackgroundEffectRenderer.Abort() at PaintDotNet.Menus.EffectMenuBase.DoEffect(Effect effect, EffectConfigToken token, PdnRegion selectedRegion, PdnRegion regionToRender, Surface originalSurface, Exception& exception)