jerry533482

Well, we were given a lot of time to make some pretty good entries (I'm not just talking about mine), and not a lot of members are always noticing when a new comp is being voted on, so why not leave it open for another couple days? It's kinda' pointless to dismiss an SAC competition with a 4 day vote. There are a lot of good entries. Some even look comparably to photoshop projects.

Sorry, my internet connection's screwed up, so it posted twice.

Possum, why are there only 4 days to vote? That hardly seems fair. Then what ends up happening is someone gets 10 votes while everyone else get 1 vote or none! We were given 2 weeks to work on this, so why not give the voting period more time to average out? Perhaps a week or so?

This has been under construction since the 27th. I've noticed that when you take your time with your creations, You get better results. I was going to wait until the 9th to submit my entry, but I figured that if I add any more to it, I'll ruin it. I'm very pleased with the outcome. Behold! An asteroid-side view of an ice giant: 100% original, 100% PDN, & 100% proud of it.

This was supposed to be part of my SAC entry, but it turned into something beautiful, & I couldn't bear to feature it on the PDN forum as a background object. Plus, the default canvas was 1600x1200, so it was pointless to waste the detail. Here it is. I call it "Randomized beauty". Click for the full size image: 100% PDN. Additionally, I'm adding a thumbnail link to my SAC entry. I've finished it today, so I figured I'd post it in my gallery. Click on the thumbnail for the full size. Unfortunately, photobucket doesn't allow images over 1024x768, so about a third of the original pixels were resized out. Behold: An asteroid-side view of an ice giant (I know that's a mouthful, but I wanted my entry to appear on a google image search with fair ease): As I said with my entry, 100% original, 100% PDN, & 100% proud of it.

Awesome tut. I now have more ideas on how to make grassy scenery. Love the clouds.

Mcamp, would you mind letting me look at the actual project, or could you describe the steps you used? I'd like to see how you added the noise. I know PixelLab is pretty much dead, but I'd like to see what it can do.

If that's the case, then there is no downside.

Like I said Simon, as long as plugin authors are willing to deal with the language translations, it's a great idea.

Guys, I have the majority of my entry done, but it still needs more features. What I'm asking is, does anyone here know any good tuts or have any good techniques for creating a lively star background? Like, one with a few colors & some circular glows? Please let me know if you do. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Brilliant Idea Simon, but if this were implemented, wouldn't that require all plugin authors to individually translate their plugins to every language PDN supports?

Rick, couldn't you get even 2 or 3 programmers to help with PDN development? How do you manage so much code?

Bravo! Bravo! This is amazing. I haven't studied this tut until just recently, but it's incredibly helpful. Thank you very much Frozen_byte. I'm entering the SAC #1, & this'll more than help me.

Why not something simple like a link in PDN's help menu that links straight to the index? BTW, I'm heading to school now, so I won't be able to reply till' after 4 o clock'. See ya' guys later.

Just what I was thinking. I actually didn't realize it until I added the post. A simple answer to plugin frenzy: accessing the plugin index through paint.net! I don't know if Rick would approve, but it's an idea. Just like I said earlier Ego Eram Reputo, the plugin index itself is brilliant. Thank you for managing it.

Do you mods have any ideas on a better way to organize plugins? I'm trying to do good here, but I'm not getting any ideas. What if the plugin index were somehow available directly through paint.net? Now there's an idea. I've edited the post. No more polls, just discussions on plugin organization.

A plugin pack might help. It could be something like the plugin index (which, by the way, is very helpful; thanks to Ego Eram Reputo ).

Boltbait, I have heard numerous times that plugins shouldn't be redistributed without permission. I agree, but I'm curious as to how many plugin authors actually disagree with it. I'm not making this post for copying any plugins myself, but to clear the inconsistencies on the situation. And to help Rick get an idea on whether or not organizing plugins for v4.0 is a good idea or not. Regarding me writing plugins, I haven't written any. And regarding CommanderSozo's comment, mods please move this to the off-topic or a more appropriate forum if need-be.

I've edited my post. The poll is closed; I'm just asking if any forum members have any ideas on better organizing plugins.

My "4/28/2010 lineup" Another windows pun: An ode to the good old days of data storage: And, my space additions, of course: I call it "plasmaized ringed lava planet": And some of my more recent nebula attempts: This one, in my opinion, is my best, because of the way I added colors. It is also my 4th nebula prototype. I've moved on to a more standardized technique:

Holy cow, Oma. I saw your entry &, well I guess you could say we have some competition. I'm (and based on the other entries I've seen, pretty much everyone else is) not basing my/their entry on asteroids, but rather spacescape scenery. You, on the other hand have made a picture almost entirely of asteroids that is PRISTINE. Seriously, I can get the shadows & texture of an asteroid right, but the blurring always stumps me. You're blurring is perfect. Do you have any tips you could share with us? BTW, I'm happy my original project was corrupted the other day. It was junk, & I probably would have submitted it. My progress for now is far more refined, & I'm taking my time with it. After seeing Oma's entry, I'm waiting until the last minute to submit mine. It'll kinda' give me an advantage, knowing what I'm painting against.

Actually, I was using Recuva & I am running Windows 7. Unfortunately, after I found the file to be corrupted, I deleted it, & then I undeleted it with recuva, so no previous versions. What I'm asking is, can any data be retrieved from the .PDN I have now?

Just a piece of advice, I'm going to be utilizing the 1600x1200 workspace (for high detail), & I've found that add noise doesn't have such a good outcome for stars (when using a large resolution). they all look distorted & like they have tails ( ) & stuff. Yikes. But anyway, if you're using a large workspace (e.g. larger than 1024x768), don't go with traditional add noise. either manually draw in the stars (this isn't as difficult as it sounds, just draw a couple of white dots in with the pencil against a black background, duplicate with blending set to additive, move the stars, merge layers, & repeat), experiment with an add noise render with high coverage combined with brightness/contrast adjustments, or use mcamp14's starry sky plugin (it can be found here). It's remarkably simple, but it works for large canvases. Not that I wouldn't recommend adding some customizations once you use it, though.

Okay, so I was working with a project that had about 20 layers, & paint.net crashed. It said there was an unspecified error, & it had to close. However, the menu bar was still functional as the message box displayed, & I had made a LOT of changes since I last saved to the project, so I tried to save changes to the .PDN i was working on. It saved to about 10%, then said there was an error saving. Now, it obviously corrupted the .PDN, as I can no longer open it. It just says: "there was an error reading the file from the media". What I'm asking is, can any of the data be retrieved from the corrupted .PDN? A layer or two? I was working on it all day, & it looked pretty good, so it would save me from a major headache if I can get any of the data back. Also, perhaps this crash log can help Rick fix an issue in a future update for Paint.net. So here's a zip with the crash log & the .PDN: crash files.zip

All right! Finally, space competition! I gotta get to work on this. I've finished all my homework, & I shouldn't have any for the foreseeable future (a week or so), so I'm gonna put some effort into this. No more 45-minute slap-jobs, I'm making a week-long masterpiece! I can also show off my newest nebulae techniques (still working on a tut).