Spectre

That's because the tooth glare distracted you lol. But seriously, as you mentionned it's all in the eye of the beholder.

@scooter Very neat. The blending of the skull & crossbones is quite effective. I'm perhaps a bit less keen about the glitter on the teeth. If it were a bit smaller I think it would be less distracting as the eyes are really the focus of this pic if you ask me. In fact, I'm curious to see what a bit of glare on the eyes would produce as effect. That and maybe trying the Lomography plugin could induce something pretty cool. All my pickyness aside nice image mod my friend Cheers

Howdy Minni. A couple plugins listed below might help with some of the issues you're dealing with: Tube Effect/Oblique (will allow you to curve and object such as text - **use in conjunction with Align Object**) Align Object (Align an object on the canvas) **several plugins function from the center point of the canvas, such as Tube Effect; thus being able to center an object is extremely handy. Outline Object (as the name says, create an outline around an object), in your case one of the lenses. Other than that some extra advice I can offer is to take advantage of Layers. Keeping the different elements of your image on separate layers will allow you to modify them individually and makes using selection tools such as Magic Wand a bit easier. As for the font type, maybe try using something that's more compact and perhaps all in upper case. I'd also suggest staying away from cursive fonts or fonts that have a type of cursive aspect. From a design point of view I find your concept very interesting. However, I'm a bit confused as to which phrase corresponds with which temple (or ear piece) since there are three phrases. Also, I'd point out that if its an actual bumper sticker you are trying to design, then small text wouldn't necessarily be appropriate or easily legible. Anyways, keep working on it and if there's anything else don't be shy to reach out the community again Cheers

Beautiful results and very clearly explained tutorial. It's clear that you invested a lot of time into making this and I commend you on it. The day I decide I want to do some awesome coloring I'll definitely know where to turn (or to point others to). Excellent work my dear

Thank you Goonfella. Actually neither I'm afraid. It's for the Stanley Cup Playoffs therefore hockey and more in particular the Montreal Canadiens since I hail from Montreal, Canada. Plus, as is probably the case in other major cites, there's a lot of street graffiti here notably on overpasses, buildings, alleyways and transport containers; thus the idea to give the impression of a spray painted logo. As for the little black dude, it's a caricature of our star player P.K. Subban. Alpha Displacement was my biggest friend in this rendition as it allows a better melding of the background's grooves and textures when used with the right steps. Again, thanks for the comments Cheers

It's been a while but finally added something new =­> The Road To The Cup P.S. It's either the Chicago Blackhawks or Los Angeles Kings so for the image's sake I went with the Kings. Cheers guys

I'm going to offer a guess here. If you begin a new workfile in PDN you will always have a default white layer named Background. When saving any workfile to an image format, your image will be flattened meaning the above visible layers will merge sequentially onto all visible bottom layers forming one final layer. Therefore, if this resembles the case you are speaking of, in the "Layers" window, simply remove the checkmark from any layers you do not wish to keep (i.e. Background) before saving in an image format. Cheers P.S. If you are intending to keep cutouts or various stock photos for future uses the I would suggest saving them as images in .png format. Then, when you want to insert them into a new project you can simply access the "Layers" tab and use "Import From File" to add them into your active layer.

Lovely start to your gallery ScifiGirl. I really like your third offering with the giant ship. Works well with your background and blends fairly nicely. Your rework of the beach scape image is also more "convincing". The horizon works fine for me as it creates a sort of misty effect above the water. I'm questioning myself however as to if it's a tad too elliptical. The Bulge plugin might help reduce that effect a bit but I can't find it for the life of me. If you're at all curious I believe the Point Warp plugin might provide a similar effect. Also, I'm assuming you are taking advantage of the Feather plugin to clean up some of your cutouts. While it's a sound technique, depending on the backdrop I sometimes find it can overblur the edges. In the above case, I tend to lean towards AA Assistant instead and play with the variables to get a smooth transition. Other than that I'd say keep up the good work. You obviously are showing some strong composition skills. My final word of advice would be to always take into close account the lighting (light sources) in your image as it plays a big key in creating a realistic composition. Looking forward to more! Cheers

A valid point I would say. However creating new (or extra) classification systems for plugins would most likely involve a great deal of time and energy. It would be very nice indeed to have categories that separate plugins by their general usage. Having them sorted the same way as they actually are in PDN (i.e. Adjustments, Distortions, etc) would already be a big step in that direction. Of course, it would require a person or group of persons to go over every single plugin that's been released in order to do so. I'll tell you this, if the publisher, moderators, plugin authors and generally community were keen on this suggestion of yours and you are able to get a serious committee together that would take on part of the workload the you could sign me on. Personally I think it would be a possible way of "improving" a facet that maybe got lost in the shuffle. It might also lead to less questions on "how do I do this?" or "where do I find that?" which isn't a essence a bad thing but may lead users to be more self sufficient. Anyways, that's my two cents. Cheers

Heya ZenWear All the feedback thus far provided is indeed sound advice and as you will discover with time, there are often several ways (via different plugins or guided steps) to achieve practically any result. Here are a couple real simple plugins that I might also suggest which are relatively straightforward for a person getting used to PDN. **The third one might save you a lot of heartache if I'm guessing what you are trying to do correctly** Cut Color: If you simple want to remove ONE color at a time (or keep a desired colored and make others transparent or black and white) Color to Alpha: If you want to remove ALL colors at once keeping only Black (also works to remove one color at a time or a range of color but is a tad trickier) Monochrome Ink on Paper: Stay with me here... If the image you're speaking of is entirely made up of outlines set on a transparent background and you want to recolor ALL the lines into ONE different color then this one will save the day for you. If will replace every value of whatever color is in your image including whatever degree of transparency which is what leaves behind a "frayed" edge if you will when you try using the paint bucket to fill your lines (even after playing with the tolerance). If on the other hand you were intending on having lines of different colors it would still work but you would have to use a selection tool to single out said lines prior to use. Good luck friend! Cheers

whoa! I've been cleaning up my effects folder lately to try and only hang on to the plugins that I really need to use rather than those that I think I "might use" eventually. But in this case the applications seem so limitless that even if I don't toy around with this fantastic plugin of yours right away I know I'll be using it plenty down the road. Very very clever to have this linked to the current selection shape. Love how it automatically crops or enlarges the clipboard image as well. I'm pretty sure that in certain cases to accomplish what Paste Warp does I would needed to run 2,3 or 4 plugins in the past with nub control and what not. I especially enjoy simple straightforward UI's like this one that can yield a volley of results. Easily in my new fav plugins for a while to come I'm sure. When I get a chance to whip up something real purty with it I'll post it here. Thank you so so much Techno! Cheers

Indeed, a perfectly adequate solution for what you were aiming to do I'm sure. However, if the object you want to shadow (using the Trail plugin) is something other than a solid color image then it will be difficult to achieve the same results in which case the alternative method might come in handy. Either way, there are both very useful plugins with different nuances that will in some situations allow you to create similar effects. Just wanted to offer another tool to fit in your arsenal. Have fun! Cheers that's rich haha, I can picture someone making that very assumption, free program but pay for add-ons (plugins etc) after a limited time use.

@wow64 Haha, awesome Let's see, ones I can recognize are: Random Shape Fill, Bars, Polygons (or Polygons/Stars), MandelBrot Fractal, Grid/Checkerboard Maker, and a very clever use of Random Maze Fill in the sphere. No doubt I'm missing a few but at a glance those are the ones that popped for me. The sheer amount of plugins aside, there is a nice artistic direction in your wallpaper, something perhaps reminiscent of Alice In Wonderland of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Good job

Might I also suggest Outline Object by pyrochild which is an indispensable plugin. (It comes only in a plug-in package but all his plugins are worth it downloading individually so this will just save you some time) The problem with Trail is you wont be able adjust the color of your shadow. However, what is possible is to run Outline Object once with "Width" all the way up (and with angle selected of course) and then run Trail as it will only affect the "added shadow" that you've given with Outline Object. **You can do multiple repeats of both or either until you attain the desired length as with one use only you may not be able to. Cheers

I realize this reply is quite late but I just wanted to add to Welsh's excellent suggestion on how to create your checkerboard frame. Please make sure to follow the red guidelines in order to have a result that resembles this: As Welsh mentioned, you will need the following plugins: -Grid/Checkerboard Maker -Polar Transformation 1) Open a new worksheet, it MUST be square and also work with multiples of 3 which is the difference with how welsh proceeded and is the foundation to obtaining evenly spaced and proportioned squares in your frame (size example: 300x300, 600x600, 900x900) 2) Start by giving your background a color that will allow your frame to stand out, then create a New Layer (you will be working entirely this created layer and never the background one) 3) Use the Grid/Checkerboard Maker plugin (select the primary and secondary colors you want for your frame before running it) Click Mode Checker Board Unclick the "Linked with Horizontal" checkbox Enter the "Horizontal AND Vertical Grid Step" values. The proportions MUST BE 1 (horizontally) by 3 (vertically). BOTH VALUES MUST also be multiples that work with you canvas size. (i.e. for a 600x600 canvas the rectangle could be 10x30, 20x60, 40x120 etc) In the supplied image I used a 600x600 canvas with a 10 Horizontal by 30 Vertical value. **If done correctly your checkerboard should fit perfectly in your canvas size. 4) Using the Rectangle Select tool select the TWO middle rows. Then Invert Selection (Ctrl+I) and hit Delete to keep nothing but the two middle rows. (Note: If you can't properly select the needed rows refine your selection size by using the Move Selection tool and by using the nubs along with the arrow keys until your covering the exact size necessary) 5) Run the Polar Transformation plugin with "Transform Rectangular to Polar" checked. Voilà! All the credit really goes to Welsh for establishing what I think is the best and easiest procedure. I just crunched the numbers to get results more similar to what I believe you had in mind Cheers

@ lynnylc6 I believe the Radius Fill Corners plugin may be what you need. It will provide a similar effect to Rounded Rectangle but rather than drawing said shape, as it's UI shows, it fills (or rounds off) the corners of your image to the desired radius with either the primary/secondary color or transparency. Of course, the radius will always be limited by the dimensions of the image meaning your maximum radius will be the shortest canvas (or selection) size divided by 2. If you want a more circular shape preserved in the center while eliminating the edges of the image you might have to play with the "Gradient" tool set to "Radial" and "Transparency Mode" Good luck

Good day Bob I've read the other replies and while I may not print many images myself, I may have a solution for you (if of course you haven't already tried this method). What I noticed when trying to print an image that uses an 8 x 5.98 inch canvas is that when presented with the print options, the image (or canvas size) in the preview seems to be automatically resized to fit the enter page, in this case A4. However, if you use the "Canvas Size" option under the "Image" tab before printing and: set your canvas size to 21 x 29.7 centimeters (which is an A4 size paper) uncheck the "maintain aspect ratio" box "anchor" the image by the middle ...You should have a canvas size that correspond to A4 and sets your image in the proportion you want it to be on your printed sheet Once ready to print, your print preview should reflect what you see in your PDN (or PNG, etc) file in a landscape view. This is of course with the "Full Page Photo" option selected as your canvas is the equivalent of a full page and obviously with A4 paper size selected as well. Crossing my fingers for you, worked for me. Cheers

Howdy Pedge. There are possibly a number of ways to accomplish what you're asking but here's the quickest solution I can think of for you at the moment: You will need the Tile Fill From Clipboard plugin. Now: 1) Start by opening the image you want to tile which should be "Layer 1" 2) Expand your canvas size by 200% from any of the corners 3) Duplicate your layer 4) Use the Flip Horizontal option on either of the two layers 5) Merge both layers together (at this point your image should cover half the canvas) 6) Repeat step 3 7) Use the Flip Vertical option on either of the two layers 8) Repeat step 5 Now your canvas should be completely covered and have clean seams. Moving on: 9) Click outside your canvas to select it all and then copy it. 10) Start a new image of the desired size (in this case 2560x1440) 11) Apply the Tile Fill From Clipboard plugin with no boxes checked. Voilà I'm pretty sure the "Tile Image" plugin can actually do this entire process just be running it with the image you want to tile on the according canvas size but I'll let you investigate that if you feel the need. If for some reason this process didn't work out or if you have other questions just howler back alright. Cheers

*Jaw literally drops to the floor* *Picks up jaw* *Composes himself* I am completely blown away. I see you've been doing this for a while according to your OP and it more than shows. In my opinion you master just about everything there is to know when it comes to graphic arts. I was going over your gallery on your Facebook page and recognizing some of the effects and techniques you use in your images I kept telling myself: "Holy smokes, it must take this dude forever to get a project done" (which is in no one a bad thing quite the contrary). And then I stumbled upon a comment you made on one of your Basspixel logos: "Thought i'd go for something more minimal seeing as most concepts are pretty crazy, a result of me spending too much time on them." Trust me, just looking at the insane detail and thought put in to your product I knew that a tremendous amount of time had to be involved. That aside I simply love your creative mind and if it were cake I would probably eat it. Your work really speaks to me, more than anything I've seen on PDN. I sincerely wish you luck with all your entrepreneurial endeavors as I really think you have the talent to succeed in what can be a very competitive business. Cheers good sir, cheers to all your greatness

You my friend are a fountain of imagination indeed. Love the Giant Chicken, something I'm not used to seeing so far from you. However even if I can easily spot the plumage I'm still debating with myself whether or not it has the actual anatomy of a chicken. In any case, it's one vicious looking prehistoric beast. Can get enough of your curvacious ladies either. On the flipside, you are also real good with portraits so you're really aren't a one trick pony. I still can't put my finger on who this is suppose to be or reminds me of and it's starting to bug me haha. I And as for the underwater set piece bravo sir. I would absolutely adore to see that one fully outlined and colored. I love how some of your seemingly random scribbles form important and recognizable details such as the seaweed and plankton. The proportions in your piece are also very good considering all the elements involved. If you ever decide to put together a short comic strip of sorts, I'm telling you I for one would be enthralled. Cheers

Hiya Pixey I must say Bunny Girl & Chicks looks amazing I've been trying to get around to offering feedback on it so I guess Easter Day isn't such a bad time given the actual piece hehe. But enough with the smalltalk though, what you've done with this is very clean, very colorful and perfectly balanced. It's pretty much a Hallmark worthy creation if you ask me; mind you the canvas proportion might be slightly larger than a standard card but I digress. And while I've already witnessed your flair for A to Z creations, this offering shows some great composition skills. How everything ties in together is really the key to the beauty of this image. The flowers, the honeycomb background, the cleverly placed letters and, of course, how those adorable yet somewhat expressionless chicks play off the overjoyed bunny is just gold. You dear are an artist in every sense of the word. P.S. Congrats on your Perfume Bottle Galleria entry (with or without the reworked ribbons it belonged there. Either way it's fun to see eye to eye with someone of your talent - Cheers to you)

Added "The Hunter and the Hunted" to the gallery @Helen and barbieq Thank you both for your comments. I realize that I tend to stick to the same comfort zone when it comes to themes and general presentation. However, it's this type of art that I really enjoy doing and having people share positive feedback such as yourselves makes it all the more enjoyable. Cheers guys

@vscurtis No argument there. However, by taking two simple screen shots you in fact confirmed my suspicion that the "bug" you were encountering was a simple oversight that a user of any level of experience could make. From a software creator's standpoint, I don't think I would appreciate faults or bugs being pointed out where there don't exist, especially when we are talking about freeware. My point is, before jumping the gun, make sure you haven't missed something, such as the basic guidelines in the the PDN Help File. (i.e. Also, selections may be moved, resized, and rotated: see Move Tools for more information.) But don't feel bad though, a lot of us were major noobs when we started

A screenshot would probably help as your explanation, while clear, doesn't present any visual cues as to whether this could possibly be a user error rather than a bug or glitch. I myself have never experienced this problem but perhaps digging a bit deeper here could reveal a hiccup. I firmly believe that taking the extra few minutes to screen capture the main steps in your procedure might reveal something. Cheers

As xod mentionned make sure that the image your want to "fill" your template with is actually inside the template. Ideally since you are new to the process, both your template and image should cover the same canvas size. In my example post the star template is 230 x 219 pixels which is the full canvas size.The starry backdrop is also the same dimensions and thus overlaps the template. By selecting the area outside your template with the magic wand tool and then switching back to your image layer (Layer 2) and hitting the "Delete" button you remove everything outside the template area while keeping everything inside it. Therefore, your image must be inside (or overlap) the actual template proportions in order for this method to work. If the template and image aren't the same size (ex: your template is 200 x 200 pixels and your image is 500 x 500) then you can use "Ctrl+R" to resize the appropriate one. When doing this however do it BEFORE copying your image to the template file otherwise you will be resizing both of them. Good luck!