delpart

Kris just does it this way. From the top of the thread though, this part of the description may have been helpful in this instance: "This version contains an installer. Just run the installer, it will ask you which effects you want to install and copy the required dll's into the Paint.NET effects folder. It will make no other modifications to your system."

In theme with what you're looking for here, some of the outline object plugins will work as well depending on what you need. Searching using this: PDN custom google search versus the forum search will help as well. Not telling you to "google it" mind you. Just suggesting that if you are going to dive in, this will be something you want to lean on.

Not unless the author provides them separated out. But most of these packages are to simplify the author's publishing. DPY's pack is actually separate dll's in that packaged ZIP file, similar packaging as many of other popular ones. Ed Harvey's package is not broken out in this way and is one of the few exceptions where its all or nothing that I can think of ...

Just copy/install the dll's of the effects you want from the pack. In this instance they are all separate, but lumped into a single small zip file.

Sounds like a 50's sci-fi flick: Attack of the 100 Foot Tall Tools Window! - in 3-D ... "Watch in horror as power hungry users flee from their monitors! Delight in seeing developers pull out their hair trying to make them happy! A family treat that will leave you docked to your seat!" -- LA Weekly

Nostalgia is a cruel mistress ... not knocking the choice, pure American muscle at its best ... just sometimes the form really does outperform the function. *** like most I will take good form the older I get. Now, for the idea, its a nice blend. Makes me a little homesick actually. Areas that look like that tend to have nice long stretches of road where you can float those valves wide open ... Sigh. This type of manip might be easy to conjure conceptually because people have explained the details of making it so fully here and there, but the execution should not be dismissed as such. Its actually not "that easy" to make it look good. I like the double pop-out you pushed with the forward shadow edge and ephemeral framing. Plus you already mentioned the work done to blend the windows ... That's a ton more than most people do with that one.

Depending on the quality of the circle starting you could also consider just using layer zoom of the replicated layer to get the same effect. Or look at this plugin from Majik as I "think" (not done much with it yet) will create the effect you're looking for: Majik's Shapes Plugin

Nifty. Thanks Mr. Harvey.

Fun new additions. The take on the lunar landing is blended really well. Even some lunar surface reflection on the paint. So many Conan parodies over the years. I had to turn off that filter in my head and look up some original poster sources to appreciate that one fully. But, while that sounds off, the frame of reference usually helps the analytical types see how much work and how well it is done. I'm always torn on source linking as it really isn't needed unless its extremely subtle. I'd say that was far from subtle in this case. The Rush popping out take reminds me of my Zune cover art mode (not sure what its supposed to be called, just cycling through the cover art to make a wallpaper) ... Not sure the red border is a solid compliment to it though. And I dont get the Muse thing. I'll have to look into that to understand it I think.

Adjust the camera angle down and use Plane map scalable to adjust the texture to get that sort of false perspective from the example given. That rendering doesn't take planet (sphere) curvature into account as much as it should for those circles on a curved plane. Its a false perspective of what it "should" look like. Though those two things with Shape 3D should allow you to convert a texture with regular circles to better fit. In some case you may wish to even try warping the texture first with Polar Transformation, and then wrap that with Shape 3D to get a closer match. As for the texture itself? Lots of ways to probably get there on that. But it will take a bit of experimentation to dial in what you want. Main thing will be to need multi versions of it to figure out how to get the blend to not blur it out too far when adding coronal effects and distance haze of course. Hope that helps some.

@JIM: The two most important fields for some are "author" and "copyright" ... standard tags that have to be filled in. Lightroom users etc tend to ensure these are added. Infranview can batch add these. At the moment, while it might be nice to make those edits directly in PDN, those are the only two things I would "change" willingly. Besides the fact that if the GPS was off etc that would be much harder to add to photos. Debate on modifying data tags other than those to be "added" to the source data, even when making minor corrections to photos is a lot to consider. The usual want for extended information is to replace having to use something like Lightroom for better organization from the start IME. Not a reverse critique, just my impression based on similar feature requests in other places. I too support the idea of extended source information as you may wish to remind yourself about it while working with that source. Its location it was loaded from on the local disk or network etc could prove helpful for those with massive source libraries. Just my side thoughts on it. Not arguing for what is more or less a lower priority feature. Like with Infranview this is more than likely going to have to be a plugin written. The metadata plugin for Infranview is a good example of display + editing dialog addition that is not native to the base application itself.

Love the sparks. The text throws me though.

@BBQ: Okay, it's in quotes just because the fun in the typo gave me a good chuckle. I've got all sorts of very bizarre concepts of what a "Lice outcome" might be ... Some include zombies of course ... Other's are a little more Disney'esque just because I can force myself down that path. @AGJM: The new one has a new feel to it. (I couldn't resist the double loop on the language.) Reminds me of light painting. Sort of neat stuff if you've not run across it before. Very long exposure and use of things like fire, flashlights and led arrays to "paint" light images into the exposures. Thankfully digital makes these far less painful than the old days. Might give you some additional inspiration since a lot of the best light paintings derive from orbital mechanics.

Well, regardless of wrong place in the forum for this post, there is not a an equivalent in PDN. The process for getting near that is not as straight forward. There's a tut that shows "a" way to go about it, plus I've seen a ton of side comments about how to go about getting similar isolations using the magic wand or manual tracing techniques using alternative layers to get the outline. PS essentially does that step by taking some edge detection and other approaches to create a fuzzy logic of sorts to get the objects more or less isolated. The tut is probably not what you need exactly ... it should help you grasp a little bit though on some techniques that could prove useful: START HERE Hopefully EER or someone else can find the most recent "how to" mini-tut in text buried in whatever thread it was on isolating an object using multiple layers to get the selection. I'm not sure how to explain it at the moment.

Note to self, NZ has some strange common law marriage hassles. So sorry to hear that mate. While the material items are the least of your worries, its rather rotten to lose what are essentially sanity cornerstones (IMO). Regardless of the row, that's petty and lame on her part. Be well and best of luck on resolving this out.

Without seeing the layers I'm having to guess what you're doing from the description and images somewhat. It looks like/sounds like you are fighting the default selection that is drawn when you paste a smaller image into any layer of a piece in PDN. This is the normal behavior to allow you to move or position the pasted object. Keeping that in mind, all selections done in PDN effect all layers. So if you draw a rectangular selection on layer 3 of a 5 layer image, it will be the same all the way up or down the stack of layers. It's a very effective method of masking effects and output, but can be frustrating at times. Or if this was not a paste operation, the same rule of any selection made will affect all layers. When pasting things etc you have to keep this in mind and deselect things after positioning a pasted object etc to avoid what you're seeing there.

Great work on the Ironman ... Solid image for me. Captures quite a bit. Of course I tagged that sig elsewhere ... Nebula is good color blend. Stars throw off the depth a bit, but I'm just trying to offer something to ponder rather than critique there. Nifty metal works on the PDN logo/sig plate idea. That came out really striking.

Start here: Forum guide on plugins Also, depending on what you are working will affect the answer. Sounds like you are working with something that does scaling operations. But without a link to it, there is no way to very specifically what you may encounter as a problem. In general of course all the plugins, their .dll's and associated files, are place in the effects folder of your PDN installation. Example: C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\Effects

Good to know I'm not the only one who gets confused on the plugins or feels they need that much exploration. Seems there is more there but I'm easily forgetting any formula on how to gain results I find from it ... Sure, screen shots, etc. Sort of like the headache of playing with fractals ... so many options that are essential all translated as .01235623 ... @YM: Simply wonderful. Art Deco and space opera impressionism blended nicely for me in that piece. Or that's what I'm taking from it and the idea it was all manips from a camera phone is just awesome.

That's really good to know actually. I kept comparing it to ray tracing (similarity but probably not that close) and since it doesn't use the GPU ...

(Partial reply as I've been struggling to get some images together to help illustrate my point, but do not wish to seem rude by letting this drag on.) I realize this is more of a yes or no question ... just trying to figure out how to create examples to see how much scope would be needed for both large canvas work etc. to try and give a complete answer on the main question here. Also trying to ensure I can demonstrate the difference in the corner aspect of the other shadow/outline effects and the density issue with the widening radius. Short version on density is that even set to 1 it was creating a distinct outline that would have to be compensated for with the opacity setting. Once opacity was turned down (at least in my fast help) I lost enough outer density to show the same form of shadow effect as the other tool was creating. Regarding the use of multiple layers and not keeping the original: If she was going to use further distortion on the layer underneath, the potential to have the edge of the image extend outward and creating a density issue was why that was recommended. A good for instance is using something like zoom and point blur combinations to create some striation in the shadow. If the original image is still on that layer, it will bleed into the shadow and create issues, especially if in high contrasting color to the shadow being used. Again, this is merely with the idea of pushing distortion or modification to the base effect Drop Shadow can create. Though I agree with larger range your effect would work fine and much more quickly with being able to do this on a single layer only. (I'll hopefully get some example shots soon though as I know I'm not doing real well with text on this ...)

No it doesn't need to be merged. Layers are there to ensure you can literally create things that have their own canvas to manipulate each aspect without effecting the entire image. If the text is on its own layer, just ensure you are using this tool: and it should allow you to drag it where you want. Or if you grab the sides/corners it will distort/stretch. I should have rephrased part of that as well. "Text is not fun" was for communicating what you are seeing, not that working with text in PDN is lacking in the jovial department. And you're welcome. **EDIT: without video capture I'm not sure how to show an example of it working as intended .... well I know how to show it without rather, but it would be way too many screen shots for my patience level atm.

Text is not fun for this. Sounds like the selection is on the wrong layer. But you stated you're familiar with layers enough to be aware of that pitfall. The only way I can reproduce that problem though is when the layer is wrong. For instance, trying to drag the selection on a transparent area. In that case all I will see is the selection outline move and no contents being affected. I'm sure you've deselected, restarted PDN, etc ... So I'm at a loss. I should have addressed the other question though: The difference between the two tools is that one is supposed to do what you want, the other is supposed to do what you're seeing ... <-- this one will distort/move the contents of the selected area <-- this one allows you to adjust the selection without affecting the contents **EDIT: Illustration of what normally is the cause. Note the highlighted layer or active layer is the wrong one to move the text. There is nothing on that part of the layer so it would seem to do nothing.

Now that's some imaginative takes on that. The first especially mucks with perception quite a bit.

"Just expands the contents ..." Even when just grabbing the selection in the middle of the selected area and dragging?