The other day I noticed how spectacular the graphics looked on the Nightly News on NBC. I was really impressed with the curving images, that had been rectangular, but had been manipulated to look like they had been wrapped 10 or 15% of the way around an invisible cylinder. I was inspired to see if I could find a way to do the same to my images with paint dot net.
I hadn't browsed the paint dot net Tutorials website in a long while, until tonight.
I saw where someone mentioned a group of plugins (additional photo manipulation tools) that were available online for free. They were created by a person named MadJik. (I had added Bolt Bait's plugins a few years ago.)
I was able to find and download MadJik's plugins. I unzipped them, copied them using Cmd C, etc, (because right clicking on the files did not bring up the menu that usually says Select All and Copy, etc.) Then I pasted the files into the Effects folder in PDN and the dozens of additional features were in the program and available to use. (Most are so wacky that they are worthless to me.)
It took me a while, but I was finally able to figure out how to make the above image, which I have saved in my computer as a .pdn without any white background or any other color background, so that it could be pasted on top of any other image.
But there is one drawback, curling an image blurs it noticeably. Not drastically, but definitely noticeably.
So, to make a similar image to the above:
1.) Open the photo you want to curl.
2.) If you want to add that beveled/thickened/3D look to the edges of the photo, then:
Effects>Selection>Bevel Selection
That brightens the top and left edges of the image, and darkens the other two edges. To brighten the right edge instead of the left, put a check in the box in the "Bevel Selection" control window that says "Use alternate lighting direction".
If you don't want that beveled/thickened/3D look, then skip step 2.
3.) Image>Resize>By percentage 200%>OK
4.) Layers>Rotate/Zoom>Zoom 0.50x >OK
(You have to take steps 3 and 4 to increase the room around the rectangular image, or else the background, after curving the image, remains colored, because what gets curved to the right, gets attached to the left, for some unknown reason.) This gives you plenty of room to work.
5.) Effects>Distort>Tube Oblique
With the Steps Factor NOT all the way to the left, slide the top slider to the left to your desired amount>OK
You may have to wait a couple of seconds before anything happens to the image.
6.) Save the image as a .pdn, a .tif, or a .png to keep the image with no background.
jpg, gif, and bmp files can not be saved with no background.
7.) If you want to make a faded or black and white version of the image, so that you can drop the color version mostly on top of it, as shown above, then convert the color image to faded or black and white. Then while that is sitting there, add a new layer, then import the color version and drop it on top of the black and white version, but off to the right, somewhat.
There are more step to take to roll the image to the right a little, as also seen above:
1.) Layers>Rotate/Zoom> reset the zoom to 100%
2.) Adjust the Roll / Rotate sphere to the right. Save as a .pdn, a .tif, or a .png to keep the image with no background.
I don't mean to insult the intelligence of people reading this because I so explicitly explained every step. But I have had trouble following the instructions from others on other topics, because the writer assumed that the readers were practically experts. But I'm not that brilliant, so I got all messed up when some of the steps were skipped over or too vague.
tags: curl curls curling curve curves curving
