Must know things to New Users

[Pratyush]

Suppose, You are explaining PDN 's powerful features to a person specially when they are new to use PDN. Other than basic functionality  there will some tips or tricks or things (or trivia ) that you will like them not to miss.

 

What things will you tell ?

 

Mine are 

1) There are plugins for PDN.

2) Shapes3D by MKT is must have.

3) Chasys Draw IES and Irfanview are two other programs which can open PDN files.

3) There are two curves out there one is bezier other is interpolation.

4) Move Selected Pixels tool also uses right-click dragging for rotation.

5) You can create a duplicate of selected part of image in a layer by Ctrl + move . 

 

 

[BoltBait]

6) When running paint.net, press F1 to read the help file

7) Layers - learn to use them. They are incredibly powerful.

[Pixey]

9) Holding the Shift key when using the Line/Curve tool draws a straight line.

10) AA’s Assistant is a must for smoothing edges.

11) Learn to save your work often with Ctrl + S

[Ego Eram Reputo]

12) the forum is a vast repository of knowledge and has helpful, friendly users.

13) you can support paint.net by donating!

14) there are two versions, Classic and Store.

[NinthDesertDude]

15) Get comfortable with transparency quick!

16) Magic wand tool is love, magic wand tool is life

17) Magic wand + gradient tool = shading for almost anything

18) Switch Gray to Alpha or Channel Operations plugin for drawings

[Judy]

On 12/29/2017 at 5:48 AM, BoltBait said:

6) When running paint.net, press F1 to read the help file

7) Layers - learn to use them. They are incredibly powerful.

 

7) Layers -  ithe below could be a good alternate way to teach the fundamentals of layers and simultaneously advertise Paint.net.  Because I'm not so sure everyone can catch on to the more sophisticated tutorials, since they may have not grasped the concept that the actual most background layer is itself "painted".

 

See, I somehow confused the White canvass and its Transparent background, as being the layers themselves for crying out loud. And nobody had been explaining that!  I was like a baby who didn't know HOW to ask, because I didn't have a handle on the entire concept yet!

 

That's what had stymied me for months, until one single solitary YouTube video helped me realize that (and even that video took me forever to find, after plowing thru countless ones, because it lacked pertinent key words).

 

Which is why I created the below. It may prove a big help to at least some newbs if a less-rough form were put onto YouTube, with pertinent keywords.
(keywords such as "paint, layers, dummies, basics, etc.etc.)

 

Amateur as I am,  this  took me many hours, just finding a host, and then the JPGs weren't displaying, so I had to search for yet another host, yada yada.

 

Yes, I know its ugly and requires beautifying by experts. Look, I used what I had in the house - an old brown posterboard, old markers, etc. Maybe you have a prettier posterboard, and better markers.  And it may be preferable to animate it, rather than still-photo's.

On 2nd thought I sometimes get dizzy from animations, since the demo's click on toolbars at too high speed to grasp. So it's better to flash photo+text-tutorial per each screenshot, then forward slowly to subsequent screenshots.

 

Again, my emphasis was on demonstrating to you another way to initiate Newbs, not to win a beauty contest, of which there's plenty to spare in these parts

 

http://powerpics.tripod.com/paint/paint_layers_dummies.html

Edited December 31, 2017 by Judy

[IRON67]

3 minutes ago, Judy said:

since they may have not grasped the concept that the actual most background layer is itself "painted".

 

In my experience, many people already have a problem understanding that a picture is made up of pixels, not objects that you can simply "remove" or move - especially when it comes to text in the picture.

[Judy]

1 hour ago, IRON67 said:

 

In my experience, many people already have a problem understanding that a picture is made up of pixels, not objects that you can simply "remove" or move - especially when it comes to text in the picture.

I see, but that's a whole other issue, though you have a point in that the pixel issue might be incorporated into this tutorial as well. (But not by me, the above stint was enuf for now!) This layers issue was my own issue, and during the process, I remember coming across someone else also complaining somewhere online, of not grasping layers either.

 

Sometimes people are blocked from learning due to not realizing one key concept.

Example: years ago, my typing teacher simply assumed everyone knew by osmosis that you have to hold the Shift key simultaneous to the letter you want to capitalize. So there was I, the odd one out, pressing Shift, letting go, then pressing the letters. And crying and dying inside. Same happened to me with the concept of the background canvass.

 

What also may have helped confuse me, was the Primary & Secondary colors. I remember scratching my head and saying, are those some sort of layers too? It just was not "clicking into place" for me!!

(actually i'm still  confused by primary/secondary, but at least I finally got that AHA! Layers epiphany, thanks to that solitary YouTube video which was like a needle in haystack and probably still is. I especially took the time to rummage around for his email,  just to thank him a million times, for having  explained what many pro's failed to due to their less-simple way of explaining.

 

That's why I took hours & hours just to create this rough demo. Here it is again: http://powerpics.tripod.com/paint/paint_layers_dummies.html For professionals it would be no sweat, but for me it was major sweat to crank out, and it's still ugly. I had this on hold for a long time, because of my personal life which gets in the way. But it was always in back of my mind to try & prevent others from what i went through, and now that i've finally cranked it out, at least it's off my chest.

 

Trust me, it could take me another 1000 hrs. until I'd figure out how to get something like this on YouTube. Maybe I'd pull it off, who knows...

 

Edited December 31, 2017 by Judy

[Pratyush]

19) Put mouse on size field and move mouse wheel to change the size of brush. 

20) Click mouse wheel or middle mouse button to navigate the image through hand tool.

[Pratyush]

On 12/30/2017 at 1:49 AM, Joshua Lamusga said:

17) Magic wand + gradient tool = shading for almost anything

 

Can you hint me how can gradient tool be used for shading. magic wand tool is used to select area.

[IRON67]

Add one or more new layer(s), select in the backgroundlayer with original (flat) image content  the part you want be shade, switch to new layer an add some color gradient with blendmode like 'Multiply'.

 

Fast and simple example:

 

Edited January 22, 2018 by IRON67

[Pratyush]

Thanks  @IRON67 . You make beautiful images of spaceships. just curiosity, do you make drawing for games? 

[IRON67]

Just a drawing from Google Search results. Only the color is made by me.

Edited January 22, 2018 by IRON67