arik-so Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 (edited) This tutorial extends http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/12895-create-a-waving-flag-using-displacement/ What you will need: Paint.NET (self-evident) Displacement and Alpha Mask - plug-in 'UnFREEz' - GIF-animator This tutorial explains, how to change this into that: Interested? Then the follow the tutorial carefully, for the tiniest mistake returns noticeable roughness (you know what I mean ) For we want the flag to wave forever, we need a mask for alpha displacement, that can be moved without interrupting the pattern. We want the flag to wave in horizontal movements, so the displacement mask must be panoramic. Let's make it! Making the displacement mask: Hidden Content: First of all, you need to decide, how big you want the flag to be. I like 600x400 best. So we make a new 600pix wide times 400pix high image. Then, in order to make the pattern appear random, we render clouds, all default values. Now comes the tricky part: we want it to be panoramic: We select the whole picture (Ctrl. + A), and copy it (Ctrl. + C). Then we go to Image - :ExpandCanvas: Canvas Size (Ctrl. + Shift + R), uncheck 'Maintain aspect ratio', double the width (here: 1200), and set the Anchor to 'Right'. Now click 'OK', or simply press 'Enter'. Then we paste the image (Ctrl. + V) Next, we go to Layers - Rotate/Zoom (Ctrl. + Shift + Z), click 'Reset All', check 'Tiling', and set 'X Pan' to '0.500'. Press Enter and apply :GaussianBlur: 'Gaussian Blur' at Radius '40'. Now, go to :ExpandCanvas: Canvas Size, halve the width (here: 600), and set the Anchor to 'Middle'. Go to Adjustments - Brightness/Contrast, set Brightness to '0' and Contrast to '40'. Create somewhere on your computer a new folder. Save this image there as '01.png'. Then, go to Rotate/Zoom, click 'Reset All', make sure 'Tiling' is still checked, and set 'X Pan' to '0.100'. Press Enter. Press 'Ctrl. + Shift + S'. Save this image as '02.png' in the same folder. Press 'Ctrl. + Shift + Z'. Press Enter. Press 'Ctrl. + Shift + S'. Save this picture as '03.png'. repeat this until you have saved the image '20.png'. And you've got all displacement masks! Making the actual flag (though based on the displacement masks): Hidden Content: Now, download or save or whatever but simply open a flag with Paint.NET. :Resize: Resize it to your mask's dimensions (here: 600x400). If you're having trouble doing this, make sure 'Maintain aspect ratio' is unchecked. Next, :Resize: resize the image to 90% of its size. Set the transparency alpha of your secondary color to '0' and :ExpandCanvas: expand the canvas of your image to the mask's dimensions (here (once again): 600x400). Save that image as 'FlagTemplate.png' or something like that, main thing is you can find and open it and that you know what it is. Now comes a repetitive procedure. I'll only explain it once, so read very carefully: Open your FlagTemplate. Run the 'Alpha-Displacement'-effect as following: For the Mask File, browse '01.png'. Check the checkbox for 'Displacement on'. Set the X and Y values to '12'. Click 'OK'. :ImportLayers: Import another layer from a file. That file should be the mask you applied to the FlagTemplate, here '01.png'. Go to this newly imported :Properties: layer's properties (F4), set the Blending mode to 'Multiply' and the opacity to '128'. Next, select the 'Magic Wand'-tool, set the Tolerance to '50' or less and go to the layer of the distorted flag. Click somewhere on the transparent area around the flag. Without changing the selection, go to the other layer (of the shadows, actually) and hit 'Del'-ete. Make a new folder in the folder of your masks (named 'Flags' or sth. like that) and save this image as '01.GIF'. The format is very important. Don't mind flattening. Now, repeat that part, the only difference is that you won't be using the mask '01.png', but '02.png', and you will save the resulting flag as '02.gif', do that until that folder looks like that (you must have '20.gif'): Animating: Hidden Content: Having done the repetitive part, open the folder of the Flag-GIFs in Explorer, open UnFREEz, and drag the files form the Flags-folder in the right order to the GIF-animating program. Set the frame delay to '9 cs' and then, click 'Make Animated GIF'. Save it somewhere you'll find it. Open the animated GIF in a browser. I recommend Firefox: I have tried opening the same animation in IE7, IE8, Safari and Firefox, and in the latter, it simply works best. Thanks for reading! Edited August 12, 2012 by Ego Eram Reputo Updated links Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.atwell Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 No cursing, not even if you censor it. The Doctor: There was a goblin, or a trickster, or a warrior... A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world.Amy: But how did it end up in there?The Doctor: You know fairy tales. A good wizard tricked it.River Song: I hate good wizards in fairy tales; they always turn out to be him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arik-so Posted July 19, 2009 Author Share Posted July 19, 2009 Sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RHoward Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 cool....I will try it (Eventually). All these tutorials will destroy my computer...one by one, with all the plugins i need to download... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arik-so Posted July 27, 2009 Author Share Posted July 27, 2009 Thanks. And it's just one plug-in you need to download for this one: Alpha-Displacement. And UnFREEz is hardly more than 2MB. (I think ^^ might be 200 kb (10 times less)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flip Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 Isn't there already a tut for this? Gallery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arik-so Posted October 3, 2009 Author Share Posted October 3, 2009 Not for an animation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcamp14 Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 This is truly an epic tutorial!! Great job. There needs to be more tutorials that have this quality, and more people like you to post them! Just a suggestion, at the step where you need to select and delete the excess background. After the background is deleted. run an anti-alias or a tiny tiny feather on the edge of the flag to make it look a bit smoother. My Humble Gallery Astronomy Fans group on facebook I see things, I'm an astronomer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arik-so Posted November 7, 2009 Author Share Posted November 7, 2009 Thanks. And yes, you're right. What a pity it is, by the way, that the Paint.NET team hasn't made an own antialias plugin yet. It's one of the most essential tools to smooth images. But the feather plug-in is okay^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ego Eram Reputo Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Are you sure about that? http://www.getpaint.net/search.html + "antialias" picks up at least two plugins. ebook: Mastering Paint.NET | resources: Plugin Index | Stereogram Tut | proud supporter of Codelab plugins: EER's Plugin Pack | Planetoid | StickMan | WhichSymbol+ | Dr Scott's Markup Renderer | CSV Filetype | dwarf horde plugins: Plugin Browser | ShapeMaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arik-so Posted November 8, 2009 Author Share Posted November 8, 2009 What I meant, it's not built-in. And, it's not perfect. I find the feather plug-in better. By the way: does nobody want to actually try out this tutorial? I quite hope the result would be worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex979 Posted May 12, 2010 Share Posted May 12, 2010 Here's my go at it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arik-so Posted October 22, 2010 Author Share Posted October 22, 2010 WOW! That looks awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manc Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 I tried this twice and keeps turning out wrong.Can't figure out where I'm going wrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manc Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 (edited) I finally figured it out.but cannot post my result.says I can't post it for some reason.do you know why?Weird it's worked now.lol Went wrong at first because(control+shift+Z)wasn't working.Good tut,bye the way. Edited October 24, 2010 by ipswichmanc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregors Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 To make it look even more like wind blowing a flag i would suggest putting some vertical (or almost vertical) distortion on the cloud image before (or maybe after) blurring it. /GregorS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim100361 Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 What I really like about your flag is that the ripples/waves in the animation is more real than what you find in most types of animated waving flags. A majority of what I often see, the waves go the entire height of the flag whereas your method does not, which is a bit more realistic to when you watch a real flag wave (the winds just don't work that way). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 (edited) SOB links broken on noted: looked in "search" but no joy. any alternatives you can suggest? Creating an Animated Waving Flag! Started by arik-so, Jul 16 2009 04:52 AM This tutorial extends ('Create a Waving Flag using Displacement').link broken What you will need: Paint.NET (self-evident) 'Alpha-Displacement' - plug-in link broken 'UnFREEz' - GIF-animator = link works Edited August 12, 2012 by Scooter Scooter Age is only a number --in my case a Really BIG number, but there you have it When the prefect paint.net image is created, I will still be wondering "How they Do that?"- sigh☺️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitenurse79 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 (edited) Another take on it cool tute. Edited August 12, 2012 by nitenurse79 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ego Eram Reputo Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Links fixed. ebook: Mastering Paint.NET | resources: Plugin Index | Stereogram Tut | proud supporter of Codelab plugins: EER's Plugin Pack | Planetoid | StickMan | WhichSymbol+ | Dr Scott's Markup Renderer | CSV Filetype | dwarf horde plugins: Plugin Browser | ShapeMaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitty Soules Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 The images in this tutorial aren't showing up for me. Am I missing something? All in all, you're just another brick in the wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ego Eram Reputo Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 No you're not. The images appear to be broken. Let's see if anyone has the desire to rebuild this tutorial. Open to offers..... ebook: Mastering Paint.NET | resources: Plugin Index | Stereogram Tut | proud supporter of Codelab plugins: EER's Plugin Pack | Planetoid | StickMan | WhichSymbol+ | Dr Scott's Markup Renderer | CSV Filetype | dwarf horde plugins: Plugin Browser | ShapeMaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doughty Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 (edited) I've got a screen capture of the tutorial with all the hide buttons open. All the pictures are there. Edited July 25, 2015 by doughty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipstick Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 There are other flag animation tutorials done more recently. http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/32480-flag-animation/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doughty Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 This tutorial uses an outside Giff maker, so to keep it all PDN would be to use Midora's plugins:http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/31629-animated-images/ Thanks Dipstick for the link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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