Lines with pointed ends - how do I create them?

[gingerfreak]

Hi all,

I'm probably being thick, but please can anyone help me create a line that fades out to points at the end? I'm pretty good on PdN, I think it's ace, and I can usually find reasonably easy workarounds for any problem I have, but this has got me stumped.

I'm working on a black background with a horizontal neon blue line. For 1-2 px lines I usually motion blur along the line, but this line has to be fairly thick, 6-8 px. When I try this it gives me, even with rounded ends, just ill-defined blurs. Gaussian doesn't seem to work either.

A search reveals the wonderful Simon Brown showing a sharp end as an option for the line tool, but I don't have that. A painful workaround would be to start with a 7px line, then a centred, longer, 5px, then a 3 etc., and then motion blur, but I'm hoping there may be an easier way.

If you can help, that would be lovely, and you'll be on my virtual Christmas card list.

Thanks.

[Sarkut]

See if this does what you want.

On a new layer make a long, fairly thin, elliptical selection,

fill it with blue, deselect.

Gaussian blur quite a bit, make a rectangular selection

around it and squash it using the Move Selected Pixels

tool on a middle node of a long side.

[gingerfreak]

That sort-of works, if I scale the canvas up, create a really thick line, and then squash it as you suggested, then stretch the ends and then scale down. I wanted quite long points at the ends, but I think I'll just need to mess with the line dimensions.

Cheers! A Christmas card will be winging its way to you!

[gingerfreak]

Sorry, your technique is spot on for me. I was using the circle tool to create an elipse, because I hate aliasing caused by the selection tools, but then I realised I'd be blurring.

Doh!

Thanks again.

[gingerfreak]

Just so you can see how you've helped: this was what I was making as my sig on a music website.

[Sarkut]

Cool. Nice 3D effect.

[Wilson]

Nice signature, gingerfreak!

Good effect.

[Sharp]

also, try this tut.

http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=31821&start=