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PS Sword Tutorial


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Look at this:

Similar Sword Tut

For the lens flair like effect, you can test the one plugin that makes them to see about blending a layer in.

A bit of work to create that effect in and of itself. Depends on just how close you want it to look. Some gradients with curves applied to "metalize" an inner edge, then cropped, color inverted ... A bit of work comes to mind to me. Maybe somebody else has some fast how to on that.

(Written under duress of headache. Just .02 to help.)

***

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When I said I want to make the blade I want to make one exactly the same

I am not trying to be rude, but the concept about tutorials is that you practice with them and get yourself familiar with the various plugins and their effects on the project that you are working on as well as getting around in paint.net. No single tutorial is going to cover every aspect of what paint.net has to offer. Delve into other tutorials and after a bit you should be able to combine various effects that you've learned to put together a piece like you want.

=================================

"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."

Edited by jim100361
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I know that tutorial, but it doesn't fit...I want the middle line on the blade

Ah so the question should have been something pointing out the exact step involved instead of allowing for speculation by just quoting the hang-up you're having. You did quote what you wanted now that I bothered to use F3 on that tut. But asking people for help should be posed with as much information as possible to avoid miscommunication for both parties. Including what you may have tried already: tutorials, methods, etc. And not require them to have to do a lot of extra searching on your behalf.

In this case you want to figure out how to apply a shadowing effect applied (more or less mimicked using gradients and blend modes via PDN) to the blade form in STEP 7: "Go to Filter/Render/Lighting Effects and follow the settings below."

Because even in this second reply my first reaction to "middle line" is to explain how to emboss a thick line using PS Emboss to replicate the blood groove he creates in STEPS 9-10 ... thankfully you were capable of double posting instead of using the edit feature to include a second post to get really specific about "exactly" what you wanted here ... :roll:

That sort of gradient effect from STEP 7 can be derived from starting with a vertical gradient (or horizontal which might make it easier to line up after all that) and then using polar transformation - rectangular to polar on it (at some odd angle probably to get near that tip blemish shown), and then working from that form blend out a gradient with a fine point to align ... not a one step thing at all and requires some blurring, masking etc to blend in. At least that's one way to go about getting that sort of hard line gradient mix started.

There may be others someone can suggest now that everyone knows your goal is to duplicate the tutorial without compromise of any sort.

***

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Here's a paint.net translation of the tutorial:

1-3. no change --Make sure the end of the sword that will be pointy is right up against the edge of the canvas. Scroll down for details.

4. use perspective plugin to duplicate the effect

5-6. replace with flatten image, then "invert colors"

7. This one, I will split into a few steps some sub-steps removed

a. Make an alpha mask of your blade. By this, I mean duplicate the layer and use "brightness/contrast" to make it completely black or white, then hit "ctrl+a" then "ctrl+c" and uncheck the layer visibility. You may wish to save this in a different file just in case.

b. Run "emboss" on the visible layer from whatever angle you wish, then use the alpha mask plugin with "paste from selection" checked.

c. (Optional) Add a new layer on top and make a circular gradient from white to black. Try to offset this slightly from the middle of the sword, and make the outer edge reach at least the end of the sword. Use the alpha mask from before to cut it into the shape of your sword, then play with the layer blend mode a bit.

d. flatten image

e. Use the AA's_Assistant plugin twice to remove the ugly outline around the blade.

8-8a. no change. Make sure you use the alpha mask on the layer you ran motion blur on. Also, 25% opacity is approximately 64 in the paint.net layer properties window.

9-10. You will be making your line on a white layer rather than on a transparent one. Blur the line slightly if you wish. Run emboss from 90 degrees. Play with the layer properties some more. I would try glow or overlay as layer blend modes. Lower the opacity as desired. Use the alpha mask again to remove excess materials.

11. no change

12. Flatten image

13. If needed, run the AA's_Assistant plugin again

You now have your blade!

I really didn't like the handle in the tutorial, so I won't post a translation unless you really want it.

EDIT: I wrote this without testing at all, so if anything doesn't look right, let me know and I'll find a solution ;)

EDIT2: Removed some extra steps and edited some steps to remove confusion. Changes are in red.

Edited by pdnnoob
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No, Paint.NET is not spyware...but, installing it is an IQ test. ~BoltBait

Blend modes are like the filling in your sandwich. It's the filling that can change your experience of the sandwich. ~Ego Eram Reputo

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Ok. Ok. Thankyou. Yeah, I just want the blade. </I know I'm kinda dumb>

A perfectly legitimate question deserves a perfectly legitimate answer...I hope mine was up to par!

No, Paint.NET is not spyware...but, installing it is an IQ test. ~BoltBait

Blend modes are like the filling in your sandwich. It's the filling that can change your experience of the sandwich. ~Ego Eram Reputo

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Please can you give me some guidelines to how to use the perspective plugin? I'm totally stuck.

Sorry about that...that wasn't the plugin that I intended to reference, but as it turns out, it works a ton better! :lol:

What you will have to do is move the sword so that the end is up against the right or left edge. That way, after you cut the tip to a new layer, you can set the plugin to "horizontal trapezoid". All this plugin will be for is getting the angle right and sharpening the tip. You can adjust it to fit afterwards using the move pixels tool.

One thing to note is that the plugin will only work properly for you if you have your blade centered vertically. There is a plugin for this called "Align Object" that I would highly recommend downloading. I don't know what I would do without it =O

Edited by pdnnoob

No, Paint.NET is not spyware...but, installing it is an IQ test. ~BoltBait

Blend modes are like the filling in your sandwich. It's the filling that can change your experience of the sandwich. ~Ego Eram Reputo

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Sorry about that...that wasn't the plugin that I intended to reference, but as it turns out, it works a ton better! :lol:

What you will have to do is move the sword so that the end is up against the right or left edge. That way, after you cut the tip to a new layer, you can set the plugin to "horizontal trapezoid". All this plugin will be for is getting the angle right and sharpening the tip. You can adjust it to fit afterwards using the move pixels tool.

One thing to note is that the plugin will only work properly for you if you have your blade centered vertically. There is a plugin for this called "Align Object" that I would highly recommend downloading. I don't know what I would do without it =O

I can't get it to pointy?

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perspectiveplugin.png

Also, I removed some steps in the tutorial that didn't need to be there...

example of what I came up with using my translation+a few tweaks:

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx228/pdnnoob/swordexample.png

Edited by pdnnoob

No, Paint.NET is not spyware...but, installing it is an IQ test. ~BoltBait

Blend modes are like the filling in your sandwich. It's the filling that can change your experience of the sandwich. ~Ego Eram Reputo

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Here's a paint.net translation of the tutorial:

1-3. no change --Make sure the end of the sword that will be pointy is right up against the edge of the canvas. Scroll down for details.

4. use perspective plugin to duplicate the effect

5-6. replace with flatten image, then "invert colors"

7. This one, I will split into a few steps some sub-steps removed

a. Make an alpha mask of your blade. By this, I mean duplicate the layer and use "brightness/contrast" to make it completely black or white, then hit "ctrl+a" then "ctrl+c" and uncheck the layer visibility. You may wish to save this in a different file just in case.

b. Run "emboss" on the layer from whatever angle you wish, then use the alpha mask plugin with "paste from selection" checked.

c. (Optional) Add a new layer on top and make a circular gradient from white to black. Try to offset this slightly from the middle of the sword, and make the outer edge reach at least the end of the sword. Use the alpha mask from before to cut it into the shape of your sword, then play with the layer blend mode a bit.

d. flatten image

e. Use the AA's_Assistant plugin twice to remove the ugly outline around the blade.

8-8a. no change. Make sure you use the alpha mask on the layer you ran motion blur on. Also, 25% opacity is approximately 64 in the paint.net layer properties window.

9-10. You will be making your line on a white layer rather than on a transparent one. Blur the line slightly if you wish. Run emboss from 90 degrees. Play with the layer properties some more. I would try glow or overlay as layer blend modes. Lower the opacity as desired. Use the alpha mask again to remove excess materials.

11. no change

12. Flatten image

13. If needed, run the AA's_Assistant plugin again

You now have your blade!

I really didn't like the handle in the tutorial, so I won't post a translation unless you really want it.

EDIT: I wrote this without testing at all, so if anything doesn't look right, let me know and I'll find a solution ;)

EDIT2: Removed some extra steps and edited some steps to remove confusion. Changes are in red.

Is the emboss on the visibility unchecked layer?

And is black the secondary colour or the primary and vice versa for white?

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My bad...emboss is supposed to be on the sword layer. The one with the visibility unchecked is your alpha mask which, at this point, could be deleted (but I wouldn't just yet...just in case)

The only place where I see your primary/secondary colors being an issue is for the gradient. In that case, you want the middle to be white.

No, Paint.NET is not spyware...but, installing it is an IQ test. ~BoltBait

Blend modes are like the filling in your sandwich. It's the filling that can change your experience of the sandwich. ~Ego Eram Reputo

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My bad...emboss is supposed to be on the sword layer. The one with the visibility unchecked is your alpha mask which, at this point, could be deleted (but I wouldn't just yet...just in case)

The only place where I see your primary/secondary colors being an issue is for the gradient. In that case, you want the middle to be white.

So I flatten the image without checking the visibility?

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The mask was a temporary layer. Basically, all it was used for was saving the shape of your sword before you messed it up with emboss. That said, you are correct. Don't check the visibility of the mask layer.

No, Paint.NET is not spyware...but, installing it is an IQ test. ~BoltBait

Blend modes are like the filling in your sandwich. It's the filling that can change your experience of the sandwich. ~Ego Eram Reputo

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Step 7a was where you made your alpha mask. I wonder, though, if you are trying to make this on a white layer rather than a transparent one...

Edited by pdnnoob

No, Paint.NET is not spyware...but, installing it is an IQ test. ~BoltBait

Blend modes are like the filling in your sandwich. It's the filling that can change your experience of the sandwich. ~Ego Eram Reputo

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