labakaas Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 Hello. I am new to paint.net and I am not very familiar with graphics programs in general. My experience with designing art has been limited to a 8-10 year old version of broaderbund printshop and MS powerpoint. I am trying to create vintage looking t-shirts. What I mean by this are the Ts where the artwork is crinkled or crackled to use some words that might do it justice. If I had an image, a photo or some other graphic, I want to create an image I can send to T-shirt printer in a png file where there are lines or spots of transparency through the image, so when the image was layed on top of the t-shirt, those lines or spots would appear as the same color as the t-shirt itself. I can do this in a primitive way in paint.net by creating a new project, copying in my image/photo and then using the eraser to create somewhat random lines and spots around the image including the edges. Whatever I erase appears in paint.net with the transparent grey and white checkerboard-see-through background, indicating that nothing is there. I have had success when I save this as a png and them upload it to the t-shirt program. The lines and spots I create become the color of the t-shirt. In other words, nothing gets printed on those spots of the T. But I am trying to do this by downloading some free crinkled/vintage/distressed images from the web and bringing them into paint.net, and trying to create an overlay to make the lines in the image become the transparent pieces of my own image. This is where I am having trouble. I have seen one post on another site describing how it should be done, but I can't get it to work for me. It tells me to import the distressed image, make sure it is black and white. Then I should use the magic wand tool to select the white part (or the black part) (neither are working for me), copy and paste it over my original image. Somehow this is supposed to yield my desired effect, but I know I am doing something wrong. I am not getting the process or keystrokes correct. Note that I have also seen people discussing some type of stamp feature that can accomplish something similar. Can someone help with some detailed, yet simple instructions, that can help a person who is not yet savvy with paint.net ? It would be much appreciated and would go a long way towards helping me create t-shirts for my daughter's soccer team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Djisves Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 ... But I am trying to do this by downloading some free crinkled/vintage/distressed images from the web and bringing them into paint.net, and trying to create an overlay to make the lines in the image become the transparent pieces of my own image. This is where I am having trouble. I have seen one post on another site describing how it should be done, but I can't get it to work for me. It tells me to import the distressed image, make sure it is black and white. Then I should use the magic wand tool to select the white part (or the black part) (neither are working for me), copy and paste it over my original image. Somehow this is supposed to yield my desired effect, but I know I am doing something wrong. I am not getting the process or keystrokes correct. ... Import the crampled image in a new layer on your original graphic and then ... Either Delete: On the crampled image layer, use the Magic Wand in Global Mode (hold down the Shift key before clicking with the mouse) to select either the black or the white bits. If you're not happy with the selection, fiddle a bit with the % tolerance. Once you are happy with the selection, delete the crampled image layer. You should now only have your original graphic on one layer with the selection active. Hit the Delete key on your keyboard. Or use the crampled image as an alpha mask: On the crampled image layer, Select All and Copy (Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C). Delete the crampled image layer. You should now only have your original graphic on one layer. Use the Alpha Mask plugin in the Effects menu list. To download,install and use the Alpha Mask Import plugin: Alpha mask plugin How to install plugins How to use alpha mask Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
labakaas Posted August 30, 2012 Author Share Posted August 30, 2012 Thank you DJISVES. This helped. It worked well for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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