Looking for some things.

[Coornio]

I hope there's an answer to either of these two questions

 

1) I'm pretty sure that many of you would like to be able to record a paint.net session and replay it step by step for another image. Just take a history chunk, pop it to another picture, boom, automated painting. It's what i'd like to do in my case for several icons of different colors. They all follow pretty much the same procedure but having to write it down, and note the colors and values of each plugin for every step is just tedious. So i'm wondering, is there a plugin that can do something like that i haven't heard of? Is the idea awesome enough for someone to attempt it?

 

2) I am also looking for any plugin or feature which may make working in tiles much better. In some cases i wish to line up textures in a sprite fashion, but that requires me first to make a sample checker board so i can use it to know that my selections are aligned perfectly with each other. Is there something that would let me operate in this fashion where the selection snaps in place every 64 pixels for example?

 

3) As i said, i work with icons. I'm making a mod in a game called Tesseract that is pretty much a replacement for the current UI (which is a much older version of my mod to begin with, long story) but i'm helpless. I won't lie, i've no real clue how to draw anything that isn't a shape, at least, not reliable enough so i can reproduce it a few months later if i decide to redo it for whatever reason. Bottom line is, i suck. So i'm using dingbat fonts like webdings and wingdings to render the symbols unto the canvas, and then i work a little coloration on them and boom, ready to go in my mod to pretty things up. There is, however, only so much the default fonts can provide and having to rely on free icons i find elsewhere is both disgraceful and difficult when i run out of options since i can't exactly mix and match sets from different people, there would be no consistency whatsoever.

So this is my problem really. I'm looking for dingbat fonts which may be able to render icons in a style similar to this icon pack i found:

https://www.iconfinder.com/iconsets/super-mono-reflection

Not to the letter, but clean looking like those.

I would also appreciate any tips anyone might be willing to give me so i can create my own icon templates to work on. Because i could tell you some basic things about how an image is put together to make the end result but my knowledge would only go so far when complex shapes, intricate gradients, shadows, reflections and glows are in play..

 

 

 

Bonus: screenie of the kind of icons i'm using in my mod for reference.

EDIT: the "no" and "yes" thumbs icons are what i was talking about when i said about coloring dingbat font symbols. It's a bit of a roundabout way that i'm going, using the Black & Alpha plugin to turn the image "inside out" by attempting to make transparent pixels opaque and opaque pixels transparent. If you guys know of another plugin to do something like that, MUCH appreciated.

Edited November 1, 2014 by Coornio

[Ego Eram Reputo]

1. ScriptLab might help here.

 

2. TR's PseudoSnap will help you snap stuff to a grid of your choosing.

 

3. Smashing Magazine gives away awesome font packs for free http://www.smashingmagazine.com/tag/freebies/c I also like these: http://zurb.com/playground/foundation-icon-fonts-3

[Cc4FuzzyHuggles]

I'm not sure how you make your icons, but normally if you use layers and the coloring is on it's own layer, then changing the color of things can be pretty easy, since you just change one layer rather than repeating an entire processes of rebuilding.

For changing colors of icons, and assuming the colors are simple, then another trick is that you could make your basic icon, then use one of the “tile image” functions, there's the "Fill From" plugin and in paint.net Menu Bar > Layers > rotate/zoom > check tile.
Once the basic image is tiled, then you can re-color each icon with re-coloring plugins or paint.net's re-color tool . There are so many color plugins, that I suggest you go check out the Plugin Index under the letter “C” for Color. Or go to this special paint.net search and type in “color plugins”. Or you can also use blending modes. Have a gray icon, add a new layer above your icon, set blending mode to multiply or overlay, and color over your icon.
 
If you are looking for an automated process to making your icons, maybe something related to how people make animated gifs would work, unfortunately I'm clueless in that area. However, I know you mentioned sprite sheets, so have you tried some sprite sheet plugins? Again, not my area of familiarity, but maybe they would be useful in some way?
SpriteSheet Animation Plugin
Sprite Animation Helper
There are also sprite sheet exporting plugins, but maybe you already have this sprite stuff?

As for dingbats, I don't know any specific sets, but if you haven't yet, you can browse these font sites :
http://www.1001fonts.com/dingbat-fonts.html
http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=721

For making cool icons with highlights, shadows, different shadings, have you explored the tutorials section of this forum, and done some of the tutorials that have shiny objects? You can learn techniques and then apply them to other things, such as your icons.
http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/12192-making-glass-buttons/
http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/27204-make-a-smartphone-basics/
http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/26860-glossy-metallic-text/

Last but not least, in case you missed these plugins, here are a couple of plugins you might like for making icons, Buttons, Shape 3D (you can save shape 3D's settings with an xml export option).

[Coornio]

1. ScriptLab might help here.

 

2. TR's PseudoSnap will help you snap stuff to a grid of your choosing.

 

3. Smashing Magazine gives away awesome font packs for free http://www.smashingmagazine.com/tag/freebies/c I also like these: http://zurb.com/playground/foundation-icon-fonts-3

 

Very very interesting. Thanks for the help on all of them.

This foundation font seems very nice, but i can't seem to figure how exactly i'll use its icons inside paint.net. Any pointers? Perhaps i have to make a sample website to render them all and then i'll just copy them as bitmaps

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Download and install the font.  

 

Then download and install my WhichSymbol+ plugin (link in my sig).  

 

The plugin is basically a font browser.  Use it to navigate through the installed fonts and pick out a symbol.  Whatever you select is rendered to the active layer (NB: one symbol at a time)

[Coornio]

Download and install the font.  

 

Then download and install my WhichSymbol+ plugin (link in my sig).  

 

The plugin is basically a font browser.  Use it to navigate through the installed fonts and pick out a symbol.  Whatever you select is rendered to the active layer (NB: one symbol at a time)

 

Didn't help. It only lists the standard + cyrilic characters as you'd expect from a standard font. I'm afraid i need a different way to import them.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

??  If you browse a symbol font (wingdings et al) it will show the symbols.  See the screenshot in the WhichSymbol thread.

 

Another option is to use Charmap.exe to identify a symbol and then type the code into paint.net when the text tool is active.  Specifically.. Using the text tool   you can hold down the ALT key and type the four digit code.  Release the ALT key and the symbol appears.  

[Coornio]

Not quite: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3zbv56atdbelzky/Screenshot%202014-11-03%2002.31.29.png?dl=0

 

Told you, no icons.

 

Also, i've read a lot about using ALT + numbers to type special characters. I've also realised that no matter what i do, it seems i'm not the chosen one. This "feature" never worked for me throughout 4 operating systems, from XP and Vista to Windows 7 and 8.1. It just doesn't do anything. Pressing the left ALT immediately highlights the menu bar of any application, and while the right one doesn't, it does not produce any symbols with a combination of numbers or letters either. Is there some kinda switch i'm supposed to flip in windows for this ability to activate or something?

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Tried toggling Num lock on the keyboard?

 

Try this:

 

1. open paint.net & select the Text tool  Click in the middle of your canvas.

 

2. Press & Hold The Alt key + use the numeric pad to type 0169  Release the Alt key.  Copyright symbol should appear.  Does it?

 

If that doesn't work, try #2 again with the Num Lock toggled.

[Coornio]

Tried toggling Num lock on the keyboard?

 

Try this:

 

1. open paint.net & select the Text tool  Click in the middle of your canvas.

 

2. Press & Hold The Alt key + use the numeric pad to type 0169  Release the Alt key.  Copyright symbol should appear.  Does it?

 

If that doesn't work, try #2 again with the Num Lock toggled.

 

Now that works. Weird how nobody tells you that it only appears to work through the numpad.