General Graphics Questions

Hello!

Post your general graphic making questions here! Please be sure to include the program and version you are using and try to be as specific as possible when asking. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to answer questions that are asked. I will do my best to catalog answered and frequently asked questions.

Ask away!

When you animate, how do you apply something that affects all the frames? Like if I want to use a clip from a movie/tv show/etc. and I want to make every frame a certain coloring, how do I do that?

When you animate, how do you apply something that affects all the frames? Like if I want to use a clip from a movie/tv show/etc. and I want to make every frame a certain coloring, how do I do that?
Put the coloring layers above all the image layers.
Select all the frames (bottom left) and make sure the coloring layers are visible for all frames.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n172/kala_way/coloringall.png

(this is assuming you're using a program that uses layers like this)

Is it possible to use Photoshop to make an animated avatar (for example) from a tv/movie clip without doing it frame for frame? Can you capture part of the actual clip and insert it to Photoshop or do you need a more sophisticated animation program?

Is it possible to use Photoshop to make an animated avatar (for example) from a tv/movie clip without doing it frame for frame? Can you capture part of the actual clip and insert it to Photoshop or do you need a more sophisticated animation program?

One way to do it is if you have a quicktime file you can import it into Image Ready and then Jump to Photoshop. It will open with all of the frames as different layers. Then you can jump back and forth between the programs.

If I'm using Photoshop CS3 (which doesn't come with Image Ready. The animation tool is inbuilt) can I import the quicktime straight to Photoshop? It doesn't seem to be working.

If I'm using Photoshop CS3 (which doesn't come with Image Ready. The animation tool is inbuilt) can I import the quicktime straight to Photoshop? It doesn't seem to be working.
No, as far as I know you can't animate using just Photoshop because it has no capability to create frames or set timing. I've never looked for it, but I'm sure there are free programs out there that do similar things to Image Ready (like Gimp is to Photoshop).

Ok thanks I might look into that :)

Hysteria, GIMP has its own animation feature :) It's very good.

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And I have a question - I just downloaded a bunch of fonts, and I forgot how to import them into photoshop! (I'm using elements if that makes a difference).

When you animate, how do you apply something that affects all the frames? Like if I want to use a clip from a movie/tv show/etc. and I want to make every frame a certain coloring, how do I do that?In photoshop elements, I actually copied the color layer (or levels or whatever) over each frame and merged them. I think imageready must have an easier way to do that, but I have no idea if elements does. If anyone is familiar with animating in elements, I'd love to hear of an easier way!

If I'm using Photoshop CS3 (which doesn't come with Image Ready. The animation tool is inbuilt) can I import the quicktime straight to Photoshop? It doesn't seem to be working.

Darn. Importing into Image Ready is handy when one can do it. I've used it like 1% of the time though because I rarely use quicktimes.

Rell, I didn't realize GIMP has an animation feature. Good to know. :)

Rell what version of Microsoft do you have? Vista? Because for Vista what you do is create an icon on your desktop of the font and then right click and select install, it's really easy. Otherwise you have to again, create an icon on the desktop then click and drag it into your Font file found in your programs.

Thanks vita!

And I have a question - I just downloaded a bunch of fonts, and I forgot how to import them into photoshop! (I'm using elements if that makes a difference).

I have been using PS both in XP and Vista. In both programmes, download the font to some subfolder, then go to control panel > fonts and choose install font. That allows you to browse for the fonts, you can select them all in one go.

After that, all those fonts will be available in most of the Windows applications you are using - as well as in Photoshop.

I am actually really pleased that I have them all in Word as well. About two months ago I collected some 150 fonts online and downloaded them all. I made a template in word (alphabet in caps and small letters, numbers, various signs, sample sentence), and then made a table with all the fonts displayed, and then ordered by different theme ('gothic', typewriter' 'handwriting', etc.). When I want to pick a font for Photoshop I go the table first and scroll through it. Usually I know which rough tyle I want, butthis way I have an easy way of indentifying the font that looks best for the job.

This has been extremely useful! :)

One way to do it is if you have a quicktime file you can import it into Image Ready and then Jump to Photoshop. It will open with all of the frames as different layers. Then you can jump back and forth between the programs.
WHAT?!?!?! that's really really annoying for me because it turns out i've been wasting time doing print screening videos for animations :rotfl:. Well, at least now I know

Hysteria, GIMP has its own animation feature :) It's very good.

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And I have a question - I just downloaded a bunch of fonts, and I forgot how to import them into photoshop! (I'm using elements if that makes a difference).

In photoshop elements, I actually copied the color layer (or levels or whatever) over each frame and merged them. I think imageready must have an easier way to do that, but I have no idea if elements does. If anyone is familiar with animating in elements, I'd love to hear of an easier way!

hmm...i've never heard of the install font thing Klio is talking about, but the way I do it is I go to my computer and you go to your Hard Disk Drive, which for me is called Local Disk, and when you go in you'll see a few subfolders, and you can go into the folder that says Windows or WINDOWS and there will be more subfolders, including one named Font. Then you can drag and drop or copy paste font files into there. :)

i'm going to see whether or not Ihave the install font thing :hmm:

ETA: I just checked, i do'nt have install font, it's just a folder, similar to the one i described on My Computer

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v488/lupee/install.png

This is what I mean for the Install feature with a desktop icon :D

oh ok, but I don't think it's on my computer, it's an XP

font managers

there are some font manager programs that help a lot in dealing with a great number of fonts. i downloaded some of them, all freeware. the ones i use the most are FastFontPreview, FontXplorer and Free&EasyFontViewer. but i'm sure there are new and better stuff out there.

with these programs you can type a sample of text and see it in every font available in your computer. which makes it much easier to choose the 'perfect' font (like there is such thing as the perfect font! :rolleyes: ). you can also install and uninstall fonts (the instalation is the act of copying the file to the Windows Fonts folder, like V8 does manually ;) ).

some of those font managers allow you to organize the fonts in categories, like Klio did on Word. and some even let you print font catalogues! there was a time when i was really into this and i researched a lot of font managers, but i never found one that did it all. :(

Ooh that's handy B! Thank's for sharing :D

WHAT?!?!?! that's really really annoying for me because it turns out i've been wasting time doing print screening videos for animations :rotfl:. Well, at least now I know


Don't feel bad. I do that most of the time too. :) Alt, Print Screen. :) I rarely have quicktimes to use. :) I can make them now but it involves an extra step so I may be using the Image Ready importing in the future if it isn't too much of a pain.

As for installing fonts... I've been doing them the same way in Vista or XP... I just download them into a folder on the desktop or wherever is convenient. Then I go to control panel and find the "Fonts" folder and open it. Then I just drag and drop or cut and paste the fonts into the "Fonts" folder. It's very easy. Then those fonts should be available in all (or at least stuff like Photoshop and Word) your programs.

Edit: biara, those programs look handy. Thanks!

Don't feel bad. I do that most of the time too. :) Alt, Print Screen. :) I rarely have quicktimes to use. :) I can make them now but it involves an extra step so I may be using the Image Ready importing in the future if it isn't too much of a pain.

As for installing fonts... I've been doing them the same way in Vista or XP... I just download them into a folder on the desktop or wherever is convenient. Then I go to control panel and find the "Fonts" folder and open it. Then I just drag and drop or cut and paste the fonts into the "Fonts" folder. It's very easy. Then those fonts should be available in all (or at least stuff like Photoshop and Word) your programs.

Edit: biara, those programs look handy. Thanks!

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/ This site is wonderful, you can use it to download youtube videos or upload any movies you have and convert them. I just looked and i'm not sure if it converts quicktime files :hmm: but either way, downloading a youtube vid to wma and using windows movie maker to slow down the clips helps a LOT too

Ooh that's handy B! Thank's for sharing no problem. :D i had a font fever some time ago and i really needed a program to help me with the fonts. i have about 1000 fonts (not many, i know), and most of them are not installed because they make the computer slower (not all the time, only when the program uses fonts). i use the FontPreview to choose the ones i need to install/uninstall.


have you guys heard of Aviary (http://aviary.com/home)? it's a site with some graphic tools and they have an online image editor, the Phoenix, that looks like Photoshop. with the layers and blending modes and other stuff. i never really tried it, because it takes a lot to load, but it looks good in the demo.

I just took a look at the Aviary program. It's pretty comparable to GIMP though it's not as user friendly yet. I think that it will take a few more versions to take off but it's very promising. I really enjoyed the levels and saturation tools offered :) The tutorials on the main web site are amazing and have lots of great tips that I think could be applied to most programs

I kind of feel like taking a look at GIMP, just to try it. But i'm just so used to Photoshop at this point :lol:

Once you go photoshop everything else seems.. horrible.
I used photoshop at a photography course I've been taking, but I don't have it at home. Now that I don't take that course Anymore, its just... horrible.

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/ This site is wonderful, you can use it to download youtube videos or upload any movies you have and convert them. I just looked and i'm not sure if it converts quicktime files :hmm: but either way, downloading a youtube vid to wma and using windows movie maker to slow down the clips helps a LOT too

That looks like a good program for converting to a lot of formats. Good to know, thanks. :) It doesn't look like you can convert to MOV (quicktime) but you can use it to convert from a MOV. I have an editing program that I can use to make quicktimes though, but as I said it's an extra step, which could be worth it depending...

I have a general photoshop question that I've been wondering about for a long time. To this day, upon start-up, I continue to get a message asking me if I want to register my photoshop. When I first installed the program I did in fact register it - multiple times. But the message keeps coming up, and I can't get rid of it. It's really just an annoyance, but I'd like to find some way to get rid of it. Anyone have any advice/ideas?

Are you running photoshop as the Administrator? Open the start menu, right click Photoshop's shortcut and click "Run as Administrator". Then click "Do not register" when you receive the prompt in Photoshop. You won't be prompted again after this. Ive had the same deal with my PSP

Two questions.....


First, a question on Photoshop (I use PS 7).

Is there a more elegant way than the shear filter (which is very tedious for the purpose, and needs extremely careful handling) to bend a design, including text, along a curve?

I would want to do this quite often, and can't find a PS way of doing it properly.



Second, a question on fonts.

I would be rather interested in making my own fonts. Does anyone know how to go about that? I was always hoping to discover some software that allows you to drop designs for letters in the appropriate slots of the font set (or something of that kind), but I can't find anything appropriate. I think that making fonts would be fun!

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/ This site is wonderful, you can use it to download youtube videos or upload any movies you have and convert them. I just looked and i'm not sure if it converts quicktime files :hmm: but either way, downloading a youtube vid to wma and using windows movie maker to slow down the clips helps a LOT too

This is the program I have always used. You download it though. It has little quirks and such, but overall it converts any type of video to numerous formats and also will strip sound from a movie for you into a separate sound file (wav). I actually have a better program for that though because AVC doesn't always do so good a job with the sound files. AVC has settings though, so check them out before using - it will convert your movie to a number of different formatted sizes with differing quality, so to ensure you get what you want, hit the option buttons before you have a go. It is great though. :tu:

I would be rather interested in making my own fonts. Does anyone know how to go about that? I was always hoping to discover some software that allows you to drop designs for letters in the appropriate slots of the font set (or something of that kind), but I can't find anything appropriate. I think that making fonts would be fun! i don't know much about that, but there's a thread about it. started by Kimagine.

How to Make Your Own True Tupe Font (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=115179)

I would be rather interested in making my own fonts. Does anyone know how to go about that? I was always hoping to discover some software that allows you to drop designs for letters in the appropriate slots of the font set (or something of that kind), but I can't find anything appropriate. I think that making fonts would be fun! I think kimagine has made a font for herself. You might want to ask her how she did it :)

Does anyone have a favorite method of coloring LOST caps? For the life of me I cant get the colors to look natural. I use Paintshop Pro so no selective coloring :) I can do most anything else.

What is a "Lost" cap?

From the tv show Lost, the caps have lots of saturated greens and the icons just look goofy. For many fandoms there are tips and tricks with dealing with the caps based on the general brightness/contrast and overall color scheme.

Are you running photoshop as the Administrator? Open the start menu, right click Photoshop's shortcut and click "Run as Administrator". Then click "Do not register" when you receive the prompt in Photoshop. You won't be prompted again after this. Ive had the same deal with my PSPThanks Vita, that solved it! :huggles:

Here (http://community.livejournal.com/icon_tutorial/5326907.html) is a decent tutorial, though the blue-green is still a bit much. I'd replace the last two coloring layers with #F246E8 (a bright pink) set on soft light and maybe a brown (on a low opacity). Using that and adjusting brightness/contrast I got this:
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n172/kala_way/lost.png
which isn't amazing, but's better than the lime green of so many of them IMO :) gives you a good skin tone at least

From the tv show Lost, the caps have lots of saturated greens and the icons just look goofy. For many fandoms there are tips and tricks with dealing with the caps based on the general brightness/contrast and overall color scheme.

Ahhh LOL. I have never seen the caps associated with that show - but that is interesting.

I have a question regarding sharpening an image--making it more clear. How do you guys do it? I've followed tutorials and the like and my images are still a bit fuzzy. I'm using Gimp. I don't make the image bigger than the original or anything like that. I save it in .png. I don't know what to do!

Here (http://community.livejournal.com/evita_icons/22632.html) is a link to a tutorial I made for my basic base prep.

The main thing is to start with a HQ image to begin with. It might take some time to find but it's worth it. Also, have you tried applying the sharpening option more than once? Sometimes it takes 2 or three times with images to get the sharpness you want. However, when you sharpen more than once more than likely the skin will be too pixelly so you'll have to go in with the softening tool and smooth the skin out.

Here (http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Smart_Sharpening/) is a tutorial I found that is specifically for sharpening in GIMP. It's quite a few steps but the result is nice. But remember, the biggest help you can have is high quality images to start out with.

I think I'm starting with high quality images. Would clarity lessen if you continously shrink the image? I'll check out those tutorials. Thanks so much!

The more you mess with a base image the more the quality is degraded. So yea, it's better to shrink only once and only sharpen after you get it to its final size.

I actually sharpen before I resize. I find that the end product doesn't look as grainy.

Really? I find that if I sharpen beforehand I always have to sharpen again after I resize anyway so I only do it afterward. Who knows though?

You should do an unsharp mask then.

I usually do. :scared:
I have no consistency though. I do things different ways every time based on how much I care. :lol: so sometimes I just dupe the layer, sharpen and adjust the opacity if I don't want to fiddle with a bunch of dials. *iz lame*

For sharpening sometimes I duplicate the image, set to soft light (or screen) > copy-merge and paste on a new layer then sharpen that layer and fiddle with the opacity. It's less harsh that regular sharpening can be.

So to break it down it would be

base layer
duplicate
set top layer to soft light or screen
copy merge
paste on as a new layer
sharpen
adjust opacity
smooth skin,image as needed.

Is all this stuff about sharpening for gimp?

that reminds me, is there a way to sharpen in photoshop besides the sharpen tool? since that's pretty awful at sharpening images

I am not a fan of sharp images, which is likely evident by now. I use blur much more than sharpen. But, when I do wish for sharpening, I do it the same way vita explained, which I learned in a tutorial. I don't recall ever sharpening an entire photo though; generally I carefully select small portions to sharpen - but it is very time consuming. I don't like the result of 'find edges' automatic selection process, so I always do it by hand. In my above avatar, I blurred the bottom half of the photo, but sharpened the leaves a bit with the method I talk about below.

Since I dislike terrifically sharp photos, I use burn in a similar manner with the histogram and it sharpens with less definition than duping and sharpening does. I actually love the way it turns out better - although as a person who does not prefer sharp photos, it may only be better to my eye. :rotfl:

what does history brush do anyways? I could never figure it out

well, not the art history brush, i just don't know about the regular history brush

what's a history brush? :huh:

it's this brush in photoshop, except i have no idea what it does :lol:

For sharpening sometimes I duplicate the image, set to soft light (or screen) > copy-merge and paste on a new layer then sharpen that layer and fiddle with the opacity. It's less harsh that regular sharpening can be. Yes exactly, and it feels like you have more control that way as well.

what does history brush do anyways? I could never figure it out. I've never really used it (except accidentally). Basically it lets you select a step from your history list and "paint on" that effect on your current image. Here' (http://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=685045)s a tutorial that discusses it. Or you can search for it on YouTube and see it in action :)

oh thanks :)

My desktop fell to pieces today and I plugged in my laptop till I can replace it tomorrow. Looking at some of the graphics, I note that everything looks completely washed out or very bright or odd on this monitor. I could adjust it of course, but it dawned on me that we are not all likely seeing the same thing when looking at one another's work. :lol:. I hope no one has this setting - but there are a couple of graphics that actually look somewhat better on this computer, so it made me wonder if you guys had discussed some type of universal settings in the past that these will be looked at with...?

My desktop fell to pieces today and I plugged in my laptop till I can replace it tomorrow. Looking at some of the graphics, I note that everything looks completely washed out or very bright or odd on this monitor. I could adjust it of course, but it dawned on me that we are not all likely seeing the same thing when looking at one another's work. :lol:. I hope no one has this setting - but there are a couple of graphics that actually look somewhat better on this computer, so it made me wonder if you guys had discussed some type of universal settings in the past that these will be looked at with...?

Sorry to hear about your laptap. :(

Basically what would be needed is something to calibrate our monitors, like the Pantone huey or the Colorvision Spyder. I'd love to get something like this so that I know that at least what I'm working on is the correct color/brightness. We can't control what it looks like for everyone else, of course. ;)

Ive often become frustrated with how my graphics look on other monitors. Especially during contests :\ A universal setting would be nice but still i think it depends on the age of the monitor and the users personal preferences.

Ah...well you would all have a great laugh at what I am seeing with my new desk top monitor. It is a 24" and everything is currently stretched across the screen until I learn how to adjust it. :lol:. My laptop was fine, it was my desk top that cracked - but all is well now. The blur effect I employ is magnified like 800x's and it is hilarious. I think this has cured me of that particular fondness - at least to that extent. If nothing else the incident has caused me to see I need to sharpen up.

Here (http://community.livejournal.com/icon_tutorial/5326907.html) is a decent tutorial, though the blue-green is still a bit much. I'd replace the last two coloring layers with #F246E8 (a bright pink) set on soft light and maybe a brown (on a low opacity). Using that and adjusting brightness/contrast I got this:
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n172/kala_way/lost.png
which isn't amazing, but's better than the lime green of so many of them IMO :) gives you a good skin tone at least

:drool:!!!!! ah...Sawyer! :rolleyes:

Sorry...

My desktop fell to pieces today and I plugged in my laptop till I can replace it tomorrow. Looking at some of the graphics, I note that everything looks completely washed out or very bright or odd on this monitor. I could adjust it of course, but it dawned on me that we are not all likely seeing the same thing when looking at one another's work. :lol:. I hope no one has this setting - but there are a couple of graphics that actually look somewhat better on this computer, so it made me wonder if you guys had discussed some type of universal settings in the past that these will be looked at with...?When I started working with my laptop (Christmas gift from the hubby), I realized things look a lot different here than on the pc. I suppose this is an issue with most of us, as we think our icon(s) is fine, only to have comments about it either being too washed out or too dark, among other things. At first, I thought it was personal preference. Apparently not.

i haven't entered a LIMS before so i'm curious to see what people will say about my icons , but anyways, i think my monitor is like at an average setting since a lot of other computers i've been on, my images still look relatively similar or ok looking.

You should do an unsharp mask then.

I never have much success with unsharp mask--too fiddly. I usually do sharpen then edit fade sharpen. Also I find adjusting the levels and contrast helps to sharpen things a bit.

Can anyone help with my text? I just made this icon and put the text on and I got that line in "future" It pops up quite often when I use text. Anyone have any ideas of how to get rid of it? I have anti alias set on smooth

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v488/lupee/7.png

Can anyone help with my text? I just made this icon and put the text on and I got that line in "future" It pops up quite often when I use text. Anyone have any ideas of how to get rid of it? I have anti alias set on smooth that's weird. i never saw that happen. have you tested changing the size and the location of the text? or maybe it's the font?
btw, nice icon. ;)

I have tried changing the size, angle and the font and it shows up everywhere but not all the time. :\ It's driving me crazy because I have to go in and manually smudge the lines a time a bit so there isnt the line.

Thanks :D New obsession = Merlin!

I think it's just the font itself:hmm:

No it's not :p It's the same font as the avatar Im using and there is no line in my avatar, there's a bit of grunge but not in a perfect straight line and it wouldnt be happening in every font I use :)

now that's really odd....:hmm:

Sounds like something in the underlying photo itself - if you used layers, maybe enlarge and look at each one and you will see something?

Maybe try using a brush and painting a grey color over the area and see if it happens then also. If not, use it under your writing and just make the painted layer invisible. Rigged fix.

When are we going to have another contest to make a video for? That is really the most fun I must admit... :D

There was a contest for a video? Ooh fun :D

That's what I have been doing (painting the line in) but it gets rather annoying! :D

I have an idea for another graphic contest we could start on CoS. It would be a one on one competiton... will post more details if there is any interest.

sounds pretty cool :D

Hey, I use the graphics program Paint.net (Because it's free. Boyfriend has photoshop but does not approve of me using it for "Harry Potter" Grrr:grumble:)

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone knows an easy way to choose part of an image for the purpose of brightening/lightening etc. and not make it look pixelated or gross compared to the rest of the image :)

Thanks!

Im not familiar with paint.net but have you thought about trying GIMP? It's a rather use friendly freeware program

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone knows an easy way to choose part of an image for the purpose of brightening/lightening etc. and not make it look pixelated or gross compared to the rest of the image i'm not sure what you're dealing with. it would help if you gave an example.
does Paint.net have layers and blending modes? if it does, you can try to use light to dark gradients with the lighter part where you want the image to be brighter and set it to soft light or something.


ETA: oh... you mean the snake in your LIMS icon? you want it brighter? well... when there's a specific element that you want to modify, it's not so difficult. you can do it with a brush. draw over the element (in a different layer) with the color you want and then play with the blending modes. i don't have a fix recipe for it, i usually play a lot with the blending and the opacity of the layers.


since we're talking about coloring, there is a journal with some great coloring tutorials that i think some of you might want to take a look. about color correction (http://community.livejournal.com/awmpdotnet/10410.html), brightening dark caps (http://community.livejournal.com/awmpdotnet/15357.html), vibrant coloring (http://community.livejournal.com/awmpdotnet/7305.html), and other stuff. lots of great tips (it's Photoshop based, but still you can use the tips).
>>awmpdotnet (http://community.livejournal.com/awmpdotnet/)<<

I'm going to attempt to use GIMP, and also play around with those photoshope tutorials as well :) thank you so much for the help!

Thanks for the links, biara! I'll have to look at them sometime.

How do you guys cut out images, like if you want to put a person in a scene they are not in originally? What do you do about blending and such? I'm having a hard time getting the edges just right.

How do you guys cut out images, like if you want to put a person in a scene they are not in originally? What do you do about blending and such? I'm having a hard time getting the edges just right. the best thing to do is to start with good quality images. and it's also a good thing when the light in both images are similar (images that are in the same scene or in the same photoshoot are the best), because it's not easy to fix that. also, frizzy hair doesnt's help. choose well your images and you'll get a better result.
i like to use the lasso selection tool for a start. then, for the detalis i prefer to use masks. that way, if i erase something that i shouldn't have, it's easy to fix. you don't really need the mask, it only helps you during the process. i start with a large soft brush and use a tiny one for the tiny bits. when it's done, i apply the mask.
when you want the blending to look realistic, the coloring and the lighting should match. so i choose one of the images to get the base for the coloring and then i use the coloring tools to make the other elements fit (mostly curves, and sometimes a brush).
i also think that adding a sort of glow (set to multiply) in the new element helps the blending.
and the last thing that i do is to to add a new color fill layer on top of it all. usually a skin tone set to softlight. the thing is that a new color applied to the image helps to even the coloring. it doesn't really matter what the color is. it could be a texture or a gradient.

wow! i thought it would be simple to explain. it would be easier with images as examples. maybe later. but i'm sure there are already tutorials about it somewhere. any doubts, just ask.

Ah, that doesn't sound so bad. Thank you for going through all that. I think I understand it. Thanks! I just wondered because so many of you all get such wonderfully blended (or at least wonderfully looking) images.

What I do is I'll try to find an image where the background and the person are completely contrasted, because then i'll use the magic wand thing in photoshop to delete the background. However, sometimes, i'll also use an eraser and do it manually and add both characters in. Then I would adjust brightness, contrast and color balance so they looked similar. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by blended though. what I'll sometimes do is save the original picture background, if it's a screenshot, cut out the character and paste it in another layer. Then I could only mess around wtih the background without ruining the person.

It also helps to leave a bit of the background in from the picture you steal and erase the final bit after the transfer. Sometimes you get extremely lucky and the small area background blends into the transfered background so that you don't have sharp edges around the person you transferred in - if that makes sense. That generally can work if you pull the people from the same scene of a shoot, albeit from different caps. Although I used blur which lessens sharp edges of course, in my current avatar, the boys are actually from 3 different caps all joined together. Even before I blurred and such, the edges were barely noticeable because the background of the 3 caps was the same. All three layers of the boys have background pieces attached to them. Only Goyle's piece is funky at the top and that was merely because I got lazy - I could have easily made that blend in as well because the detail is the same (leaves).

In GIMP, I typically use the paths tool to make selections. It's an extremely powerful tool that allows for very precise selecting. (If anyone has GIMP and wants to know how to use paths, let me know :))

Photoshop elements doesn't have paths, so I either do the selecting in GIMP and then copy and paste, or I do a selection with my tablet, which I'm pretty comfortable doing with precision. It's a lot harder to do with a mouse.

I don't know how to use masks though, can someone tell me how they work when making selections?

I'm not even sure what masks are

I found a few links on masks but I've never used masks so I don't know how useful they are.

Masks in GIMP (http://community.livejournal.com/45caliber_icons/11660.html)
Pattern/silhouette tutorial using a layer mask (http://community.livejournal.com/icon_tutorial/4994818.html#cutid1)
Tutorial - Masks,Tonal Value, Watercolor Effects, etc... (http://blimey-icons.livejournal.com/49567.html)
Layer Masks Explained (http://photoshop-tutorials.deviantart.com/art/Layer-Masks-Explained-G-17585343)
Layer Masks Tutorial (http://mynti.deviantart.com/art/Layer-Masks-Tutorial-37510287)
Layer Masks + Colour Gradients (http://kuschelirmel-stock.deviantart.com/art/Layer-Masks-Colour-Gradients-102739509)

So, basically, they're used for blending. :lol:

I've heard of masks and looked at tutorials for masks, but I still don't know how to use them. :shrug:

Now, Rell, how do you use paths to cut out an image?

Here's a really good tutorial for masks in Photoshop
Layer Masks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMyaHFxe9Hg)
I found it to be a great AhHa! type tutorial :lol:

I use layer masks all the time! They're great because you can erase part of the image without actually erasing the image itself. So if you make a mistake or if you later want to un-erase things, you can do so very easily.

Regarding the blending, another tool you can use is the feather tool (photoshop). That basically does the same thing as erasing with a very large brush.

I use layer masks all the time. I hate when I don't use it and I end up accidentally erasing part of an image, though. ;)

I just watched the tutorial, and while i used to find ways around using layer masks(copy pasting original image and making the copy invisible) and stuff like that, layer masks will definitely help a lot, now that i know what they actually are :lol:

thanks for the links! it's always good to take a look in some tutorials. good tutorials, of course. :)

So Vita, here is my first funkadelic trial with a cap and I have a question as a result of the tutorial you wrote.

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll28/xx_Anakin_xx/capharry-1.png

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll28/xx_Anakin_xx/harry1-1.png

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll28/xx_Anakin_xx/harry2-2.png


The first is the original. The second more contrast as is liked here abouts (and likely more, lol) and third the kind I like :lol:. But on both the manipulations, I manipulated the font in the way you suggested and it didn't overlay the same. I realize the background color will affect how it ultimately comes out, but mine seems to retain too much white, and if I start with a darker shade, it fades into the picture too much. Did you only use soft light on yours? Any suggestions for how to darken it more. I tried other things like overlay, etc., and also adjusting the overall strength, but I couldn't get that same faded appearance. :hmm:

First off, lovely :D To answer your question , yes I only used soft light on my text. I think the problem is that the yellow is underneath the text and it is seeping through. You could drop a black shadow underneath so it's darker and less bright color seeps through. Try moving it over Harry's hair (not to stay there) but just see if looks better. If it does, like I said perhaps a black shadow dropped behind the text will help.

Tx luv and YAY, it worked! thanks a lot. :)

i have a question.
if i can watch a movie in my computer, i can get my own screen caps, right? how? do i need a special software for that?

You will need a program that allows screencapture. I use PowerDVD but a popular one is VLC screen capture (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/VLC_media_player). The trick is to find a program that doesn't mess with your aspect ratio. With VLC you can do large batches of capping when set on auto or a place I go for my screencaps is a Livejournal community called DJ Capslock (http://community.livejournal.com/dj_capslock/) You;ll have to join to get to the caps but this guy has capped THOUSANDS of movies and tv shows.

What I do on the laptop is hold 'fn' (next to 'ctrl') and hit 'print screen', then paste into paint and save the image.

i have a question.
if i can watch a movie in my computer, i can get my own screen caps, right? how? do i need a special software for that?

How are you watching the movie? From a TV tuner card directly from cable or from a DVD or from a saved movie file?

i watch DVDs on my pc. and the PrintScreen doesn't work. actually, i use PowerDVD to play the movies, but i never saw the capture option before. it worked. :D thanks for the tip!
i went to DJ capslock before, but you have to download zip packs there. i don't like to have to download hundreds of caps to see if the one i want is in there. :(

I was wondering if I could get some constructive criticism on some graphics I just created (in ten minutes) :P
I was fooling around with the graphics program I use (Paint.net) and discovered a way to make reflections. I made three seperate graphics; one that I actually used my new "technique" on and two fun ones.
If you guys could tell me where to improve these images, that would be amazing!

ORIGINALS:
http://www.turksandcaicoscondo.tc/Photos/Ocean%20Club%20West%20Beach%20water.jpg
Background Picture

http://www.ok9st.org/ok9st/images/photos/Water-Dog%201%20s.jpg
Boat/Dog picture

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/images/051007_robot_fish.jpg
Fish Picture

The clouds and boat were part of the original :)


My Work: :D
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/dancing_diva_211/reflection1.jpg

This one is the main graphic: I used a gradient to create the look of the fading reflection. I realize that the edges around each individual picture were a bit choppy but I was just fooling around.. I may fix these later :)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/dancing_diva_211/reflection2.jpg

Water Colour Version! Same thing, just water-colourized. I used a rendering program in paint.net to create clouds, which I made intense and found that they looked kind of like canvas. I overlayed this on my original picture and used the Artistic Watercolour Tool to make it seem like a painting!

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/dancing_diva_211/reflection3.jpg

Pencil sketch version! I used the same cloud render overlay for the canvas feel, but instead used the Artistic Pencil Sketch Tool to make it seem like a pencil sketch!

I like the reflections Tap Dancer. :tu:. I am unqualified to offer an assistance, lol, I can only give suggestions if I have tried something out and it worked. But that is an interesting idea to try, very cool. The only thing I noticed was that the fish - wouldn't the reflection be the underbelly? Well I think it is because of the fin, but it seems like the eye is still showing...It looks cool anyhow.

On another note, I just upgraded PS7 to Photo X2 and I'm loving it. It is very cool and the upgrade comes with other programs I have yet to check out. I did it because I had a computer crash and had to upgrade to Vista and PS7 wasn't working well with it. But I am glad I did because everything is 100% more user friendly. No more roll up pallettes which is a big plus to me (especially since the docking feature did not work in Vista).

i think it looks pretty cool, but I think the fish could be slightly blurred and with less contrast, since it just pops out a bit too much, but great job overall :).

Ok I have two questions.

1. I'm only just starting to make animated icons and want to make ones from clips from videos (like how many uses here used short clips from the HP6 trailers for their avatars) and have discovered I'm terrible at using the screen-cap method. Is there a freeware program that will capture video and do this for me?

2. If I have an image like this (http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a188/monty3590/IMGP0114.jpg), for example, how could I remove the fuzziness (using Photoshop). I've tried all sorts of effects but none of them are very... well effective. When I go and see bands I usually have to take my point and click camera because I cant take my SLR in but then I'm faced with the trouble of having to photoshop my pictures to perfection.

Cheers :D

Hysteria- for question number two have you tried the "Digital Camera Noise Removal" option? Im pretty sure that Photoshop has this since Paint shop does. It's not a 100% fix but it makes it alot more workable. I'll see what I can come up with

Hysteria- for question number two have you tried the "Digital Camera Noise Removal" option? Im pretty sure that Photoshop has this since Paint shop does. It's not a 100% fix but it makes it alot more workable. I'll see what I can come up with

I think the Photoshop equivalent is 'despeckle' which I've tried with poor results :shrug:

Thanks Vita :)

um waht is the screencap method? print screen? because what i do if i find that a video is too fast, i download it from like yuotube or wherever i'm getting it from, then use windows movie maker to slow it down so i can slowly use the print screen method. I forgot what program before that made quicktime videos into gif but i do know it exists, someone else should tell you about that :lol:

Yeah that's what I mean, print screen. It's extremely frustrating when you're trying to make a smooth animation and you cant pause the video in the right places :grumble:

I wanna try making graphics with "negative space" does anyone have a tutorial on how too? I use PS CS3 Extended in case you needed to know, and i have no idea how to use the path's tool either..

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f45/lucimon84/tutorial/lewis03.png
Negative space? (Made by wickedground from live journal)

I wanna try making graphics with "negative space" does anyone have a tutorial on how too? I use PS CS3 Extended in case you needed to know, and i have no idea how to use the path's tool either.. i don't understand exactly whet you mean by 'graphics with negative space'. here's a tutorial (http://community.livejournal.com/427_fandom/57604.html) that explains the rule of thirds and the relation between negative and positive spaces.

i use the pen tool once in a while. you can do a whole lot of stuff with it and i don't know half of them. i use it mostly for making curve text.
you can use the pen tool to form straight or curve lines (depending on whether you click still or you click and drag). those lines will be your path. and from that you can apply a brush to draw or turn the path into a selection and use it for whatever you want to do with the selection. or you can use the text tool to write in the path.
the pen tool is a little tricky. to learn how to use, it's better to train first. this tutorial (http://www.heathrowe.com/pathsmadeeasy.aspx) might help.

Thanks for the tutorial link, it helped a lot. :D

Does anyone have a method of removing watermarks from a photo? Ive been using the clone brush tool but that is so tedious! I had a watermark on the image in my signature and I think I successfully covered or erased it but I can't always slap text across the front of a graphic :lol:

Just a combo of the clone and healing brush is all I've ever used. I try to avoid doing it at all--sometimes you can find the same pic with and without the mark, but you can't always avoid it.

I always try to crop in a way that gets rid of the mark. Otherwise I use either clone brush or simply smudge the part, when it fits the icon. Or I just look for another picture with a more decent one. :lol:

The watermark might also be there for a reason :whistle:

The watermark might also be there for a reason :whistle:

NONSENSE!

What a silly notion :lol:

Does anyone know a tutorial that shows how to change a black and white image to color? Mostly a black and white image of a person...

http://www.fubargenre.com/2007/05/09/basic-photoshop-skill-adding-colors-to-black-and-white-photos/

I tried to follow that but it wasn't much help..

I've never found one that was very good that results in really natural colors. The one you posted has the basics though, and works great for things like cartoon style drawings (like my last LIMS entry with Hermione and Krum). I've done it quite a few times (with various degrees of success :lol:) and every picture is different--you just have to play with it. Depending on the lighting of the picture, you set your layers to color or multiply (sometimes others, tab through and see how things look), erase/mask the bits you don't want to see, and fiddle with opacity. That's standard for all really.

The things I've found that work the best are 1) for skin to make several different layers on lower opacity with different colors. Like painters do, layers with bright blues and yellows and greens at the right opacity can add depth to skin tone instead of making it look flat, even if they look crazy when first applied. 2) Also, for skin, I always put in highlights. People's skin isn't one color all over, I put a spot layer of bright red on cheeks, lips, eyelids, etc. and maybe some brown in shadowed places and put it at a very low opacity. That tends to help a lot!

Also, anytime you do coloring on individual parts of a graphic you should try to put a few coloring/lighting layers on top of everything. Something that goes over it all and gives it a consistency of light and tone. That can cover a lot of small mistakes. Try starting out with drawings since they're more forgiving, the basics are the same but it's less discouraging :)

OOh thanks =D

Does anyone have a method of removing watermarks from a photo? Ive been using the clone brush tool but that is so tedious! I had a watermark on the image in my signature and I think I successfully covered or erased it but I can't always slap text across the front of a graphic :lol:
I don't know which program you're using, but I typically use the patch tool. You can find it on the drop down from the healing brush. It allows you to select large areas of the image you wish to cover up, and then you drag the outlined shape to another area of the image. That area of the image is blended on top of the old one. I find that it works better than the clone tool or the healing brush in some instances because you can do large areas at once. It's also good for retouching photos. I wouldn't use it on small areas though because it blends around the edges, but it's great in general. :)

Does anyone know a tutorial that shows how to change a black and white image to color? Mostly a black and white image of a person...

http://www.fubargenre.com/2007/05/09/basic-photoshop-skill-adding-colors-to-black-and-white-photos/

I tried to follow that but it wasn't much help..

Here (http://community.livejournal.com/icon_tutorial/8706910.html) is a LJ entry that has black and white to color tutorials. They're on the top :) Hope they help!

Anyone know any sites where I can find a high-quality picture of Hogwarts at a night-ish setting?

The picture on the back of my June Reader's Digest was such a good Lily Luna Potter, I decided to use it for practice scanning, downloading and hosting a picture. This will stand me in good stead for the TrapDoor Contest 2nd Challenge, I think.

http://www.cosforums.com/images/img/1687954a143739ec2dd.jpg

I've downloaded GIMP2 and used it on my contest entry, but I still feel like I've been doing things the hard way, or at least not the best way.

Can anyone tell me the best way to get the Dove logo out of her hair and make it actually look like hair instead of a blob of reddish color in her hair? I have next to no experience in photomanip. When I have tried it, the results have been pretty cr@p. I need advice on both what the tools are and how to use them.

good work so far :)
Can anyone tell me the best way to get the Dove logo out of her hair and make it actually look like hair instead of a blob of reddish color in her hair? I have next to no experience in photomanip. When I have tried it, the results have been pretty cr@p. I need advice on both what the tools are and how to use them. the best way is to use the clone tool. this tool uses part of the image as the 'paint'.
first you need to choose wich area will be cloned by Ctrl+Click (you can change this any time you want, just Ctrl+Click in a different area). and then you can start painting.

i googled 'GIMP clone tool' and here's what seems to be a good tutorial (http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/15037.html). there are others, of course.

Also a reccomendation when working with an image that has a watermark or logo on it is to place your text on top of it (of course after you use the clone brush). Often it's a great hint or guide to use for text placement to create a balanced image :) Also, it will cover any flaws that the clone brush creates. Another tip for removing the image from hair in particular is to avoid the soften tool. That will create just a bigger mess :) Good luck!

Thank you! I suspected that the Clone tool was the right one, but I quickly figured out that I wasn't using it properly.

Does anyone have any tips/advice/tutorials for making graphics with images of animation - as in pictures from Disney movies, such as my avatar. I have found it difficult enough to find decent pictures, let alone work with them. Thanks!

Does anyone have any tips/advice/tutorials for making graphics with images of animation - as in pictures from Disney movies, such as my avatar. I have found it difficult enough to find decent pictures, let alone work with them. Thanks!
There's huuuge Anime/Manga/Cartoon (http://xxdarzie.livejournal.com/3875.html) Tutorial list.

There's huuuge Anime/Manga/Cartoon (http://xxdarzie.livejournal.com/3875.html) Tutorial list.

Ahh, thank you so much!!

Okay, little childrenz, here's the slap-deal::yuhup:

(Scratch that. I'm just weird.:lol:) So, I'm a Hogsmeade member now, and I have an avatar. I've found an image hosted on the internet I would LOVE to use for it, but unfortunately it's too big for forum limits. I'm having trouble trying to adequately resize it, because it's an animated GIF file. All the online tools I've tried either flatten the picture (no fun) or refuse to work with it (dead end).

Can anyone point me to somewhere I can get this done? NO Gimp please!
(I actually have Photoshop on another computer, but I can't exactly do animated images with it, and ImageReady wasn't part of the package.)

Thanks a million butterbeers,
-- eagls

I've found an image hosted on the internet I would LOVE to use for it, but unfortunately it's too big for forum limits. I'm having trouble trying to adequately resize it, because it's an animated GIF file. All the online tools I've tried either flatten the picture (no fun) or refuse to work with it (dead end).
I had that problem with a GIF file I wanted to resize to CoS specifications, and Klio did it for me in a flash. I don't know what software she used, but the resized image continued flashing and moving, which I could never get it to do.

I'd like to learn to do animation, like some avatars and signatures I see around here. I mean something more than add glitter with Blingee or Glitterfy. Someone recommended Movies13 (it's a freeware) as being better than GLIMP. I've never tried either of them, what is the general opinion?

I've found an image hosted on the internet I would LOVE to use for it, but unfortunately it's too big for forum limits. I'm having trouble trying to adequately resize it, because it's an animated GIF file. All the online tools I've tried either flatten the picture (no fun) or refuse to work with it (dead end).

Can anyone point me to somewhere I can get this done? NO Gimp please!
(I actually have Photoshop on another computer, but I can't exactly do animated images with it, and ImageReady wasn't part of the package.)

I don't know of any free animation software, though if you search around on google you might find something. If you can't and just want a quick fix you can send it to me. I'll fix it for you and owl it back. Animated sigs are a bit more difficult than avatars because the kb limit is smaller for sigs and they are bigger and thus need more, so you sometimes have to sacrifice quality.

I understand Movies13 is a free animation software, but I wouldn't swear to it since I have never used it. It was recommended to me as such, though.

I found a free, stand-alone (no installation needed) program that will take gifs and stack them together to make one animated gif. UnFREEz (http://www.prashanthpai.com/blog/make-simple-gif-animation-using-unfreez/) It's very simple and doesn't allow you to manipulate the graphics in any way, but if you take a bunch that you've made, you can drag and drop them into this program and set the rate, whether you want it to loop or just play through once and stop. Then save your animated gif. Doesn't do tons, but it's free!!! :D

Fleur, I have ImageReady, which comes with Photoshop.... and that's what I used to resize your image....


Den - that's an interesting looking programme. If you have photoshopp elements or GIMP you should be able to do a pretty good animation job with such a programme, by putting together the different elements of the animation in one image with many different layers which you then manipulate to make the individual frames. That's how Imageready works, essentially (it ties in with Photoshop seamlessly), but if youy can submit a series of gifs to have them animated, you could easily simulate the process.

Can you set speed for separate frames, too, or is there just one speed to choose from?

Just one speed for all frames. As I said, it is a VERY simple program. Well worth the price, however. :D I suppose you could change the speed by adding more copies of a picture to slow that down and fewer copies to speed that frame up.

I have Photoshop Elements 7, but not ImageReady. I am still trying to learn how to use it. I have a nice, thick book called "The Missing Manual for Photoshop Elements 7" which is wonderful...but did I mention that it's thick? :lol: I just haven't had time to get through it all. However, after reading your comment, I flipped to the index and it does have instructions on making an animated gif. :clap: I'll have to see what I can do with it. I need to take a long vacation so I can learn to use this wonderful program. :lol:

EDIT: Thank you so much, Klio, for pointing me in the right direction. I checked out the animated gif section...I can't believe it's that easy!! Use SAVE FOR WEB instead of plain SAVE, check animate box and choose the speed. Amazing!! Thank you so much for letting me know that. :huggles: I really do need to take a vacation to learn to use this. :lol:

Dav_muggle is thrilled that I was able to use this to resize some animated gifs for him to use as avatars on other boards. He is very grateful to you as well.

Samples of what I've done so far:
http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo261/DenMuggle/COS%20Avatars/teal_eye_avatar_small.gif (Shrunk this from 184x184 to 100x100 and merged a couple of layers to get the size below 100kb.)

http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo261/DenMuggle/COS%20Avatars/SpinningSpork.gif (Took a stationary picture of this spork and made it spin.)

http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo261/DenMuggle/COS%20Avatars/kaleidoscopesm.gif (Took a 233 kb file and merged pairs of layers, then shrunk to 90x90 to get it under 100 kb.)

Wonderful and I did them all in about an hour, I think. :clap: Thanks so much, Klio!! :huggles:

Is it possible to use Photoshop to make an animated avatar (for example) from a tv/movie clip without doing it frame for frame? Can you capture part of the actual clip and insert it to Photoshop or do you need a more sophisticated animation program?

No, as far as I know you can't animate using just Photoshop because it has no capability to create frames or set timing. I've never looked for it, but I'm sure there are free programs out there that do similar things to Image Ready (like Gimp is to Photoshop).

Hi, I was looking into how to do this as well as I have CS3 for Mac. I don't know if it directly addresses the above discussions, but it may help someone out. To get movie clip captures, you can grab high rez screen images from any source on your desktop using a program called "Snapz Pro X" (Mac).

Then I found out how to create animations and set the timing through a great tutorial by “MacBurg” on the “MacForums” (I hope its the same for a PC). Its kinda tedious but it works. On a Mac to get the "Animation" tool, go to the "Window" pull down and scroll to "Show All."

I made a single image of the tutorial, so click this link and expand it for the full image. :tu:

Animated GIF's In CS3 (http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/9052/animatedgifs.jpg)

I hope this helps someone........ I'm a total noob and am still fumbling through these threads and learning allot!

well, i probably sound like a complete noob but i'm still learning photoshop and graphic design and everything. so, can someone please explain to me the difference between like, avatar and sig and all the other stuuff used in the graphics contests on here ? Any help would be awesome :)

It is mainly size. Avatar is 125 x 125, sig is 300 x 300, etc. The first post (http://www.cosforums.com/showpost.php?p=5220389&postcount=1)of the general graphics contest explains it all.

Welcome to the board and don't be afraid to ask. That's how we all learn. :)

Can anyone recommend a good way to smooth skin in Photoshop that is NOT:
a) Gaussian Blur, mask/erase and set to low opacity
b) Surface Blur, Median, or Dust & Scratches

This is the best tutorial I've found so far, but I can't seem to make it look right...
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=213

The smoothening tool always works the best for me.

The smoothening tool always works the best for me.

What's the smoothening tool? Are you talking about a different program? I was referring to Photoshop CS4. (Forgive my lack of knowledge:blush:)

I guess that would be "Blur Tool", which I use to smoothen skin in CS.

Hi Everyone,

Can any one tell that how animation done in Avatar Film. How i change some part of that film means change some background, stunt ..


Thanks
Eddie wilson

Hi Everyone,

Can any one tell that how animation done in Avatar Film. How i change some part of that film means change some background, stunt ..


Thanks
Eddie wilson
Am not sure if I understood it right. Can you give an example of what you want to change and what programm do you use? :)

I found a free, stand-alone (no installation needed) program that will take gifs and stack them together to make one animated gif. UnFREEz (http://www.prashanthpai.com/blog/make-simple-gif-animation-using-unfreez/) It's very simple and doesn't allow you to manipulate the graphics in any way, but if you take a bunch that you've made, you can drag and drop them into this program and set the rate, whether you want it to loop or just play through once and stop. Then save your animated gif. Doesn't do tons, but it's free!!! :D
What do you mean, "no installation needed"? You still have to download the software, don't you? :hmm:

Can anyone tell me how it differs from Movies13, which does about the same thing? (I used Movies13 to do my avatar and sig.)

Yes, that's probably that link, I'll check it out, thanks.

Both size-wise and kb-wise, I guess. Actually I was trying to make the avatar I made for my calendar entry a big bigger. But I've also try to make some GIF smaller so they fit within the sig requirements here. The sparkle is the glitter I add sometimes, like the hearts in my Cho and Cedric avi here: http://www.avenueviet.com/forums/images/avatars/gallery/upload/20645075534938331c7649a.gif
Or the glitter I added for my calendar avi here: http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg211/Bilybear/Harry%20Potter/DQCalendarAvi.gif

Both the hearts and the glitter were added using Blingee. The pics are very small because if it's any bigger, the Blingee logo shows up and ruins the picture. I'd like the pics a tad bigger, without the Blingee logo, but still with the sparkle.

I have the same problem with animated pictures. If I try to resize, they become static. :grumble:

Thanks for the link, and for your help, Heike. :)
Blingee: I find the easiest way is to add a "border" at the bottom before uploading it to blingee. After you created the Blingee open it in your graphic program and cut off the bottom. Used this (http://www.online-image-editor.com/index.cfm) website for cropping the image. Worked great for me.

Blingee: I find the easiest way is to add a "border" at the bottom before uploading it to blingee. After you created the Blingee open it in your graphic program and cut off the bottom. Used this (http://www.online-image-editor.com/index.cfm) website for cropping the image. Worked great for me.
I'll have to try your website. Because I tried the border thing (clever, that!) but with MS Paint it didn't work. When I cut off the bottom, and the logo with it, the glitter stopped glittering. :grumble:

I would also like to know how to resize a GIF image like, for example, this one below, and keep the motion. Right now, when I resize it, it becomes static. :grumble:

http://www.teachanddiscover.net/guestbook/images/smiles/wizards/2127.gif

ETA: I have bookmarked the Image Editor. Will try it soonest. Thanks. :)

You cannot open an animation in Paint. It will just open one layer from the whole batch and that's why it won't move.

That site I good for resizing as well. When you upload a pic you can check the "resize during upload to X%" or use the "Edit-Resize" function.

Took me 5 seconds to resize it to under 125 pixels.
http://www.cosforums.com/picture.php?albumid=1130&pictureid=15702

That site is a great tool for resizing and cropping, Heike, thank you so much for giving me the link.

I tried the border trick to get rid of the Blingee logo and here, it worked, without losing the glitter or the animation. :tu:

I'm forever in your debt. http://www.puritanboard.com/images/smilies/handshake.gif

No problem. ^_^

Love this thread! I am learning so much here. Thanks!

This is not about graphics per se, but with the synchronization of slide show avatars and sigs.

I used to get mine to sync perfectly before, even when I had different numbers of pixes in avi and siggie. These past few times, however, though the sync is exactly the way I want it to be when I first log in, after a little while on-line, it "slips" a little, and the wrong pics appear together. I mean, in the current combo, the poinsettia should appear at exactly the same time as the girl in the red and purple dress, and the pink and green christmas tree at the same time as the girl with the pink and green dress. Which they do for a while, but after say half an hour, they start appearing either with the award banner, or with the wrong picture.

I just don't understand it. :hmm: and would be very appreciative if someone had an explanation. I must have reloaded the pics 20 times and the results are the same. Perfect at first, then a slippage. :argh:

Hmm, that is puzzling. :hmm: I took a look at the timing of both, and in both the signature and the avatar, the frames are set for 1.5 seconds. They really should sync up all the time... I wonder if it has to do with the internet browser or the image hosting site you use?

I wouldnt have the slightest clue about animation sorry RLF.

BUT, I was wondering and I dont know where else to ask this but would anybody be interested in participating in LIMS if I resurrected it? Either drop by my profile and say yay or nay or owl me.

I would be interested in resurrecting the LIMS.

My guesses on the animation: the page that loads loads one first so it is ahead of the other one or one is a bigger file so eventually it gets slow?

I wonder if it has to do with the internet browser or the image hosting site you use? My guess would be the hosting site(s) as well. Tiny server hiccups, differences in the way different size files are handled, things like that. I've never tried to synch two separate graphics before. My only advice would be to make sure they are both hosted at the same place, or try uploading both to the COS image hosting area.

Thanks for your advice, RLF, Leah and Kala_way. :)

It's not the hosting site, I don't think, because it does the same when I upload the pixes from my hard disk.

Leah, you may have something, it may be the different sizes. Or it may be the browser, as RLF suggested.

It's funny because I didn't have the problem until, let's say about 6 months ago. Before that, the sync always stayed impeccable, even when I did complicated stuff like having 4 pixes for the avi and 3 for the sig, timing it so they would still start on the same 2 pixes.

Ah well... The mysteries of on-line graphics. :shrug:

I appreciate everyone's help. Thank you all. :relax:

ETA: There! Earlier today it was perfect, now it "slipped" again. :grumble:

I'm curious about something: how does the combo look to you? Is the sync working OK? :hmm:

ETA2 - What is LIMS? :hmm:

No, it's not synced right now. It's one image off. Usually, when I look at them they're together. I'd say there's nothing you can do about it. Sorry. :huggles:

LIMS stands for Last Icon Maker Standing. Basically its a weekly contest where a challenge is given and the participants make a graphic. I assign a number to each graphic I receive then we can vote on the ones we like best. LIMS has been around in one form or another for several years but given RL I had to give it up about 6 months ago but I would sure like to start it again. I promise that the challenges wont be quite so evil this time!

No, it's not synced right now. It's one image off. Usually, when I look at them they're together. I'd say there's nothing you can do about it. Sorry. :huggles:
Ditto for me, Fleur. Sometimes it works perfectly, then next time I see your combo, it's off one or two frames.

I'm afraid Leah is right and there's nothing you can do except enjoy it when it does work.

LIMS sounds interesting. If RL permits I'd like to throw my hat in the ring.

Sounds like we have a fair number of people interested in LIMS... Im going to create a thread so we can bring that conversation over there instead of this one.

I am actually a newbie at doing graphics and i have a question.

How do I make a banner or graphic image?

Well first you need a graphics program. Gimp is a good free program. From there its just playing around and figuring out what works for you. Feel free to follow our graphics contest here on COS and joining in on the next round.