-=[DCEmulation Art Forum Tutorials]=-

[pixel]

I've compiled my tuts into one thread:

Photoshop Tutorials:
Layer Masks
Here is a tutorial explaining the ins and outs of... layer masks!...
Sprite Enlargements
Learn to enlarge sprites or anything small and keep them looking good!

Post requests in here.
Also post your own!

[W??l]

well I feel like making a tutorial so here we go...

get the colors you want I used blue and white
filter > render > clouds and of you don't like how it looks just push Ctrl+f

now Filter > distort > pinch...

blur > Radial blur zoom, draft, and Ctrl+F 2 or 3 times now go back to radial blur and press best

Ctrl+L for to change the levels

and there we go

[W??l]

OK here is my new tutorial on smoothing I know ever photoshop
website that has tutorials has this one but I'm doing it too so you cant stop me ^-^

first off make a shape or shapes that you want to be smooth


now create a channel and Alt+Delete to fill it in with white


now go to filter> Blure> Blure More and then press Ctrl+F 6 to 10 times or tell you think its round enough


now press Ctrl+L for levels play with it until you like it

when you get it the way you like press OK and Select> Color Range... fuzziness 200 and OK


click back on your Layers tab then on a new layer Alt+Delete and there we go... art

[pixel]

How to Make a NesterDC Theme!
Click here to learn!

[pixel]

How to Make a Portal to Somewhere Else
Click here to learn!

[Roofus]

Here's my tutorial:

Bryce's animation capabilities are somewhat limited. By default, it has only two output formats available. The default choice is AVI, which can get quite large and are a pain if you have a small animation you want to distribute. The second option is to save your animation as a series of BMP images, which can be converted to an animated GIF fairly easily. Here's how:

(Note: This tutorial asumes you have a working knowledge of Bryce. It will not teach you how to make an animation, and starts when you are ready to render)

(Note 2: While specific to Bryce, it should work for any program that allows saving as a sequence of still images)

Step one: In the Render Animation Dialog, select Format: BMP Sequence. And since you'll be dealing with a lot of files, you'll want to place them in their own folder (In this case, I put them in C:\Glass, but you can use whatever you want.



Step two: Begin rendering. Depending on how complex or long your animation is, you might want to get a cup of coffee, take a walk or watch your Terminator 2 Special Edition DVD.

Step three: Now that you're back from your walk and your rendering is finished, open up ImageReady and select File/Import/Folder as Frames.



Step Four: Find the folder you saved your images in and click Ok. Thanks to the way Bryce names the files, they should be imported in order.

Step Five: In this example, I used a frame rate of 30 frames a second, but Imageready by default doesn't set a delay between frames. I'm too lazy to set a frame delay for each frame, so here's how to set them all at once.

1. Select the first frame
2. Hold Shift
3. Select the last frame

Step Six: Set the delay for All Frames to 0.03 (1/30) seconds



Step Seven: You're now ready to save as an Animated GIF. Go to File/Save Optimized As...(Or Ctrl-Shift-Alt-S for you shortcut-happy people out there) and name your file.



That's it! Now me and JAaron77 can create Animated GIFs from Bryce animations!

[GoldbergWWE]

I know this is a battle thread and all, but im just curious, how are you cutting the characters out of another picture? using the magnet or?

I use paintshop Pro, but I think the same tools are in Photoshop I'll look it up to make sure.

If the anime has a solid background:

Use the magic wand (same name in both programs) on the solid colours.
Then invert the selection.
(In PSP Pro: Selection->Invert | In Photoshop: Select->Invert)
Now, if you want a line around the anime character, leave it as is. If you dont, you'll have to contract the selection by 2.
(In PSP Pro: Selection-> Modify->Contract | In Photoshop: Select ->Modify ->Contract)

Copy the selection and paste it as a new layer on the project you're doing, or, as a new image if you are using it for something else.

If you are trying to grab a character out of a multi-colour background:
In Photoshop:
1. Open the image
2. Pick up the Magnetic Lasso tool
3. Outline the character. Be careful, but don't expect this to be perfect. It's better to include more background than to cut off parts of the character!
4. To finish the outline, press the <Enter> key on the keyboard.
5. If the outline looks pretty good, Copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl+C )
6. Create a new Photoshop document (large enough to except the copied character)
7. Paste the cutout image into the new document (Ctrl+D )
8. Choose the Eraser tool.
9. Zoom in on the image so you can see individual pixels
10. Work around the image erasing background bits


Same as above for Paintshop Pro Except you use Lasso not magnetic lasso. All steps are the same.

Or:

If you are confident in using the magnetic lasso tool, and have a good eye, try to get within 2 or 3 pixels of the character, invert the selection and contract the selection by 2 or 3.



-G

[NightStalker]

ninja wrote:
I know this is a battle thread and all, but im just curious, how are you cutting the characters out of another picture? using the magnet or?

if you are using photoshop 7 or 8...go to filter,extract with a head shot,then use this tool to outline the head,hit bucket tool to fill in,the extract tool will seprate the head from all other portions of the base image,then just select all,and cut or copy to any body shot image,use the free transform tool to get the right dimensions,etc...and a lil extra for ya...

to match the skin tones almost exactly...open the channels panel,fo channel by channel to match it to the body images skin tones...then do a lil touch up here and there and youll have yourself a pretty good image.

[NeonGenesis]

The following tips and tricks are for beginners looking to create their own sig images. Most of the following information is of little use to persons with graphic design experience.

The most important thing you need for sig design is modern image creation/editing software. Although you can create some good sigs using just MSPaint (I've done it before...), you are way too restricted to do anything above a single layer, with no advanced effects. I personally use Jasc's Paint Shop Pro series, because I've been using it since Windows 3.1 and am more familiar with it. A Try-and-Buy version is generally available at Jasc.com, and this demo version can usually be.. *ahem* extended through certain means. The current version of that is Paint Shop Pro X. However, the latest version is not necessary for good sig design. I still use Paint Shop Pro 8 as my primary editor, and have no problem doing design with PSP 6. Of course, there are other great image software packages, most noteably Adobe's Photoshop. Also available at no charge is the open source editor,The GIMP, though this can be a bit time consuming to get running on Windows.

The next step for those new to sig design is understanding of your image editing program. You need to open up a photo or other multi-colored multi-textured image to play with. Learn to use Layers!!! I can't stress this enough. I didn't know what they were when I first began using versions of my editor that had them, and when I discovered them, I nearly fainted.

For those of you unfamiliar with them, layers allow you to create (what else) different layers on your image, so that you can modify part of an image without affecting the rest. For example, if you have a sky background, and you paste a picture of a bird on top of it in a new layer with transparency around it, you can change the image of the bird, or move the bird, or delete the bird, all without affecting the background image. You can create many different layers, if you need them. All my sigs have anywhere between 4 and 10 layers. If you need help understanding layers, do a Google search for tutorials for your specific editor that explain layers in detail. They are one of the most important features to any good graphic designer, and will be incredibly valuable in sig design.

Further with layers, understand the options for choosing how the layer interacts with the rest of the image. Instead of a normal layer, you can choose various interactions, such as "Lighten", "Darken", "Multiply", etc. The best way to understand layer interactions is to take two images. Paste one onto the other as a separate layer, and then change the interaction type. You'll begin to understand what each type does, and will see some neat effects you can create simply by changing it.

The next thing you need to explore is image transparency. When combined with layers, you can create foreground images that have distinct edges, yet are independent of the background. This, with layers, are the two most important things you should strive to understand. Transparency in modern image editors, can be used in gradients (i.e. blue, fading into nothingness). You can also edit the transparency level of an entire layer, so that a whole layer appears like a ghost over your background.

Try out all the effects available. You'll never use 90% of them, but it is good to know what they do. You never know when one of them will become useful. For example, the "Blinds" effect in PSP 8, when reduced to one pixel, creates the horizontal lines prominent in many modern sigs. "Drop Shadow" effects are always useful, as well as lighting effects. "Negative Image" effects can be interesting when used in conjunction with other things. For example, creating a new layer, filling it in as white, doing the "Blinds" effect, and then putting a gradient white to transparent (fill with no interaction, doesn't check for anything, just covers the whole layer) will result in a Black to White fading lines. Changing the layer type to "Darken" will then leave just the lines, fading from solid black to transparency.

Also interesting to play with is the Image Saturation/Contrast effects. The use of a "Colorize" feature will turn your image shades of whichever color you choose, whatever saturation you choose. I obviously used it a lot. Also, PSP8 has a Image Sat/Contrast changer, where you can rotate the color scheme of your image. This is neat, and often times more useful than "Colorize". Also, you can correct your images contrast with these features, giving faded photos and scans more bold, clear colors. I use this on just about any photo I add to a sig.

Consider the use of a border. All of my images had a two pixel border drawn in by itself as the top layer of all images. I personally think a black border, even if just one pixel, makes any image both more prominent and professional looking.

Don't use a solid color background, unless you are going for a particular artistic effect. You don't want the background to be overly 'busy', but even a light texture gives your sig some depth.

Google Image Search is your friend. Get an idea of what you want in your sig, punch one or two words into Google Image Search, and look. My current sig is based off a photo of a subway train I snagged on Google Image. In fact, pretty much all my sigs have some image I found on Google Image. Also an excellent resource is a CD or DVD collection of free, no-royalty photos.

Try cropping a sig-sized portion of a bigger photo, instead of resizing. This cropping can be very artistic looking, and better than resizing in many cases.

Play with blurs, but be careful. Overly blurred images look just that: blurry, and out of focus. Blurs, such as radial and motion blurs make great effects on a background, particulary when you have a clear, defined foreground image. Also, duplicating a foreground layer (i.e., a game/tv character), and then applying a blur to one layer, and changing that layer's interaction type can often times give you that blur you're looking for while retaining the image's original clarity.

Learn to edit pixel by pixel. Zooming in and cleaning/editing one pixel at a time can be the difference between a noob and a professional.

Most important to your final image is how you save it! Make sure to save a copy of your image in your editor's native format. Paint Shop Pro has it's .pspimage format, and I think Photoshop's is .ps. This format will retain all of your layers separately, so you can go back and change stuff later, if you want to. When saving your image for web presentation, most sigs are JPEG (.jpg) format. If your image editor has a Wizard or visual settings for saving in JPEG, use it. You can decide how much compression to use, and see what effect the compression will have on the final product. High compression is great for file size, but leaves 'artifacts' all over, and looks horrible. Find a midpoint that is acceptable both visually and in file size.

I will add more tips and tricks later. Hope this helps anyone new to sig design. If you have any questions on how any of my sigs were made, or would like my opinion on how others made theirs, PM me, and I'll be glad to help you as best I can.[/i]