>>> Are you *kidding* me? This is the most advanced thing I've ever seen! 
>>> o_O
>>
>>   Clearly you have never used an image manipulation program to its full
>> extent. Even the Gimp has many of the features showcased in that video
>> (although, admittedly, some of them are not as easy to use).
> 
> Well, given that I can't actually draw, I guess I don't spend a huge 
> amount of time with drawing packages. (Which arguably Photoshop is and 
> the GIMP isn't - depending on your definitions.) And it's not like the 
> GIMP comes with a manual. It's not even clear what half the buttons are 
> meant to DO...
> 
> Some things that shock me about this video:
> 
> - Tim manages to draw, UNdraw and then redraw lines multiple times. 
> Usually in a bitmap editor, all drawing operations are final and cannot 
> be undone like that. (That's what's so great about vector images - you 
> can edit *everything* and nothing is ever "final".)

You just erase. Since you should be using layers anyway. Erasing on a 
layer won't affect the rest behind.

> - He scales objects. This generally isn't possible in bitmap editors 
> without absurd levels of highly-visible distortion. (Tim even scales 
> individual *parts* of objects - something I've never seen any bitmap 
> editor allow.)

Layers.

> - Tim is able to move objects around, place one in front of another, and 
> draw stuff behind objects. It's standard in a vector editor, but I've 
> never seen it in a bitmap editor.

Layers or even moving a selection (so called 'floating selection', 
because it's not merged with the current layer yet).

> - I guess the floor fills kind of give it away that this *must* be a 
> bitmap. But how does he manage to fill in all that counter-shading and 
> never accidentally draw over the outlining? Is he just extremely 
> skillful, or is the software assisting him somehow?

I'm not sure I understand your question, but: using "replace color" 
instead of a brush could help. Even Paintbrush in Windows 3.1 had 
something like that, and it was removed in MS Paint later. You can paint 
all over the image with color X, but only areas of color Y will be affected.

> - How on earth does he do the text like that? When *I* want to outline 
> something, I have to sit there for hours drawing the outlines in by 
> hand. He appears to have some kind of automation that does it for him... 
> And not to mention all the squishing and bending of the text, and the 
> multiple levels of gradients and...

Just a panel with dozens of options :)

I used to have Paint Shop Pro 5 (that's from 1996 i think). To do text 
with outline, first I added some plain old text. That added text to the 
current layer and selected it (selection shape had antialias too). Then 
I created a new layer *behind*, enlarged selection (selection | 
transform | enlarge IIRC), and filled the selection with another color. 
Obviously not as easy as on any modern software, but I could do it anyway.

Post a reply to this message