On Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:52:30 +0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:

>Um... how do you fill in a shape if it's in another layer?

You can create a mask from the layer that you use as a reference, save it and
import it into the fill layer. Masks are good tools as well they limit the
drawing area for you.

Regards
	Stephen

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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:47cd1a79$1@news.povray.org...

> The problem basically seems to boil down to the fact that it is
> virtually impossible to draw with a mouse. Drawing with the GIMP, all
> the lines come out horribly wobbly. PhotoShop seems to smooth the mouse
> input somewhat, so lines come out less wiggly.
>
> But even so, no matter what software I use, if you move the mouse in a
> circle, it draws a square with rounded corners. It seems the mouse is
> very keen to move in the horizontal and vertical directions, and resists
> moving in any other directions. Very irritating...

Get a better mouse. I can draw reasonably well with mine (Logitach laser
mouse), though I still prefer the tablet if I'm doing anything more than a
couple minutes fiddle.

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scott wrote:
>> But even so, no matter what software I use, if you move the mouse in a 
>> circle, it draws a square with rounded corners. It seems the mouse is 
>> very keen to move in the horizontal and vertical directions, and 
>> resists moving in any other directions. Very irritating...
> 
> Try turning off mouse pointer acceleration in control panel (I think 
> it's called "Enhance Pointer Precision" now) - the algorithms used in 
> Windows are quite complex to make the mouse move around in a "natural" 
> way, but are useless if you're trying to draw something carefully.  
> Turning off acceleration makes it a linear relation between mouse 
> movement and pointer movement.

Thanks for the tip. Doing this does result in a small increase in 
controllability, but not very much. It's still infuriatingly hard to 
draw anything half-decent. (And it makes the mouse rather slow and 
unresponsive when you're just trying to work Windoze. So I'll probably 
leave it how it was.)

It seems clear to me now that I need a decent input device if I'm 
remotely serious about this course of action.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Gilles Tran wrote:

> The "You suck at Photoshop" series is both useful and funny (and sad...).

Phaaahahahahahaaaaaa...! WTF?!

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Invisible wrote:
> I didn't get very far with the GIMP. The extreme uncontrollability of 
> the lines made me give up rather quickly. PhotoShop seems much better in 
> this regard, although I still couldn't get decent curves out of the 
> cheap optical mouse.

I know a way to smooth jagged lines in the GIMP.

1) Draw your line in black and white.

2) Apply gaussian blur with a largish radius (10-40).

3) Choose 'curves' from Layer>Colors>Curves and squeeze the black near
the white to constrain the curve (but keep each at their respective y
positions).

You should be left with much smoother lines, but intersecting areas will
appear slightly 'blobbed'.

I know a way to fill antialiased areas with perfect fills and paints.

1) Select an area to fill with the magic wand tool.

2) Go to Select>Grow and grow selection by 1 or 2 pixels.

3) If
   3.1) Area is white:
     Select blending mode 'multiply' for your paint tool
   3.2) Area is colored:
     Select blending mode (edit) 'Overlay' for your paint tool and choose
white for your color. Paint until the area is white again.

Sam

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stbenge <stb### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> 3) If
>    3.1) Area is white:
>      Select blending mode 'multiply' for your paint tool
>    3.2) Area is colored:
>      Select blending mode (edit) 'Overlay' for your paint tool and choose
> white for your color. Paint until the area is white again.

  Of you could simply use the selection in a lower layer and flood-fill
the selection there.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Wanna hear something really random? I just checked out Adobe's online store.









So... wait... it's *cheaper* to buy Elements and upgrade to CS than to 
just purchase CS??

Also, it turns out there's a CS3 Extended. (Has some extra 3D stuff. 
Apparently.)

[The other random thing is that if you look on Apple's online store, 
everything is more expensive than from any other source. Which makes no 
sense at all. On the other hand, prices on the Adobe online store seem 
to be quite a bit lower than anywhere else, so...]

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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...
> On the other hand, prices on the Adobe online store seem to be quite a bit 
> lower than anywhere else, so...]

You're just not looking in the right places...

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scott wrote:

> ...
>> On the other hand, prices on the Adobe online store seem to be quite a 
>> bit lower than anywhere else, so...]
> 
> You're just not looking in the right places...


from Adobe appears to be quite a bit cheaper. ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> scott wrote:

> > ...
> >> On the other hand, prices on the Adobe online store seem to be quite a 
> >> bit lower than anywhere else, so...]
> > 
> > You're just not looking in the right places...


> from Adobe appears to be quite a bit cheaper. ;-)

  Maybe you should try cheaper software first, to get experience and to
see that you indeed are interested in that kind of hobby, before spending
such vast amounts of money on software you will not use.

  It's not like CS3 will somehow magically make drawing easier. It still
requires experience and hard work.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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