Sig/Avatar tutorials by the makers [Index in First Post]

[Theclow]

Alright now hopefully I can pull out my hair before midnight!
Thanks kira and riker as soon as I can spread the cookies around you two are the first on my list.

[felix]

Looks @ Riker...

Ok removed it.. Tho' I really don't get why... your call anyways.

[Riker]

Because my tutorial is hardly helpful, it was meant to be a satire. ^^;;

Unless one is interested in instant bald patches.

[felix]

	Ahh so~ It's arguably at least good as a guide. It is short and easy to understand. Not to mention that the end result looks good.
	Face it Rikey you made a good one. Even if it might be somewhat difficult when put in practice. * Adds it back.

[KiNA]

Originally Posted by Kira_Naruto

Snow sig tutorial .. Is freaking huge sadly =/

1) Make a new document ... width = sig, for height, make it 5 times (or more)

Original sig .. 350x120.


new doc 350x600.. I fill the bottom layer with black so I can easily see my snow. On a new layer...

2) Find a good spot brush and litter the new document .. so it look like a snow .. easiest is to google for snowy theme brush,

I used a snowy theme brush.. starry brush works too..

3) Drag the snow layer to your sig ... make sure the bottom part is shown.

As you can see here.. I free transformed the snow layer so you can see the initial position.

4) Make a new frame in animation window.
5) On 2nd frame.. nudge the snow layer to bottom until it reach the top.

Again, I've free transformed the snow layer so you can see the final position in the 2nd frame... Also, you dont have to reach the top if you wish.. look for a good continuation in the snow flow..

6) Tween.

Unfortunately, it requires huge amount of frame to have a good snow speed =/ I end up with 82 frames... still I feel that the snow is fast ... While this is significantly faster and easier then Rika's snow tut .. Rika's is very much better.. but painstakingly very hard for large size signature.

Also, in my final sig, I removed those huge flakes as it wasnt very realistic for the picture itself ..

WTFOMGISUX .. I didnt use thumbnails for those steps pic =/ Gomen >.<

[Solace]

I'm really struggling with this. I have CS3 and realised it doesn't have Imageready! Seems like they put most of the features from imageready into photoshop but it's missing some key things the tutorial assumes you have, like being able to view/edit all the frames from a folder in the program itself. Or maybe it does and I'm just that clueless.

Basically, I'm having a hard time editing frames after I've captured them with Vdub. I open them in PS but it only shows me one "frame", and I can't extend a sequence, for example making someones eyes closed for a little longer, or take out frames to make the file size smaller. I had to manually delete images from my folder to "shorten" the frame sequence which was really time consuming.

Here's what my attempt ended up like -



The problem is I wanted the last part of the animation to "freeze" for a second or two before looping again. I thought copying a few of same picture would allow me to do this but I get an error in PS saying there are gaps.

Anyone have some tips they could share?

[Senovit]

Haven't used cs3 myself, but in cs2 you can click "animation" under "window" to see all the frames o.o

[Neaco]

In CS3 to bring up the old animation window like in Imageready, you go to

Window > Animation

This is after you import the images you saved with Virtualdub as with the old method. But Photoshop CS3 doesn't have "import folder as frames." To do this,

Select File > Scripts > Load files into Stack.

In the Load Layers dialog box, select Folder with your images from the Use menu. Browse to the folder that contains the images you want to include and click OK.

The windows with the frames will jump/flash for a bit depending on how many images you had, you need to wait until the script stops first.



If it's the first time you used it, it may be in Animation (timeline) view, you need to click it over to Animation (frames) view (1 on the image). It toggles the two modes.

Now click the button on (2 on image) and Select Make Frames from Layers in the Animation palette menu. (Window > Animation to make it show up first).

Now things should look familiar enough at this point. The option for setting the delay for each frame is there.

Save for web is under file > save for web and devices.

More imageready feature locations in CS3 info can be found here.
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowled...fm?id=kb400899

hope this helps.

[Solace]

Huge help! Thank you very much Neaco!

[Broken_Angel]

Wow =/ My first gif ^-^ (i forgot the boreder =/)

[Theclow]

I'm not sure if I should be asking this here, but here goes.(I think I should use my common sense, but I lost that yesterday T_T)

I've been messing around with Photoshop CS3 and I can't find anyway to link the layers in a .gif.(The old way is gone, and the new way is always grayed out.)

Can anyone help me?

[felix]

Can you say explain the "I can't find anyway to link the layers in a .gif." part, I don't understand what you're trying to ask.
-------------------------------------
I'm using CS3 ATM as well..

[KiNA]

So rich ;-; .. I'm still on CS2 ;-;

[felix]

I don't really buy stuff before I've either reserched, heard some opinions from my friends and sources..
..and/or tried out some trial version to get a feel for it and it's worth.
http://www.adobe.com/downloads/

[Theclow]

Originally Posted by Cats

Can you say explain the "I can't find anyway to link the layers in a .gif." part, I don't understand what you're trying to ask.
-------------------------------------
I'm using CS3 ATM as well..

Er...I'm trying to put a .mov into a sig but when I do, it only shows the first frame(it doesn't play like a .gif or .mov),(Yes I imported it correctly, but I cut out the frames I needed though PS(Via, Import)) I looked it up and it says you have to "link the layers" to get it to play the whole .mov.
(It used to be the right checkbox in IR)(Next to the visibility box, if it shows up for you.)
(P.S I have no intention to use this sig on AS, because it would slaughter the limit. Just a cry for help.)
EDIT:
Alright, let me reword this, I want to know how to get a .mov to play in a .gif sig.
(Or atleast know the steps to properly get the .mov to play in the sig)
(For the record I've tried linking the layers(Just founfd out how) converting it to .gif, .psd, everything. It's like it only imports the layers, but not the animation.)
(I'm just confused)

[Cyz]

I have a question.

-> I was trying to cut a render but everytime I finished the brushing part -> using the wand tool -> and whenever I hit the fill button (ctrl+backspace), it didn't show the filled part. When I checked it by pressing Q, all that was filled was the one I stroke with the brush and I don't want that Anyway, I'm using KiNa's tutorial about Quick masking and the color is set in default and the quick mask color is blue with the brush opacity of 100%. The quick mask opacity is 50%. Help pls!!!

--> Btw, how do you reset the entire PS without deleting it? It seems to remember the last setting I did before. Is there a way on resetting it all back?

[KiNA]

If you fill with Ctrl + Bckspace .. it will fill with the BG color and if you BG is white then

What do you mean by resetting everything? Window->Workspace not enough? Some tools do have sticky setting, for example he brush will remember its opacity setting tho ..

[SweetHoney]

Originally Posted by Kira_Naruto

Original sig .. 350x120.


new doc 350x600.. I fill the bottom layer with black so I can easily see my snow. On a new layer...



I used a snowy theme brush.. starry brush works too..



As you can see here.. I free transformed the snow layer so you can see the initial position.



Again, I've free transformed the snow layer so you can see the final position in the 2nd frame... Also, you dont have to reach the top if you wish.. look for a good continuation in the snow flow..



Unfortunately, it requires huge amount of frame to have a good snow speed =/ I end up with 82 frames... still I feel that the snow is fast ... While this is significantly faster and easier then Rika's snow tut .. Rika's is very much better.. but painstakingly very hard for large size signature.

Also, in my final sig, I removed those huge flakes as it wasnt very realistic for the picture itself ..

WTFOMGISUX .. I didnt use thumbnails for those steps pic =/ Gomen >.<

Oh good tut KiNa =D. I do my snow different from that.

I wonder if I should make a tut for removing text =/ I'll let the people decide unless I get rather bored.

[Shana]

Originally Posted by SweetHoney

I wonder if I should make a tut for removing text =/ I'll let the people decide unless I get rather bored.

Do it I'll be waiting.

[KiNA]

A little something.. since I've noticed that peoples are started to make popout sig like this



The problem with it is most of them have curves at these popout and those unsightly jagged edge can easily be seen... like this



Its actually easily remedied however .. when you are saving the final signature with Save for Web option ... Make sure that this option is chosen ...

Make sure the transparency dither is set to No Transparency and you have a sharp cut.. Dont set to other option like this..


Of course if your render cutting is not up to the task