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

[aolas]

@cat & rick:thanks for the help, i'll try it. cookie for you too^^ & for KiNa too^^

[saphyre]

Whenever I cut an image out of the background of a jpeg to make into a transparent gif, I always get these white outlines around the image when I go to Optimize. I realised that the outline was the same colour as the Matte, but when I change it to none the image just disappears.
Is there anyway to make this transparent?

Here is an example of what I mean:

Original:

Spoiler for image:

Optimize:

Spoiler for image:

[Eps~]

GIF format doesn't support partial transparency - can't "fade" away. Use PNG format instead

[saphyre]

Yeah but the thing is, it's animated. :P

[Eps~]

Well then, if you still want the fade away look, then you should just choose the same background colour as on the forum/anywhere you will use it. That way it will kinda look like it's transparent.

[felix]

Not True!

The forum has multiple skins with multiple backgrounds. You may see it transparent, others won't. If it's a signature, just make sure the edges are seperated from the image and of a different format, that permits the transparency. In the case of a avatar, KiNA's advice to getting as close enough to smooth edges as posible is all that can be done.

[risingstar3110]

Can some1 render the white background in an SOS icon for me (eg. this one http://i40.piczo.com/view/3/s/x/f/7/...34_94747_4.png)

I tried to follow the guide in the 1st page , but because all the modeled pictures were removed so it's really hard to follow >_O

If it's too time-consuming then just tell me, i will start to look for a different guide when i have time =]


PS: i has been wondered if posts like these should be in the avatar requested or in this one,

[felix]

Hmm well there's a simple way to do it using calculations, with outh really bothering with anything, since the background is white. I don't have photoshop installed at the moment so it's kinda hard for me to write one.

Maybe KiNA or someone else can help...

[SweetHoney]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

Can some1 render the white background in an SOS icon for me (eg. this one http://i40.piczo.com/view/3/s/x/f/7/...34_94747_4.png)

I tried to follow the guide in the 1st page , but because all the modeled pictures were removed so it's really hard to follow >_O

If it's too time-consuming then just tell me, i will start to look for a different guide when i have time =]


PS: i has been wondered if posts like these should be in the avatar requested or in this one,

I'm not sure what you excatly want. If it's something like this,


^Click for bigger image


If it is there is a simple way for plain backgrounds. Though sometimes it can take little or more of the background it all depends on the tolerance of the easy tool magic wand.

You could use eraser tool but you could easily erase the image we want to keep.

There is also the pen tool which in my opinion works better on both basic colour backgrounds and others. But you should have basic knowledge of the pen tool before attempt rendering with it.

So bascially if I were you open up the image in Photoshop/Gimp *whichever program you use* and select the magic wand and have it set on a resonable tolerance that isn't to small and leaves left over white speckles or takes pixels from the image.

I had the tolerance set around 30 to render the logo for you and then make sure you save it as a PNG. & you should be set to go.

If this isn't what you want I'm sorry, but if it is and you want more elaboration on it I could write you a step by step tut on it for you

[risingstar3110]

It is exactly what i want and a step to step guide will be appreciated as long as it won't cost you too much time =]

Thank you for the SOS-dan logo

PS: I have both Photoshop and ImageReady

[SweetHoney]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

It is exactly what i want and a step to step guide will be appreciated as long as it won't cost you too much time =]

Thank you for the SOS-dan logo

PS: I have both Photoshop and ImageReady

Oh it's no trouble at all for me, I always well usually have Photoshop open so it's just a matter of Print Screening it and showing others how to do it

It's actually really easy and hopefully simple guide to follow how to render plain backgrounds. So we'll use the SOS-dan image again since I've already done it.

First of all open up the image in Photoshop and select the magic wand or if you have knowledge of the pen tool you could use that instead.



The slowly piece by piece select the white background and delete it by pressing the 'delete' key on your keyboard.



Keep doing that until all the white background has been removed.



Then save it as a PNG. Or if you want to re-size the image without making it squishy or anything have constrain prop. on while going to Image-Image Size.



Then you should have something like this.




Tip: This also plays a main factor with the way the picture will turn out once it has been rendered.






Hope this at least helped you out in a way risingstar

[risingstar3110]

When it was explained clearly out by you it does look simple (and make me feel silly to ask such question..)

Great thank there =]

[aolas]

uum thanks again for cat & rick for the help, i already make the sig, this's the result:



but now the problem is, it size exceed animesuki limit, i want to slice it, but i think there's no non-animated part of this sig. and if i modified it, it will reduce the pic quality

[KiNA]

Thats a very good result, you can try with less frames maybe, or maybe less height

[Evil Rick]

Originally Posted by aolas

uum thanks again for cat & rick for the help, i already make the sig, this's the result:



but now the problem is, it size exceed animesuki limit, i want to slice it, but i think there's no non-animated part of this sig. and if i modified it, it will reduce the pic quality

Wow, God work there

I sence that the glasses move a bit slow, as KiNA said, tryto reduce the frames or make the sig a bit more small

[Kaix]

Hi everybody. I'll be trying to explain how to make a lightning bolt and animate it out of scratch, only using basic photoshop filters and animation techniques. I tried making the explanations as clear as possible, but there might be places where they are a bit... bad. So if something seems unclear or anything, just ask!

Hopefully, by the end of the tutorial you should be able to do something like this:


(Not AS Safe for demonstrative purpose)

Spoiler for Tutorial:

This is the sig I will be using as base.


1) Make a new layer and take the gradient tool with the following settings:



2) And make a gradient on the new layer.

3) Filter -> Render ->Difference Clouds

4) Image -> Adjustments -> Invert (Ctrl+I)

5) Set the layer mode to ‘Screen’.

6) The bolt should be starting to be visible by now, but it’s still too bright.



7) Duplicate the layer.

8) Hide one of the layers. For the visible one:

Image -> Adjustments -> Levels (Ctrl+L)

8) Pull the middle slider towards the right side, until almost the end. Leave some brightness in the lightning bolt.




9) Do the same for the duplicated layer, but at that one take the slider till the end.




10) Take a large and soft eraser and erase all the extra white spots from the layers.




11) Make another new layer and grab a large soft brush at a low opacity and brush a little around the place where the bolt should be.




Set the layer to Soft Light. Hide this layer for now as we will need it later.

Now, time to animate it!

12) Switch to Image Ready or open your animation panel (CS3).

13) We don’t need anything in the first frame, so hide both of the lightning layers. Set it’s delay to something larger (a few seconds), because this is also going to be the delay between lightning strikes.




14) On the second frame we want the brighter bolt visible, so unhide that one.



(I also lowered the opacity to 80%, but do so only if you think it fits the animation – experiment!)


17) Make another frame and unhide the other lightning bolt. Also unhide that speck of white we made earlier at step 11.




18) Fourth frame. Hide the brighter bolt.




19) Tween the last frame with the following settings.




This is what my animation panel looks like, so if you followed everything, there should be something similar:





And in the end… Good luck with optimizing it to make it AS safe!



Result:



I hope you've found this tutorial useful if not actually learned something new from it.

[Evil Rick]

Originally Posted by Kai the Reaper

Hi everybody. I'll be trying to explain how to make a lightning bolt and animate it out of scratch, only using basic photoshop filters and animation techniques. I tried making the explanations as clear as possible, but there might be places where they are a bit... bad. So if something seems unclear or anything, just ask!

Hopefully, by the end of the tutorial you should be able to do something like this:


(Not AS Safe for demonstrative purpose)

Spoiler for Tutorial:

This is the sig I will be using as base.


1) Make a new layer and take the gradient tool with the following settings:



2) And make a gradient on the new layer.

3) Filter -> Render ->Difference Clouds

4) Image -> Adjustments -> Invert (Ctrl+I)

5) Set the layer mode to ‘Screen’.

6) The bolt should be starting to be visible by now, but it’s still too bright.



7) Duplicate the layer.

8) Hide one of the layers. For the visible one:

Image -> Adjustments -> Levels (Ctrl+L)

8) Pull the middle slider towards the right side, until almost the end. Leave some brightness in the lightning bolt.




9) Do the same for the duplicated layer, but at that one take the slider till the end.




10) Take a large and soft eraser and erase all the extra white spots from the layers.




11) Make another new layer and grab a large soft brush at a low opacity and brush a little around the place where the bolt should be.




Set the layer to Soft Light. Hide this layer for now as we will need it later.

Now, time to animate it!

12) Switch to Image Ready or open your animation panel (CS3).

13) We don’t need anything in the first frame, so hide both of the lightning layers. Set it’s delay to something larger (a few seconds), because this is also going to be the delay between lightning strikes.




14) On the second frame we want the brighter bolt visible, so unhide that one.



(I also lowered the opacity to 80%, but do so only if you think it fits the animation – experiment!)


17) Make another frame and unhide the other lightning bolt. Also unhide that speck of white we made earlier at step 11.




18) Fourth frame. Hide the brighter bolt.




19) Tween the last frame with the following settings.




This is what my animation panel looks like, so if you followed everything, there should be something similar:





And in the end… Good luck with optimizing it to make it AS safe!



Result:



I hope you've found this tutorial useful if not actually learned something new from it.

Awesome Tutorial Kai,nice and easy to understeand, here is my outcome

[KiNA]

If you want several lightning at once, substituting the first gradient step with render->cloud first should work too

[Kaix]

@Evil Rick: Thanks. And the result looks good.

Originally Posted by KiNA

If you want several lightning at once, substituting the first gradient step with render->cloud first should work too

The only disadvantage to that is that you can't control the lightning's direction.

Alternatively, to get more lightning in one go, set the mode of the gradient tool to difference and just do more gradients. It's a little tricky at times though.

[Evil Rick]

Originally Posted by KiNA

If you want several lightning at once, substituting the first gradient step with render->cloud first should work too

Or jus use the Almathera lighting tool XP