eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial

Subject: Re: eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial Tue May 18, 2010 11:50 am

Okay I have cheated yes I can see you can't use the paste into selection in a new layer. So I did a quick part on one of your templates, and took a snippet of the glass layer and used the flood fill tool. I always look for the easy solutions, definately a lazy person. eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial - Page 2 Icon_rolleyes

But once I have time to play for myself instead of my son or the new cd's then I am going to have a go your way as well, it all adds to the knowledge which in my case is one brain cell. eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial - Page 2 Icon_biggrin

Skye every time I do something to a graphic I always work with a new layer until I am happy then I will merge it down one. I can probably end up with loads of layers, but at least if you mess up then all you have to do is delete the layer and start again.

Subject: Re: eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial Tue May 18, 2010 7:04 pm

Nothing wrong with doing things the easiest way, Tricia. And it has nothing to do with being, "lazy", rather it is what I would call the smart way. Once one gets to know ones way around a program such as PSP or Photoshop, one finds faster and easier methods of doing a particular task or creating a particular effect. However, it is, in my view, very important when first starting out, to learn the basic tools. As one becomes more familiar with ways and means, one can experiment with various methods of achieving the same out come.

For example in the image above with the milkglass door window, the background mahogany was done using a mahogany wood sample from Corels Wordperfect that I used as the pattern for Floodfill.

I would have liked to include instructions for making a border for this stained glass tutorial using Flood Fill, however I was unable to find the Border Tool in ver 7. It has premade frames, but not the Border Tool for making frames.

I have found that in many cases, the image you are working on makes an ideal Floodfill pattern for making the border because the border ends up harmonizing with the image, it has to because it is made from the image.

You are absolutely right about Layers. Without layers it would be almost impossible to be creative, without long hours of tedious work melding everything together. I do everything on a separate layer and only merge the layers when I am happy with a particular effect. That is why the tutorial is written the way it is.

However, for some folks layers can pose a major problem. Each layer, as far as the computer is concerned is an individual image and space is set aside for it in memory. If you do not have a lot of memory and create too many layers, PSP will run out of memory. I am one of those unfortunates, so I have to keep my layers to a minimum. That is why you see me merging layers as we progress through the tutorial. I have been caught more than once running out of memory and often losing hours of work in the process. (Yeah, I keep forgetting to save as I go. I wish PSP had a built in automatic save option). Should you get the "Not enough memory to complete the requested function" message, there usually is not enough memory left to save what you have been working on, so you lose it.

Subject: Re: eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial Wed May 19, 2010 1:21 am

Oh tell me about losing work. In the early days something would happen and I had forgotten to save some work. Boy did I get ratty. But I believe since at least version 12 or could have been 11 not sure, there is an auto save function. But have got in to a routine now that I save from the very beginning then after a couple of layers I save.
Okay spill the beans whats a border tool. I have just put it in to the X3 search and all it gives me is the selection tool. Is this something in Photoshop. Does sound like it could be a useful item.
When I first started with PSP years ago I found it very hard going to understand what everything did and as for layers, well I went in the other direction. Couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. Till I started to use PSP more and more then realised yes I can fully understand why the manuals all say use layers.

By the way hope you are now fully recovered from the weekend.

Subject: Re: eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial Wed May 19, 2010 8:36 am

Nice one EF, it keeps her busy so I can go and play in my workshop. Boy I will regret that when her sees this!! afro

Subject: Re: eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial Wed May 19, 2010 9:05 am

I usually save right from the beginning as well, but I often get so engrossed in what I am doing I completely forget to save.

The Border Tool, allows you to make a border around the outside edges of your work. It automatically increases the palette size to fit the border in. For example if you want to place a white, or any other colour Matt around your image before adding a frame, the Border Tool will do it. This saves you having to resize the pallette and manually add the Matt. But I discovered that by adding borders in incrimental sizes and using the Flood Fill and Inner Bevel Tools, I could build really great Frames for my work.

Unfortunately, it seems that JASC removed that tool from ver 7.

Below are samples of what can be done with the Tool. Note that the frame for Image 1 and 5 were coloured using the image itself.

eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial - Page 2 Border10

Subject: Re: eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial Wed May 19, 2010 12:01 pm

Its not got a fancy border, but at least I have completed the tutorial Smile

There is one obvious mistake, but its not too bad for a first attempt.

eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial - Page 2 Skyeglasstut

Skye x

Subject: Re: eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial Wed May 19, 2010 6:27 pm

Ah Lass, youv'e done a great job of it. I am proud of you. Now that you know the basic technique you can make and design your own stained glass. I look forward to seeing something original from you in the near future.

Subject: Re: eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial Thu May 20, 2010 4:22 am

Thanks Bob, I really enjoyed doing it too.

I was wondering though, how do I go about doing curved lines? I know how to do the circle obviously, but say if I was doing a flower for instance?

Skye

Subject: Re: eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial Thu May 20, 2010 10:36 am

It all depends on the type of curve you wish to make. For curves such as those around an intricate object, such as a flower, you use the Draw Tool.

eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial - Page 2 Drawto10

And then, except for the width, change the settings in Tool Options as shown here:

eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial - Page 2 Toolop10

Set the width to whatever size you will need for the particular project you are working on.

The most important thing to remember when using "Point to Point" with the draw tool, is to keep all of your points close together as you work. When you get to the end of the piece you are drawing you must make two fast clicks on the mouse to stop the tool from continuing to make points. Open a blank palette and play with it until you understand how it works.

For other types of curves you may want to use Vectors. But Vectors can be really difficult for beginners. You really have to learn how Vectors work before even attempting to draw with them. I can look at preparing a basic Vector tutorial, but it would take quite a bit of time to put together, so it might be something I can do for the Fall.

You can also use the Circle or Elipse from the Preset Tools, if what you wish to draw has mainly large curved areas. Using these tools you must do all of the work on separate layers. For example if you wanted to draw the letter S, you could use either Circle or Elipse, draw the top half on one layer, then erase parts not needed, then draw the bottom half on another layer and again erase the parts not needed. Then with the Mover Tool join the two pieces up to make an S. The easiest way to learn how to do these kinds of things is to just open a blank palette and play around with it.

Subject: Re: eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial Fri May 21, 2010 6:32 am

Well done Skye and looks extremely good. I am sat here ploughing on with my graphic work, and sipping coffee. Need to have a rest methinks as the brain is definately wilting. We have lovely sun down here, so hope that some of it is making its way up to you. I did stand outside and ask the sun nicely to go and visit all my friends, but sun said it would stay with me for the present. eaglefeathers Stained glass Tutorial - Page 2 Icon_lol

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