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Eileen May 26, 2006

I've actually managed to master my PaintShopProX layers palette, at least well enough to make a rudimentary avatar from my few decent photos.

I was supposed to devote the day to Spring Cleaning, but whatever I was doing suddenly started working, and I couldn't very well stop., could I?

What do you think?

Eileen

Shelli Retired Help Advisor, Banner SponsorMay 26, 2006

Oh, lovely!  I'm so glad you spent some time to master your photo editor!  It will get easier and easier as you go along, as those foundational concepts settle in.

Very well done!!!

thumperantiques May 26, 2006

I already commented on the other thread, but the avatars are worth lauding once more!  Eileen - well done - I almost didn't recognize you LOL.  I love your avatar.

Shelli, I love your soft colour scheme - so nice for summer.  And  you bear is adorable. 

                                                    hugs,

                                                    Brenda

BearBottoms May 26, 2006

Oooo, good job, Eileen!!

I have Adobe Photoshop cs2, and STILL haven't mastered it! lol

Kimberly W.

millie May 26, 2006

Very good job!  Now someone please help me.  I am looking into a photo program.  Paintshop, Adobe Photoshop - which is more user friendly?  I need something easy.  Any ideas?

SunnieOne May 26, 2006

iN MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION... i USED TO USE pAINT sHOP pRO EXCLUSIVELY, BUT SINCE i LEARNED pHOT sHOP i LIKE IT A whole LOT MORE. aND THE HELP FILES REALLY HELP ME OUT WITH ANYTHING ELSE. i THINK IT IS EASIER TO FIND WHAT YOU NEED IN pHOTO sHOP THAN pAINT SHOP PRO....... Oops.. sorry for the caps, but I am not typing that all over again'
Sonya

PS.. LOVE the new avatar! great job!

Shari May 26, 2006

Eilleen your avatar is wonderful!!!!  I would love to see more picturs od the open-mouth bear, is it on here somewhere?  :hug:   :hug:   :hug:

Eileen May 26, 2006

Thanks, Shelli and Brenda and Shari and Millie and Kimberly!

Shelli, I love your new avatar! I hope I can master more of this stuff--it's fun :dance:

Millie--I experimented with a number of 'free trial versions' before I decided on PaintShopProX. It seems more user-friendly to me, but I have no idea how to judge this objectively. Price was an object for me. PSPX is now selling for about $59 USD, and comes with extras, including Animation Shop.

Shari--the open-mouthed bear was my St. Patrick's Day swap bear for Duff--named Maeve, after the Irish warrior queen. She's made of mink, and about 12" tall. She's also got a pink leather tongue, but it didn't show in any of the photos!

Eileen

Shari May 27, 2006

Oh, thank-you Eileen for showing me.I think Maeve is wonderful, I missed seeing all the St.Patty's bears as it was around my surgery and recovery time. I've never tried an open-mouth from real fur , it must have been very hard. Oh and I do adore your bunny ,do you still have her?
:hug:
:hug:
:hug:

SueAnn Help Advisor, Banner SponsorMay 27, 2006

Bravo, Eileen!  Ya done good, girl!  Shelli - love your new one, too!

chris009av May 27, 2006

Eileen your avatar is wonderfull, and gosh that open mouth bear is gorgeous  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

Eileen May 27, 2006

Thanks, Shari and Sue Ann and Chris! :hug:

I still have the bunny! I can't yet bear to sell him :redface:

Maeve is wearing her third head in the photo! The other two are waiting for bodies of the right proportion!

Her open mouth is 'applied', i.e., sewn securely onto her neck and lower muzzle with a V-shape at the bottom.  I used leather for the mouth lining and the (invisible) tongue.

I like this effect better than the slit-muzzle technique, which comes out clunky-looking for me. I've also got one bear in the works whose open mouth is formed by a lower jaw and chin gusset. If it works, you'll see piccies! :photo:

On the photo-editing programs, I think each has its own advantages. PaintShopPro isn't as good as Adobe for color correction . . . unless there's some feature I haven't discovered. Which means that I have to work on my photography!! On the avatar, I left the picture darkish, with some shadows, because the collage seemed to show more depth and dimension this way.

PSP was wonderfully easy and flexible, once I discovered features that weren't even mentioned in the manual or training videos. There's an edge-sensitive background-eraser and an edge-sensitive outline tool that do a beautiful job on fur, once you find them, and the collage elements/layers are very easy to move and resize.

Eileen

Laniebears May 27, 2006

Well done its great...

Judi May 27, 2006

Nice job Eileen. :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  It must feel good to accomplish this.   That is one of my goals, to learn to make my own avatars.  For now.....bears are waiting!

Delartful Bears May 27, 2006

What a lovely avatar Eileen.  I bet you have a great feeling of acomplishment since you made it all by yourself! I know I did!

Gorgeous bears in your avatar also!
Danni

Eileen May 27, 2006

Thanks, Danni and Judi and Lannie :hug:

:dance: Absolutely one of the world's best feelings!!  :dance:

But then then I spent part of the afternoon trying to set up a simple website, got discouraged, gave up and took a nice nap. After I've run the doggies through the park a few times, I think I'll try again.

My daughter has offered, and I should probabaly let her set up a website for me, but I really really want to learn to do it myself. She can step in and rescue me when I'm hopelessly tangled.

Eileen

Dilu May 28, 2006

[size=20]FANTABULOUS[/size]
:clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

Eileen May 28, 2006

Thanks, DilDil :hug:

I needed that

Today I'm completely deflated again, struggling with one poor little webpage . . .

ACK

Eileen

Carolyn Green May 29, 2006

Wonderful Avatar, Eileen - you are very clever.
Now I really must learn how to do one of these myself, one day!

Hugs
Carolyn

heartsez May 29, 2006

eileen dont give up! the avatar is wonderful! i cant get the hang of layers myself..but i kept fooling around with the website until i got it!  i wanted it to be personal and mine,,it was soo rewarding when i finished! when i have a minute id like to try the avattars but not sure what the "rules " are for them?  do you start big and then resize at the end? and do they have to be done in layers ("_"_?!) yikes!  also love the bunnies!! yours and christines!  deb

Eileen May 29, 2006

Thanks, Carolyn and Deb :hug:

Deb, I'm a complete rookie, but the layers just give you a way to combine separate photos. On PaintshopProX you just click File, New to establish a base layer (background), or you can use one of your photos as a background (if you won't want to move the bear later!).

Once the background is up, you just open a file of the pictures you want to include, and click/drag them onto the background. You can move them around, resize them, or change the order of the layers so that one bear is behind another instead of in front. You can erase each photo's background before or after it's on the background layer.

As you can see in my avatar, some of the bears still show signs of their original backgrounds. Cupid was photographed against an intense dark pink background which still shows, reflected on his wings. There's probably a way to make the wings white, but I haven't figured it out yet!

You don't have to resize the pictures before dragging them onto the background. I resized after the collage was finished, and saved it as a jpeg file at 72dpi.

Eileen

rufnut May 29, 2006

Eileen fantastic Avatar and bears. :clap:

heartsez May 29, 2006

thanks that actually was a pretty straightforward explantion! Vermont has open studio weekend every memorial day weekend and we always choose a few to scope out,,we did jericho this year and saw some marvelously talented people! there are usually about 200 so you really cant begin to see them all. we pick a "cluster" of studios so we can check out as many as possible. such fun to see what others are doing! Altho you say you make bears and they go "HUH?" 5 of  us are doing a gallery show in that area with 5 quilters also..so hopefully it wont seem so alien by next year!!  deb