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Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 2:36 am
by M0rtimer
If you want to, feel free! I'd be honored, really.

If you'd want to see more, I think the following link should bring you to my photobucket gallery? There's a lot of stuff unrelated to the game in it as well, but you should find more examples of the art-style up until page 5, I think.

http://s1183.photobucket.com/user/m0rti ... t=3&page=1

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 2:52 am
by GathersIngredients
I got a question: How do I make a part of the selected layer transparent? I tried to use the eraser, but all it did was make the edited area white (which was my background color). Or is there a way to select "transparent" as a drawing color?

Because I want to "cut out" my Sprite from the surrounding white background, so I can use it in the new pic show him his lair. I know how to do it in paint.net, but as Ratha pointed out, learning and practicing stuff in GIMP is the goal of these exercises.

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 2:59 am
by M0rtimer
I'd advice first selecting what you want to copy, and then to deselect what you don't want in the picture- You can do so by holding CTRL and then selecting what you don't want included. The magic wand tool is especially helpful in this case if it's a clear background, because it allows you to select a whole area of color. You can then simply copy paste it as layer.

For making a background layer transparent (though I don't believe it necessary for what you're trying to do- You simply need to only select what is needed in GIMP, not necessarily make the background transparent) you need to go to the layer menu, and then go to transparency ==> Add alpha channel. This will allow the background to be transparent, though by default layers above that should have transparency. Hope that helps! :)

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 3:20 am
by thinkslogically
So, when you first create a layer, you can choose to make it transparent by default which is going to be the easiest way to get started since you don't need to delete anything later.

But, that's not very helpful for you now! The magic wand is the easiest way to deal with it. I believe if you click the wand on your background you want to delete it will select all areas of the same colour and then you just hit delete. I will cover this later because there's quite a lot to this stuff, but give it a shot. Ill have a look to this a bit later (on my phone at the mo,) but hope that helps!

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 3:28 am
by M0rtimer
I think what Gathers is trying to do is to make part of the background transparent so she could then copy that in a rectangle shape to a new layer. That's not neccessary though- It's generally easier to select what you want to select as I suggested, then copy that to a new layer on your document- It will automatically fill in the rest of the rectangular layer with transparency. If you need the area to be bigger then, there is a layer size option by rightclicking the layer in the layer panel, allowing you to make it bigger as needed.

If you'd rather prefer doing it as I think you want to do it (make the background transparent and then copy it together with a bit of transparent background) you'd need to go to layers, transparancy and then add an alpha channel. That would allow you to delete the background and make it transparent.

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 3:44 am
by GathersIngredients
@ mort: Wow that was quick. Thanks, that really did the trick. Now I "only" need to paint the lair. :D But at least I got my protagonist ready to be inserted.

Also, WOW, mort's way is a lot less work than what I used to do. I dunno if there is a similar option in paint.net that I just don't know about or if there is no such option, but I used to take any image I wanted, then used the eraser on everything that I didn't want in the image and went on from there. That's a lot of work I don't need to do from now on, as long as the background is in ONE color. Great! Thanks again.

@Thinks: Basically I wanted to "cut out" the part of the painting that depicted the sprite for later usage in the lair picture. I had no idea there was any other way to do it than just erase the bits you don't need. I don't really care HOW I achieve this, but as I said, that was the only way I could come up on my own, not knowing the functions of any painting program fully. I'm so glad I am participating here, just imagine all the things I can learn!


A new question, though: Is there a way to make the eraser "paint" transparent pixels wherever you use it in ONE go, instead of gradually increasing the transparency of the things you are trying to erase?
In paint.net you can activate or deactivate anti-aliasing; one of those options will allow you to gradually erase stuff away, and the other will delete any color in one go. Very handy when using my "erase the bits you don't need" technique, lol. :lol:

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 3:48 am
by M0rtimer
Image

What I think you're talking about is the "hard edge" option. It should be down there with brush options. Try selecting that and see if it does what you want it to? Essentially the option will make it so that it will always fully delete a pixel if selected (the same goes for pencil/brushes, except then they fill it offcourse)

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 4:15 am
by thinkslogically
Glad you got it fixed, I apparently misread your question!

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 2:08 pm
by Ratha
LooksAndSmiles wrote:Ratha - I mean THE Ratha - inspired by other peoples work and not the other way around?

World's gonne madde.
One moment, let me dig around on my old, virus ridden hard drive and see if I can dredge something up. I don't think png files can carry a virus.

Image

Well, that was an adventure. Digging around on that old drive always gets my adrenaline going. I feel like that virus will jump out any second, offering to eliminate itself in exchange for my credit card info. Anyhow, see that picutre? I nabbed it from out of goblin defense updates.

The style? inspired entirely by LSN. THE LSN. And of course I inspired others. I read them typing so! Inspiration is a river, flowing from artist to artist. When you make something beautiful, people WANT to make something beautiful themselves. When I see such delicate beauty as M0rt made, I want to copy it, just like I copied LSN.

Perhaps some day I'll devise my own style. For now... I crib from others, modifying their work to my ends. I have always stood on the shoulders of giants.
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M0rtimer wrote:If you want to, feel free! I'd be honored, really.

If you'd want to see more, I think the following link should bring you to my photobucket gallery? There's a lot of stuff unrelated to the game in it as well, but you should find more examples of the art-style up until page 5, I think.

http://s1183.photobucket.com/user/m0rti ... t=3&page=1
Ooooo... thanks. When I get home from my meeting, I'm totally going to transfer that stuff to my hard drive and get started. The main things I'll have to study are the expressions and colour variations. The rest looks like simple cut and paste work. Thank you :)

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 3:31 pm
by M0rtimer
Image

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 9:14 am
by Prometheus
Hey Thinks, I've finally found this thread. I'm trying to get caught up but i don't have much time on my hands, is it all right if i just start now? I would hate to be disruptive to the class. :paranoia:

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 9:58 am
by I'mBob
A new student! DEATH!

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 10:02 am
by thinkslogically
Prometheus wrote:Hey Thinks, I've finally found this thread. I'm trying to get caught up but i don't have much time on my hands, is it all right if i just start now? I would hate to be disruptive to the class. :paranoia:
Hmm.... Weeelllllll.....

Yeah sure :) If you can catch up on the 1st lesson as well (make a sprite) then I'll add you to the class picture.

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 10:06 am
by M0rtimer
Whaaaaat. I thought he had to convince you by making his sprite that of a cute puppy! :roll:

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 2:24 pm
by Prometheus
For some reason it wouldn't let me delete this post... so i have simply rewritten it. SUCH IS THE PURVIEW OF GODS! or something.

Instead i'll take this opportunity to say hi to everyone.

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 2:34 pm
by madmartin26
Ratha wrote: The style? inspired entirely by LSN. THE LSN. And of course I inspired others. I read them typing so! Inspiration is a river, flowing from artist to artist. When you make something beautiful, people WANT to make something beautiful themselves. When I see such delicate beauty as M0rt made, I want to copy it, just like I copied LSN.
Yeah, pretty much the whole reason i became interested in drawing was by seeing what awesome stuff other people made and saying "i'm going to be able to do that too". I'm happy to create my own style as well, but the thing that got me started and is still a goal for me is trying to learn how to draw in the style of my favorite artists.
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Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 2:51 pm
by M0rtimer
Perhaps there needs to be a lesson on pixel drawing specifically... That seems something many are interested in.

I'm not sure how much there would be to say about it though. It's mostly just taking your pencil, setting it to the smallest size, and then zoom up so you can draw pixel by pixel. The general idea there being that you create a simple basic sprite, which you can then "equip" with equipment sprites. Ideally you want this set up in a way that you can easily create the image you want to create by copy-pasting stuff, with only minor touch-ups afterwards. My own style has this mostly incorporated, though fails at it on a few certain points in favor of aesthetics.

Oh, which totally reminded me of something that would probably be of great help to Ratha! My spreadsheets! Which are actually pretty damn bad since I have the bad habit of having to draw up something on the spot and then forgetting to add it to the relevant sheet. Still, it's mostly in order- I'll include them below for anyone interested.
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Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 3:02 pm
by thinkslogically
Once these lessons are done, we move onto sprite-based lessons, so it will be covered :)

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 3:05 pm
by M0rtimer
Oh derp. Is what I get for not double-checking. :P

Though in my defense, the list is only on the thread in the recruitment section... Perhaps move it over to the first post of the assignment/lesson thread as well?

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 3:10 pm
by thinkslogically
Yeah, I will do. Just not tonight! Good night folks :)

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 4:00 pm
by LAYF
Hay Ratha, heard a great lot about you on the old forum (where i mostly lurked for a long time) , I joined only a few days after you left, so newer got to say hay...

so...

..

.

..Hay.

My Name is LAYF, i usuealy run games here in the forum, but is a bit in death water currently, I look forward to get to know you...


Also hay to our new student, Prometheus, glad to see a new face in the lessons, and welcome :)


Best regards -LAYF-ac

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 4:06 pm
by M0rtimer
Oh, I should also note that for the next few lessons, I'm probably either going to submit, well, "crap", or just simply nothing... Exams are starting next week, and I probably should not be spending time on this when I could be studying. IF I end up not submitting anything, I'll probably end up catching up with everything once exams tick over.

Well, assuming that's okay at least.

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 10:09 pm
by Ratha
M0rtimer wrote: Oh, which totally reminded me of something that would probably be of great help to Ratha! My spreadsheets! Which are actually pretty damn bad since I have the bad habit of having to draw up something on the spot and then forgetting to add it to the relevant sheet. Still, it's mostly in order- I'll include them below for anyone interested.
Oooooo, nice. These are totally better than the ones I did. Copied into my folder of reference materials. I shall use it to craft the finest of dungeons! I've already begun. :D

But yeah, I'll be plenty of people end up finding this useful.
LooksAtYouFunny wrote: My Name is LAYF, i usuealy run games here in the forum, but is a bit in death water currently, I look forward to get to know you...
Hi LAYF. I look forwards to getting to know you too :). Funny though, I could swear your name rings a vague bell. Are you sure you joined after? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else...

Anyhow, nice to officially meet you, I look forwards to reading your work :)

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 5:37 am
by LAYF
Ratha wrote:-SNIP-Funny though, I could swear your name rings a vague bell. Are you sure you joined after? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else...-SNIP-
:) proberly thinking of LooksAndSmiles, may people confused us in the start when I signed up, calling us both Looks.... ThatÔÇÖs why that wn first time someone called me LAYF, I adopted it right away :)
Ratha wrote:-SNIP- Anyhow, nice to officially meet you, I look forwards to reading your work -SNIP-
Thanks, and right back at you :)


Best regards -LAYF-

Re: God School Lessons: #2

Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 6:12 am
by Arles
Wow guys.
I'm seeing some really neat stuff being posted over at the assignment thread.

Please keep it up: You are a doing a terrific job! :D