Died By Bear
03 April 2007, 08:19 PM
-=-Using Drawing Programs-=-
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Table of Contents
1. Paint
2. The GIMP
3. Adobe Photoshop CS2
4. Babarosa GIF Animator
5. Online Drawing Programs
6. 3-D Drawing
7. Anti-Aliasing
8. Finishing Your Creation
9. Examples
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1. Paint
Title Bar
Understanding how to read the title bar is a basic skill in Windows. The Title Bar is indicated by the red circle in the illustration at left. The Icon (at far left) gives you a clue as to what program the window belongs to. In this case, the Icon shows that the window belongs to Microsoft Paint.
To the right of the title bar, you’ll see some text. The first bit of text is the name of the file that is currently open in this program. Since we’ve just launched Paint, we see a new (blank) document, which is named "untitled" by default. The next bit of text tells us again that this window is a Paint window, just like the Icon did. It’s redundant, but redundancy is common to the Windows interface.
At the right side of the tool bar, you’ll see three buttons: From left to right, they are: Minimize, Maximize/Restore, and Close. If you click on Minimize, the window will shrink down and disappear, leaving only the window tab on the task bar (usually located the very bottom of the screen) to let you know that the window is still open. Click tab to bring the window back to its previous size. Maximize/Restore will switch the window between taking up the full size of the screen and some smaller portion of it. When Restored, you can re-size the window by clicking along the edge of the window and dragging it to the desired size. You can also move the window about by clicking and holding the Title Bar and dragging the mouse around. When Maximized, the window takes up the entire screen and can’t be moved around or re-sized. Clicking on the Close button will shut the program down completely.
The Tools
First, we have the Selection Tools. These tools are used in cutting out an image and moving it to another place.
Secondly, We have an eraser which is used in erasing some of the drawing that you don't want. You can also re-size the eraser. The "fill" bucket is used in filling an open space of the same color up with the selected color towards the bottom of the page.
Thirdly, we have the "eye dropper" which allows you to copy a color from an image and allows you to use that color. We also have the magnifying glass which allows you to zoom in or out.
Fourth, these brushes are the main brushes in mostly any program. They are the pencil which allows you to make small, "skinny" type images (which is good for getting up-close). The brush is also used to make thick bold lines. You can also re-size this brush.
Fifth, is the airbrush tool. It is used as a spray paint-type thing. You should use this to draw spray painted graffiti. Next up we have the text writer. If you use this you will be allowed to put words on images. You could also go to "Image" (towards the top), and then click "Draw Opaque". If you do so, you will be able to write something without writing over stuff.
Sixth, is the line & curve tools. The line tool lets you use it to make straight lines to connect one point to another. The curve tool allows you to make curvy lines since it may be a bit hard to draw it.
Seventh, are the rectangle and polygon drawing tools. These allow you to make either a nice square or make a nice, straight-lined drawing. This may allow you to draw triangles, hexagons, octagons, etc.
Eightly, is the circle, and rounded rectangle drawing tools. The circle tool allows you to draw a nice circle in your drawing. The rounded rectangle tool allows you to make, well... rounded rectangle drawings.
How to use these tools
First row
Selectors:
These tools are used to select portions of the image you’re working with. These selections can then be moved around, copied, or edited without affecting the rest of the image.
To use the Freeform Select tool:
Click on the Freeform Select tool Icon.
With the left button, click on your image wherever you want to begin the selection. Drag the mouse around to create the outline of the freeform shape of your selection. Be careful! The mouse is tricky to use. It may help to zoom in using the Magnifying Glass tool. Zoom in close so you can see what you’re working with more clearly, and to control the mouse with better precision.
When you finish outlining your freeform selection shape, release the mouse button.
You will notice that the freeform shape that you had been drawing has just mysteriously turned into a rectangle! What gives? Actually, your freeform shape is still preserved; the selection, however, is outlined in a rectangular-shaped guide box. The freeform selection is bounded within this box. If you move the selected portion of the image around, you’ll notice that it still retains the freeform shape that you drew. This may confuse you at first, but you’ll get used to it before long.
To use the Rectangle Select tool:
Click on the Rectangle Select tool Icon.
With the left button, click and hold the button to begin your selection. Where you click will become one of the corners of the rectangular selection area.
Drag the mouse diagonally to where you want the opposite corner of the rectangular area to be.
Release the mouse button.
The Rectangular selection will also have a rectangular shaped guide box around it.
Things you can do with the selected area:
Copy or Cut and Paste: To copy the selection, press Ctrl-C. To cut the selection from the image, press Ctrl-X. After Copying or Cutting, you can Paste the selection by pressing Ctrl-V. By Pasting multiple times, you can achieve a mosaic or collage-like effect.
Move: Left-click anywhere inside the guidebox and hold down the button to "pick up" the selection, and then drag the mouse to move the selection to another area of the image. It will "float" over the rest of the image, allowing you to position it wherever you want it to be. Release the mouse button to "let go" of the selection.
Tip: If you hold down the Shift key as you drag your selection around, it will paste multiple copies of the image, creating a sort of blurred effect.
Stretch: The guide box around your selection can be re-sized. You can re-size by clicking on the square-shaped tabs located at the corners and the middle sections of the guide box, holding the mouse button down, and then dragging the mouse to change the size of the selection. Release the mouse button when the selection is the size you want it to be. You can make it bigger or smaller, and achieve a distorted effect by "squashing" or "stretching" the selection to make it either wider/narrower or taller/shorter than its original proportions.
Apply Effects: You can apply any of the effects from the Image Menu directly to the active selection rather than to the whole image.
De-selecting the area: To de-select the area, either activate a different tool by clicking on it in the tool bar, or make a new selection. You can’t have more than one selection active at a time. Once the selection is de-selected, it becomes part of the image again, and will cover over whatever it may have been laying over.
Second row
Eraser tool:
The Eraser tool is simple to use. Just click on it to select it, then click on the part of the image that you want to erase. "Erasing" changes the erased part of the image back to the background color of the image file. This is usually white, but can be changed to other colors using the color palette.
The size of the eraser can be changed by clicking on the Options portion of the Toolbar when the Eraser is active. Use a smaller eraser to go after small details, the larger eraser to wipe out larger areas of the image.
Tip: Unfortunately, the eraser does not come in alternate shapes. But, if you want to use a round "eraser" just set your paint brush to the size and use the background color (paint by using the right-button on the mouse) -- it will work just like the eraser! After a while, this might make you wonder why the Eraser is even there. It seems pretty redundant. The best I can figure is it gives you the option of having a separate tool for erasing so that you don't have to continually change the shape and size of the paintbrush when you want to use it for actual coloring.
Fill tool:
The fill tool applies color (or "paint") to a large area of the image. The Icon for the Fill Tool resembles a pouring jar of paint. Just like if you were pouring a liquid in real life, the Fill Tool’s "paint" will fill an area’s shape with color.
You have to be careful when using the Fill Tool for this reason: if you click in an unbounded area of the image, the color will "spill" out and fill more of the image than you originally bargained for, possibly obliterating parts of the image that you wanted to save. Look closely before applying the Fill tool to an area to make sure it is bounded on all sides and that no "paint" can "seep out" and get where it’s not supposed to go. If this happens by accident sometime, don’t panic. Just Undo the Fill tool by pressing Ctrl-Z, find the "leak" and close it with the pencil or line tool, and then re-apply the Fill.
There are no special options for the Fill Tool.
Third row
Eyedropper tool:
The Eyedropper tool has only one function, but it is a useful one. The eyedropper can be used to "pick up" colors that you’ve already used in an image. Say you’re working with an image with many shades of Green. You want to pick a specific shade, but there are several that are so similar that it’s difficult for your eye to distinguish between them. Just click on the eyedropper, and click on the exact portion of the image that contains the color that you want. The active color for your paint tools will automatically change to the color that you picked with the eyedropper. Additionally, the Eyedropper will automatically switch over to the previously selected tool, enabling you to rapidly resuming work on the image with the color you just selected.
Tip: You can use the Eyedropper tool to select color for the background color by using the right button on your mouse.
Zoom tool:
The Magnifying Glass, or Zoom tool, can be used to get a closer, more detailed view of an image. This is very useful if you’re working in close with the fine details of a part of an image. When you activate the Magnifying Glass tool, you’ll have an option to select between 1x, 2x, 6x, and 8x magnification. You can click on the part of the image that you want the magnification to center on. This will not affect the actual image in any way, just how it appears on your screen. Once you zoom in, the magnifying glass will automatically switch back to whatever tool you were using before.
Fourth row
Pencil:
The Pencil tool is your basic drawing tool. You can draw in different colors, but other than that there are no other options. The pencil’s stroke is a single pixel wide, which makes it useful for working with fine details, but a poor choice for filling in large areas of the image with color.
Brush:
The Paint Brush tool is similar to the pencil, but has more features. It too can be used in different colors, but the shape and size of the Paint Brush can also be changed. You can use square, round, and slanted shaped brushes, of various sizes, selected in the Toolbar Options.
Fifth row
Airbrush tool:
The airbrush tool is a bit more complicated than the regular paintbrush. Instead of applying color to the image evenly, it applies it gradually. The "spray" is a semi-random distribution of pixels. Gradually, as the airbrush is left hovering over the same area while it is painting, it will fill up with color. A skillful artist can use this effect to create subtle differences in tone and variation, and even achieve the illusion that colors are mixing, all by using the airbrush. It does take some getting used to, however. The airbrush can paint at three different sizes, selected through the Options portion of the Toolbar.
Text writer:
The Text tool is used to position and enter text into your image. The text may be of any color or font that you have active on your computer. You also have the option to set the text tool to work so that the background color is used for the "fill space" around the text, or if the text will be applied with transparent "fill space", allowing the image to show through behind the text.
To use the Text tool, simply select it from the Toolbar, and then drag a rectangle within your image. This rectangle will be the boundaries within which the text will appear. Once you’ve drawn the text boundary, a floating window will appear, which will enable you to choose the font, size, and formatting (ie, bold, italic, or underline) for your text. Unfortunately, the text formatting will be uniform. If you want to mix fonts, colors, sizes, or formats, you’ll have to use the text tool several times, with different settings each time. This means you’ll have to be careful in order to make sure that the different applications of text line up properly. You may need to use the selection tool quite a bit to move bits and pieces of text around, and this can be quite tedious. Remember to use the Undo command if you make a mistake, by pressing Ctrl-Z.
As long as the text tool is active, you’ll see that rectangular boundary around the edge of the text area. You can move this rectangle around by clicking and dragging on the very border of it, or re-size it by clicking on the tab buttons at the corners and midpoints of the edges. But be careful; if you click outside of the boundary accidentally, which is pretty easy to do, the text box will deselect, and the text tool will think you’re trying to draw a new text box, and your old text will be set in place.
Once the text is in place, it will no longer behave as text, but rather as pixels. The pixels just happen to be in the proper arrangement to appear to be text in some font; they can’t be edited or moved as though a distinct object in the image.
Sixth row
Line tool:
The Straight Line tool is pretty easy to work with. You can change the color and width of your lines by using the Toolbar Options. All you have to do to draw a line is click on the image where you want one of the line’s endpoints to be, then drag over to where you want the other endpoint to be. Then release the button. Easy! But the lines can only be straight.
Curve tool:
The Curve tool is trickier to use than the Line tool. It can be difficult to learn how to use, and it is difficult to explain. Your best bet is to experiment with it, but be patient, because it will take a lot of getting used to before you get very good at making curved lines that are the shape that you want.
Like the straight Line tool, the Curve tool can make lines in various thicknesses and colors.
Try experimenting with various techniques for making lines. Try clicking and dragging to make one kind of line, or clicking and releasing two endpoints. Click a third point to determine the curve. Try dragging an already drawn, but still active, multi-point line to distort its curve.
The Curve tool can be very frustrating, especially for beginners, especially since the Undo command can only be used to undo the last change you've made to your image. Just keep practicing!
Seventh Row & Eighth
Shape tools:
The Rectangle tool draws three types of rectangles: outline, filled with outline, and filled without outline. The interior of the outline rectangle is transparent, whereas the filled types fill the rectangle with the background color. To draw a rectangle, click on the tool, then click a point on the image where you want one corner to be, then drag diagonally and release the mouse where you want the opposite corner to be.
Tip: To create a square shape, hold down the Shift Key as you draw the shape.*
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*- Pulled from an MS Paint Tutorial
Important Links: http://www.homewood.k12.al.us/edgewood/paint.html
http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourViewCategory.cgi?category_id=18612&tour_id=13811
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2. The GIMP
After installation of The GIMP 2, when you start it for the very first time, you will see something as shown below:
Now, what you have to do first, is make the environment too suitable and comfortable for designing, so that the usual tools and tasks can be accessed quickly and easily. For that you will have to do some initial work once.
Follow the steps:
1. First of all, there is a window showing the 'TIP OF THE DAY', I think when it should appear when you launch the gimp. But if you wish to turn it off, just uncheck the checkbox labeled Show tip next time GIMP stats and close the window.
2. Now, close the window on right of the screen, a new window will appear displaying you some message, you simply click button Close all Tabs.
3. Go through menus
File > Dialogs > Create New Dock > and click Layer, Channels & Paths
A new window will appear, in this new window note the layer tab, in layers tab, in front of label Layers you can see a small button the left arrow, just click it and go through menus Add Tab and you will be shown a list of tool tabs, you only select Brushes, Patterns, Gradients, Tools, Tool Options.
Then click the Undo History Tab and click the button [X] to close it, because it is not that necessary at this level.
TIP : You can change the arrangement of tabs simply by dragging their icon over other tab to bring in before the drop target. Now, if a tab has come out of the window and became separate window while dragging, you simply drag it from its inner label and drop it on suitable place, as shown here:
Now, go into Tab Tools, and turn all the tools ON by clicking the (EYE) icon on left of each tool icon + name, so that all tools are available in the main gimp window (which is on left side of screen), see image below, where I turned all tools ON:
Finally,
Go through menus File > Preferences to save the windows' position. In Preferences window simply click Window Management in the list provided on left side, adn click button Save Window Positions Now.
Then click the Environment from left list, and follow alter entries of right side fields as shown here, if you have RAM greater or equal to 128 MB, and click button OK in the bottom-right corner of the window:
REMEMBER : If you close the tabbed window on right-side, you will have to repeat the last 3 steps again, to avoid that, always close gimp from its main window shown on left side.
Now after restarting, gimp must look like this (on your desktop, regardless the windows' positions):
YOU ARE DONE UPTO HERE.
Now few more tips on working with usual tools (CORE TIPS) :
To quickly give NAME / Rename the layer, simply double click the layer in Layers tab and enter the desired name.
To emerge two layers quickly, bring the layers just over/below each other, then click the upper layer, right-click it and press W.
Mostly when you emerge all layers, the layers' attributes are discarded and it becomes normal layer after merge. So better is to delete any flat filled background layer first and then right-click anywhere in layers tab and press F which will Flatten the Image.
When you have clicked the Brush tool make sure you have selected the appropriate brush form the Brushes tab by clicking the desired brush.
After working with eraser, brush, convolve, area select tool, best is you select the Move layers & selections Tool.
To know what the selected tool does, keep your mouse over it and it will display you a tool tip text.
If you have opened more than one images, the layers tab will display the layers of only the image window in focus / on top.
To insert quick new layer, right-click within the layers tab and press N.
To quickly delete a layer, rightclick the desired layer within the layers tab and press D.
To copy a layer to take to other image, simply select it from layers tab and press Ctrl+C, then go to the image where you want to insert it, and press Ctrl+V. New layer will become a Floating Selection, to make it normal layer simply rightclick it and press N from keyboard.
If you have created a path using Path creation and editting tool, and then you switch to other tool the paths will be lost. To prevent this problem, immediately after completing the path, go through menus Slect > Save to Channel, or make it selection using the path through Slect > Select from path which automatically saves the path. Saved paths may be reused by double-clicking them from Paths tab.
Making new brush is too easy in gimp. Select the area from your image which you wish to use as brush, then go through menus within the image window Script-Fu > Selection > To Brush. GIMP will automatically save the selection as a new brush of gimp itself, and select it immediately for use.
The same way, you can make custom fill patterns, by selecting desired area and going through menus Script-Fu > Selection > To Pattern.
that's all for now, read further tutorials for specific type of designing.*
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*- Pulled from The GIMP Forums
Important Links: http://www.gimptalk.com/forum/forum/GIMP-Tutorials-and-Tips-8-1.html
Black Hawks GIMP Help thread (http://penguinforum.miniclip.com/showthread.php?t=2200&page=12)
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3. Adobe Photoshop CS2
http://penguinforum.miniclip.com/showthread.php?t=4934
Important Links: http://penguinforum.miniclip.com/showthread.php?t=4934
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4. Babarosa GIF Animator
Barbosa is probably the most used animating program on these forums. You can animate many pictures into one. This is called 'animating'. Animating is very tricky and some points. Barbosa is free but with a trick. It may say you have to pay for it at some part but just wait a while and you'll be able to use it whenever. The biggest tip for Barbosa is that you have to make sure the height and width are the same with every given frame. If it doesn't, then it will look pretty sloppy. If you want a more fluid and vivid image while doing this, make several frames. The walk-through for Barbosa is simple and quick. All you have to do is type in the height and width of the files and how many. You can change these if you forgot something. While saving, try looking for something that may say "Save as GIF" or something similar to that. Click it and then save it. You should now have the file and will be animated. Now, you may not be able to use some images that are animated simply because the KB size would be too big. Try making your document smaller if this happens.
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5. Online Drawing Programs
Online Drawing Programs may be tough to use. Some such as Paint.net may be harder than the regular Paint program. It is still easy to use and try using the basics.
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6. 3-D Drawing
This is the same basic thing as anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing is a way to terminate the excess drawing on a picture. 3-D imaging is another way of doing so. I could do a basic example of a sqaure. Make another square in the mid point of that. Use your line tools to connect them from edge to edge. That's just a basic way of doing a 3-D image.
Important Links: http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/CVonline/LOCAL_COPIES/MARSHALL/node8.html
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7. Anti-Aliasing
If you are wondering, "What the heck is that?" you may want to google it. I did it for you though. One of the most important techniques in making graphics and text easy to read and pleasing to the eye on-screen is anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing is a cheaty way of getting round the low 72dpi resolution of the computer monitor and making objects appear as smooth as if they'd just stepped out of a 1200dpi printer (nearly).
Important Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing
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8. Finishing Your Creation
Finishing your work is one of the hardest things to do. When it looks the way you want, keep zooming in and out and look for any bad things you may find. If it doesn't look the right angle and what not, you may have to redo the whole image. You could try going to GIMP and use the angle tool to angle it out but it still is hard to redo such a thing. Now that you have it the way you want it, save your work. The most basic file types are:
GIF
PNG
JPEG
BTMP
I would normally recommend using PNG but if you want to do an animation, try using GIF.
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9. Examples
Paint- http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/1915/fdghjug7.png (http://imageshack.us)
The GIMP- http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/2905/cbsacs3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Photoshop- http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/980/yosemvalleynewminilc5.jpg (http://imageshack.us) (Used to be darker)
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Table of Contents
1. Paint
2. The GIMP
3. Adobe Photoshop CS2
4. Babarosa GIF Animator
5. Online Drawing Programs
6. 3-D Drawing
7. Anti-Aliasing
8. Finishing Your Creation
9. Examples
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1. Paint
Title Bar
Understanding how to read the title bar is a basic skill in Windows. The Title Bar is indicated by the red circle in the illustration at left. The Icon (at far left) gives you a clue as to what program the window belongs to. In this case, the Icon shows that the window belongs to Microsoft Paint.
To the right of the title bar, you’ll see some text. The first bit of text is the name of the file that is currently open in this program. Since we’ve just launched Paint, we see a new (blank) document, which is named "untitled" by default. The next bit of text tells us again that this window is a Paint window, just like the Icon did. It’s redundant, but redundancy is common to the Windows interface.
At the right side of the tool bar, you’ll see three buttons: From left to right, they are: Minimize, Maximize/Restore, and Close. If you click on Minimize, the window will shrink down and disappear, leaving only the window tab on the task bar (usually located the very bottom of the screen) to let you know that the window is still open. Click tab to bring the window back to its previous size. Maximize/Restore will switch the window between taking up the full size of the screen and some smaller portion of it. When Restored, you can re-size the window by clicking along the edge of the window and dragging it to the desired size. You can also move the window about by clicking and holding the Title Bar and dragging the mouse around. When Maximized, the window takes up the entire screen and can’t be moved around or re-sized. Clicking on the Close button will shut the program down completely.
The Tools
First, we have the Selection Tools. These tools are used in cutting out an image and moving it to another place.
Secondly, We have an eraser which is used in erasing some of the drawing that you don't want. You can also re-size the eraser. The "fill" bucket is used in filling an open space of the same color up with the selected color towards the bottom of the page.
Thirdly, we have the "eye dropper" which allows you to copy a color from an image and allows you to use that color. We also have the magnifying glass which allows you to zoom in or out.
Fourth, these brushes are the main brushes in mostly any program. They are the pencil which allows you to make small, "skinny" type images (which is good for getting up-close). The brush is also used to make thick bold lines. You can also re-size this brush.
Fifth, is the airbrush tool. It is used as a spray paint-type thing. You should use this to draw spray painted graffiti. Next up we have the text writer. If you use this you will be allowed to put words on images. You could also go to "Image" (towards the top), and then click "Draw Opaque". If you do so, you will be able to write something without writing over stuff.
Sixth, is the line & curve tools. The line tool lets you use it to make straight lines to connect one point to another. The curve tool allows you to make curvy lines since it may be a bit hard to draw it.
Seventh, are the rectangle and polygon drawing tools. These allow you to make either a nice square or make a nice, straight-lined drawing. This may allow you to draw triangles, hexagons, octagons, etc.
Eightly, is the circle, and rounded rectangle drawing tools. The circle tool allows you to draw a nice circle in your drawing. The rounded rectangle tool allows you to make, well... rounded rectangle drawings.
How to use these tools
First row
Selectors:
These tools are used to select portions of the image you’re working with. These selections can then be moved around, copied, or edited without affecting the rest of the image.
To use the Freeform Select tool:
Click on the Freeform Select tool Icon.
With the left button, click on your image wherever you want to begin the selection. Drag the mouse around to create the outline of the freeform shape of your selection. Be careful! The mouse is tricky to use. It may help to zoom in using the Magnifying Glass tool. Zoom in close so you can see what you’re working with more clearly, and to control the mouse with better precision.
When you finish outlining your freeform selection shape, release the mouse button.
You will notice that the freeform shape that you had been drawing has just mysteriously turned into a rectangle! What gives? Actually, your freeform shape is still preserved; the selection, however, is outlined in a rectangular-shaped guide box. The freeform selection is bounded within this box. If you move the selected portion of the image around, you’ll notice that it still retains the freeform shape that you drew. This may confuse you at first, but you’ll get used to it before long.
To use the Rectangle Select tool:
Click on the Rectangle Select tool Icon.
With the left button, click and hold the button to begin your selection. Where you click will become one of the corners of the rectangular selection area.
Drag the mouse diagonally to where you want the opposite corner of the rectangular area to be.
Release the mouse button.
The Rectangular selection will also have a rectangular shaped guide box around it.
Things you can do with the selected area:
Copy or Cut and Paste: To copy the selection, press Ctrl-C. To cut the selection from the image, press Ctrl-X. After Copying or Cutting, you can Paste the selection by pressing Ctrl-V. By Pasting multiple times, you can achieve a mosaic or collage-like effect.
Move: Left-click anywhere inside the guidebox and hold down the button to "pick up" the selection, and then drag the mouse to move the selection to another area of the image. It will "float" over the rest of the image, allowing you to position it wherever you want it to be. Release the mouse button to "let go" of the selection.
Tip: If you hold down the Shift key as you drag your selection around, it will paste multiple copies of the image, creating a sort of blurred effect.
Stretch: The guide box around your selection can be re-sized. You can re-size by clicking on the square-shaped tabs located at the corners and the middle sections of the guide box, holding the mouse button down, and then dragging the mouse to change the size of the selection. Release the mouse button when the selection is the size you want it to be. You can make it bigger or smaller, and achieve a distorted effect by "squashing" or "stretching" the selection to make it either wider/narrower or taller/shorter than its original proportions.
Apply Effects: You can apply any of the effects from the Image Menu directly to the active selection rather than to the whole image.
De-selecting the area: To de-select the area, either activate a different tool by clicking on it in the tool bar, or make a new selection. You can’t have more than one selection active at a time. Once the selection is de-selected, it becomes part of the image again, and will cover over whatever it may have been laying over.
Second row
Eraser tool:
The Eraser tool is simple to use. Just click on it to select it, then click on the part of the image that you want to erase. "Erasing" changes the erased part of the image back to the background color of the image file. This is usually white, but can be changed to other colors using the color palette.
The size of the eraser can be changed by clicking on the Options portion of the Toolbar when the Eraser is active. Use a smaller eraser to go after small details, the larger eraser to wipe out larger areas of the image.
Tip: Unfortunately, the eraser does not come in alternate shapes. But, if you want to use a round "eraser" just set your paint brush to the size and use the background color (paint by using the right-button on the mouse) -- it will work just like the eraser! After a while, this might make you wonder why the Eraser is even there. It seems pretty redundant. The best I can figure is it gives you the option of having a separate tool for erasing so that you don't have to continually change the shape and size of the paintbrush when you want to use it for actual coloring.
Fill tool:
The fill tool applies color (or "paint") to a large area of the image. The Icon for the Fill Tool resembles a pouring jar of paint. Just like if you were pouring a liquid in real life, the Fill Tool’s "paint" will fill an area’s shape with color.
You have to be careful when using the Fill Tool for this reason: if you click in an unbounded area of the image, the color will "spill" out and fill more of the image than you originally bargained for, possibly obliterating parts of the image that you wanted to save. Look closely before applying the Fill tool to an area to make sure it is bounded on all sides and that no "paint" can "seep out" and get where it’s not supposed to go. If this happens by accident sometime, don’t panic. Just Undo the Fill tool by pressing Ctrl-Z, find the "leak" and close it with the pencil or line tool, and then re-apply the Fill.
There are no special options for the Fill Tool.
Third row
Eyedropper tool:
The Eyedropper tool has only one function, but it is a useful one. The eyedropper can be used to "pick up" colors that you’ve already used in an image. Say you’re working with an image with many shades of Green. You want to pick a specific shade, but there are several that are so similar that it’s difficult for your eye to distinguish between them. Just click on the eyedropper, and click on the exact portion of the image that contains the color that you want. The active color for your paint tools will automatically change to the color that you picked with the eyedropper. Additionally, the Eyedropper will automatically switch over to the previously selected tool, enabling you to rapidly resuming work on the image with the color you just selected.
Tip: You can use the Eyedropper tool to select color for the background color by using the right button on your mouse.
Zoom tool:
The Magnifying Glass, or Zoom tool, can be used to get a closer, more detailed view of an image. This is very useful if you’re working in close with the fine details of a part of an image. When you activate the Magnifying Glass tool, you’ll have an option to select between 1x, 2x, 6x, and 8x magnification. You can click on the part of the image that you want the magnification to center on. This will not affect the actual image in any way, just how it appears on your screen. Once you zoom in, the magnifying glass will automatically switch back to whatever tool you were using before.
Fourth row
Pencil:
The Pencil tool is your basic drawing tool. You can draw in different colors, but other than that there are no other options. The pencil’s stroke is a single pixel wide, which makes it useful for working with fine details, but a poor choice for filling in large areas of the image with color.
Brush:
The Paint Brush tool is similar to the pencil, but has more features. It too can be used in different colors, but the shape and size of the Paint Brush can also be changed. You can use square, round, and slanted shaped brushes, of various sizes, selected in the Toolbar Options.
Fifth row
Airbrush tool:
The airbrush tool is a bit more complicated than the regular paintbrush. Instead of applying color to the image evenly, it applies it gradually. The "spray" is a semi-random distribution of pixels. Gradually, as the airbrush is left hovering over the same area while it is painting, it will fill up with color. A skillful artist can use this effect to create subtle differences in tone and variation, and even achieve the illusion that colors are mixing, all by using the airbrush. It does take some getting used to, however. The airbrush can paint at three different sizes, selected through the Options portion of the Toolbar.
Text writer:
The Text tool is used to position and enter text into your image. The text may be of any color or font that you have active on your computer. You also have the option to set the text tool to work so that the background color is used for the "fill space" around the text, or if the text will be applied with transparent "fill space", allowing the image to show through behind the text.
To use the Text tool, simply select it from the Toolbar, and then drag a rectangle within your image. This rectangle will be the boundaries within which the text will appear. Once you’ve drawn the text boundary, a floating window will appear, which will enable you to choose the font, size, and formatting (ie, bold, italic, or underline) for your text. Unfortunately, the text formatting will be uniform. If you want to mix fonts, colors, sizes, or formats, you’ll have to use the text tool several times, with different settings each time. This means you’ll have to be careful in order to make sure that the different applications of text line up properly. You may need to use the selection tool quite a bit to move bits and pieces of text around, and this can be quite tedious. Remember to use the Undo command if you make a mistake, by pressing Ctrl-Z.
As long as the text tool is active, you’ll see that rectangular boundary around the edge of the text area. You can move this rectangle around by clicking and dragging on the very border of it, or re-size it by clicking on the tab buttons at the corners and midpoints of the edges. But be careful; if you click outside of the boundary accidentally, which is pretty easy to do, the text box will deselect, and the text tool will think you’re trying to draw a new text box, and your old text will be set in place.
Once the text is in place, it will no longer behave as text, but rather as pixels. The pixels just happen to be in the proper arrangement to appear to be text in some font; they can’t be edited or moved as though a distinct object in the image.
Sixth row
Line tool:
The Straight Line tool is pretty easy to work with. You can change the color and width of your lines by using the Toolbar Options. All you have to do to draw a line is click on the image where you want one of the line’s endpoints to be, then drag over to where you want the other endpoint to be. Then release the button. Easy! But the lines can only be straight.
Curve tool:
The Curve tool is trickier to use than the Line tool. It can be difficult to learn how to use, and it is difficult to explain. Your best bet is to experiment with it, but be patient, because it will take a lot of getting used to before you get very good at making curved lines that are the shape that you want.
Like the straight Line tool, the Curve tool can make lines in various thicknesses and colors.
Try experimenting with various techniques for making lines. Try clicking and dragging to make one kind of line, or clicking and releasing two endpoints. Click a third point to determine the curve. Try dragging an already drawn, but still active, multi-point line to distort its curve.
The Curve tool can be very frustrating, especially for beginners, especially since the Undo command can only be used to undo the last change you've made to your image. Just keep practicing!
Seventh Row & Eighth
Shape tools:
The Rectangle tool draws three types of rectangles: outline, filled with outline, and filled without outline. The interior of the outline rectangle is transparent, whereas the filled types fill the rectangle with the background color. To draw a rectangle, click on the tool, then click a point on the image where you want one corner to be, then drag diagonally and release the mouse where you want the opposite corner to be.
Tip: To create a square shape, hold down the Shift Key as you draw the shape.*
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*- Pulled from an MS Paint Tutorial
Important Links: http://www.homewood.k12.al.us/edgewood/paint.html
http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourViewCategory.cgi?category_id=18612&tour_id=13811
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2. The GIMP
After installation of The GIMP 2, when you start it for the very first time, you will see something as shown below:
Now, what you have to do first, is make the environment too suitable and comfortable for designing, so that the usual tools and tasks can be accessed quickly and easily. For that you will have to do some initial work once.
Follow the steps:
1. First of all, there is a window showing the 'TIP OF THE DAY', I think when it should appear when you launch the gimp. But if you wish to turn it off, just uncheck the checkbox labeled Show tip next time GIMP stats and close the window.
2. Now, close the window on right of the screen, a new window will appear displaying you some message, you simply click button Close all Tabs.
3. Go through menus
File > Dialogs > Create New Dock > and click Layer, Channels & Paths
A new window will appear, in this new window note the layer tab, in layers tab, in front of label Layers you can see a small button the left arrow, just click it and go through menus Add Tab and you will be shown a list of tool tabs, you only select Brushes, Patterns, Gradients, Tools, Tool Options.
Then click the Undo History Tab and click the button [X] to close it, because it is not that necessary at this level.
TIP : You can change the arrangement of tabs simply by dragging their icon over other tab to bring in before the drop target. Now, if a tab has come out of the window and became separate window while dragging, you simply drag it from its inner label and drop it on suitable place, as shown here:
Now, go into Tab Tools, and turn all the tools ON by clicking the (EYE) icon on left of each tool icon + name, so that all tools are available in the main gimp window (which is on left side of screen), see image below, where I turned all tools ON:
Finally,
Go through menus File > Preferences to save the windows' position. In Preferences window simply click Window Management in the list provided on left side, adn click button Save Window Positions Now.
Then click the Environment from left list, and follow alter entries of right side fields as shown here, if you have RAM greater or equal to 128 MB, and click button OK in the bottom-right corner of the window:
REMEMBER : If you close the tabbed window on right-side, you will have to repeat the last 3 steps again, to avoid that, always close gimp from its main window shown on left side.
Now after restarting, gimp must look like this (on your desktop, regardless the windows' positions):
YOU ARE DONE UPTO HERE.
Now few more tips on working with usual tools (CORE TIPS) :
To quickly give NAME / Rename the layer, simply double click the layer in Layers tab and enter the desired name.
To emerge two layers quickly, bring the layers just over/below each other, then click the upper layer, right-click it and press W.
Mostly when you emerge all layers, the layers' attributes are discarded and it becomes normal layer after merge. So better is to delete any flat filled background layer first and then right-click anywhere in layers tab and press F which will Flatten the Image.
When you have clicked the Brush tool make sure you have selected the appropriate brush form the Brushes tab by clicking the desired brush.
After working with eraser, brush, convolve, area select tool, best is you select the Move layers & selections Tool.
To know what the selected tool does, keep your mouse over it and it will display you a tool tip text.
If you have opened more than one images, the layers tab will display the layers of only the image window in focus / on top.
To insert quick new layer, right-click within the layers tab and press N.
To quickly delete a layer, rightclick the desired layer within the layers tab and press D.
To copy a layer to take to other image, simply select it from layers tab and press Ctrl+C, then go to the image where you want to insert it, and press Ctrl+V. New layer will become a Floating Selection, to make it normal layer simply rightclick it and press N from keyboard.
If you have created a path using Path creation and editting tool, and then you switch to other tool the paths will be lost. To prevent this problem, immediately after completing the path, go through menus Slect > Save to Channel, or make it selection using the path through Slect > Select from path which automatically saves the path. Saved paths may be reused by double-clicking them from Paths tab.
Making new brush is too easy in gimp. Select the area from your image which you wish to use as brush, then go through menus within the image window Script-Fu > Selection > To Brush. GIMP will automatically save the selection as a new brush of gimp itself, and select it immediately for use.
The same way, you can make custom fill patterns, by selecting desired area and going through menus Script-Fu > Selection > To Pattern.
that's all for now, read further tutorials for specific type of designing.*
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*- Pulled from The GIMP Forums
Important Links: http://www.gimptalk.com/forum/forum/GIMP-Tutorials-and-Tips-8-1.html
Black Hawks GIMP Help thread (http://penguinforum.miniclip.com/showthread.php?t=2200&page=12)
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3. Adobe Photoshop CS2
http://penguinforum.miniclip.com/showthread.php?t=4934
Important Links: http://penguinforum.miniclip.com/showthread.php?t=4934
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4. Babarosa GIF Animator
Barbosa is probably the most used animating program on these forums. You can animate many pictures into one. This is called 'animating'. Animating is very tricky and some points. Barbosa is free but with a trick. It may say you have to pay for it at some part but just wait a while and you'll be able to use it whenever. The biggest tip for Barbosa is that you have to make sure the height and width are the same with every given frame. If it doesn't, then it will look pretty sloppy. If you want a more fluid and vivid image while doing this, make several frames. The walk-through for Barbosa is simple and quick. All you have to do is type in the height and width of the files and how many. You can change these if you forgot something. While saving, try looking for something that may say "Save as GIF" or something similar to that. Click it and then save it. You should now have the file and will be animated. Now, you may not be able to use some images that are animated simply because the KB size would be too big. Try making your document smaller if this happens.
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5. Online Drawing Programs
Online Drawing Programs may be tough to use. Some such as Paint.net may be harder than the regular Paint program. It is still easy to use and try using the basics.
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6. 3-D Drawing
This is the same basic thing as anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing is a way to terminate the excess drawing on a picture. 3-D imaging is another way of doing so. I could do a basic example of a sqaure. Make another square in the mid point of that. Use your line tools to connect them from edge to edge. That's just a basic way of doing a 3-D image.
Important Links: http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/CVonline/LOCAL_COPIES/MARSHALL/node8.html
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7. Anti-Aliasing
If you are wondering, "What the heck is that?" you may want to google it. I did it for you though. One of the most important techniques in making graphics and text easy to read and pleasing to the eye on-screen is anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing is a cheaty way of getting round the low 72dpi resolution of the computer monitor and making objects appear as smooth as if they'd just stepped out of a 1200dpi printer (nearly).
Important Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing
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8. Finishing Your Creation
Finishing your work is one of the hardest things to do. When it looks the way you want, keep zooming in and out and look for any bad things you may find. If it doesn't look the right angle and what not, you may have to redo the whole image. You could try going to GIMP and use the angle tool to angle it out but it still is hard to redo such a thing. Now that you have it the way you want it, save your work. The most basic file types are:
GIF
PNG
JPEG
BTMP
I would normally recommend using PNG but if you want to do an animation, try using GIF.
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9. Examples
Paint- http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/1915/fdghjug7.png (http://imageshack.us)
The GIMP- http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/2905/cbsacs3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Photoshop- http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/980/yosemvalleynewminilc5.jpg (http://imageshack.us) (Used to be darker)