Quote by OtakuDrewrbbWe aren't all
rich ^_^ lol :p JK
but nice collection i have lots more just um... they are all on my pc :p
lol
I also want to take the time to thank anyone who reads this thread becuase
recently i have posted a ton of thread and im new so forgive my ignorance lol
^_^ i just love that some one actually has a brain you know
^_^
I'm not all that rich myself (I only get $100 a month to spend a month after
bills, and that's my money to live off), but I manage to save up enough. That's
all from 1 year though, it makes me proud.
I also have almost 200gb of anime on my HDD too, stuff that isn't licensed in
Aus yet. Basiclly, if I like it, I'll give the company who made it the money
they deserve. I never thought twice about buying Chrno Crusade when I saw it on
the shelves XP. Went hungry though....
Actually, I'm a collector, plain and simple. New stuff that's not in the
picture....
Chrno Crusade 7 (completes the series), Stellvia 2 & 3, Elfen Lied 2 &
3, Midori no Hibi 2, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu! 2, Appleseed Collectors Edition
I posted a new reply in everyone's favourite thread now (MTs is it a
disapointment?), and when I went to view a previous page, it would go back to
the lat thread. I noticed in the hotlink bar it would still have the /last in
there. Normally after you finish with that page and look at a previous page, it
would remove that.
Quote by rmuyoAgain, if it is not 100% done
then why is it up and running? That itself makes me wonder how much more it can
get screwed up. You don't launch a ship with it not being fully done so why was
this "launched" before it was fully done, add that to my list of
disappointments.
Also, no you can't have everything but if you are the ones that allow something
to exist by keeping that something popular enough to exist, you have a lot more
say then those that create it as ironic as that might
sound.
They launch a ship with extensive testing, yes, but computer games and online
forums need to be tested by being used. Games have people play the betas before
they get released but you can't do that with online comunities. That's why they
have a bug reporting section. Anyway, it happened with the transition of 1 to 2,
it'll happen again with 2 to 3, and 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 (if Sheq's still
alive).
Oh, and for those who haven't noticed yet, Gmail is also only in its beta
version. It's not bug free yet.
This is a riot.... I remember all the same comments over MT2 when that came out.
Now I'm sitting back and enjoying all the ppl who never saw MT1 complain about
the "inconveinent changes"
I can't believe that ppl think the credit system is replacing the level
system... they've got nothing to do with eachother. EVERYONE needs credits to d/l something now, instead of being just
level 10. And EVERYTHING requires
credits. Now you may cry about having to use credits to d/l something, but I
remember people crying about not being able to connect to MT2 because of a
flooded bandwidth... from constant d/ling. You guys wanted a bandwidth fix, and
you now have the best thing you can get.
As for people who can't scan or post images... pitty. This is a walling/art
comunity. If you can't contribute, you dont get the goods. Hell, I can't even
get any good resources to scan apart from my dvd case.
I'm just hoping that all the stupid ppl will run away crying and the crappy
wallers will give up and go somewhere else
So you've learnt how to outline your image in Flash, and now you want to make it
all colourful. Well you're in luck, because that's just what I'm going to teach
you how to do.
Now believe it or not, there are two ways of doing this in Flash. Simple, and
Complex. I'll start off with the simple method.
Quote: Simple
Filling
In the same layer you created your outline in, start lining off all the
different colours and shading areas by using the hairline line tool that you
used to outline with. Then, use eyedropper tool (I) to select the colour that
you are going to fill an area with. Be careful here, because the image will have
varying colours inside that area, so besure you carefully choose the colour that
looks most like the colour you want. Sometimes if you choose one a shade too
dark, it'll look completely wrong. When you've got your colour, switch to the
fill tool (K) and fill away. That's it! You now have a fully coloured vector
with sharp, crisp cell shaded colour! It's so simple, I dont have to supply
images to show how to do it (that and because I'm to lazy to do it XP).
However, some images just don't look right without smooth shading, or the
technically correct word, Gradients. That's when you need to use...
Quote: Complex Filling
Things start getting a bit messy now, however I'll try to keep it as organised
and as neat as possible for you. Underneath the layer you created the outline
in, create a new folder and rename it "Base Colours" (to do this,
simply double click on the folder), then create a new layer and drag it into the
folder. Then hide the outline layer by clicking on the dot underneath the eye,
as it will only get in your way.
In this new layer, choose a mass of the same colour, pick it's medium colour
(the colour that is not a shade nor a highlight) and fill the entire area with
it, regardless of shade and highlights. You can go over any black lines within
this area as long as they dont contain any colour within them. Might I also add
that you don't need to create the outline, you can use the brush tool (B) if you
like. Being neat is not compulsary here. After you've done that, unhide the
outline layer and check to see if you haven't gone outside the outlines.If you
have, just switch to the eraser (E) and nip off the excess colour (sometimes
it's easier to go outside the lines with a thick brush, then comeback and fix it
up with a smaller eraser though... keep this in mind.)
Once you've done that, rename that layer by double clicking on it to a suitibale
name (like Skin, or Shirt), then lock and hide it and repeat the process to the
rest of the colours. Here's one I've done earlier...
Now that you've created all your base colours, create a new folder and rename it
to "Shading" and create another folder and rename it to the first base
colour you filled. Then create a layer to go into it. With this new layer, start
outlining with a harline line tool, all the shades within the first base colour
you filled. Do not outline any deep shades
yet! We'll get to those later. A deep shade is an area that has a second,
more darker shade within compared to the original base colour.
If you come across an area that has gradient shading, outline the area where you
can no longer see the darker shade.
If you've outlined areas that dont have noticable gradient shading, go ahead and
fill them with the shade colour. If not, open the colour mixer (Window>Design
Panels>Colour Mixer or Shift+F9) and select the fill type, gradient or
linear, which ever one suits your fill best.
If you have a linear gradient, select the first notch in the gradient bar (the
one on the left), then choose it's colour to be the shade colour. Then select
the second notch and choose it's colour to be the base colour (unhide the base
colour layer if you need to), and bring it's alpha to 0%. Now click on the area
where the shade begins to fade away and drag the mouse on a right angle to the
gradient to the area where the shade isn't visable anymore (normally just before
the outline). If you don't get it right first go, don't panic, I'll teach you
how to fix it up a bit later, I never get it right on the first try anyway. As
long as the gradient is there.
There are two kinds of Radial gradients though.... they are:
inner radial:
and outer radial:
To create an inner radial gradiant, select the radial fill, and choose the shade
colour for the left tag, and the base colour with 0% Alpha for the right tag and
adjust them to the right gradiant size. Then, click anywhere within the area, as
we'll be editing the fill regardless.
For outer radial gradiants, the process is almost the same, but switch the left
and right's tag position, so that the shade colour is on the right, not the
left.
After you have filled your gradiant, you'll (probably) need to edit it. To do
this, choose Fill Transform Tool (F) and select any gradiant fill you wish to
edit.
For Linear Gradiants, you'll come up with something looking like this,
The two black lines represent the start and end of the gradiant. Clicking and
draging on the square will widen/shorten the gap between the two lines, making
the gradiant larger or smaller. The circle at the tip of one of the lines will
rotate the gradiant and the circle in the middle with move it. Fiddle around
with the graiant until it looks right, then move onto the next.
For Radial Gradiants, you'll come up with something looking like this...
The black line is the end of the gradiant, the colour you chose for the right
most tag. Clicking and draging on the square will squash the circle to an
eliptical shape. The circle in the middle of the 3 icons will increase or
decrease the size of the the circle and the circle on the end will rotate the
circle. The circle in the middle will move the gradiant. Fiddle around with
these until you get the right gradiant.
If you find that you are having filling problems because there are 2 gradiants
in one area, but they're not facing the same direction, like this....
Partition the gradiants off with another line, creating another fill area. If
you don't you'll never get the gradiants done. The same goes for radial
gradiants that go from an inside radial to an outside radial and vice versa.
Find the area where the 2 curves meet, and cut it down the middle with a line.
Just remember that every shape in life is created out of average circles and
lines, just a lot of them.
After doing all that for your shadows, do the same for deep shadows and
highlights. If you have shadow's crossing over eachother, create a layer for
each shadow. Don't be affraid to use layers, the amount of layers you have will
not hurt you. When you finish off, you're layer's list will look something like
this...
And your image, something like this (if you used the same image I did)...
Now, if you can't get a gradiant perfect, don't worry. There's still hope for
it, and I even have some funny looking gradiants in there. If you think you've
got it perfect, think again. There's still more to do to it.
Delete the original image, and then proceed to delete every layer but the
outline and base colours layers (no, I haven't lost my mind, watch and learn).
Go into Publish Settings (File>Publish Settings or ctrl+shift+f12) and
unclick the Flash and HTML boxes and select the Jpeg and PNG boxes. We want it
to publish the image to both these image types. Go into their settings and set
the JPEG to publish at 100 quality and the PNG to publish with Alpha chanels.
After you've done that, publish the image, you'll find the publish images in the
same folder as the flash file (if you've saved it), unless you've told it
otherwise in the directory names next to the check boxes.
When the outline and base colours has been published, hunt for the files and the
JPEG to "(what ever you want here) Base colours" and as we wont be
using the PNG, delete that if you wish. Then go back to Flash, and undo the
deletion of the layers. Now select every layer but the shades and delete those
layers, publish them and rename the PNG image to "(what ever you want here)
Shades" and if you want, delete the JPEG image. Then undo the layer
deltions again, select every layer but the outline alone, delete them, publish
and rename the PNG file to "(what ever you want here) Outline" and
delete the JPEG if you wish. However, for the next step, we'll be going into
Photoshop, so if you don't have Photoshop, save yourself the effort and publish
it with all layers there.
Now we need to bring all the images together in Photoshop, so crank that up and
open up the Base Colour JPEG as the starting image (we use the JPEG and not the
PNG as the base image, as the PNG images have a stubborn alpha chanel and make
the outlines anything but smooth). Then open up the two PNG files, bring up the
Shade file, go into it's layers and crtl+left click on the layer. You'll now
have only the shades selected. Copy them, go into the base colours and paste the
shades, then roughly line them up with the image. After that, do the same to the
outlines (you may have to hide the shades to line the outlines perfectly) and
then do the final alignment to the shades.
When everything's lined up, choose the shade layer and run over what needs
bluring with the blur brush. This will fix up any funny looking gradiants you
may have. Once everything's done, save the lot as a JPEG, and post it on MT for
everyone to admire. Here's the one that I used to create this tutorial with....
http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/184668/
Before I leave you guys to go flash away, there's one last point I have for you.
Create the eyes on the same layer as the outline, fill and all. Seeing as the
eyes will never have any skin shade interfeering with them and are always an
important part of an image (most people pay attention to how eyes are drawn and
are hammered if done poorly), it's safer to have it published with the outline
PNG.
Note to everyone... this isn't a chat, this is a turotial. If you wanna chat, do
it in the userpages. While yes, what you're chatting about is relevant to what I
originally wrote, it's kind of annoying finding I have a reply in this thread
only to find people are chatting to eachother, and not asking for more advice,
having problems or giving new oppinions. Truthfully it's a waste of my time (One
thing I hate wasting most, I even bought a shirt).
With that said, all chat will now be reported as out of context. If you wish to
reply to something but are out of context, do it in the persons
Userpage.
Normally I wouldn't point out names, but by example, I could report just about
everything that DayBreak has wrote in here as Out of Context.
Alot of people on IRC often ask me how to vector and/or ask me if Flash is
better than Illustrator. Flash is very limited. Somehow, I find the limited
abilities less hassle and easier to work with than Illustrator, which is (in my
opinion) a bit too powerful and sometimes overwhelming. So now I figure I'll let
my secrets out and tell you how to vector in Flash.
First off, we need to outline the picture you wish to vector.
Open up a new flash document, and increase the size of the work area to
2000x2000 pixels (this is roughly the largest workspace Flash will allow you to
use. Illustrator can go much larger apparantly...)
Now you need to import the image you wish to vector into Flash. To do this, go
into File>Import>Import to Stage. Or simply hit ctrl+R. Then browse
through your system for the image you want and open it. The image will be placed
on you work area, normally in the top left hand corner (sometimes in the middle,
don't ask why). Depending on the original image size though, your image may be
scaled down. To check, go into Windows>Design Panel>Transform (ctrl+T) and
make sure that the scale of the image is 100%.
Now you need a new layer to work on. If you work on the same layer as the image,
things will go horribly wrong. If you don't know how to do this, you can either
click on the page with the plus sign in the time line section, or go to
Insert>Timeline>Layer. Once you have done this, lock the layer with the
original image on it by clicking the dot under the padlock in the layer that has
the origal image.
After doing that, select the new layer and choose the line tool (or press N).
The line tool is a lot more effective than the pen tool in Flash, as the pen
tool acts like a brush, but it tries to straighten/smooth things out, resulting
in the line you dont want. However, the line tool is much simpler. First, choose
an easy to see colour which you will probably never use (like Magenta, that
bright pink colour), go into the properties and make sure that the line width is
hairline (I'll explain later), then start at a point on the image and click and
drag to the end point. To make the line curve, simply hold ctrl, click anywhere
along the line and drag it into place. It's that simple. Mind you though, you
may need more than one line to create a smooth curve.
If you find that a curve you are trying to create becomes tighter as it nears
the end, end the first line before the curve tightens, and create a new one at
the end of the first to finish off. The same can be applied to curves that
change direction too.
Try your best to make the line flow smoothly. If you pick the wrong spot to
create a new line, you'll end up with a corner. If this happens, try moving the
corner back and forth and re-adjusting the curves to see if it'll smooth out. If
you try and adjust the curves when you moved corner/curves and everything goes
wobbly and out of shape, that's a sign that it has already lost the corner and
is a smooth curve.
Now you may go and do the rest of the image like that. However, if you want to
maintain the variable line thickness the image already has, you'll have to
"outline the outlines". This is why I said to have an easy to see
colour line with hair line thickness (for those that don't know, hair line
thickness remains the same thickness, no matter how far or close you zoom in).
Outlining outlines is time-consuming, sometimes frustrating, but highly
effective. Simply treat all the lines in the image as another shape/item of
clothing and create an outline of them. Here's part of one I prepared
earlier...
Once you've done that use the fill tool (press K), choose black and fill away
the lines. You may choose to keep the colours of the lines somewhat original,
some people like to have the outlines a greatly darker variation of the colour
it's outlining, but because I can be lazy, old school black lines are for me. If
you can't fill in an area, check to see if some of the lines dont join together.
Flash can be really fidgity about these, and will only fill if it has a line
surrounding the said area. You may have to max your zoom to find the opening
too. Here's the filled version of the outline I showed before,
So you've got you image completly outlined? CONGRATS! Now you can move onto
filling colours and maintaing the shading!!!....
Quote by sincheahAdjusting and modifying
the scans and had hard time drawing the circles for more than 5 hours... Bot
told me
=We only accept wallpapers where the members make a true effort to submit
quality works for critiques and advice.=
T.T not complaining but...I feel so sad..My effort..
Hmm....
this comment is very brief and doesn't really tell me much.. I can make 2
possible situations from this.
1. You redrew some circles that needed working on, but didn't do much to the
rest of it.
2. You redrew all the pixels to make the image more clearer, and defined,
spending 5 hours on it.
Now... being someone who takes low quality images and elargens and ehances them
myself, I know what it takes to do such a feat. And doing such a feat on
Minitokyo... takes alot more than 5 hours. Alot more... try a few days of
non-stop work. This is probably where your problem lies....
If you did method #1, you have effectivly just changed the circles of the pic,
put your stamp on it and said "its mine!"... well, it's not. It's
still ripping, and it's also of poor quality.
If you did method #2, the fact that you only spent 5 hours on such an image
makes me come to the conclusion that you did not spend enough time on it, and it
was not of sufficient quality to be entered on Minitokyo.
Of course, you may have done a completly different thing... I don't know,
there's not enough information. What I'd need is a detailed discription of what
you did, the images that you used and the final product.
Quote by zerokooli just wannna know the
exact reason fo erasing my eva wallpapper instead of botchiii info....
please someone read this post and help me....or
if you were the mod who erase it i want the specific reason....send me a pm if
you can help me....
please be specific....
As I said, you must read the
userpolicy and the multiple dubious reasons as to why your wall was deleted. The
mods have made it this way so that people will actually read the user policy and
learn the all the rules, rather than just be warned off doing one thing. This
method also prevents people from getting banned from making another, completely
different mistake. Read the userpolicy, match the polilcy's rule with your wall
and find a clash. If you still cant find a clash, post a support inquiry.
Quote by yurikohimeSorry to pounce on
your thread, but I genuinely am puzzled. Please,
does anyone know what to do if you have a scan deleted and you don't
think any of the reasons given apply?
I've read through all the various reasons I've been given, but I honest
to God think that I conformed within all of the guidelines: It was over
the minimum size limit; had at least 300dpi; wasn't pornographic or
suggestive; I fully creditted where it came from; and although it was
*mostly* monochromatic, there was more to it than just greyscale (i.e.
highlighted colours for effect).
So, I guess my question is... who do I turn to in order to find out?
After all, Botchii isn't a real person, so they wont give me an answer,
right...?
It's worrying to think that one scan that is of exactly the same size
and standard as all my othershas been picked off. It leaves me
paranoid, thinking that my entire back catalogue of submissions is
about to wiped away, when I've not had any problems with it before
And I wont carelessly just resubmit it. Under no circumstances wil I do
that.
I'm sorry to jump in here and whinge away, but it looked like the best
place to ask
y x
There are 2 possible reasons why your scan was deleted.
The first one, is it could already have a superior duplicate posted.
The second reason, and possibly the real reason, is that the character was
monochrome. When the user policy talkes about scan specifications, it bassicly
applies to the character within the scan first, then the rest of the scan. This
is because when people go to use teh scan, they might not use any effects used
within it, and just use the character. So if you had a monochrome character
within a coloured scan, it will be deleted.
Seems like Apple's doing them selves a favour now. I dont care for what chipset
I use, as long as it does what I want it to do. Wait, you know that already...
Read the user policy. I've seen one of you walls, all it is is a character on a
white bg. That is not a wallpaper, that's a scan. There is also no work involved
in creating it what so ever.
All in all, it's a cop-out. You're submitting scans while trying to say that
you've created the image from scatch. This is why your walls are getting
deleted.
To finish off, I'll say it again, READ THE USER
POLICY. If you have any more issues, contact me.
First of all, I know that you did not ask if you could use member's names in
your story. Now, this is actually against the law and if a certain member feels
like they're been de-faced, you can find yourself with a nasty law suite. That
little copyright logo at the bottom of the page...
Makes it alot more nasty
because you're claiming those people to be your own work, when infact, they are
their own. In some ways, this thread could be against MT policy because of it's
breach in copyright laws alone. It's highly suggested that you ask all members
who are featured in your novel if they wish to be in it, and if not, remove that
member from your novel, and replace them with those who do want to be. Might I
remind you that some members might become offended by any personality changes
you might have purposly/accidently created.
Next off... those strange characters that are there instead of the quotation
marks make the novel bloody hard to read, and in my case, a great turn off from
readin the novel. Infact, I haven't read it what so ever because I can't tell
where your punctuation is at all! It's royally confusing at most times. I might
read it if the punctuation is fixed.
And finally, even though I haven't read it, I have heard from certain people
that there is a lack of puntuation and grammer in most areas too.
Anyhow, don't take this the wrong way. I do admit, I'm frustrated by how hard it
is to read, but it is constructive criticism.
Quote: 3. Truth be told, u gotta have a lotta ppl on ur FL
if u want
massive favs, thats something that takes time. Try adding all the ppl
who previously commented or added a fav on ur walls to ur FL, those are
the ppl who will usually give u favs again and again.
Let
the
spiral of mediocrety begin!
Don't fight the system, help MT to become a truly shitty friend-based
community!
ZOMGWTFOMG! We already have a logo?!?! Holly wootcakes of b33r!
well okay. It's only a design, but that's what it'll look like when it's done. Generally. But much better.
Even if you get banned, your acount stays on MT. Just DONT VISIT ANYMORE.
That'll do the trick
I'm not all that rich myself (I only get $100 a month to spend a month after bills, and that's my money to live off), but I manage to save up enough. That's all from 1 year though, it makes me proud.
I also have almost 200gb of anime on my HDD too, stuff that isn't licensed in Aus yet. Basiclly, if I like it, I'll give the company who made it the money they deserve. I never thought twice about buying Chrno Crusade when I saw it on the shelves XP. Went hungry though....
I buy it because I want it >=D
Actually, I'm a collector, plain and simple. New stuff that's not in the picture....
Chrno Crusade 7 (completes the series), Stellvia 2 & 3, Elfen Lied 2 & 3, Midori no Hibi 2, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu! 2, Appleseed Collectors Edition
Here's my tutorial for vectoring in Flash if you're interested.
http://forum.minitokyo.net/thread/36259/vectoring-with-flash-lesson-1-outlining/
I've noticed this too... It's annoying when you have less than 9 pages and hitting any of the next page buttons takes you to the last page.
I want my white MT layout back! Bad MT!
I posted a new reply in everyone's favourite thread now (MTs is it a disapointment?), and when I went to view a previous page, it would go back to the lat thread. I noticed in the hotlink bar it would still have the /last in there. Normally after you finish with that page and look at a previous page, it would remove that.
They launch a ship with extensive testing, yes, but computer games and online forums need to be tested by being used. Games have people play the betas before they get released but you can't do that with online comunities. That's why they have a bug reporting section. Anyway, it happened with the transition of 1 to 2, it'll happen again with 2 to 3, and 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 (if Sheq's still alive).
Oh, and for those who haven't noticed yet, Gmail is also only in its beta version. It's not bug free yet.
This is a riot.... I remember all the same comments over MT2 when that came out. Now I'm sitting back and enjoying all the ppl who never saw MT1 complain about the "inconveinent changes"
I can't believe that ppl think the credit system is replacing the level system... they've got nothing to do with eachother. EVERYONE needs credits to d/l something now, instead of being just level 10. And EVERYTHING requires credits. Now you may cry about having to use credits to d/l something, but I remember people crying about not being able to connect to MT2 because of a flooded bandwidth... from constant d/ling. You guys wanted a bandwidth fix, and you now have the best thing you can get.
As for people who can't scan or post images... pitty. This is a walling/art comunity. If you can't contribute, you dont get the goods. Hell, I can't even get any good resources to scan apart from my dvd case.
I'm just hoping that all the stupid ppl will run away crying and the crappy wallers will give up and go somewhere else
So you've learnt how to outline your image in Flash, and now you want to make it all colourful. Well you're in luck, because that's just what I'm going to teach you how to do.
Now believe it or not, there are two ways of doing this in Flash. Simple, and Complex. I'll start off with the simple method.
In the same layer you created your outline in, start lining off all the different colours and shading areas by using the hairline line tool that you used to outline with. Then, use eyedropper tool (I) to select the colour that you are going to fill an area with. Be careful here, because the image will have varying colours inside that area, so besure you carefully choose the colour that looks most like the colour you want. Sometimes if you choose one a shade too dark, it'll look completely wrong. When you've got your colour, switch to the fill tool (K) and fill away. That's it! You now have a fully coloured vector with sharp, crisp cell shaded colour! It's so simple, I dont have to supply images to show how to do it (that and because I'm to lazy to do it XP).
However, some images just don't look right without smooth shading, or the technically correct word, Gradients. That's when you need to use...
Things start getting a bit messy now, however I'll try to keep it as organised and as neat as possible for you. Underneath the layer you created the outline in, create a new folder and rename it "Base Colours" (to do this, simply double click on the folder), then create a new layer and drag it into the folder. Then hide the outline layer by clicking on the dot underneath the eye, as it will only get in your way.
In this new layer, choose a mass of the same colour, pick it's medium colour (the colour that is not a shade nor a highlight) and fill the entire area with it, regardless of shade and highlights. You can go over any black lines within this area as long as they dont contain any colour within them. Might I also add that you don't need to create the outline, you can use the brush tool (B) if you like. Being neat is not compulsary here. After you've done that, unhide the outline layer and check to see if you haven't gone outside the outlines.If you have, just switch to the eraser (E) and nip off the excess colour (sometimes it's easier to go outside the lines with a thick brush, then comeback and fix it up with a smaller eraser though... keep this in mind.)
Once you've done that, rename that layer by double clicking on it to a suitibale name (like Skin, or Shirt), then lock and hide it and repeat the process to the rest of the colours. Here's one I've done earlier...
Now that you've created all your base colours, create a new folder and rename it to "Shading" and create another folder and rename it to the first base colour you filled. Then create a layer to go into it. With this new layer, start outlining with a harline line tool, all the shades within the first base colour you filled. Do not outline any deep shades yet! We'll get to those later. A deep shade is an area that has a second, more darker shade within compared to the original base colour.
If you come across an area that has gradient shading, outline the area where you can no longer see the darker shade.
If you've outlined areas that dont have noticable gradient shading, go ahead and fill them with the shade colour. If not, open the colour mixer (Window>Design Panels>Colour Mixer or Shift+F9) and select the fill type, gradient or linear, which ever one suits your fill best.
If you have a linear gradient, select the first notch in the gradient bar (the one on the left), then choose it's colour to be the shade colour. Then select the second notch and choose it's colour to be the base colour (unhide the base colour layer if you need to), and bring it's alpha to 0%. Now click on the area where the shade begins to fade away and drag the mouse on a right angle to the gradient to the area where the shade isn't visable anymore (normally just before the outline). If you don't get it right first go, don't panic, I'll teach you how to fix it up a bit later, I never get it right on the first try anyway. As long as the gradient is there.
There are two kinds of Radial gradients though.... they are:
inner radial:
and outer radial:
To create an inner radial gradiant, select the radial fill, and choose the shade colour for the left tag, and the base colour with 0% Alpha for the right tag and adjust them to the right gradiant size. Then, click anywhere within the area, as we'll be editing the fill regardless.
For outer radial gradiants, the process is almost the same, but switch the left and right's tag position, so that the shade colour is on the right, not the left.
After you have filled your gradiant, you'll (probably) need to edit it. To do this, choose Fill Transform Tool (F) and select any gradiant fill you wish to edit.
For Linear Gradiants, you'll come up with something looking like this,
The two black lines represent the start and end of the gradiant. Clicking and draging on the square will widen/shorten the gap between the two lines, making the gradiant larger or smaller. The circle at the tip of one of the lines will rotate the gradiant and the circle in the middle with move it. Fiddle around with the graiant until it looks right, then move onto the next.
For Radial Gradiants, you'll come up with something looking like this...
The black line is the end of the gradiant, the colour you chose for the right most tag. Clicking and draging on the square will squash the circle to an eliptical shape. The circle in the middle of the 3 icons will increase or decrease the size of the the circle and the circle on the end will rotate the circle. The circle in the middle will move the gradiant. Fiddle around with these until you get the right gradiant.
If you find that you are having filling problems because there are 2 gradiants in one area, but they're not facing the same direction, like this....
Partition the gradiants off with another line, creating another fill area. If you don't you'll never get the gradiants done. The same goes for radial gradiants that go from an inside radial to an outside radial and vice versa. Find the area where the 2 curves meet, and cut it down the middle with a line. Just remember that every shape in life is created out of average circles and lines, just a lot of them.
After doing all that for your shadows, do the same for deep shadows and highlights. If you have shadow's crossing over eachother, create a layer for each shadow. Don't be affraid to use layers, the amount of layers you have will not hurt you. When you finish off, you're layer's list will look something like this...
And your image, something like this (if you used the same image I did)...
Now, if you can't get a gradiant perfect, don't worry. There's still hope for it, and I even have some funny looking gradiants in there. If you think you've got it perfect, think again. There's still more to do to it.
Delete the original image, and then proceed to delete every layer but the outline and base colours layers (no, I haven't lost my mind, watch and learn). Go into Publish Settings (File>Publish Settings or ctrl+shift+f12) and unclick the Flash and HTML boxes and select the Jpeg and PNG boxes. We want it to publish the image to both these image types. Go into their settings and set the JPEG to publish at 100 quality and the PNG to publish with Alpha chanels. After you've done that, publish the image, you'll find the publish images in the same folder as the flash file (if you've saved it), unless you've told it otherwise in the directory names next to the check boxes.
When the outline and base colours has been published, hunt for the files and the JPEG to "(what ever you want here) Base colours" and as we wont be using the PNG, delete that if you wish. Then go back to Flash, and undo the deletion of the layers. Now select every layer but the shades and delete those layers, publish them and rename the PNG image to "(what ever you want here) Shades" and if you want, delete the JPEG image. Then undo the layer deltions again, select every layer but the outline alone, delete them, publish and rename the PNG file to "(what ever you want here) Outline" and delete the JPEG if you wish. However, for the next step, we'll be going into Photoshop, so if you don't have Photoshop, save yourself the effort and publish it with all layers there.
Now we need to bring all the images together in Photoshop, so crank that up and open up the Base Colour JPEG as the starting image (we use the JPEG and not the PNG as the base image, as the PNG images have a stubborn alpha chanel and make the outlines anything but smooth). Then open up the two PNG files, bring up the Shade file, go into it's layers and crtl+left click on the layer. You'll now have only the shades selected. Copy them, go into the base colours and paste the shades, then roughly line them up with the image. After that, do the same to the outlines (you may have to hide the shades to line the outlines perfectly) and then do the final alignment to the shades.
When everything's lined up, choose the shade layer and run over what needs bluring with the blur brush. This will fix up any funny looking gradiants you may have. Once everything's done, save the lot as a JPEG, and post it on MT for everyone to admire. Here's the one that I used to create this tutorial with.... http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/184668/
Before I leave you guys to go flash away, there's one last point I have for you. Create the eyes on the same layer as the outline, fill and all. Seeing as the eyes will never have any skin shade interfeering with them and are always an important part of an image (most people pay attention to how eyes are drawn and are hammered if done poorly), it's safer to have it published with the outline PNG.
Note to everyone... this isn't a chat, this is a turotial. If you wanna chat, do it in the userpages. While yes, what you're chatting about is relevant to what I originally wrote, it's kind of annoying finding I have a reply in this thread only to find people are chatting to eachother, and not asking for more advice, having problems or giving new oppinions. Truthfully it's a waste of my time (One thing I hate wasting most, I even bought a shirt).
With that said, all chat will now be reported as out of context. If you wish to reply to something but are out of context, do it in the persons Userpage.
Normally I wouldn't point out names, but by example, I could report just about everything that DayBreak has wrote in here as Out of Context.
Alot of people on IRC often ask me how to vector and/or ask me if Flash is better than Illustrator. Flash is very limited. Somehow, I find the limited abilities less hassle and easier to work with than Illustrator, which is (in my opinion) a bit too powerful and sometimes overwhelming. So now I figure I'll let my secrets out and tell you how to vector in Flash.
First off, we need to outline the picture you wish to vector.
Open up a new flash document, and increase the size of the work area to 2000x2000 pixels (this is roughly the largest workspace Flash will allow you to use. Illustrator can go much larger apparantly...)
Now you need to import the image you wish to vector into Flash. To do this, go into File>Import>Import to Stage. Or simply hit ctrl+R. Then browse through your system for the image you want and open it. The image will be placed on you work area, normally in the top left hand corner (sometimes in the middle, don't ask why). Depending on the original image size though, your image may be scaled down. To check, go into Windows>Design Panel>Transform (ctrl+T) and make sure that the scale of the image is 100%.
Now you need a new layer to work on. If you work on the same layer as the image, things will go horribly wrong. If you don't know how to do this, you can either click on the page with the plus sign in the time line section, or go to Insert>Timeline>Layer. Once you have done this, lock the layer with the original image on it by clicking the dot under the padlock in the layer that has the origal image.
After doing that, select the new layer and choose the line tool (or press N). The line tool is a lot more effective than the pen tool in Flash, as the pen tool acts like a brush, but it tries to straighten/smooth things out, resulting in the line you dont want. However, the line tool is much simpler. First, choose an easy to see colour which you will probably never use (like Magenta, that bright pink colour), go into the properties and make sure that the line width is hairline (I'll explain later), then start at a point on the image and click and drag to the end point. To make the line curve, simply hold ctrl, click anywhere along the line and drag it into place. It's that simple. Mind you though, you may need more than one line to create a smooth curve.
If you find that a curve you are trying to create becomes tighter as it nears the end, end the first line before the curve tightens, and create a new one at the end of the first to finish off. The same can be applied to curves that change direction too.
Try your best to make the line flow smoothly. If you pick the wrong spot to create a new line, you'll end up with a corner. If this happens, try moving the corner back and forth and re-adjusting the curves to see if it'll smooth out. If you try and adjust the curves when you moved corner/curves and everything goes wobbly and out of shape, that's a sign that it has already lost the corner and is a smooth curve.
Now you may go and do the rest of the image like that. However, if you want to maintain the variable line thickness the image already has, you'll have to "outline the outlines". This is why I said to have an easy to see colour line with hair line thickness (for those that don't know, hair line thickness remains the same thickness, no matter how far or close you zoom in). Outlining outlines is time-consuming, sometimes frustrating, but highly effective. Simply treat all the lines in the image as another shape/item of clothing and create an outline of them. Here's part of one I prepared earlier...
Once you've done that use the fill tool (press K), choose black and fill away the lines. You may choose to keep the colours of the lines somewhat original, some people like to have the outlines a greatly darker variation of the colour it's outlining, but because I can be lazy, old school black lines are for me. If you can't fill in an area, check to see if some of the lines dont join together. Flash can be really fidgity about these, and will only fill if it has a line surrounding the said area. You may have to max your zoom to find the opening too. Here's the filled version of the outline I showed before,
So you've got you image completly outlined? CONGRATS! Now you can move onto filling colours and maintaing the shading!!!....
YAY! I've finally typed it up, and here it is! http://forum.minitokyo.net/showthread/36518/
Hmm.... this comment is very brief and doesn't really tell me much.. I can make 2 possible situations from this.
1. You redrew some circles that needed working on, but didn't do much to the rest of it.
2. You redrew all the pixels to make the image more clearer, and defined, spending 5 hours on it.
Now... being someone who takes low quality images and elargens and ehances them myself, I know what it takes to do such a feat. And doing such a feat on Minitokyo... takes alot more than 5 hours. Alot more... try a few days of non-stop work. This is probably where your problem lies....
If you did method #1, you have effectivly just changed the circles of the pic, put your stamp on it and said "its mine!"... well, it's not. It's still ripping, and it's also of poor quality.
If you did method #2, the fact that you only spent 5 hours on such an image makes me come to the conclusion that you did not spend enough time on it, and it was not of sufficient quality to be entered on Minitokyo.
Of course, you may have done a completly different thing... I don't know, there's not enough information. What I'd need is a detailed discription of what you did, the images that you used and the final product.
omfg! Does this mean I can visit MT again and NOT have to wear a blindfold! It's almost enough to make me wanna create walls again!!! @.@
The motivation might actually kill me!
Good to see you back though, have a virtual beer, you wont be able to taste the water I added.
As I said, you must read the userpolicy and the multiple dubious reasons as to why your wall was deleted. The mods have made it this way so that people will actually read the user policy and learn the all the rules, rather than just be warned off doing one thing. This method also prevents people from getting banned from making another, completely different mistake. Read the userpolicy, match the polilcy's rule with your wall and find a clash. If you still cant find a clash, post a support inquiry.
There are 2 possible reasons why your scan was deleted. The first one, is it could already have a superior duplicate posted.
The second reason, and possibly the real reason, is that the character was monochrome. When the user policy talkes about scan specifications, it bassicly applies to the character within the scan first, then the rest of the scan. This is because when people go to use teh scan, they might not use any effects used within it, and just use the character. So if you had a monochrome character within a coloured scan, it will be deleted.
Seems like Apple's doing them selves a favour now. I dont care for what chipset I use, as long as it does what I want it to do. Wait, you know that already...
Read the user policy. I've seen one of you walls, all it is is a character on a white bg. That is not a wallpaper, that's a scan. There is also no work involved in creating it what so ever.
All in all, it's a cop-out. You're submitting scans while trying to say that you've created the image from scatch. This is why your walls are getting deleted.
To finish off, I'll say it again, READ THE USER POLICY. If you have any more issues, contact me.
No offence here, but I'm gonna ruin the party.
First of all, I know that you did not ask if you could use member's names in your story. Now, this is actually against the law and if a certain member feels like they're been de-faced, you can find yourself with a nasty law suite. That little copyright logo at the bottom of the page...
Makes it alot more nasty because you're claiming those people to be your own work, when infact, they are their own. In some ways, this thread could be against MT policy because of it's breach in copyright laws alone. It's highly suggested that you ask all members who are featured in your novel if they wish to be in it, and if not, remove that member from your novel, and replace them with those who do want to be. Might I remind you that some members might become offended by any personality changes you might have purposly/accidently created.
Next off... those strange characters that are there instead of the quotation marks make the novel bloody hard to read, and in my case, a great turn off from readin the novel. Infact, I haven't read it what so ever because I can't tell where your punctuation is at all! It's royally confusing at most times. I might read it if the punctuation is fixed.
And finally, even though I haven't read it, I have heard from certain people that there is a lack of puntuation and grammer in most areas too.
Anyhow, don't take this the wrong way. I do admit, I'm frustrated by how hard it is to read, but it is constructive criticism.
For one. If you have any issues with wall deletions, all complaints are to go here.. ( http://forum.minitokyo.net/showthread/11208/ )
Second of all, a thread was also created to tell you what to do when you recieve a deletion message. Read my signiture for details.
Finally, Tama's advice is sage.
rofl... I assume you don't know much about Japanese culture then.
amen
Tama hit the jackpot. MT has its own IRC channel guys and the shoutbox is available for level 50+ members.