Insimenator.org

Thank you so much for this I'm sure this is hopefully going to make a difference in my pictures between blah and wow for sure!

Buffy your pictures are always incredible. I just wanted to add that I do not have photoshop, but I just got GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/) about an hour ago LOL after meandering through it. The same "Warming" with the same steps is availiable with GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/), the options are located in different areas, but I figured out how to do it. So for anyone who has GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/), you can follow this tutorial almost step by step to apply the same technique to your pictures!
 
Before
 
(http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/6079/nomakeupvb6.jpg)
 
After
 
(http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6964/nomakeup1ec2.jpg)

Thanks BuffyBot, I love your pictures with the "warming" effect! :)

Yay! I can do this too. And with Gimp. ^^
So, people who don't want to pay for photoshop, can still apply this effect. :D

(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/ilsevdk/Bond%20Legacy/ToddlerSynandDeseplayingwithdollhou.jpg)
^Before

(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/ilsevdk/Bond%20Legacy/ToddlerSynandDeseplayingwithdoll-1.jpg)
^After

Thanks guys!

Question: Where, on GIMP, can you find the "overlay"?

I'm working on an 'illustration' right now, so hang on. ^^

Edit:
(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/ilsevdk/Tutorials/OverlayinginGIMP.jpg)
It's right there. Although I think this is an older GIMP, I'm positive that it's practically the same as with a newer version.
Good luck with it! :D

Thanks SO much!! By the way, great pic! :D

No problem, and thanks. ^^

Edit:
Btw, if you want to flatten your image, to sharp it a bit without having to save it in between: thats located at 'Image' --> 'Flatten Image'

Thanks! :D

help!
for some reason this does not work for me...
when i flatten the image it stays all blurry!

Are you using GIMP or Photoshop?

Photoshop

candiwax, have you changed the layer mode from normal to overlay?

yes...

I really need to know how you photoshop one image into another one? Like say I have a picture of a sim and I want take ONLY the sim in the picture and photoshop the sim into say a magazine ad for example... can anyone please tell me if there are any tutorials for this? I dont have photoshop, I have GIMP but im beginning to see that the two programs are somewhat similiar so maybe a tutorial for photoshop may have the same tools if I were to try it in GIMP. Thanks guys!

candiwax, when you first opened your image in photoshop , do you make a duplicate by pressing ctrl+J?

you mean you wanna take a pic of a sim then paste it into a real or different background?

what i do is i take a pic of the sim in a plain background like white or black, any color that doesn't match your sim in anyway. then open that pic in photoshop. iget the magic wand eraser or magic wand selector, whatever, then select the background. with the eraser, it deletes the whole background leaving the sim. with the selector, it selects the background and then just hit delete. from there you can drag the layer to a real background.

I'll try to do one here with pics just give me about ten minutes. wokie?

here are pics to help you. they were rushed so i apologize. this is the first tut i've done. hope it helps.

(http://www.insimenator.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=59645&stc=1&d=1172219414)

(http://www.insimenator.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=59646&stc=1&d=1172219414)

(http://www.insimenator.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=59647&stc=1&d=1172219414)

(http://www.insimenator.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=59648&stc=1&d=1172219414)

I did buffy's warming effect to get this below
(http://www.insimenator.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=59649&stc=1&d=1172219414)

thanks summer, i never knew how to do that. im gonna go try it now...nice pic btw:)

Oh and Cinamun, I know at least a few things that work a bit different in GIMP.
So I'll try to give a kind of tutorial with GIMP, only I'll use a random old picture
for it, instead of a Sims 2 pic, because I don't have those on this pc.

---

(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/ilsevdk/Tutorials/Gettingsomethingonanotherbg1.jpg)
To be able to get a transparent background, you'll first have to create a new layer, then duplicate your background. Delete the original background, and move your new transparent layer underneath your duplicated background.
(tell me if you need more explanation on creating new layers and duplicating old ones)

(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/ilsevdk/Tutorials/Gettingsomethingonanotherbg2.jpg)
Before you continue, double check that you've selected the top layer (your actual picture).

(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/ilsevdk/Tutorials/Gettingsomethingonanotherbg3.jpg)
After that, you select the 'Fuzzy Select' and click on the background(color) of your picture. After you've selected that part, press Ctrl+X, that cuts the background out of the picture.
(extra note: You'll have to play around with the threshold to select the parts you want gone)

(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/ilsevdk/Tutorials/Gettingsomethingonanotherbg4.jpg)
Then repeat that in other places where you have your background, for example the space between the hair and body.

(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/ilsevdk/Tutorials/Gettingsomethingonanotherbg5.jpg)
After removing all that, and having just your sim(s) left, with no original background, you can delete the extra layer.

(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/ilsevdk/Tutorials/Gettingsomethingonanotherbg6.jpg)
Open up your new background.
Press Ctrl+C while having your original picture selected, then go to your 'new' picture, press Ctrl+V there. Move your sim(s) around on their new background, untill they're on the correct spot, and save your file.

(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/ilsevdk/Tutorials/Namelessopgrasveld.jpg)
Tadaa. ^^

---

I hope that that's clear enough. :) I've never tried it with a Sims picture, but I'm positive it'll work. :D

albino, you did it much betetr than mine. :)

Aaw, thank you. ^^
Your example picture is a whole lot better than mine though. :P

GAH!!! THESE ARE GREAT YOU GUYS!!! Thank you SOOOOOOO MUCH! Im going to go practice RIGHT NOW!
 
*hugs my monitor*
 
THANK YOU BOTH!
 
(okay i'll stop screaming now LOL)

Haha, no problem. ^^ I'm glad I could help.

The funny thing is, my dad is soo good with computers, but I'm better with GIMP than he is. *proud grin*

this is a tutorial i found for photoshop for blending images with layer masks, its easy peasy. Im an absolute newb when it comes to image editing, but i found the other tutorials on this site > photoshopcafe pretty easy to follow too, im sure most of them could be converted for gimp or paintshop
http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/blend/blend.html (http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/blend/blend.html)

That's what I'd been wondering as well!!! THANKS!!!!!
Oh and :oops: how do you create a transparent background? I'm a little slow, if you all haven't noticed...:)

buffy i can tell you're getting addicted to photoshop hehe. so am i! i love this new tut you gave and i'm gonna beliving in this site now. :) thanks!

These are great tutorials you guys!  Thank you for taking the time to share them with us. :)

*jumps on bandwagon*  One of my favorite photo effects is rain animation, like in the picture below, and when a few people asked me how I did it, I wrote a tutorial that can be found here (http://freelala-sims.livejournal.com/5420.html#cutid1).  It's really image-heavy so I don't want to post it here; it holds your hand every step of the way.  If you can be out in public unsupervised, you can understand this tutorial. ;)  It's for Photoshop CS2 and ImageReady, but if you know how to open another program you can probably figure out how to do it.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/french_hoorn/carinarain.gif)

Since I know a lot of us use screenshots rather than the ingame camera, here's a quick little tut on how to keep the proportions when you resize a screenshot with GIMP. :D

Here's the pic we're working off of...Trillium lent me her parents for this. :P

With the picture up, select the 'Image' menu from the top menu bar.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Kielen/Crap/sizefix1.png)

In the menu, select the 'Scale Image' option.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Kielen/Crap/sizefix2.png)

This will open a nice friendly box with lots of buttons. Underlined is the length of the longest edge of your picture. The little figure 8 the arrow is pointing to controls how your picture will resize.
If the 8 looks normal, when you adjust one side of the image, it will automatically correct the other so the proportions remain correct. If the 8 is split in half, then each side will resize seperately, often resulting in rather distorted pictures.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Kielen/Crap/sizefix3.png)

In the case of this picture, the width of the picture is greater than the height. I need my picture to fit in the forum rules of 600x600. So I correct the largest side, in this case the width, to 600 pixels, and hit enter. Since the  little 8 is together, it automatically resized my height as well. Now my picture will be changed to 600x507, within the picture rules.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Kielen/Crap/sizefix4.png)

You can fiddle with other quality settings at this point, but they don't make a huge visible difference in the picture itself...After getting everything set to what you need, click the 'Scale' button at the bottom.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Kielen/Crap/sizefix5.png)

Tada!! As you can see, the file has been resized, and I can now save it, or continue fiddling with photoshop effects if I need to.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Kielen/Crap/sizefix6.png)

Hope it helps!! :D

im loving this thread, im definetly going to be trying that rain effect, and yes summer, im becoming fast addicted to photoshop. babyblueheart, im not sure how to make a transparent layer, but when you use the layer mask, you can use a paintbrush to choose what you want to show up in your pic, by painting either black or white, you can show more of the background image or more of the foreground image, so this kinda makes it transparent. with this image i used the tut to merge my two images, then used the paintbrush to expose different bits of either picture, then i opened another pic and dragged it onto the pic i had just been playing with, created another layer mask and used paintbrush again to paint in maryanns face, using white caused the foreground image to become more visible, and using black brought out the background image more. hope that kinda makes sense.

(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k27/buffybot_2006/springcopy.jpg)

open up the 2 images > press "V" > drag image onto other> create layer mask> then use paintbrush to paint in either more forground or more background. play around with the opacity to either make it more blended or solid.

These aren't mine, and they're not necessarily just for sims, but here:
I've learned to do lots with photoshop, i recommend these sites to try, they have good downloads, and some tutorials.
[Add a Soft Effect to Your Pictures (http://www.yourphotoshopguide.com/index.php?action=showtutorial&tutid=21)]
[Filters/Diamonds to Text (http://www.ethicsdesigns.com/)]
[Adding Taped Edges to Your Pictures (http://cp.c-ij.com/english/photodesign/cool/process/process02.html)]
[Downloads/Tutorials (http://moments.misplaced.co.uk/)]
[More Downloads/Tutorials (http://fallen-rose.com/?page_id=12)]
[Painting Tutorial (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/34563239/)]
[Matte Painting/Manipulating an Image Tutorial (http://www.seb4d.com/tutorials/Mattepainting/mattepainting_english.htm)]

Deviant Art (http://www.deviantart.com)  is good for tutorials and brushes!

thanks charmy, i will be saving all of those to my favourites:)

Charmy that matte painting tut is amazing! but waaay out of my league hehe.

thanks for the links!

This is so unbelievably helpful thanks so much you guys!

Hey guys! does anyone know how to remove "glare" from a pic? i wanted to make this pic less... erm... glare-y?

(http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q190/faking_it_album/glammr2_MC.jpg)

any ideas?

What exactly do you mean with a transparent layer? Is that the 'New Layer' in my tutorial? Because I can easily expain that to you. ^^

summer, I don't know what it would be in GIMP, but in Photoshop I'd adjust the brightness/contrast.

I have photoshop dese. just the brightness and contrast slider, huh? okay will try that. thanks!!! :)

You guys are very welcome, I will hopefully update with more links. :D

Yep.. If you don't mind too much.. :)

Ofcourse not. ^^
I'll get a screenshot of it right away.

---

(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/ilsevdk/Tutorials/Makinganewtransparentlayer1.jpg)
When opening your picture in GIMP, you go to the layers dialog. There you click something that looks like a clean sheet of paper.

(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/ilsevdk/Tutorials/Makinganewtransparentlayer2.jpg)
When you click that, a new window opens. In that window, check if the fill type of your layer is set on 'Transparency'. Also, you shouldn't need to change the size of your new layer. It is supposed to be exactly the same size as your original picture. And thats the size that you'll need.
---

There, I hope that was clear enough. ^^ If you need any other help, just ask, and I'll see what I can do. ^^

This is my attempt at doing the face tutorial shown by franciele and the warming technique shown by buffybot. Constructive Criticism would be greatly appreciated. :)

(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c13/halliwheeled/fullmoon01fun2.jpg)

halliwheeled, that pic is breathtaking!

aw, thanks buffybot :)

O_O
 
wow. Now that's an awesome pic.

thanks so much for all the wonderful tuts!  I'm a total ps addict now :P

:-D

Me too devoshka. Haha...I have been trying all of them out and I just can't stop :-p

Thanks!! :D

guys i have a problem that i wish you could help me with. i've never noticed this before with my pics. i don't know if i was just too stupid to notice or my pc graphics are messing with me. anyway, i brought pics to help out. i don't want you guys to worry about "imagining" it.

(http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q190/faking_it_album/prob1.jpg)

(http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q190/faking_it_album/prob2.jpg)

thanks guys. i need to make an entry for a contest and i hate the blurring because it makes my pic blurry.

That looks like you don't have the 'smooth edges' setting set to highest... check your graphics settings in game. And also change gadwin so it's saving as png not bitmap. :)

I think dese is right. my game comes to a screeching halt though when i play with smooth edges, so i only change it just before taking pic.
another good tip from sisalys tutorial, is to feather your selection when using the magic wand, just right click on your image after making your selection, then the menu should come up, choose feather, i normally do 1 to 2 pixels.

i wonder excatly what does feather do... anyway, i will take all these to heart and i guess i just have to retake them piccies. thanks my good people.

im not 100percent sure, but i think it softens the edges a tad, so the image your placing on top of the other one blends in more.

thanks buffy. i appreciate it. hope my pics get better.

ETA:
i did the feather thing, didn't work. so i just smudged the edges. and saving the pics to.png didn't help much. and eversince i haven't been able to "smooth edges" ingame it's greyed out.

i don't know what's wrong with my pc. i don't know why this is happening now.

Does anyone know how to add... sparkle like effects to pictures.... so it looks like something is glinting in the light, such as jewelry etc???

sounds like its your graphics card summer, if the option to smooth edges is blocked out ,probably means your card cant  handle it. when I got my new PC i nearly cried when i first went ingame, my onboard graphics card was el crappo, and my game was all blocky and blurry i couldnt change the screen resolution, smooth edges or anything. I went out and bought a new card and now its much better. im only using a radeon 9550, which is considerably cheap, but its much better than the one that came with the pc, anyhoo, good luck with it mate, i imagine its insanely frustrating.
Razza, you could use a custom brush to add sparkles. theres some great free ones from deviant art, or you could use a lens flare.

OK thanks!!! I found some other stuff there too!!

I also found a tutorial once for adding metalic and jewelled effects to pictures. Maybe do a google search if your still looking.



hahaha buffy..... you sounded soooooo Aussie then!

buffy it might be my graphic card but i've always had it. argh it's so frustrating i just spent 30 mins smudging the edges of 2 pics just to make 'em decent. when all i had to do before was use the magic wand.

i think it's either because of this new painting thingie i dled that's a hack for taking pics or the fact that i went booty shopping. either way i gotta know coz it's driving me insane i wanna pull my hair out. LOL

Have you tried taking out all your downloads too see if that sets it strait??

brooke that will be my last resort i guess. sadly.

anyway, i'm gonna post 2 pictures and see if there's any difference. i did not do any photoshopping on both them, just resize and crop.

(http://www.insimenator.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=67189&stc=1&d=1176251291)

wow wren those pics are so good! :)

i love how you did the warming effects first of all. because it's not glaring or very distinct. how did you make it subtle?

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/13166804/?qo=4&q=photoshop+brushes&qh=boost%3Apopular+age_sigma%3A24h+age_scale%3A5 (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/13166804/?qo=4&q=photoshop+brushes&qh=boost%3Apopular+age_sigma%3A24h+age_scale%3A5)
wren, deviant art. heaps of excellent free brushes, and lots of other resources.

I liked these hair brushes too, but they come in an ABR.file, which my computer doesnt recognize. What am I missing?

You have to make sure you have the right kind of photoshop, Lytough.  Forinstance, I have a very old PS Elements 3, and that one doesn't recognize ALL the brush types.

I have CS2, so it should recognize them all, I guess.

i have cs2 as well. i download the abr files straight into..(or extract them to if they in a rar or zip)...
C-drive (wherever your program files are )> Program files >adobe >adobe photoshop CS2> Presets> brushes.

http://www.katspace.org/Links/Graphics
This site has many helpful links to Gimp tutorials, patterns, brushes, etc!

And here is a tutorial on converting Photoshop brushes into gimp, if anyone needs it.
http://www.gimptalk.com/forum/topic.php?t=4349&start=1

I was wondering where to put the brushes too, Lytough! Not that I will easily figure out how to use them, lol, but I have saved some tutorial links posted in this thread. Thanks buffy!!

I was wondering, how do people get those cool polaroid borders around their photos?

sein check out photoshop tuts, there are tons of tuts out there that will help you out with polaroid borders.

go to tutorialized.com, choose photoshop and type in polaroid into the search box.

thanks! I was actually searching around there but I didn't find anything. I'll look again ;)

Hey summer, thanks so much for that address! I've found some useful stuff there already! *hugs* :D

no prob sadie :)

(http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j230/sein_galen/Omgpracticecopy.jpg)
 
See what you can do with a little practice :laughing:
I really recommend those tutorials on this (http://forums.sims2community.com/showthread.php?t=24516&page=1&pp=25) website. I finally tried them today and I was all fuzzy inside from the result! Not that hard once you get the hang of it!
 
If I can do it, so can everyone so get 'shopping!

I need help with Photoshop CS2.

How do you fade something. Like make it seem transparent? Kinda blend it into the background?

Well, if the thing you want to fade is on a seperate layer, you can just go to the layers tab and set the opacity for that layer to be as transparent as you want~

Edit: Oh! And if you don't want the whole thing to be transparent, you can just crop it using a feather radius of your choice to make it blend better. :3

Thanks a lot!!!

I just learned how to fade also, and i'm checking out the polaroid borders tutorial now, I only know how to do the plain black borders for now.
 
Just a few tips i've learned through practice:
 
1).  If you're using the softening effect in photoshop (you know the one, layering with gaussian blur then overlay?) Instead of "overlay" which can sometimes make pics too blurry, try "soft light" which is right below "overlay" in the layers box.  For me, I often find thats a little more subtle than the overlay feature.   Also, try gaussian blur at 3.0 instead of 5.0
 
2).  Sharpening can be the life or death of your picture.  If you have photoshop, try smart sharpen and monkey around with the numbers until your picture looks clear and not too bright.  You have to be careful with the sharpen feature because depending on the colors in the picture, it can ruin everything.  Sometimes a picture may only need a little sharpening (a 10 as opposed to a 25).  If I already have great lighting in the pic, I rarely use anything over a 10 in smart sharpen.  If I have a darker picture, I use anywhere from 15 to 25, anything over that is too sharp.  GIMP users have the option to change how sharp too.  I use a combination of GIMP and PS with my pics.
 
Remember, dont overdo the gaussian blur, try "soft light" instead with your layers and see what happens.
 
Some examples:
 
With this picture, I used "sharpen" at about 17 anything over that would have ruined it.  17 was just enough to make that red "pop".
 
(http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/1010/mwaearringstc9.jpg)
 
With this picture, I used a combination.  I used the gaussian blur/overlay, but then I sharpened it and changed the opacity.  I adjusted the hue/saturation and then added yet another layer and this time used gaussian blur/soft light.  Pulled up GIMP and used the "soft glow" filter, smart sharpened yet again, and wala!  To get the right effect I wanted, it took awhile, I didnt want it too dark and I wanted the red wall to show (gaussian blur/overlay made everything too dark).
 
(http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/4586/mnfsconfessionalsf7.jpg)
 
 
Hey look i'm still an amateur, but these are some tips/tricks I learned specifically for headshots, I find my headshots are more awesome than my bodyshots LOL  
 
I would LOVE to know how Buffy and Essa get such great headshots though.. (looks over at buffy and essa) LOL

Eee... reposting my tutorial from S2C here. Hope this helps somebody :)

--------------------------------------------

I decided to do a little tutorial... Alyce and Sisaly explained it briefly to me, so I do not take full credit for this. I just went more in depth and got pictures :D This is if you have Photoshop elements (I have 4.0 but I don't think it matters)... I hope this helps :)

(http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l236/flyingpigeon/round13.jpg)
Alright, we have this picture. I like it, but I think it'd look better with the warming effect.

First, we'll duplicate the layer...
(http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l236/flyingpigeon/tut2.jpg)

Then we gaussian blur the top layer...
(http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l236/flyingpigeon/tut3.jpg)

Choose a setting for gaussian blur around 2-5 (the stronger the blur, the stronger the sheen/shine)...
(http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l236/flyingpigeon/tut4.jpg)

Next, use soft filter on the layer that you just used gaussian blur on...
(http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l236/flyingpigeon/tut5.jpg)

Next play with the opacity (this step isn't necessary)...
(http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l236/flyingpigeon/tut6.jpg)

Alright, hope this helped! You can try to tone it down by saturating the picture. Remember to use, not abuse, because overly softened pictures don't look good at all :| And sorry for stretching the screen! I wanted the pictures to be easy to read what I'm doing... if it bugs anybody that much, I can take it down :)

where's overlay in gimp??

How do you cut the picture out to look like the one above? I just got photoshop and I'm really confused on how to do it.

[/SIZE]

This is going to hlep me sooo much

EDIT: Now look <3

(http://www.insimenator.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=82171&stc=1&d=1183765283)

albino for some reason it isnt working for me maybe iwill try  in hte morning

EDIT:nvm  It worked sorry

Nice job djn121006, that pic looks great!  You catch on quick. I knew this thread could help ya!

THANKS!! i appreciate that

[/SIZE]

People, I've got Photshop 7.0.1, is that the same as S2C?
Also, my layer popup has disappeared, can I get it back?

ERAC: Go to Windovs in the tool-bar, and check where it says "layer box" or something like that.

Photoshop 7 is an older version than CS2, but -most- of the things are the same.

Thanks Mi-Chii !:happy8: Umm, do you know any good tutorials I could use?

How do I create the "warm effect" with PhotoFiltre?

I have PS 7 and I haven't had any trouble with the tutorials posted in this thread, even if they are For CS, CS2, etc. Have you looked back through the thread? There are many good tutorials listed and demonstrated.

ok, I have Gimp and when I use the wand to erase the original background before pasting it on another background I cannot get rid of the outline of the sim, especially if he/she has a shadow.  Help?

I really need help installing GIMP. Is it supposed to be in a WinRAR file? And I think every file in the GIMP WinRAR archive is some sort of text document that I barely understand. Isn't it called Readme or something? Sorry I'm being so annoying, I'm kinda new at this whole thing.

okay the tutorial alibno did is GREAT but, its not working for me what do i do?

Your image won't show up! Where the hell is overlay?!!! Sorry I'm being so rude, but I'm DESPERATE!!!

Sorry about that. I moved it to a new folder (which means the link changes) and forgot to re-link it in this thread.
It's there again. :)

Oh...okay thank you!!! Sorry about my rudeness before...

I can't find "flatten" either...

EDIT: NEVERMIND!!!

Flatten? Under Image> towards the bottom it will say 'Flatten Image'

Thanks!

You're Welcome!

[/SIZE]

yESSSS i cant wait to do this now

Thankys, Charlotte!

=( i am stuck on the second step

No problemo :) I'm always happy to help. Just ask. I'm not an expert but I know a little bit and I'll gladly make tutorials for people who don't know how to do something (thats if I know how to! lol)

The second one? The bit where you drag it? Make sure your holding down the mouse button while you drag it.

this is what i keep gett ing
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a134/23cheer/wrong.jpg)
thisis on ly the second step cutting it

I'm having trouble with the image showing up on the other one. I have the picture of a sim, but instead of moving the sim, it moves the background. Am I doing it wrong??

DNJ, is your sim wearing something with white on it? If you want to cut a sim out, you should first make sure you take the picture on a background that is a different color from anything else on your sim. As such, a white background is not always your best choice. Try using a different background color for the shot?

DeliaLili, are you using GIMP or photoshop? I'm assuming GIMP has layers, so hopefully this advice will be helpful either way... but usually, when you cut something out and paste it onto another pic, the copied picture is pasted onto its own separate layer. Before you try moving the pic around, make sure you are on the same layer as the sim, then try clicking the sim to move it. I hope that makes sense ._.

Ehhh...Problem solved. Thankys pandasan!

Oeh, another way of placing sims onto another background with GIMP. I think this one is better than mine. :P
Ad pandasan gave about the exact same advice I was thinking of, so I have nothing left to say. ;)

DNJ, is your sim wearing something with white on it? If you want to cut a sim out, you should first make sure you take the picture on a background that is a different color from anything else on your sim. As such, a white background is not always your best choice. Try using a different background color for the shot?

that backgound color was a tan but, i will take more pictures and try again thanks a bunch=)

These are some excellent tutorials, and very easy to follow at that.  Thanks for these guides, everyone!  Now I have a question little question...  :angel:

Usually, when I save my pictures as jpeg files in the editing program that I use (really old version of PhotoImpact (http://www.ulead.com/pi/)... 4.2 to be exact), my pictures always come out fuzzy and less detailed than they originally were.  Do programs like PhotoShop and GIMP prevent this from happening?  Most of my edited images are ".png" files, and I'd like to at least cut back on the loading time and file size of them on the web, but I also don't want to loose the actual quality of the picture, even after touch-ups, warming, etc.  Any tips?  :happy8:

Tenshii, I think there is a difference when using Photoshop at least. I know whenever I attempt to save anything as a .jpg in Photoshop, I am prompted with several options relating to the compression. I always try to choose the highest settings. I can't testify to what GIMP does..  But anyway, I'm usually pretty satisfied with the way my pictures look, despite being .jpg :)

alright i left click and idont get a zigzag line or anything i need major help please

Thanks, panda!  :smile bi:  I went ahead and gave GIMP a go, (since PS is way out of my price range at the moment) and it does have similar functions to what you mentioned above.  Really helps a lot, especially the way I go back and forth editing my contest pics.  :lol:

well i know its bad but
i finally got my sim cut out 8)
lol
look here (below)
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a134/23cheer/Florida_Magic_Kingdom2.jpg)

Where can I get the Gimp?? what version I need??? I'm very confuse

Here ya go, geezy. (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html)  :angel: (For Windows Users)

Well I tired it on Serif PhotoPlus 9 as I dont have photoshop and this si the nearest I got to Glow effect, Any tips on getting it to look better?

(http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/Nadinenadine_1/AA%20Sims2Contests/Designed%20to%20sell/APP/snapshot_d3b54429_73b63777.jpg)

(http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/Nadinenadine_1/AA%20Sims2Contests/Designed%20to%20sell/APP/GlowEffectTest.png)

I Tried again an et voila!

(http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/Nadinenadine_1/AA%20Sims2Contests/Little%20Miss%20Sunshine/Application/Headshot.jpg)

(http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/Nadinenadine_1/AA%20Sims2Contests/Little%20Miss%20Sunshine/Application/HeadshotGlow.jpg)

I'm really glad that my tutorials have helped people. I tried to make them real easy to follow because I know how damn annoying it is when they are complicated! I wasn't insulting your intelligence I was just trying to help by making them easy to follow! LOL!

Yes thanks for the tutorials because even though they arent for the same program you can still do it by just doing the same things lol

Update! I have changed the link - you need the Construction set professional 1 (which is shareware) not 3, which will put nasty DEMO watermark on your .gifs after the evaluation period is up.

Okay~ I am by no means an avatar making expert, but I have been asked how I made my animated avatars for "Little Miss Sunshine." This little tutorial should help understand the basics.

First, you will need a photo editing program and the GIF Construction set (http://www.5star-shareware.com/Windows/Graphics/Image-Animation/gifcon.html). I'm sure there are other animated gif making programs, but this is the one I know how to use, so that's what I wills how below. AND moving on~


Okay, First~ Make an avatar template. It should be no larger than 100x100 and you should save it in a file format that allows layers if you plan on doing anything with borders and such.

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/02.jpg)
So here is a new 100x100 image I made in Photoshop 7. This will be the starting point. Obviously, I don't want to leave it blank, so let's give it some color and flare - be creative. If you want it to have a border, be sure to create it on a new layer so you can insert your new images between the background and the border.

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/03.jpg)
So here we go~ No border, but it's not too shabby. Now we want to save this and reserve it as our template for making avatars. I saved mine as a .PSD file, if it has no layers, .JPG would be fine.

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/05.jpg)
Okay, so now you need to open up whatever image you want to cut out and put on the avatar. It should have a plain background that is a different color from anything the sim is wearing. It will make the sim cut out MUCH easier. Here I have a pic I took when I was working on the Next Teen Model contest. This pic is really big, so I want to crop out the stuff I don't need first. Grab the selection tool that looks like a rectangle, and make a rectangle around the area you want to keep. Then, crop out the rest.

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/06.jpg)
If you are using PSP, it should look kinda like that. After cropping it, you will want to resize the image to make it approximately 100x100 like your avatar template.

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/07.jpg)
Make sure that you have "Constrain Proportions" checked, or something similar if you're using a different program (It might say something like "Maintain Aspect Ratio").

You will now want to select the entire image (CTRL-A) and then copy it (CTRL-C). Next, move over to your template and paste the image on as a new layer (CTRL-V).

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/09.jpg)
You should now have something that looks like this. The image is completely covering the background of the template, but don't worry!

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/10.jpg)
If you look at the layers tool, you will see that it is just on the layer above the background. We now want to cut out those white parts so that the background will show through!

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/11.jpg)
Grab your magic wand tool, and select any area of white space (or whatever color your plain background of your image is. If you used a nice contrasting background, it should select the white area with pretty good accuracy. After selecting an area of white, press Delete to remove it.

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/12.jpg)
If all goes smoothly, it should look something like this. If your image quality was a little rough, or the background color was kinda similar to the sim's hair or clothes, it might not have turned out right. If you need to, zoom in far enough that you can clearly see the sim, and cut out the background manually with the free selection tool.

Since I'm happy with how mine turned out, I'm going to choose SAVE AS from the file menu (NOT SAVE) and then choose CompuServe GIF (*.GIF) as my file type.

After saving it as a gif, close the file (if it prompts to save, say no) and re-open the un-changed original template. You can now re-use it to make the other frames of the animation. All frames for the animation must be saved as .GIF files! See what I did below~

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/14.jpg)
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/15.jpg)

It is now time to jump over to the GIF Construction set. This is where you will assemble the frames you made. The program might bug you about registering when you open and close it - give it a sec to let you click ok, and you will get to the main screen.

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/16.jpg)
You will want to pull up the main menu and choose "Animation Wizard." The wizard will come up and will ask you a number of questions. You will want to choose the options I show in the animation below, I will go over these in detail. The wizard goes in the order from where I put START to where I put END.

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/anim_17to24.gif)
*First choose Next
*Then choose "Yes, for use with a web page" and hit Next
*Then choose "Loop Indefinitely" and hit Next- If you do not choose this, it will only animate once, and then the page will have to be refreshed before you can see it animate again.
*Now choose "Matched to first Palette" and hit next. If you choose any other option it will make your gif images look SUPER CRAPPY!!
*It will then ask you what delay you want between the animations. I think 100 is pretty good, choose a smaller number to make it faster, or a larger number to make it slower. When you have picked, choose next.
*You have now reached the selection step. Click select and it will keep prompting you to choose .GIF files. Choose your GIF files in the order you want them to appear in the animation, and when you have them all. It will keep prompting for images, so just hit cancel, it will take you back to the wizard and you will see a list of the images you selected. Choose next.
*Now you're finished! Choose "Done"

It will show you something like this~
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/25.jpg)
If you want to see how it animates, click the toolbar item that looks like sunglasses. If you are satisfied, close the animation it opened, and then go to File>Save. Save it with whatever file name and you're DONE!

You now have a spiffy animated avatar. Congratulations!
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/panda_sempai/HowTo/Avatars/avi_Aiko.gif)

I've never made a tutorial before,  I hope this was easy to follow and understand. If you have a question, feel free to ask and I will clarify. Good luck!!

Thanks pandasan! I was wondering how to make those. :)

I always use GIMP to animate. :)
Now all I'm wondering is how you make those backgrounds. :P (and borders)

I've never used GIMP before, but I am pretty sure newer versions of Photoshop may be able to do animations (it might be an extra module in the Professional version of CS...)

I make my backgrounds using various paint brushes to make texture and patterns. If you look through this thread, there are links to some and I think a tutorial for converting PS brushes for GIMP too.

Charlotte, I tried out your tutorial, and this is what I got. I hope I did it right.

(http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x101/GeeWayrocks/1.jpg)

(Yeah, I live in Ireland, so i chose Stonehenge)

You cannot use Photoshop to animate, you need ImageReady. And that's EASYPEASY to use for animations... Maybe I'll make a tut someday.

Pandasan: I would advice to cut out the white background BEFORE rezising the picture.

That's good advice^^ That's generally what I do, but my older version of PS is finiky.. if the picture I'm cutting out is the background layer (and only layer - as was the case of that pic in my example) once I cut it out, resize and attempt to copy it over the template, I paste it and have to cut it out all over again. I guess I should duplicate the layer before I cut it out or something.. that would make it easier... But if you use a hair and outfit that isn't REALLY detailed, it's usually easy to cut out with the magic wand whether it is big or tiny.

Yeah, duplicating the layer is the best way. I annoy the heck out of myself if there is even the tiniest speck of white (or other background color) left, so I remove everything :P

Is there ANYONE here that has Adobe ImageReady and that wants a tutorial on how to make animated avatars on it?

I would like one Mi-Chii!!  Also..... would you happen to know why mine will not load??? It used to.... but now it comes up with "error" when it is loading the colours.

to those who use photoshop can anyone answer this for me?

let's say i have this layer named "HUE" and the blending mode is "HUE" and the opacity is 40%. now i want to duplicate this as another layer. when i do this my new layer still has the blending mode "HUE" and opacity 40% instead of "NORMAL" and 100% respectively. i don't know why this is happening with my photoshop. but i noticed in tutorials that when i do that it's supposed to be "NORMAL" and 100%.

any thoughts? does this happen to you too? is it just my imagination that it's supposed to be normal and 100% when you duplicate a layer? or is there a special trick that you're supposed to do.

thanks :) it's really confusing me now.

Summer, since you're duplicating the layer, the settings such as blend mode and opacity will stay the same. Duplicating a layer is just making a copy of it, nothing should change. Try duplicating the layer below the blend, or the layer that's just the photo. That's what I do.

but what if what i want to duplicate is what the blending mode is doing to the layer AND THEN add another beldning mode on top of it? because i followed a tutorial and that's what it's implying is suppose to happen :(

Hopefully someone can answer my question here. I use Gimp so if anyone has ran through this problem please help me fix it. The other day I was using my Gimp for a mini task and I copied and pasted my sim onto another background and everything went fine until I tried to do a completely different mini task where I tried to do the same thing, copy and paste on a different background. This time when I used the fuzzy select and tried to take the original background go away it turned white instead of the original gray box thing it does. I couldn't get it to go back the way it was before and it has never done this before. So does anyone know how to fix it and I hope you guys understand what I am talking about. lol It is quite hard explaining when someone isn't right there looking at your screen with you. lol

Summer, do you mean you want two different layers with different blend modes effecting the same layer? (sorry, that sentence made no sense...) For example, for a lot of my pics I take layer 1 (the un-edited picture), duplicate it (layer 2), and set the blend mode to screen. I then duplicate layer 1 again (layer 3), and move it above layer 2, and set the blend mode to overlay. That creates two different effects on the same image.
Sorry if that's not what you're asking about, and if it didn't make any sense... maybe it would help if you linked to the tutorial you're talking about?

^^ what you said made sense :D but not what i was babbling about hehe.

let's say...

i have this layer called ORIGINAL i duplicate that and name the layer to COPY. i did blending mode stuff to it and opacity stuff too (to COPY). then what i want is to duplicate COPY and have a different blending mode done to it. is there a way to do that? like i want to duplicate the layer the WAY IT LOOKS but i want to make the next layer have a normal blending mode and 100% opacity.

guess what? as i am typing that i realized how to do it. :) i have to copy as in select the entire layer using the rectangular marquee, right click then choose layer via copy. this will actually duplicate how the layer looks but the blending mode will be reset to normal. *sigh* i confuse myself sometimes. sorry for this. i hope someone finds this useful though.

haha.

Lol, I'm glad you worked it out Summer!

3Alissa, I think that you need to have a layer underneath your pic to get the grey 'invisible' part when you use the fuzzy select. (has a tiny tutorial-part about how to do that somewhere around page 2 or 3)

Thanks I guess I must of been extremely tired when trying to do it. I forgot to do the other steps. lol Silly me.

I use brushes I find at Deviant Art. I only have PS7, so sometimes I don't find quite as much stuff as I'd like, but it works out. ImageReady rocks my socks, Mi-Chii...It's gotten me SO addicted to make avatars. I am curious how you do yours...I have trouble getting layers right so I can compress the file small enough to have more than 3 frames. I'm wondering if I need to break the .psd up...I did all my MM avvies in the same .psd. Each picture had it's own layer, and each name had it's own text layer...There were around 40 contestants, so that was at least 80 layers.

when i make my avies i save them as .gif then just put the new pictures and text on the same layers. that way the placement is uniform and not too many layers.

i love imageready too! now i can make my own avatars. i just made one with ami from miami ink and it rocks! :)

Can anyone help me I have CS3 and I'm trying to do the sharpening thing, but for some reason there's no overlay option...?
Medagic

I am new to Paint.NET and it seems like only there are a few of us here that use it so I want you to make some tutorials for it show us what you know and what you'd like to know.
My Tutorial-
1-If you use the text button you can choose a color,size and style of writing and you put it where you want and it will blend in with the photo(does not turn the surrounding of the photo any other color)
2-If you have the new version of it when you go to Effects-Softness you can make it more different maybe lighten or darken without messing anything up in the photo.
3-To make it look more better you can use things like-
Effects->Relief  Effects->Red Eye Removal    Effects->Pencil Sketch    Effects->Outline  etc.

Your tutorials will help me so much...
They're on the subjects that have been my downfall in contests.

Thank you X Millions :)

Kielen, I make a new for every contestant. Say, you make your base: Background, text layers (one for name, one for contest name i.e.). Then you add the picture, change the text layers, change backgorund color if you want that, and then take it into imageready and animate it. Then go back to photoshop, delete the picture layer, take in the next pixture, change the text again, change background color, take it into imageready... Over and over til you're done with all the contestants. Got it? ;)

that's what i do too! :D

ROFL!! Well...that would makes sense. :) Rather than saving an 80 layer .psd.. :P

Yeah, I know;D

Overlaying is an option that you use with layers.  Sharpening is something you usually do once you've completed your image.  Unless you're talking about something totally different that's in CS3.  I can put up some pictures if you're confused, or am I confused?  He-he.

anyone here have anymore Paint.NET tutorials?

Can you use animation with just photoshop?  Like if I wanted to make an avatar that flashes from image to image...could I use just photoshop?

I'm fairly certain you have to have a seperate program for that.

[/FONT]

^^ thanks for the different emotions tingy! i love them all. i will try to memorize them and if i can't i'll refer to it :)

wow those are really great I never thought I could use those type of things but now I guess I can

Ok i want to say too charlotterose23 "Thankies an Huggies a Bunches for that GIMP Tutorial".........................so i offer up a few  sims i did enhaced with that tutorial be Kind LOL...........

Not bad, Jason, your pictures are really coming along!

Thanksie brendabond i think i have more too learn as well lol

oh wow jason those piccies are awesome! lovely work!

Seeking more on "gimp'' warming effect,I tried it and cant seem to overlay or flatten!

Someone said about a Paint.net tutorial, I don't think this is it, (Ms Paint), But I hope it helps anyway.

My Hitomi's Brother Takeo has offered to help in this tutorial.

(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s135/littleangelamy22/Takeo01.jpg)

(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s135/littleangelamy22/Takeo02-1.jpg)

(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s135/littleangelamy22/Takeo03.jpg)

(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s135/littleangelamy22/Takeo04.jpg)

(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s135/littleangelamy22/Takeo05.jpg)

(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s135/littleangelamy22/Takeo06.jpg)

(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s135/littleangelamy22/Takeo07.jpg)

(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s135/littleangelamy22/Takeo08.jpg)

(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s135/littleangelamy22/Takeo09.jpg)

(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s135/littleangelamy22/JungleTakeowriting.jpg)

I hope this helps!! :D

I guess I can do a simple filtering tutorial on Paint.NET (ver 3.10). I used PS in the past, but it was in school so I didn't have it for personal use, and didn't know about GIMP until recently. I like Paint.NET because it's also free and fairly easy to use.

1. Warm Effect- With Paint.NET you don't really get the same result using the gaussian blur layer overlay as in PS, let me show you what you can do though.

So here is the original in-game pic I took with print screen key.

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2278/1962020113_cc29f3634a_o.jpg)

Not a bad pic quality, but in the original pic size the image is a bit blurry, and colors look faded. Let's fix that shall we?

Step 1. Go up to the menu bar and click on Effects, and you'll see a list of choices on a drop-down menu, choose Sharpen, a small window will pop up where you can adjust sharpness, for this tutorial I used x2, I don't really like to sharpen it too much, but up to x6 is a pretty good range.

Step 2. Let's see how it looks if I try the gaussian blur layer overlay, so duplicate the original layer, go to Effects and choose gaussian blur in the sub-menu, set it on 5 when a window pops-up. Then go to layer properties, and change the blending mode from normal to overlay. You'll end up with something like this.

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2354/1962847104_bf627e8053_o.jpg)

The colors look more vibrant, but it doesn't really have the glowy effect that PS has. But hey, there's a glow effect so let's use that. For this example I used default setting for radius (6) and contrast (10), but set brightness to -20 since the glow effect really brightens the imgage on default setting. And tada, the final result looks like this.

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2285/1962847460_d499a2575b_o.jpg)

Now it does have the glowy warm effect, you can adjust sharpeness again to your preference, I ended up using x6 sharpeness because I didn't want to lose the detail on the model's facial features.

2. Soften Portrait- So you have to go an extra step in Paint.NET to achieve warm effect, not bad, but for 3.10 version which just released, there's a new effect called "soften portrait", hey that sounds a lot like warm effect, let's see what this thing does.... start out with the same original pic, click on Effects and choose soften portrait, the pop-up window has 3 adjustments, for this example I used default settings for softness and warmth, but set lighting a bit higher at 10. And tada, cool looking image in just one step, no need to duplicate layer nor use glow effect. The colors are not as vibrant, but it's a different look. Adjusting the warmth will make the colors less brownish. But don't forget to sharpen it a little, I used x2.

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2266/1962020537_54e6c064d3_o.jpg)

You can also use the gaussian blur layer overlay for the first step, then instead of using glow, try soften portrait, and you get this.

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2276/1963772585_61b3740221_o.jpg)

You can definitely see the glowy effect now, and the image is quite dramatic.

That's the end of tutorial, hope it helps.

Can I ask a totally newbie type question?  I apologize if it's already been answered, but I didn't read through the 10 pages of this thread.

So far, I've only used the in-game camera to take pictures, and very rarely used the Print Screen option because I didn't like having to exit the game to save the one picture.

I'm aware that there is software out there that will allow you to use Print Screen while in-game and it automatically saves it for you so you don't have to exit out and save it manually.  I believe a few of these are called gadwin and infanview (sp?).

My question is for those of you that use this method, which of these softwares is most user friendly and free as well.  I noticed with gadwin that you had a 30 day trial, does it truly expire after the 30 days or is it like WinRar and you just get the annoying pop-up every time you open the program?

Thanx so much for any help you might be able to give me!

~ Syn

Synaptic - Im using Gadwin to take my pics and Im having no problems, and Ive been using it for well over 30 days. ... so I assume its just like winrar.... except ive had no pop ups at all..... (Im using gadwin 4.2 if it helps...)

Anyways.... it is much better than using the ingame camera. You get so much better quality pictures.

Thanx Razza!  I noticed using Print Screen yielded a lot better results when I made this Welcome banner.

(http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m147/Synapse928/WelcomeXMenBanner.jpg)

The pictures turned out so much more clear and crisp.  I'll have to check out this gadwin then.  Thank you so much for the quick response.

~ Syn

I've been using Gadwin for about 10 or 11 months and I havent had any issues with it.

I've been using it for three months, just about... almost four really.  No problems with me. ;)  It's an extremely useful program, and having those better-quality pictures just makes picture taking in the game all the more enjoyable.  :smile bi:

i use YAFFS. it's more user friendly for someone as brain dead as me LOL

Okay Thankies Y'all!  It's been a lot of help!

~ Syn

OK... I was wondering if anyone here had a Graphics/Drawing tablet for image editing... or had tried one. Because... I have a load of muneez that I received for xmas and a fair lump from all the extra work I done over the xmas period....

If so... do you think its worth getting one?? And what kind would you reccomend???

wow! lucky you. i think i've heard ladyfaenya and spongity having tablets. better sit tight and wait for people who use them for some info.

i tried using one but... i'm too uncoordinated for it :D

happy for you razza!

I don't have one, Summer... I did pretend to steal Ladyfae's on multple occasions, though! XD I would love one, but I'm not sure what else I would use it for besides a few sim pictures, so I'm not sure it's worth the money for me. I think it would be worth it if I ever became more involved in graphic editing, because there's only so much you can do with a mouse ( for me, at least!). I think if you were planning on using it regularly, it would be worth the investment.

trying to delete my background with Adobe PhotoSHop and I can't , when ever I press the earser it brings up circle and I have to mauel do it, I just want to delete the background in one setting anyone know what I am doing wrong

Me2, with Photoshop, you have to use the wand tool to select the background and then press delete on your keyboard.

 ooohhh yeah! i forgot hehe

but spongity has a point, if you're gonna be using it a lot and not only for sim pictures then you should get it :D

can anyone do a tut on using gimp ,becuase it is very fustrating to me :( i only have one box open and i am trying to use my sim and put it on a different background and what I am doing is not working.

There's already a tutorial about that in this thread. :) It's right here (http://www.insimenator.org/showpost.php?p=593650&postcount=33).

I recently got asked about how to do this effect in paint.net

Okay now I got this pic. By using hula and more Hack and posing her on hip shot. then using tab I lined her up (takes a while to get it just right sometimes) then once I was happy I hit PrtScn (printscreen button on my keyboard)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/AdA_M/tute1.jpg)

I then go into Paint.net and use a new canvas. go to EDIT and choose paste it asks you do you want to expand you canvas make sure you do. and then I have my pic.

you can copy it and follow if you like....

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/AdA_M/tute2.jpg)

I then have used the selection tool. the dotted square in the top left hand corner of the tools bar (sorry if it is a little easy but I explain EVERYTHING to make sure you get it) then use it to select just above her head and just around her body missing the pause lines.

Then I chose crop to selection in the above toolbar.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/AdA_M/tute3.jpg)

I then duplicate the layer by going to the top toolbar and selecting layers. then choose duplicate layers (CRTL+SHIFT+D) You now have 2 layers.

I then want to play with the top layer. We are going to go to effects and use the blur > gauissan Blur to a radius of 5.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/AdA_M/tute5.jpg)

We then go to layers on the top toolbar and go to layer properties (F4)
we then finf the drop down menu of MODE we choose overlay (this gives us a nice glow)

we then go back up to layers and choose merge layer down (CTRL+M) we now have one layer that is a good healthy glow I now do a few more things before I am finished.

This is almost the same as in Photoshop! You maybe able to follow a few tutorials yourself!

....

I now go to Adjustments and play with brightness and contrast. I usually just fiddle until it looks good.
I put mine at 40 and 25
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/AdA_M/tute7.jpg)

Go to effects and go to photo and sharpen you pic (somewhere between 5 -10 is good)

Now if you are happy we are finished we just need to resize.

Go to the Image menu on the top toolbar and choose resize image. Make sure you follow contest rules usually 600 x 600 is the biggest size don't go under 400 if you can help it!

Does anyone know a simple way to create borders using PS CS2? Just basic borders, like black. Thanks!

Well, for my sims pics I usually just use the line-tool.
You could also increase the canvas size just a bit, and fill the blank space with black.

Thanks!! I think I'll do this.

It sucks though that there isn't a border option like there is in gimp. :punch:

Well, in PS all you need to do is expand the canvas to however thick you want the border (I make it 6 pixels wide), and choose the colour of the background that you want. Hit okay, instant border - no need to fill in, it's already there ;)

But yeah, it does suck that there's no option for it ¬_¬ You can improvise though - another way of making a slightly nicer border is to apply an outer glow to the finished picture. To do that you'll need to look in "blending options" by double-clicking the layer.

This is a great thread! I've already learned a lot after looking at just a few pages. I thought I'd share a little something I did, if that's okay. ^_^

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v446/lifeyouvebroken/Sims/josebeach.jpg)

jessi what i would do is easier i think... i would add a new layer on top of the pic, use the rectangle lasso tool to select which part of the pic i want to BE SEEN, invert the selection and pour whatever color i want using paint bucket. maybe the canvass way is easier but that's how i do it LOL

the commodore that's a lovely picture. am glad this thread is helping you out.  it helped me loads when i was starting out... i'm still starting out LOL

The way I make borders (in photoshop) is I duplicate the layer, go to "Edit--> Stroke", select the width (I do 1 pixel) and color, and under "Location" select "Inside". I forget who taught me that, but was certainly helpful!

^^ spongity i do that too. that's how i make like two-color border. the first border is how i usually make them and i just add a stroke and lower the opacity a bit. :)

cool will try borders... and see how it goes!

There's a border tool on Gimp?! Why do I not know this?!
I've been spending ages resizing and allsorts trying to get a decent border! Darn.
I'm off to find the border tool ^.^

one of my friends gave me his photoshop program, but the bad thing is that its in another language =S does anybody know how to change it to english?

The border tool is under Script fu -> Decor -> Add Border

While there's a ton of different Photoshop tutorials posted on this thread, I noticed a decided lack in tutorials for Paint Shop Pro (I use 9 but there's a handful of different versions out there), which is my program of choice! So I decided to post one of my own. This is how I, personally, edit my pictures--it's not THE only way and not even THE best way, I'm sure :D Also, please note that a lot of the darkness in the pictures just comes from me being lazy and saving them as .PNG in Paint instead of .JPG in PSP...anyways, I edit my pictures a LOT before they ever get displayed anywhere, because they're so bad and because I enjoy it xD You don't have to do every single thing that I do--in fact, you'll probably get better results if you play around a little!


We'll start with a picture of dear Schyler as our model, since it doesn't require major editing like some of my nighttime or dusk pictures do. Schyler is feeling very plain, as evidenced by our resident frowny face. But don't worry, we're going to fix that.


The first thing I do is add a glow. Since there's 1000 tutorials just on this board about how to do that, I didn't add pictures (however, if you're new to Paint Shop, right click, duplicate the background layer, go to Blur - Guassian Blue). HOWEVER, here's where it varies slightly. Under the Layer toolbar, scroll to the right and click the box that says 'Normal.' Instead of going down and clicking Overlay, I put it at Soft Light instead, which doesn't give the picture quite as harsh a look as Overlay or Hard Light.


Now scroooooll back over to the left and change the opticity from 100 to anywhere from 75 to 90, depending on the picture. I used 85 for this one.


However, the picture is looking rather dark, so go to Layers, New Adjustment Layeer, and down to Hue/Saturation/Lightness.


We don't want to mess with Hue right now, so leave that alone. Go to Saturation and plug in a number from 5 to about 25, again depending on the picture. Go to Lightness and put in a number from about 4 to 7, once AGAIN depending on the picture and how light you want it! Night or dusk pictures tend to be darker, so you would use a higher number for those. Press OK.


Now right click on the new Adjustment layer and go to Merge, Merge All. That'll merge it with your background so you don't have to keep messing with the seperate layers.


While that lightened our picture, it also left it without much contrast. To fix that, and make it a little brighter yet, go to Adjust, Brightness and Contrast, Brightness/Contrast.


Type in the amount that you want. Beware! Too much in either of those boxes and your picture will probably get washed out. Keep the numbers low.


Bad example of too much brightening D: It's earned two frowny faces this time.


The picture is still pretty dark, but I'm worried about washing out the light colors in the picture if I brighten/contrast it again, so instead, I go to Adjust, Fill Flash. It takes away the shadows from the pictures but it doesn't wash out the picture which is good!


The number you put here really varies depending on the picture--it can go up awfully high if it's a really dark picture. For this one, I put in 25 and called it good.


Precisely because of the lack of shadows, after that I go to Clarify it. You don't actually have to do this, I just like to.


I never do more than 1 or 2 on this just because it tends to look odd if you do. It's a little thing but it makes a lot of difference, I think.


Go to Adjust, Sharpen...I do that twice for most pictures...


Then resize, yay! I put my numbers 10 pixels smaller than the minimum forum requirements because I put a huge border around my pictures.


Then the handy dandy sharpening tool! Yay! I use this to make the eyes in pictures stand out a little more. You don't have to have the same exact settings as mine--play around and see what you like best. Zoom in A LOT A LOT and just brush the sharpening tool over your Sim's eyes once or twice. In this case, I did it twice.


As you can see, it makes the eyes stand out a lot more, which I love.


Then I add my border (which I saved as a script) and I'm ready to save!

OR


If you don't have your border saved as a script like I do, just go to Images, Add Borders, and viola!


I added a 2 pixel thick red border to my picture, to get an idea of what it looks like.


Time to save! I use the JPEG Optimizer because I find it gives you the best results--if you set the compression value to 1, then you don't look any quality or get fuzzy edges like you do if you just save it as .JPG in Paint or use the Save button in PSP. You can also save it as .PNG, but it makes a larger file and the picture is darker.


The final product! Yay! You actually got through the long, tedious tutorial in time to see the end. Congratulations!

I apologize if my tutorial sucks, it was just thrown together quickly...hopefully it'll help someone! xD
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Thanks Taryn, I don't have Photoshop but it does give me a few ideas for some of my picture editing. I especially like the tip about the eyes! :P

And thanks Liv! I did find a border button but I don't think it was that one, I'll go nose at that one ;)

i was thinking about this for a bit. If you just need to switch out a background get a sim in a fully same color background floor and wall, then go to the picture toolbar and click on it and you get the sim trasparent, then get a progam like any other, but make sure the img is jpeg if in paint, then switch out backgrounds the software i use( Microsoft Word 2003 and Microsoft Paint)

Oh wow.. these are pretty cool tips here..
I'd better stick around here more often.
Does any body here knows how to soften jagged edges or those pics that had been sharpen too much??
Is there other technique than just to feather the image??

I just got photoshop and I have been wanting do join some contest! my only problem is my pictures are always so tiny and far away like this:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/xxmstee16xx/Sims%20stuff/snapshot_154d7f77_3551d867.jpg)

Will i have to use photoshop to resize? if so how do i make it not blury or will i have to change my camera settings on my sims?

Pinkangel, in the game, you can change the camera settings. You want to have both quality and size on high/large.
What you could also do is using Prt. Scrn. (Gadwin saves your print screens automatically) but it's really up to you. :)

Thank you!!!

Miixy, that method of sharpening is fantastic.  I'm doing all my pictures that way now.  Thank you for sharing!

WOW! That's awesome. Thanks Miixy!

I was looking through the thread and i got to page about 7 when i decided it was taking too long. so, i was wondering if someone could tell me how to make an animated gif that makes it look like it's raining outside and the rain is moving, i saw it on the old insimenator.net on a BV thread

Miixy, that is absolutely brilliant. It's similar to the method I already use, but I love this much better! Thanks!