Post by Godfather on Apr 23, 2004 18:55:00 GMT
Introduction:
OK, I don't know how many people actually use this, but as crappy as is may seem at first, it is pretty good software. It is made by Ulead and has a GIF animator with it (which I need to read my manual on how to access). But we wont bother with that right now.
The whole What It Can Do story isn't far off from the PaintShop Pro series, I think the only differences are that you will have to work twice as hard in PhotoImpact to get results that you would in PaintShop Pro and that the interface and how you use it is completely different.
Me myself, I am not an expert, but I am better than your average Joe.
Contents:
Setting Up Your Interface To Best Advantage
Right, I assume by now you have started in PhotoImpact 8?
If you haven't then please do, otherwise we will get absolutely nowhere. When you have started it up and it has loaded ect... Click 'File >> New >> New Image'. This should bring up a menu called 'New Image' of course.
Now a lot of people, including myself, when they start will come to make a picture but some of the colours or fill effects out of the gallery ect will not display properly or will not display at all. They have forgotten one of the basic (or didn't know in the first place) rules, it's called 'Colour Setting' or 'Data Type'. That's right, you see the words 'Data Type:' at the top of the menu? There are 5 icons next to it. They all represent colour type, by choosing one of these you are choosing wether you want your color to be in: 'Black & White' 'Black - Grey - White' '16-Bit' '256-Bit' or 'PhotoImpact Full Color'. To use ALL of the features you will need to set this to the last icon, the one with Red Green and Blue on it. Just click the icon to set it.
Next you will come to a section called 'Canvas:'. 'Canvas' is basically your background. If you want to make transparant images, with wierd shapes without that awful white, black or whatever colour you have background, transparant is the one to have. But for now, we are going to make a 'Mess-About-Image'. This is just me telling you what paintbrush to use, what they are for, what colours work right and how they can become important later so we don't need it other than basic white. Just select 'White'.
Next, 'Image Size:' section, for now just select 'Standard' and choose '512 x 482 pixels' for now.
The section labeled 'Resolution:' leave, this is unimportant and has nothing to do with anything important at the moment.
So now, click 'OK', you should have a blank window come up. Click the maximize button, it makes things a bit organized for the point that we are at. Now, do you also see another window/menu called 'Easy Palette - (read only)', if you don't then click 'View >> Toolbars & Panels >> EasyPalette'. There, all set up.
Chapter Conclusion: You have learned the basics of how to setup your image and features and how to set up your basic workspace.
Using Text, Paintbrush And The Gallery
We will now start, well what exactly are you looking at here? Just a blank white thing on your screen on what seems to you now a completely oblivious computer program. LOL, sorry about that, now you will see on the left, a menu, images from your basic arrow/curser to a contrast button with '+' and '-' on either side. NO? You should do becuase it's PhotoImpacts' default setting, that's why I didn't include it in the last chapter. If not then click 'View >> Toolbars & Panels >> Standard Toolbar' also do the same for the 'Attribute Toolbar': 'View >> Toolbars & Panels >> Attribute Toolbar.
Now we are ready to pant our blank space ;D
The first thing you want to do is familiarize yourself with 'Text', you all know what 'Text' is, but I am going to teach you how to use it. From the menu on the left click the big 'T' icon. Move your curser over to the center of your white space, click in the center of you white space and type 'My Image!'. Also you will notice that when you clicked 'T' the 'Text Panel' came up. Now hihlight all of the text, in the 'Text Panel' click the font dropdown list and choose some funky font, preferably 'Comic Sans MS'. Now, I am going to teach you something cool, you will see a coloured (probably black) square next to the align icons, click it. Below all the basic color icons click 'Gradient Fill'. Lets give this text a little more spice than one color eh? When the gradient fill menu pops up click 'Multiple Colors' and click the little colours icon underneath. Yet again another menu will pop up called: 'Palette Ramp Editor', and don' be put off by the fact that it says 'Editor'. At the bottom you will see some thumbnails, choose the blue one at the end, '004' and click 'OK'. That will close that menu and take you back to the Gradient Fill one, click 'OK' there as well. Now, make you font size about 38 big. Click the arrow icon on the left menu and click anywhere on the screen but not on your text. You will see that you text has a cool gradient fill to it, that's basically how to manipulate text.
Now onto using the paintbrush, this is a wierd one to use. Just click the paintbrush icon, click and drag anywhere on the screen for a while, you will create a simple black line. You can change the colour of this, do you see two squares, one overlapping the other? Underneath a mask and a ruler icon? Click them, a menu called 'Ulead Color Picker' should come up, you will have icons at the top, and color icons at the bottom, pick a simple blue. Now drag your mouse on te screen and draw another simple line. Well, this paintbrush is a little boring don't you think? Click the paintbrush icon again but this time click and HOLD until a dropdown menu comes up, you will see other types of paintbrushes, airbrish, marker ect... select the 'Particle' brush. Now draw a line, pretty cool eh? It's like DNA! This is ideal for creating your own trademarks. Have a play about with other brushes and see what you come up with.
Now, onto the gallery! That's the 'Easy Palette' by the way, now we have a 'White' background, we want to change this, but you are going to ask yourself, why didn't we just change it while setting up our workspace? Becuase we are going to use the Gallery to make a funky background instead of a boring color. In the Easy Palette click the '+' sign next to the fill gallery. Choose 'Gradient' and scroll down on the right hand side until you come to 'G18', double click it. UH-OH! Problem, our paint lines have dissapeared! But the text hasn't! Don't panic, this is normal, this is becuase the paint was not a 'Path Object' or even an 'Object', it was just something that you could 'Stick' on the end. So, go through the gallery and mess about with it but leave the 'Effects Gallery' alone for now!
Chapter Conclusion: You have learned how to use text, the brushes, colours and the gallery. Use them wisely!
The Do's And Don'ts Of Effects
OK, by now you should have ended up with something that said 'My Image!', with a wierd background, and a couple of stupid stuff you have just added, meh... it's pretty... plain? How about some effects, lets twist this picture into 'Abstract'. Click 'Effect >> Illumination >> Cool', menu should pop up, the middle thumbnale image preview (defualt) I don't really like, so double click the one in the top left hand corner. The colour has been 'Illuminated', but we aren't going to stop there! Click 'Effects >> Artistic >> Creative Warp'. Choose a creative warp for your background. Something exagerated and funky and then click 'OK'. Wait for it to apply.
The Do's And Don'ts: Never, use th same effect twice on one picture, it looks stupid. Don't use too much effects, it spoils the image. Don't use effects if you are using a background gradient that you might need to keep. DO save your work before using effects. DO use effects if nessesary.
Chapter Conclusion: You have learned how to use effects properly and the Do's And Dont's. Use carefully.
Save your work as 'My First Image', then close your image but not impact.
Creating A Matching Avatar And Signature
Basically the key to making any avatar or signature is to choose a theme, something you can relate to, say your forums, or your favourite computer game, film, actor, TV program, cartoon ect... the endless list of themes.
Setting Up Your WorkSpace: Signature
1) File >> New >> New Image
2) Data Type: Fifth Icon (Red, Green & Blue)
3) Canvas: White
4) Image Size, User Defined, width 400 hight 100
5) Click 'OK'
Retreiving A Theme: Signature
1) www.google.com
2) Click Image Search (on google)
3) Enter your chosen theme, e.g: Final Fantasy X
4) Copy an image, paste onto your canvas in PhotoImpact
Personalizing: Signature
1) Enter some text, size needs to be about 30
2) Customize Text
3) Add Effects, Extras
4) Save As: mysig
Setting Up WorkSpace: Avatar
1) File >> New >> New Image
2) Data Type: Fifth Icon (Red, Green & Blue)
3) Canvas: White
4) Image Size, User Defined, width 100 hight 100
5) Click 'OK'
Retreiving A Theme: Avatar
1) Select part of theme from signature, copy and paste into avatar space
Personalizing: Avatar
1) Make Some Text, about 20 size
2) Customize Text
3) Add same effects, extras as signature
4) Save as myavatar
Chapter Conclusion: You have learned how to make a matching avatar and sig using a theme, effects ect...
Conclusion
You have learned how to basically use PhotoImpact 8. Use this wisely, hope you enjoyed it and will use it
~GodFather~ (Copyright GodFather 2004)
OK, I don't know how many people actually use this, but as crappy as is may seem at first, it is pretty good software. It is made by Ulead and has a GIF animator with it (which I need to read my manual on how to access). But we wont bother with that right now.
The whole What It Can Do story isn't far off from the PaintShop Pro series, I think the only differences are that you will have to work twice as hard in PhotoImpact to get results that you would in PaintShop Pro and that the interface and how you use it is completely different.
Me myself, I am not an expert, but I am better than your average Joe.
Contents:
- Setting Up Your Interface To Best Advantage
- Using Text, Paintbrush And The Gallery
- The Do's And Don'ts Of Effects
- Creating A Matching Avatar And Signature
- Conclusion
Setting Up Your Interface To Best Advantage
Right, I assume by now you have started in PhotoImpact 8?
If you haven't then please do, otherwise we will get absolutely nowhere. When you have started it up and it has loaded ect... Click 'File >> New >> New Image'. This should bring up a menu called 'New Image' of course.Now a lot of people, including myself, when they start will come to make a picture but some of the colours or fill effects out of the gallery ect will not display properly or will not display at all. They have forgotten one of the basic (or didn't know in the first place) rules, it's called 'Colour Setting' or 'Data Type'. That's right, you see the words 'Data Type:' at the top of the menu? There are 5 icons next to it. They all represent colour type, by choosing one of these you are choosing wether you want your color to be in: 'Black & White' 'Black - Grey - White' '16-Bit' '256-Bit' or 'PhotoImpact Full Color'. To use ALL of the features you will need to set this to the last icon, the one with Red Green and Blue on it. Just click the icon to set it.
Next you will come to a section called 'Canvas:'. 'Canvas' is basically your background. If you want to make transparant images, with wierd shapes without that awful white, black or whatever colour you have background, transparant is the one to have. But for now, we are going to make a 'Mess-About-Image'. This is just me telling you what paintbrush to use, what they are for, what colours work right and how they can become important later so we don't need it other than basic white. Just select 'White'.
Next, 'Image Size:' section, for now just select 'Standard' and choose '512 x 482 pixels' for now.
The section labeled 'Resolution:' leave, this is unimportant and has nothing to do with anything important at the moment.
So now, click 'OK', you should have a blank window come up. Click the maximize button, it makes things a bit organized for the point that we are at. Now, do you also see another window/menu called 'Easy Palette - (read only)', if you don't then click 'View >> Toolbars & Panels >> EasyPalette'. There, all set up.
Chapter Conclusion: You have learned the basics of how to setup your image and features and how to set up your basic workspace.
Using Text, Paintbrush And The Gallery
We will now start, well what exactly are you looking at here? Just a blank white thing on your screen on what seems to you now a completely oblivious computer program. LOL, sorry about that, now you will see on the left, a menu, images from your basic arrow/curser to a contrast button with '+' and '-' on either side. NO? You should do becuase it's PhotoImpacts' default setting, that's why I didn't include it in the last chapter. If not then click 'View >> Toolbars & Panels >> Standard Toolbar' also do the same for the 'Attribute Toolbar': 'View >> Toolbars & Panels >> Attribute Toolbar.
Now we are ready to pant our blank space ;D
The first thing you want to do is familiarize yourself with 'Text', you all know what 'Text' is, but I am going to teach you how to use it. From the menu on the left click the big 'T' icon. Move your curser over to the center of your white space, click in the center of you white space and type 'My Image!'. Also you will notice that when you clicked 'T' the 'Text Panel' came up. Now hihlight all of the text, in the 'Text Panel' click the font dropdown list and choose some funky font, preferably 'Comic Sans MS'. Now, I am going to teach you something cool, you will see a coloured (probably black) square next to the align icons, click it. Below all the basic color icons click 'Gradient Fill'. Lets give this text a little more spice than one color eh? When the gradient fill menu pops up click 'Multiple Colors' and click the little colours icon underneath. Yet again another menu will pop up called: 'Palette Ramp Editor', and don' be put off by the fact that it says 'Editor'. At the bottom you will see some thumbnails, choose the blue one at the end, '004' and click 'OK'. That will close that menu and take you back to the Gradient Fill one, click 'OK' there as well. Now, make you font size about 38 big. Click the arrow icon on the left menu and click anywhere on the screen but not on your text. You will see that you text has a cool gradient fill to it, that's basically how to manipulate text.
Now onto using the paintbrush, this is a wierd one to use. Just click the paintbrush icon, click and drag anywhere on the screen for a while, you will create a simple black line. You can change the colour of this, do you see two squares, one overlapping the other? Underneath a mask and a ruler icon? Click them, a menu called 'Ulead Color Picker' should come up, you will have icons at the top, and color icons at the bottom, pick a simple blue. Now drag your mouse on te screen and draw another simple line. Well, this paintbrush is a little boring don't you think? Click the paintbrush icon again but this time click and HOLD until a dropdown menu comes up, you will see other types of paintbrushes, airbrish, marker ect... select the 'Particle' brush. Now draw a line, pretty cool eh? It's like DNA! This is ideal for creating your own trademarks. Have a play about with other brushes and see what you come up with.
Now, onto the gallery! That's the 'Easy Palette' by the way, now we have a 'White' background, we want to change this, but you are going to ask yourself, why didn't we just change it while setting up our workspace? Becuase we are going to use the Gallery to make a funky background instead of a boring color. In the Easy Palette click the '+' sign next to the fill gallery. Choose 'Gradient' and scroll down on the right hand side until you come to 'G18', double click it. UH-OH! Problem, our paint lines have dissapeared! But the text hasn't! Don't panic, this is normal, this is becuase the paint was not a 'Path Object' or even an 'Object', it was just something that you could 'Stick' on the end. So, go through the gallery and mess about with it but leave the 'Effects Gallery' alone for now!
Chapter Conclusion: You have learned how to use text, the brushes, colours and the gallery. Use them wisely!
The Do's And Don'ts Of Effects
OK, by now you should have ended up with something that said 'My Image!', with a wierd background, and a couple of stupid stuff you have just added, meh... it's pretty... plain? How about some effects, lets twist this picture into 'Abstract'. Click 'Effect >> Illumination >> Cool', menu should pop up, the middle thumbnale image preview (defualt) I don't really like, so double click the one in the top left hand corner. The colour has been 'Illuminated', but we aren't going to stop there! Click 'Effects >> Artistic >> Creative Warp'. Choose a creative warp for your background. Something exagerated and funky and then click 'OK'. Wait for it to apply.
The Do's And Don'ts: Never, use th same effect twice on one picture, it looks stupid. Don't use too much effects, it spoils the image. Don't use effects if you are using a background gradient that you might need to keep. DO save your work before using effects. DO use effects if nessesary.
Chapter Conclusion: You have learned how to use effects properly and the Do's And Dont's. Use carefully.
Save your work as 'My First Image', then close your image but not impact.
Creating A Matching Avatar And Signature
Basically the key to making any avatar or signature is to choose a theme, something you can relate to, say your forums, or your favourite computer game, film, actor, TV program, cartoon ect... the endless list of themes.
Setting Up Your WorkSpace: Signature
1) File >> New >> New Image
2) Data Type: Fifth Icon (Red, Green & Blue)
3) Canvas: White
4) Image Size, User Defined, width 400 hight 100
5) Click 'OK'
Retreiving A Theme: Signature
1) www.google.com
2) Click Image Search (on google)
3) Enter your chosen theme, e.g: Final Fantasy X
4) Copy an image, paste onto your canvas in PhotoImpact
Personalizing: Signature
1) Enter some text, size needs to be about 30
2) Customize Text
3) Add Effects, Extras
4) Save As: mysig
Setting Up WorkSpace: Avatar
1) File >> New >> New Image
2) Data Type: Fifth Icon (Red, Green & Blue)
3) Canvas: White
4) Image Size, User Defined, width 100 hight 100
5) Click 'OK'
Retreiving A Theme: Avatar
1) Select part of theme from signature, copy and paste into avatar space
Personalizing: Avatar
1) Make Some Text, about 20 size
2) Customize Text
3) Add same effects, extras as signature
4) Save as myavatar
Chapter Conclusion: You have learned how to make a matching avatar and sig using a theme, effects ect...
Conclusion
You have learned how to basically use PhotoImpact 8. Use this wisely, hope you enjoyed it and will use it
~GodFather~ (Copyright GodFather 2004)
