Getting Started with Photofiltre

Hey, where have you been? I haven't heard from you since a long time!
Yes. you did it allright Marja! just a tip here, you might try to do
the same on a black background and your neon effect
will come out even more.

see ya!

 

hmm.. not sure which one. Do you mean Photomosaic?

nice image Marja!

 

this is nice narov! did you do the gradient yourself?
I know that both Paint Shop and Photoshop are great
for doing gradients and masks.

 

Thanks, that's a mask I made, still trying to perfect it to give sort of a glass look.

Here's another text one with a reflection below the letters. The text is copied, inverted vertically and the opacity lowered. ( and some masks for the background )

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i246/moedfoo/Photobucket/blsf_sig1bar77b.jpg

 

HI Uguel!
Hey, Narov, thanks for the tag!!
I really like the reflecting tag-such an easy way to get that look!
Gonna give that one a try too....

CY'ALL!!

Marja

P>S> Ooh, Uguel, I think that prog was called 2Pic, but I still haven't found it - Googling or otherwise, guess I'll try something else...thanks tho!

 

Here Marja, I found it...

http://2pic.moor-software.com/frames.php?lang=English

 

A Christmas Card
tutorial 14

You can also apply a texture to your card backgrounds.
It is easy to do and it can make interesting effects as well.

1. For this, you simply create a new image (Menu > File > New Image)
I chose 358 x 508 for the size of my background
then you go to the Tools Palette and choose the Pipette tool
in order to take a sample of one of the colours that is in your
picture so that you'll be able to paint your background with
a colour that will match with your image.
Once you have chosen a colour from your background,
pick the bucket tool and click on your background image to paint.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/7756/pipetteffillcd4.png

Now that you have the colour applied to your background image
you are ready to apply your texture.

2. You go to the Menu > Filter > Texture > (I chose) Bubble
Once you applied the Bubble texture or else, you might reduce the effect after
(I had it reduced to 30%) by going to the Menu > Edit > Fade Bubble, 30% or approx.

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/8303/bubllesimplemm4.jpg

Once the texture is applied, You can copy and paste
another image or a part of it in the textured paper.
I had this image.....

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/1804/card8aeh3.jpg

I reduced it around 50%. Menu > Image > Image size 50%

3. Open the image you want to paste in the textured paper.
then just copy and paste your picture into it.

Remember that you can use "Edit > Copy >Paste" for doing this
or the right click context menu. Once your picture is pasted, you can get rid
of the marching ants by going to the Menu > Selection > Show Selection
and once again you go to the Menu > Selection > Hide Selection to remove the selection.

Now you are ready to write your text or wishes on your new card.

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/4302/noelboyeh5.jpg

Notice that Photofiltre comes with 15 different textures and here, I only used
2 of them! So it is up to you to try and experiment with different textures depending
on the results you want to achieve. There are many possibilities to discover.

More examples with the canvas texture applied between 30 % 40% for both.

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3908/belgeanddwarfuu4.jpg

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/6967/xmastscenetk6.jpg

Here I have four pretty ones for you to experiment with!

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/4491/cowboysapinsl3.png

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/553/dbonhommeneigeoiseauxhl0.jpg

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/3894/nightxmastreexf8.jpg

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/5081/xmasbellsav4.jpg

tip

If you want a great choice of photographs to work with, I would suggest
that you go to Flickr. They have a huge selection on almost every subjects!

 

Thanks for the great tutorials Uguel.

Happy Holidays to all.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/7650/avgrecccle5557pt0.jpg





Something to try out, before you set in place something you copy and paste, right click on your pasted item and check out the options.

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/6436/avgrecccle55511ha1.jpg

 

Wow, you're welcome narov and many thanks for the the pretty card!

you wrote

Something to try out, before you set in place something you copy and paste, right click on your pasted item and check out the options.

Yes, these options are pretty handy, btw, there is a nice tutorial on Photofiltre website
that shows how to make a birthday card with the help of these options.
I tried it with one of my holiday image and it worked well.

 

Here's a Christmas card I made from the snowman image in post #57....
It was all about copying and pasting into selections....

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/3223/smastcardmb2.png


I simply wrote "Noel" in black letters on a dark blue background. Then I wrote the same text again but I clicked on "transform selection" in the text dialog box and I pasted it a little bit to the right of the black letters...I let the text selected in order to be able to bring changes only to the text, not the area around it.

I opened the image of the snowman in Photofiltre. I selected and pasted the parts of the snowman I wanted in the "Noel" image. Remember that in order to be able to paste a part of an image into a selection, you must select the part that you want first, for instance the snowman image by clicking & dragging your mouse over the area you want to go in the text. Once you have a selected area, you do a right-click copy then you click in the area where you want to paste the selected part (one of the Noel letters here) and finally, you go to the Menu > Paste Special > Paste in. And you do that for each letter or selections that you want to be filled in.

The xmas ball and the snow were done with the mouse.

 

HI ALL!
Hope you are ready for the Holidays!

This is one of Uguel's pics, I put some paint strokes on it, then some softened relief..
A very small border of gold, (or as gold as I could find!?) -then another frame of the red in the pic with noise added...
The font is Hobo and I put a stroke around the text..

It's just a simple greeting to all the special folk here...
The Best of New Year's too!

Marja

 

BAH HUMBUG!!
I guess I am just not 'feeling' artistic today!
Not likin' any of these much...
Wanted the text to stand out a little more, any ideas?
Well, you did say we are supposed to be learning, right-Uguel?

I'll be bock, just not today..

(Well, it stands out a little better here..)

 

I need help..
How do u make good avatars ? mine avatars look like this
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q186/Gerard_way_lover_/New%20Avatars%20on%20Gerard/Untitled13.jpgthey arent so good..
i want to make avatars like this
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e295/tre_cool_is_meh_god/Icons/My%20Icons/My%20Chemical%20Romance/frankava2.png
help?

 

Hey Marja, the idea of adding a filter to the bells image was good because
it gave them a frosty aspect which is appropriate for xmas.
One thing though, if you add a text over a filtered image,
the reading becomes a little bit more difficult.

The second picture, the snowmen, you added was well done
too and remember that you can make the colours
coming out even more by increasing the contrast and
reviving the colours. I already posted a short tutorial on
how to do this with Photofiltre, see tutorial 9, post 31

Some trials I made....

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/1603/xmasbellsys1.jpg

Double-clicking on the small colour rectangle will open the real colour dialog
box, and from there, you can easily set or adjust the colour
for the fonts and for the frames.


http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/879/doubleclickar7.jpg

The colour I chose for the fonts and frames were already in the picture...

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/7550/xmasfontscolourky3.jpg

...and here I just increased the colours a little bit...

http://img323.imageshack.us/img323/9668/marjasnowmenih5.jpg

 

Hi Jade_avatarlover!

Hmm..both avatars you posted here are photographs not computer graphics.
People who create avatars that really look like human beings usually
create them with 3D programs. One of the most popular for this is
Curious Lab Poser. Not the easiest one to learn I must say.
But once you get to know it (from what I saw) you can
create real original and cool avatars. Here's one for instance.....

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/6581/avatarloverfo5.gif


After January, I will create a tutorial on avatars, they will not be
done in Poser because this is a Photofiltre thread but I am sure
that there's a way of creating something that look good with Photofiltre too.

Just resized the pics you posted in case you needed smaller ones.


http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/4093/ava1vy0.jpg

http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/8075/singe2ua7.png

 

Okay

 

i like searching at del.icio.us when i need a tutorial for something -
http://del.icio.us/search/?fr=del_icio_us&p=Photofiltre tutorial&type=all

 

Hello Jade_avatarlover.

You can do quite a few things with Photofiltre for avatars, you just have to jump in and experiment.
I was playing around with your two pics for this one, it's squashed up a bit but that's part of playing.

http://img343.imageshack.us/img343/4974/avsocra348sh0.jpg

It wasn't too hard either, I just put both pics into Photofiltre,

-right click and copy one of them
-click on the other to have it selected
-go to Edit / Paste special / Assemble - to the right
-go to Image / resize - set the dimensions back to 100x100 ( or whatever )
-go to Adjust / negative

Then add some text if you like. You can find some 'pixel' fonts out there for the small text.

Hey iceni60, this guy's tutorials are great to try out, you can find them all here.

I messed around with the 'bells' picture, it's all just the one picture but messed with for about an hour, lol.

http://img343.imageshack.us/img343/7783/avsocra345ao9.jpg

 

Thanks Uguel, I can see the difference in the snowcouples pic, and I like it..
Like what you did with both.. Narov, the bells look like they are RINGING their little clappers off...LOL!
Good one too!

Just messing around again...

Hope everyone is enjoying their Holiday!

 

Judging from the snow on this sleigh..
Santa's taking an extra looong lunch..

So, my question is...

Which side of his infamous list is he gonna end up on?

 

Hope everyone was as happy with their gifts as this big guy......

Jus' playin'..

 

Wow, these cards are great Marja & Narov!...I hope that your pals
has gotten one of them for xmas! ...and the last one is very sweet!

I corrected the blue one for I found that it looked too plain
with the white border. This kind of design would be Ok for a child.

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/5302/smastcardmb2re0.png

 

Working with Masks
tutorial 15

Here are some interesting effects that you can achieve with the flame
and flocon mask provided by Photofiltre. For this tutorial, you will need
an image of winter or any photographs that evokes the cold wintery season.
Notice that this tutorial is based on a French tutorial that was given at the
Photofiltre website. I am sure that they have it in English too!

1. Open a winter image in Photofiltre.

I had this image

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/6466/1sapinto3.jpg

2. Go to the Menu > Filter > Photomasque > Click on the Yellow folder

...this will allows you to browse and fetch the masks we need for this tutorial.
we will open the "Flocon" mask first. (flocon= snowflake)

3. Choose the *"Flocon" mask
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/4400/floconssettingsyr6.png

4. Set the colour to white and the opacity to 100%, Blur and duotone unchecked
and tile mask checked as in the screenshot above.

5. Once you applied the "Flocon" mask you can apply the *"Flame" mask
with the same settings provided in the screenshot below.

http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/1236/flamebu5.jpg

Here's the result...
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/7413/2sapinsju8.jpg

More examples, this picture was provided originally from the
Photofiltre tutorial I made some time ago.

http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/8775/floconscouleur2pk3.jpg

You can also have the image in gray shades only. For this, you go to the
Menu> Filter > Color > Grayscale.

http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/4221/flocon1ly1.jpg


What are masks?

Well simply put, we use masks in graphics programs to conceal an area by masking it
with either a solid or semi-transparent colour. Once the area is concealed,
you can apply a colour or another image or a layer in it. Masks can also be used to
blend pictures together.


Tip

*if for any reason, you do not have these masks in your mask folder,
you can get them at the Photofiltre website. They are free to download.

 

And here's the gray version of our snowy image...

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/1640/2sapinsgrayscalezr3.jpg

Snowflakes dingbats can be used when working
with this kind of picture...

http://img450.imageshack.us/img450/8195/hsnednakh3.png

...although this image was drawn in Photoshop, most of it
can be achieve in Photofiltre also

 

Drawing a Christmas Tree
tutorial 16

Sorry for being late in the season but I thought that it will be good
to have this tutorial along with the other xmas one ones that I
already sent here. Also, this tutorial will help you to get introduced
to some of the drawing tools provided with Photofiltre.
Moreover, it will help you to get a hand with a few drawing techniques
that will be useful to know either to correct your photographs
or creating your own sigs & avatars.

Again, the method shown in this tutorial should under no circumstance
be taken as gospel or as the one and only right way to do things.
There are zillions of ways to do this!

Notice that you will find an illustration of almost every step
you will have to accomplish in the 2 big pictures I included.

In this tutorial you will learn:

• Using different tools from the tools Palette
• Applying a gradient
• Changing the hue of a texture
• Copying and pasting a texture into a selection
• Using a mask as a way to add depth to a drawing.

This is the tree that you will learn to draw…
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3631/varationsapinfinalwo0.png

This is the texture we will use for this tutorial

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/310/bluebackgroundxd2.jpg

1 Open a new document (Ctrl+N) I chose 352 x 502 pixels white.

2. Draw the contour of the tree with a shade of green on your white background.

I started drawing the fir one side at a time. I drew the left part first
and then the right part from top to bottom. Try to be symmetric
but not too much otherwise your drawing will look too stiff.
Once the contour or shape of the tree is done, you can fill
the interior of the tree with a larger brush in order to gain time.
The sad thing about Photofiltre is that there is no eraser so
you might use the Ctrl+Z (undo) command to avoid going
to the menu over and over when you want to erase.

3.Draw a white garland with the spray bottle. See the settings I had
in the “Drawing a Tree” image. After that you can draw the bucket
just under the tree. You can use the rectangular tool as a guide
and the ellipse for the opening.

Now we will add some Christmas balls.

4. Go the tools Palette and click on the arrow to reveal
the ellipse tool. Take the ellipse tool and draw one snowball
somewhere in the tree.

We will now apply a blue gradient to the xmas ball.

5.Go to the Menu > Filer > Color Gradient choose a colour and apply
the settings I had for the gradient. See the settings I had
in the image. Click Ok.

6.Leave the xmas ball selected with your gradient colour in it
and copy your xmas ball and paste it as many times you want
in order to get enough blue xmas balls for the whole tree.
Remember that “copy and paste” can be done with the mouse.
(Right-click copy, right-click paste). Once you’re done with
the blue xmas balls, add different colour balls the same way
as we did for the blue ones. You can also try other shapes too.


http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/5097/treepart01ne4.jpg

All the next explanations are based on the second big image provided.

7.Open and select your texture image and go to the hue Palette
and applied the settings I had in the image.

8.Now go to the tools palette and choose the magic wand

9. Return to your tree image and click on a green area.
The green part should be completely selected.
Now you are ready to copy and paste your texture in it.

10. Go to your texture image and select it and do a right-click copy,
then go to the tree image, right-click and choose “Paste in”.
Now you should have your texture pasted in your tree.

11. Remember you can fade the texture effect by going to
the Menu > Edit > Fade Paste and then adjust the settings to your liking.

12.Once your texture is pasted you can apply a mask
with the settings I had in the “Applying a texture” image.

13. Add a star on the top of the tree with the star shape tool.
See how to retrieve the star shape in the “Applying a texture” image.
You can also paint the star with a gradient as I did for the xmas balls.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/862/treepart2er9.jpg

I added a green border of 2 pixels around the image.
For this you go to the Menu >Image > Outside frame.
I had width 2, color dark green (R: 7. G: 51. B: 11)

Voilà, you’re done! I hope that this tutorial helped
to improve your knowledge of Photofiltre’s tools and the colour
options that come with the program.

….. you can add objects collected from the Net around the tree too!
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/5686/treegiftsqh0.png