Questions Thread - Technical Help for Art & Music

[tynic]

Use this thread for asking questions pertaining to the forum or art, or technical issues relating to tablets, art programs, etc. Discussion of the questions is also welcome, but try and use the Art Discussion thread for long or meta-discussions about art. This thread is so people can find simple answers to questions, and we want to keep it nice!

This is also a good place to put information that you think the forum in general might find helpful. Art tutorials posted here will be periodically added to the second post in the rules thread (so long as they look useful!)

[tynic]

I'm making an avatar for another forum and it unfortunately has a white background but I want to replace the white with nothingness. Would a skilled artist feel not burdened to inform me of how to replace the evil white background?

You have to export as a png or gif with transparency enabled, I don't think you can do that with mspaint.

1. Download gimp for free: http://www.gimp.org/
2. select "create new image" with transparent background
3. use the "colors the same selection tool" or "magic wand tool" on the white areas
4. press delete
5. save as png or gif

and congrats, you have a brand new baby transparent background picture

[Mme Sparklecakes XVII]

Should we be following suit in collecting the ghosts of questions past?

[tynic]

If you can, yes. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to merge without getting the old posts at the top of the thread, but feel free to quote old posts in here!

[Mme Sparklecakes XVII]

I am considering buying a tablet, but I have no idea what to pick!

If you aren't a super serious professional, then a Wacom Bamboo is probably your best bet. More specifically, the Wacom Bamboo Fun. If you are a super serious professional, then you probably already own a tablet and know the ropes! But if for some reason you don't, then the Intuos tends to be recommended.

[Mme Sparklecakes XVII]

I want to animate, or more specifically export animated gifs, possibly for an MSPAFA, how do I do this?

There are a lot of ways to approach this question!

The most common answer is use GIMP.

HOW TO ANIMATE IN GIMP:

show spoiler

hide spoiler

~Helpful Hint for Fanart in GIMP
Number 1
By Σlementoid

1. Make your image.
-Remember to use transparency for the empty space.

2. Go to your layers window and duplicate the layer with the image you just made.
-Right Click > Duplicate Layer
-You can rename your layers to better help organize them.

3. Make adjustments to the second image.
-Make sure that there's only a minor difference between the images.

4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 until you have the desired number of frames.
-Each layer will act like a frame in the final animation.
-Remember that the animation will loop, so the first and last frames must have similarly small differences.

5. When you have all of your frames ready, save your file with the GIF extension.
-FileName.gif
-Just to be safe, first save as an XCF file (FileName.xcf), so that you can easily make adjustments to the animation later if need be.

6. You will be prompted with a window that will ask you to export your file. Select "Save as Animation" and "Convert to Indexed using default settings." Then click "Export."

7. Another window will appear, this time presenting you with options on how to save your animation.
-Deselect "Interlace" if you want your animation to retain it's original quality.
-Deselect "GIF Comment."
-Select "Loop Forever."
-Adjust your framerate in milliseconds. A millisecond is 1/1000 of a second, so setting the value to 1000 would make each frame last a second. You usually have to change this value a few times before you get the results you want.
-Change the Frame Disposal to "One frame per layer (replace)."
-Select both "Use delay entered above for all frames" and "Use Frame Disposal entered above for all frames."
-Finally, click "Save."

You've just created an animation!

Additional Notes:
~You can get GIF images from the internet by going Right Click > Save Image As. Copy/Pasting will NOT work.
~Gimp opens GIF animations with each frame as a layer, which is handy for editing.
~"Etoid! I opened a GIF image but it only lets me use certain colors!" Chances are this is an Indexed Image. Fix this by going Image > Mode > RGB. You should now be able to use any color.
~GIF images are also frequently used for transparent images. Complete steps 1 & 5, then select "Convert to Indexed using default settings." This will create a still image with transparency.

That is not to say GIMP is the only answer, but rather it has the best value to function ratio for an amateur. If you are willing to shell out some seriously phat clams, or break the law, then you might want to check out some of Adobe's products. Namely, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Flash. Photoshop being the more image oriented product, is honestly probably better for .gifs in some ways (Andrew tends to use this for simple things). Flash, on the other hand, is specifically designed for animation and will offer you a far more vast repertoire of animation tools. It also allows you to export in many different formats like .AVI or the super efficient .SWF. Of course both of these are completely useless for a forum.

On the note of Flash, if anyone wants some help figuring out all the tools and tricks I would be more than willing to give a crash course on them!

If you're crazy professional you can also check out Toon Boom and Harmony, but if you're anywhere near the level for using these you probably already know about them.

There are also a TON of other options for general animation:

Blender is a 3D program that can produce some pretty cool simple stuff. It can also do some rudimentary games.

Stick Pivot is a fairly simplistic program for animating stick figures. It's not a great program, but can be good for practising simple motions.

Easy Toon is a program that comes recommended by Ed_knott, I don't know much about it, but it looks fairly bare bones simplistic.

Microsoft GIF Animator comes with absolutely no recommendation from anyone sane, but it is a program that exports gifs, I guess.

UNFREEZ comes recommended by CRP_MMDUDE, looks like it's another program that simply combines a series of images into one GIF.

GICKR is a website that comes recommended by my dark overlord Google and will combine images into an animated GIF without having to download anything! Also apparently you can convert youtube clips into GIFs with it?

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EDIT:

If someone with musical experience wants to make sense of this thread, that would be pretty cool.

[fait]

Here's a tutorial I found for getting transparency to work in Photoshop. I'm aware each graphics editor handles transparency differently, so here's a link for Photoshop: http://www.mediacollege.com/adobe/photo ... round.html

[Magikarcher]

I got a Wacom Bamboo Tablet for Christmas and love it. I have been unable of using the pressure sensitivity features since I got it, and searched far and wide across the internet for a fix. I tried every single fix I could find, and none of them worked. It seems to be a VERY common problem and I was wondering if anyone was familiar with it on this forum and could maybe help me fix it. Thanks!

[Mme Sparklecakes XVII]

I assume you've tried re-installing the drivers?

[Magikarcher]

Yes, but whenever I attempt to it says that the computer needs to restart, which I let it. When it starts back up the tablet still has no pressure sensitivity and it acts as if I never installed the driver, I try again, same thing, again, same thing. I think that is a clear explanation, it is in my own head, if not I can try to elaborate.

[Mme Sparklecakes XVII]

How exactly are you testing the existence of pressure sensitivity? Because a lot of programs don't support it, and the one's that do usually require you to enable it.

[Magikarcher]

Photoshop Elements 7. I am almost 100% sure I have it enabled, can you tell me how to check if it is or not?

[Mme Sparklecakes XVII]

This is unfortunately beyond my grasp.

Someone save me here.

[ACabbageOrSomething]

Here's a link I found with a google search.

See if that helps.

I use PS CS4, and I also have a bamboo (which I also got for christmas). When I hooked up my tablet for the first time, it was working. Although, that could have been because I'd been messing around with the brush settings before I'd ever had the tablet.

[Magikarcher]

I found that too and the problem is definitely not with photoshop. It has something to do with the drivers I am certain. Because not only will the pressure sensitivity not work, but the eraser side of my pen draws like normal.

[beesmygod]

My tablet likes to magically stop having pen sensitivity for reasons that are beyond my comprehension. Here's what I do to fix it, but it might be different because I have a graphire and not bamboo. Let me know if you get lost!

1. Open your "start" menu and list all programs
2. Scroll down to the "Pen tablet" folder and click on it to open it
3. Launch the "Tablet Preference File Utility"
4. Click "Remove Preferences"

Let me know if this helped or if it was utter crap.

[Magikarcher]

I was able to do that, but it didn't help and I have done that 'fix' before.

[beesmygod]

I was able to do that, but it didn't help and I have done that 'fix' before.

Did you restart afterward?

I'm sort of stumped. What a stubborn tablet.

e:

Maybe this ?

[Marelo]

Moved and renamed for appropriateness' sake.

[Magikarcher]

I don't have windows 7, though, so it isn't applicable to my situation. Thanks anyway.

@Marelo I was going to put it here, but I read the Art Forum Rules and it didn't sound like it should go here.

I haven't tried uninstalling the default Windows tablet drivers though... Anyone know how to do that?

[Marelo]

Yeaaaah, I figure artists have more experience with tablets than anyone else.

[tynic]

Yeah, this is a perfect example of the kind of thing that should go in the questions thread. Unfortunately, I can't answer it because I don't use Windows and I've never run into this particular problem.

[Muno Syoan]

You should be able to get the default windows drivers here, although they should already be on your computer. Make sure you remove all trace of the current drivers before installing new ones in Device Manager; installing multiple versions of the same driver can lead to issues.
This might help too.

[Lady Drakonis]

Funnily enough I have never gotten pressure sensitivity to work in Photoshop... but it works like a gem in Corel Painter (Essentials). If you have that sucker (if you bought a Bamboo Fun then you should), give that one a whirl and see if anything happens. If not, there isn't much I can say that hasn't been said already!

[fait]

So, even the more complicated and not-easy-to-answer questions go here. An Art Gen Chat, if you will...

This sounds like a really stubborn tablet. Whoever bought that spent some money on it and it would be a major bummer to let that money go to waste. Have you tried Wacom customer service at all? They could send you a replacement. Your tablet not working isn't your problem but theirs (unless you aren't telling us something but you would've by now). If you have contacted customer service, tell us your thoughts so that we can be warned in case their customer service is terrible.