Questions Thread - Technical Help for Art & Music

[Freack]

So, I am having a serious problem with GIMP. If I have downloaded a .gif, or have saved one previously, I can hardly edit them at all. The most I can do is draw plain lines with colors that already exist in the image. I cannot smudge them or chose new colors or anything. In the end I had to open the image with paint, dab in the colors I wanted, and then open as a .gif again. Still, things like smudge did not work at all, and of course opening with Paint ruined the animations.

Is there something I am doing wrong?

[Stop Him]

If I have downloaded a .gif, or have saved one previously, I can hardly edit them at all. The most I can do is draw plain lines with colors that already exist in the image.

This is because a GIF is limited to only 256 colors in its palette. A GIF is naturally in "8-bit" color mode.

You can convert the image to "24-bit" (RGB) mode (or 32-bit CMYK mode, I suppose) and then you should be able to use any color you wish; but then to save it as a GIF again you will be saving it as an 8-bit image and the color palette will be set back to 256 colors.

[ThereWillBePayne]

I don't know exactly what you mean by 'set ups' for Photoshop. Like, tool settings and stuff?

Yes, like applications and stuff. I'm not really sure, but I've seen some unique painting set ups in photoshop and I was wondering if there was anything to it.

[Doodleniks]

*desperately hopes this is the right place for help on art*

I am making this ridiculous pictures of the kids stylized like stained glass windows and I should probably be stopped, but barring that, I was wondering if someone could help me out:

http://doodleniks.deviantart.com/art...-WIP-304859217

1. What should I put at the bottom where the Heir of Breath thing is? I'm lost.
2. How do I make it actually look like a stained glass window and not just chunks of color put together?

[Freack]

You can convert the image to "24-bit" (RGB) mode (or 32-bit CMYK mode, I suppose) and then you should be able to use any color you wish; but then to save it as a GIF again you will be saving it as an 8-bit image and the color palette will be set back to 256 colors.

Could you, or anybody really, be more specific as to how to do this? I have looked through all of the Colors Menus, and I am not sure where to find this option.

Doodle: I think the bottom bit looks fine as is.
And I am not sure about how to do stained glass art, but I would make the background be in bigger chunks, and I think it has something to do with textures. You have a really nice start going there.

Edit: found a few tutorials on the subject here, and here, and here. Not sure what program you are using, but I hope one of those is useful.

[Doodleniks]

@Freack: Wow. Those look really helpful! Thanks a bunch. :3

[Soadreqm]

Okay, hey guys, this looks to be a good of a place as any, so, What tablet would you recommend for someone on a ~$250-$300 Budget?

As others have said, all Wacom tablets are pretty good. The Bamboo line has less hotkeys than the Intuos line, and doesn't detect stylus tilt, but it's not like most people actually need that. The active area of my Bamboo Fun is about A5 size, and definitely big enough. When I plug the tablet to my Eee PC, it actually feels too big for the tiny screen. Unless you've done a lot of oil painting or something and gotten used to a huge canvas, you probably won't need a lot of surface area. Zooming is cheaper.

Could you, or anybody really, be more specific as to how to do this? I have looked through all of the Colors Menus, and I am not sure where to find this option.

Image -> Mode -> RGB/Indexed/whatever.
You should also know that messing with the pic in RGB mode and then converting it back into indexed (for saving into .gif) can mess up the colours some. I've especially noticed that GIMP sometimes utterly fails to make good colour choices when working with multi-layer images. If that happens, you could try combining the image into a new layer (Layer -> New from visible), placing that as the topmost layer, and THEN converting back to indexed colour. I don't know if that helps, but it might.

You can also mess with the palette directly. Windows -> Dockable Dialogues -> Colourmap opens the relevant window, where you can add colours (if there are less than 256) and adjust existing colours.

[Stop Him]

You should also know that messing with the pic in RGB mode and then converting it back into indexed (for saving into .gif) can mess up the colours some. I've especially noticed that GIMP sometimes utterly fails to make good colour choices when working with multi-layer images.

You can also mess with the palette directly. Windows -> Dockable Dialogues -> Colourmap opens the relevant window, where you can add colours (if there are less than 256) and adjust existing colours.

Just for trivia's sake, to add to what Soadreqm says here - I use Corel PhotoPaint for a great deal of my bitmap imaging, and when converting from a higher color mode to paletted/indexed/8-bit/whatever, it offers a dialog window that allows one to select various means of processing the palette, from a rigid "standard" array of colors to "optimized", where it creates a custom palette from the dominant colors in the image. It also can use different modes of rendering the converted image, such as keeping the colors as uniform as possible, or dithering the colors of the palette to create a seeming greater color depth (why some GIFs have a grainy look to them). I don't use GIMP, so I don't know what options are available in that program, but it might be worth exploring what options it does have and what works best for whatever effect one is aiming for.

[Freack]

Is there a way to apply a layer attribute (such as (replace)) to every layer in one go?

[Captain Combusken]

I searched the thread and couldn't find anything. If it was there I probably searched the wrong thing, but I digress. It doesn't matter. Anyway, here is my question:

Are there any GOOD FREEWARE MUSIC/SONG making programs? I have a fanadventure, and whilst with permission I could use the Homestuck music, I want stuff that's individual to my characters. Asking people to make me music is a little greedy and unfair because I can't and am unwilling to pay them, so I decided to make my own music. Problem is, I don't really know where to start.

I want a program that is FREE (that is really the main thing) as well as of good quality. I need to be able to make a wide variety of styles (For example, one character will have a Hip-hop theme, another will have adventure/medieval music associated with her, another will probably have retro Mario/Pokemon style songs, another will be Rock probably). I also have very little experience, so basically, something that's quite user-friendly and easy to use would also be important.

So is there anything out there? I tried a Google search yesterday, and I got a little bit lost.

[Stop Him]

Are there any GOOD FREEWARE MUSIC/SONG making programs?

Short answer, no. (Define "good".) (Also: PC or Mac?)

Somewhat longer answer: it depends.

If you have no experience, whatsoever, then you have a long road ahead of you. The more you want a program to do, the more likely it is you'll have to shell out a few bucks to get something that actually does everything you want. There are some freeware audio programs, but they may not be all that user-friendly. Even expensive programs sometimes are not so user-friendly. In addition, there are a variety of methods for achieving particular sounds, so if you have no idea at all how to proceed, you may have to sort some of this out before any recommendation can be made. For example: Do you want to stick with sequenced virtual synthesized audio, or be able to add non-sequenced "live" material (like vocals or guitar solos)? Do you understand the idea behind VST plug-ins, and whether or not a program can be a host for them? Would you be satisfied with using a library of pre-recorded "loops" or do you want greater control (and originality) in your music? There's much you ought to know if you're serious about this.

That said, I can give you some links to a few freeware "DAW"s - Digital Audio Workstations - and maybe knowing that term may help you a bit to find something on your own, as well.

http://www.mutools.com/

http://traverso-daw.org/

http://frinika.appspot.com/

http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/ind...ection=details

[symbolsWriter]

Am I allowed to post crossover-y art, like characters from another franchise designed as SBURB players, etc. And if yes, then where does it go?

[Redux]

The FANART thread should be the proper place.

[symbolsWriter]

Thanks!

[Redux]

Those image links do not seem to work.

[Recyth]

Alright, here's something a little different. I'm trying to create a Kernelsprite ( Can't edit rips because the colour speckling makes it impossible to do cleanly ) but i can't figure out how to make the GIMP tool "Spyrogimp" do what i want, namely a traditional circular spirograph. At the moment all i can get is a squashed oblong one.

Can anyone give me an explanation of how to manipulate the settings to get the desired effect?


Alternatively, how to make a .py plugin work so i can use a plugin that's more intuitive than the built in version.

[ashdenej]

Can't edit rips because the colour speckling makes it impossible to do cleanly

Is this not sufficient?



And it doesn't change colour, I think - only the superimposed head does. Harlekernel for comparison:

show spoiler

hide spoiler

[Recyth]

No No No

I meant the Unprototyped Kernelsprite. The spazzy looking spirograph animation one. I need to be able to make the spirographs in GIMP so i can animate one.

[poplopo]

1. What should I put at the bottom where the Heir of Breath thing is? I'm lost.

Not sure what you mean. What do you want to be there? Are you out of ideas? If it were me I would fancy up the lettering and make it look like stained glass as well.

2. How do I make it actually look like a stained glass window and not just chunks of color put together?

Looking at some ref pictures would probably help. I found these on GIS:

http://shf.sitestreet.com/images/upl...ily.JPGweb.jpg
http://www.averywootendesigns.com/images/Faceted_04.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Cathedral.jpg

As you can see, a lot of the stained glass pieces aren't just one color - they have some mild shading that gives it more volume. It looks like you could also make the lines between the glass pieces thicker if you wanted to. If you wanted you could also make a bit more rhyme-and-reason to the layout of the glass pieces that make the background. They look a bit haphazard, but they seem a bit more uniform in real stained glass windows.

Hope that helped. I really like the concept by the way, and I think it's looking great already!

[Elkian]

No No No

I meant the Unprototyped Kernelsprite. The spazzy looking spirograph animation one. I need to be able to make the spirographs in GIMP so i can animate one.

You can yank it off the wiki here: http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Sprite
then just recolor each layer as needed

[Biff]

I'm looking to buy a tablet for an animation class and found this.
http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Bamboo-S...s=wacom+bamboo

I wanted to ask those who have more knowledge on tablets if this seems alright for someone new to digital art.
(Also, any tips or advice?)

[FowlJ]

Pretty much anything from Wacom is good, and people seem happy with that particular model from what I've seen, so that's fine.

[Biff]

Sweet, thank you.

[Elkian]

The Monoprice Graphics Tablet is also extremely decent price for the reported results, so if cash is a factor I would reccomend it. Provided you didn't already buy the Wacom ^^'

[Biff]

I'll look into it. It's always good to have options.
Thanks.