Dog Dog 123's Homeroom (MSPaint)

Welcome to my homeroom. I teach Paint, the most basic of the image editting programs. This class is incredibly technical. I will teach you how to do new effects, things that used to be just for Photoshop. I will not, however, sit and critique focus points, color balance, lighting, and other such artistic categories. That's what the Small Works Showcase is for.

FAQ

How can I join?
For now, either post in this thread or send me a PM. Acceptance is almost garunteed. Pani is planning to install a new student sorting system, but until that gets off the ground, just let me know and I'll add you to my class.

I have a question, but I don't want to join!
Well, feel free to ask! I'm happy to help. And there's no point in joining if you only wanted to ask one or two questions.

Do you only teach sig making?
Most of the lessons here are based on signatures. However, anything you learn can just as easily be applied to a larger work. Sigs are a nice size. Easy to work with, easy to critique, quick, and don't get resized by the site or Photobucket. It's also the most practical application of graphics here on ZU.

I'd like to try, but I've never used paint before.
Yes, I'd still love to have you as my student. Everyone starts off with the basics, and they are given new assignments when I feel they have mastered the ones before it. So no matter what level you are with graphics, I'll be happy to teach you.

What programs do I need?
There are four possible combinations of programs you might have.
1. Paint and Microsoft Word. This is the best combination, and I can teach you everything I know.
2. Paint on a Vista computer. This is slightly harder to work with, but can still get very good results.
3. Just Paint. No Vista, no Word. You can't do much more then the basics with this, sadly. So there is a limit on what you'll learn.
4. Gimp, Photoshop, or some other high level graphics program. Don't join this class. Most of what I teach does not apply to these programs.



RULES
1. Play nicely. Don't argue in this thread.
2. No spam. Keep any talk related to graphics.
3. Try to avoid posting unless you are in my class, or planning to join.
4. Have fun with it!
5. Oh, and of course the normal forum rules apply to.




CURRENT STUDENTS

Mini-Link
Daltonr6
Hawke




FIRST ASSIGNMENT
Alrighty, so if you're in my class, here's the first assignment. Very easy, just so I know what you're working with and what you'd like to learn. Please, post the answers to these questions for me.

1. Have you ever worked with Paint to do anything before?
2. Have you found the icon to open up Paint on your computer?
3. How old is your computer? Or basically, which version of Paint do you have? Is it Windows 98, Windows XP, Vista, or something else? (Yes, Paint has a few differences in it depending on how old it is)
4. If you've worked with Paint before, what're some of the things you've done with it?
5. Do you have a way to upload images to the internet? (Photobucket or Imageshack and such)
6. What are some of the major things you wish to learn about? Is there anything you really want to focus on, or skills you have trouble with? Or are you new to it all?
7. How much have you used the program? Have you figured out what different tools do, or are we starting from scratch?
8. Do you have a version of Microsoft Word on the computer?
9. Look for a Print Screen button on your keyboard. Does your computer have one? It might be written as PrtSc or so, but you should be able to hit that button and click paste to get a picture of what the window looks like. Can you find and make that button work? (Yes, it's an important key)


For those of you in my class, new assignments will be posted throughout the thread. Try to remember to check in once in a while. Unless you're Chari, I'll probably have another assignment for you. Any assignments I give you, please post your work in this thread for the world to admire.

Anyways, I'm always open to new students, and would love to teach you!

1. No
2. Yes
3. Xp
4. Made Smiley Faces (nothing done well)
5. Yes
6. New to it all, but i'd like to learn Sig's and Avy's
7. Not much
8. 2003
9. Use it all the time

Yay, I win! I get the first student! Anyways, welcome to my class.

Alrighty, here's the first assignment. Follow the tutorial. Any questions you have, don't be afraid to ask. I won't bite you. Anyways, give it a try, and post here when you've finished.

http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/...ature-msp.html

^ Good luck! And again, lemme know if you need any help with it.

Well I was hardly going to get the first student, since my school is open to anyone who wonders in. Which means that everyone at ZU is my student by default, it's whether they wish to take advantage of my glorious system or not.

would you mind teaching me the ways of the tablet?

would you mind teaching me the ways of the tablet?

Unfortunately, I can not. I don't have a tablet, nor do I know how to use one. I only teach Paint. And... none of the current teachers immediately come to mind as having tablets.

Here it is. (Note: After i did it i realized i should have used a face/person, sorry)
EDIT: Deleted it. If you REALLY want to see its horror, ill put it back...

Here it is. (Note: After i did it i realized i should have used a face/person, sorry)

I don't care if there's a person in it, as long as you have some sort of picture.

Alrighty, good first try. Now here are some of the things I've noticed:

1. The file was saved wrong. If you look closely, or paste it into Paint and Zoom In, you can see that the lines are all blurred. It generally destroys quality and makes the image appear messy. So, to avoid this, be sure to save things as a .png.

2. The borders are uneven. If you look at it, you can see that the gap between the line and the edge are very different sizes. Try zooming in and counting the pixils to get the sizes equal.

3. Personally, I would've put the text farther over in the corner. But feel free to ignore this suggestion. Anyways, text boxes in Paint are rather picky. They can't be made smaller then whatever size you started with. So, the best thing to do, if you want text in a specific spot, is to first draw the text box small, then drag it larger, then make it smaller again so it can be dragged into the proper place.

Alright, so I'd like you to try making another one. Keep in mind the borders and the save file type.

I think i messed up, I downloaded the image as a .jpg, and saved it as a .png
Were both supposed to be .png?
If so, ill redo it saving the image a png.
FYI, i am just googling images and downloading them. Is that bad?

EDIT: My image uploading thingy isn't working right, so i will sign up for Photobucket now

Redo as saving file as png



Feel free to rate my Avy too.

I think i messed up, I downloaded the image as a .jpg, and saved it as a .png

Nope. Picture quality is harder to tell. But with the straight crisp lines you get from paint, quality differences are dead obvious.

FYI, i am just googling images and downloading them. Is that bad?

Unless you see something obviously requesting that credit is given, line on DeviantArt, that's perfectly fine. And most people find the images (stock?) in a similiar fashion.

Alrighty, now let's see what we see.

In the first one, the bottom border isn't straight. There's a spot about halfway over that drops down a pixel. It's really not noticable unless you zoom in, so chances are that I would be the only one to catch it. Anyways, the only solution is just be careful when drawing lines.

In the second one, I like the border you put on it. Very pretty and creative. Now look at the... right side of the sig. See that line on the very edge? You appear to have hit the edge of the picture. It's really easy to see on the darker skins. Anyways, the way to fix that is just to avoid going right up against the edge when you crop out part of the image.



Alrighty, it appears that you understand the concept of cut, border, and add text. So, if you feel you're good with those simple things, we now move onto something alittle harder. If you still want to play around with them, go right ahead though. I won't stop you.

Anyways, next task: Scanlines.

http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/...lines-msp.html

^ Go follow that, and let's see what you come up with. This tends to be a much harder concept to understand then the others, so feel free to ask for help on any parts you don't understand. Or anything I did a bad job of explaining. Whenever you're ready, go ahead and give that a try.

In the first one, the bottom border isn't straight. There's a spot about halfway over that drops down a pixel. It's really not noticable unless you zoom in, so chances are that I would be the only one to catch it. Anyways, the only solution is just be careful when drawing lines.

oops

In the second one, I like the border you put on it. Very pretty and creative. Now look at the... right side of the sig. See that line on the very edge? You appear to have hit the edge of the picture. It's really easy to see on the darker skins. Anyways, the way to fix that is just to avoid going right up against the edge when you crop out part of the image.

I dont see that one, but ill trust you on it.

I dont see that one, but ill trust you on it.

No, don't trust me. Computer must've glitched, since it looks fine now.

Alrighty, are you gonna give Scanlines a try? (The link is in post #10.)

Alrighty, are you gonna give Scanlines a try? (The link is in post #10.

I have something else to do, but i will start at 5:15

If you want to go back and look at my previous works, heres a link My Work
or just search for me on photobucket.

1. Have you ever worked with Paint to do anything before?
Yes.

2. Have you found the icon to open up Paint on your computer?
Yes.

3. How old is your computer? Or basically, which version of Paint do you have? Is it Windows 98, Windows XP, Vista, or something else? (Yes, Paint has a few differences in it depending on how old it is)
Vista

4. If you've worked with Paint before, what're some of the things you've done with it?
Usually I just mess around with it, and do whatever makes me happy.

5. Do you have a way to upload images to the internet? (Photobucket or Imageshack and such)
Photobucket, MySpace, my Profile Picture.

EDIT: I see I am behind, I shall catch up.

6. What are some of the major things you wish to learn about? Is there anything you really want to focus on, or skills you have trouble with? Or are you new to it all?
Anything more there is to learn.

7. How much have you used the program? Have you figured out what different tools do, or are we starting from scratch?
I've been using for 2 years, occasionally spending hours at a time just messing around.

8. Do you have a version of Microsoft Word on the computer?
Yes.

9. Look for a Print Screen button on your keyboard. Does your computer have one? It might be written as PrtSc or so, but you should be able to hit that button and click paste to get a picture of what the window looks like. Can you find and make that button work? (Yes, it's an important key)
Found it! Then paste to Paint.

Mini-Link - Eww, Vista. Most annoying version of Paint, and yet the most useful. Welcome to my class.

http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/...ature-msp.html

^ First assignment, make me a simple sig. It sounds like you already know the basics, so you can ignore the tutorial if you wish. Just make a sig with a border and text. And post it here when you're done, of course.

Flavoi - No need to rush, I just wanted to make sure you were planning to get to it eventually.

I saw the first assignment DD123, I'm going to do the second one now.

Don't mean to question authority here, but instead of giving each individual person the assignments that they need, why not just edit the links into your first post?

Assignment 1: Borders / Text

I realized after I finished, it would be more interesting if the background was more than just plain white.
Assignment 2: Scanlines

I could have made the one a little bit brighter than the other.

DD123, you thought there wasn't much to teach me.
I learned a 100% easier way to resize my pics, and how to scanline...I guess I didn't know as much a s I thought.

Mini-Link -

DD123, you thought there wasn't much to teach me.

All I said was that if you already know alot about Paint then I might run out of new things for you to do.

I learned a 100% easier way to resize my pics,

You wanna know what I find absolutely crazy? If you resize a picture in Paint using Stretch/Skew, it goes gross and Paint quality. But, if you take the magify glass and zoom out, it resizes to almost the same quality of Word, but with possibly alittle more blur. But, long story short, zoom tool resizes better then resizing. Only on Vista, though.

Don't mean to question authority here, but instead of giving each individual person the assignments that they need, why not just edit the links into your first post?

Please, question all you want. I give assignments in posts for a few reasons. One is that it forces people to look at the thread. So if I commented on something else they did, they'll see it. Also, it means they won't start on something until they have the concepts from before it. A third reason is that I occasionally give different assignments, like when I asked a group of 4 students to remake my banner. Overall, it makes more sense to do things this way. And just that I generally prefer to see what someone's done before they start on something else.

Anyways, an assignment for you: Overlaying. Well, technically not overlaying. Changing opacity. There's a small difference. But it gives a similiar effect. And, uh, "Overlaying" sounds better then "Setting the Opacity to 50%".

http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/...-msp-word.html

^ Follow that. Please, make sure you use a picture with a background for this one. And feel free to take your time with it. Post it here whenever you finish.

Flavoi - See Post #12-ish.

Flavoi - See Post #12-ish.

Working on it. Ill edit when i finish.

Also, do you know if there is a way to change the place Paint looks for pictures first (default is my pics). I have the pics buried fairly deep, so this would be nice



I Know what i did wrong. When i pasted it in from Word it changed the size. I speant the last 20 mins. trying to firx my mistake, but now it wont work at all. Tomorrow i will start from scratch. (it looks cool though :p

Flavoi -

Also, do you know if there is a way to change the place Paint looks for pictures first (default is my pics). I have the pics buried fairly deep, so this would be nice

Well if you get the picture online, it's generally just fastest to copy/paste the picture into Paint. As for opening things, well, there's a section at the bottom of "File" with the four most recent things you had opened/saved in Paint. And I think, not entirely sure, that if you have a window open and you get something out of folder X, then go to open something else, it'll still start in folder X. If that makes any sense. But uh, as for a faster way, I'm not sure, and that's one of the things that's bound to be different based on which version of paint it is.

I Know what i did wrong. When i pasted it in from Word it changed the size. I speant the last 20 mins. trying to firx my mistake, but now it wont work at all. Tomorrow i will start from scratch. (it looks cool though :p

If you mess up the picture in Word, there are two options. The first is to copy/paste from Paint again. The second is to click "reset picture" on the picture toolbar. It's on the far right, I believe. That'll set the picture back to the original size. Alrighty, try it again and fix whatever mistake you realized you made. No point in me explaining what went wrong when you already know it.

Mini-Link - See Post #17.

(By the way, I'm trying to get into the habit of including which post number each person's last assignment was in. It gets insanely chaotic when there are a dozen students trying to flip through the thread for a specific post, so hopefully that'll make it easier to find things.)

I feel so bad for blowing right through these...
I have too much time on my hands is why.

EDIT3: Redone assignments below!

You know, I never would have thought of being able to do these tricks in MSPaint, these are pretty neat things to know!

EDIT: Um...yeah, LoL, I saw it.
EDIT2: I need a break from Paint.