Jim, I know how people can be and it's a shame. Maybe because I never actually 'joined' in the forum before and I used my folk's CC for the actual purchase (I don't own a CC anymore, keeps me outta trouble :)

Anyway, here's the Logos I have so far. I use Poser, Bryce, Photoshop and other 3D apps. I'm a big time fan of RunTimeDNA and Traveler there has made some totally awsome mer-people and Syyd does a fantastic job in textures.

I have others but their not exactly appropriate for this forum I think, but when time permits I will deffinatly to more marine themes. I have a moray eel, bat ray, sea turtle, and others I have been dying to a project for as well as Judith at RDNA just posted some more great sea props.

Oh, I found I can get a good 'crystal etch' look by lowering the opacity of the image layer to about %65~%75 before flatening.

Here's Davey Jone's Locker

And just monkeying around, here is a real Sea Monkey!

And Mermanicus..

And Organica...

More availible later.

What the heck, I like the way this one looks and with Spiderman2 a big hit right now....

DAMN they're sweet . I like all of them . :TU: :TU: :TU: :TU:

I hope everyone had a great holiday!
Now that the fireworks are over I finished one more, actually it's a re-do of a tarot card I designed for The Bleak Journey (http://groups.msn.com/TheBleakJourney), a cyber world I joined a while back - and been negleting far too much lately..

Anyway Raven LaBell wants everyone to know that not all pirates are big, burly, hairy men; some are rough and rugged women too ;p
Hope you like her, for your sake...

And one last non-marine theme for the comic enthusiasts.
And please take a moment from your holiday to thank a veteran, if not for them things may be a lot different...

I just do not think women pirates should do battle with sword and no breast plate, after all the men wears one and no self respecting woman pirate would wear less.:D

Ah Poser... I love that program. Here's a comic hero render I made a while ago. Ready to go into your MAT2 folder :cool:

Wow - those are all beautiful.

I can't access the link Sandy posted though. Sandy, if I send you a pm with my e-mail addy would it be possible to mail me the .zip?

Also, Michael, is there a link to your LotR set? That one of Arwen is just stunning!

Also, Squier, would it be possible to post the ping for the Ice Age squirrel? A friend of mine is nuts about that critter, and she'd go mad over what you've done there! :)

Sorry about all the requests - I'm playing a little catch-up here! :)

Finally, to one and all:
:TU::TU::TU:

Here you go Wiz, if this don't work just send me that pm. :)

http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/4089b564...TL06ABrX7ne3Bs

Wiz, PM sent. :)

PSP guide
 

OK, here's the deal...

I've been kicking around this logo creation gig in PSP8 for quite awhile now but can't seem to get the hang of it. Has anyone come up with a streamlined process they are willing to share for creating logos in PSP?
I have my own project of roughly 24 logos to manipulate into MAT2 and could really use some direction.

Thank you kindly.

I guess since all the PSP experts won't do it, I've gotta download PSP, a program I've never used, and create a tutorial for it. Life is hard. :)

Hi, feldon28. Hope your tutorial will be really detailed so that newbies can benefit from it.

I'm a no expert on PSP but here's one way it can be done.

1) File->New Image and make sure the box near the bottom for 'Transparent' is checked and select your size, in this case 256x256.

2) Now create a new layer by clicking Layers->New Raster Layer (or by right clicking in the layer pallette and click New Raster Layer).

3) Now you have your base to resize your image and paste onto (keep it aprox 220x220 so you don't go off the edge of the crystal).

4) Now this is where I like to increase the Brightness and Contrast, more on the contrast and only a little on the brighness but every image will differ. Access these settings via Adjust->Brightness and Contrast->Brightness and Contrast.

5) Finally I also like to drop the Opacity of the image so it blends nicely with the crystal, I drop it just so the whole image (dark areas) can be seen through, you have to visualize a fish swimming behind the crystal. Lower the opacity by clicking Layers->Properties and adjust to about %62~%75 (also can be accessed by right clicking on the layer pallette and select Properties)

6) To save out the PNG click File->Save As and then scroll down and fing "Portable Network Graphic (*.png)', Do NOT select the first 'PNG' you see as the correct format is a little further down the list.

Hope that helps, like I said I don't do PSP much, mostly PSD.

I got 4 more done. A pair of Manta Ray and 3 scrubs of the sea. I'll try to do more sea life now but I have a pation for pirates, Arrr!
I don't want to hog the forum so I've zipped them up on my little free site, bandwidth is limited so if you start getting errors just let me know and I'll move them to another.
They're not zipped with paths so just unzip them to your own Marine Aquarium Time 2 folder.

http://home.earthlink.net/~igohigh4/png.zip

Not that we are offended, but this is a "G" rated forum.
Very artistic though, glad I got it before it may be deleted. :)

Then the admin should delete it, as quick as possible.

Done, sorry squire but pat is right.

No need to appologise for removing it. I just sometimes forget that as a collector of fine art and a aspiring artist, that some art pieces are not meant to be shown to every body. Maybe I'm getting blunted down to this kind of imagery and don't think that anything is wrong with displaying it, and not considering that other people may not apriciate this kind if images for the same reasons I do. So from now on I won't post any more mermaids. ;)

Just PM them to me! :)

and me too :TU:

igohigh - thanks, I will give your directions a whirl.

Feldon - I'm confident you will come to the aid of all who primarily use PSP, regardless of whether its your software of choice. There are a few of us who haven't yet been able to enjoy the full capacity of MAT2 due to not being able to figure out the logo creation process in PSP. Your time and efforts are much appreciated.

The same goes for anyone else who takes on this task.

Cheers!

igohigh - I followed your directions for PSP verbatim and was only able to get a little further than I had prior, which is fine b/c every little bit counts. Attached is a sample of the logo I created for MAT2 using your guidelines. When viewing in the SereneScreen the entire image (white box border and all) projects on the crystal. I've also had issues with getting the thing centered but perhaps that is a bit more trivial than getting it to work properly in the first place.

Anyone else please feel free to comment on what I'm not doing correctly so I can finally learn this process. Thanks so much to all of you for your help and guidance.

Did you try erasing the white?


Oh my God! Paint Shop Pro is a 55 MEGABYTE download? Photoshop is only twice as big -- 115MB. Jim sure likes to exaggerate...

The last one I downloaded was about 5 megs. I bought PSP 8 on CD, but I don't like it. I'm sticking with 7.

With the reliable help of my father I was able to get logos to work that were created in PSP. The directions posted earlier are almost identical to what we did, with a few minor exceptions noted below:
1. When saving as a PNG file you need to click "options" and select the "transparent" tab to make sure that your background is being saved with transparent properties
2. Maybe not a necessary step but I then went back to the folder where my image was being saved and opened it. This was to double check that the image was in fact saved with transparent properties.
For some reason PSP will not save an image with a transparent background (with any luck of keeping that important property) without also selecting the necessary options when saving the image as a PNG.
That was the big hang up that had me confused for the past several weeks. I should have consulted my father sooner.

That's right . Always ask dad :TU: :D :TU:

The last pirate for a while.
I sea ghosts...

spydrwebb; That's odd, I don't see a transparancy tab? But it worked here just as I stated...perhaps because I only have a trial version?
I wonder if perhaps you are starting with a solid background rather then a transparent base? Do you 'create' a new transparent image and then paste your image to it or try to create a transparent background from one that is not?
One thing to note is do Not collapse the layers before saving, even in PSD this will cause the background to go white (however PSD allows you to collapse one layer at a time all the way down, weird) perhaps PSP has some simular quirk about it. Try leaving the layers and just SAVE AS and the save will (should) create a single transparent layer.
Example would be the ghost pirate I just posted, it was three layers (bottom blank, ship what partially desaturated, and the ghost pirate fully desaturated - both with different opacity settings). Then I just did a Save For Web {PSD thing, just Save As in PSP} and it saved what you see here.

As for centering try this, a test pattern I made more centering mine. It's not very professional but it works.
It's already got a base transparent layer so just click the bottom layer and past yours so it's inbetween the test pattern and base, then align it (red shows where to stay within, black is Out) then delete the test layer and save -> Do Not flatten!!
http://home.earthlink.net/~igohigh4/pngtest.zip

Squier; I know the feeling as a LOT of my stuff is not sutable for the general public and I have to stop and think about where I am before posting something....I cringed after noticing I posted a mermaid but it was too late...oh well, next time she must get bigger sea shells! ;p

spydrwebb; I just tried it with your logo above and it worked. I'm kinda all thumbs in PSP so I could not quit duplicate the same layer properties as outlined in the posted PSD tutorial but it's close.
I've zipped three different versions for you; one greyscale semi-transparent, one full color, and one full color semi-transparent.

I'm not sure why yours is turning solid unless perhaps your trying to collapse the layers before saving....?

Here's your logo: http://home.earhtlink.net/~igohigh4/genslogo.zip

Hi all. I use PSP 8 (love that scripting it has) and I think the answer could be to look at the File menu, Preferences..., File Format Preferences, PNG.
The checkbox should not be checked, otherwise the transparency property goes into the Alpha Channel instead of showing up in the usual visible image. Might seem opposite of expectation.

Ok, PaintShopPro requires a really dumb process every time you want to save a transparent PNG. In Photoshop, it's a simple checkbox.


If you want to save a PNG with transparency in PSP, you must do the following steps:

1. Pull down the File menu to Save Copy As...

2. Type in a file name.

3. Select Portable Network Graphics (*.png) under Save As Type

4. Click the Options... button in the lower right corner.

5. Click the Run Optimizer... button in the window that appears.

6. Click the Transparency tab in the PNG Optimizer window that appears.

7. Select Alpha channel transparency.

8. Make sure Existing image or layer transparency is selected below.

9. Click OK.

10. Click Save.

If you try to save a transparent PNG without doing this method you will get this cryptic error message "Because of the limitations of the specified file format (and possibly the save options you've selected), the saved file will be limited to a merged image. Would you like to continue?".


The next time you save a transparent PNG, when you go through the steps above, you will see that all your defaults have been saved BUT you must still do this process for each and every PNG you save.

igo- I agree that its odd but that's what seemed to work for us, and what was necessary given all the things we tried. That merging characteristic you mentioned is exactly why I had to go through all those hoops with the transparency tab (sorry, it's actually not visible until you click on "run optimizer", I accidentally left this step out of my initial message). I would get an error stating that my current settings or preferences would have to be changed and PSP would merge the selection when trying to save it as a PNG. You're right, by merging everything the program loses its transparent background properties. Yes, I was creating everything with a transparent foundation but as mentioned, the program would change that by merging everything and in turn losing the transparent property of my image. Maybe I just repeated myself, sorry if that's the case.

REPLY TO URL
Here's your logo: http://home.earhtlink.net/~igohigh4/genslogo.zip

Tried to follow... link is broken and leads to a cannot find error - FYI.

Morgan was posting his linear directions at the same time I was clarifying the run optimizer situation... impeccable timing.

Thanks for clearing everything up, Morgan! Told you I had all due confidence...

My bad Spidrwebb, my keyboard misspelled Earthlink.
Here's the corrected link:
http://home.earthlink.net/~igohigh4/genslogo.zip

Hey - I am very new to this - I downloaded the PNG Packs and put them in the default directory and when I go into settings? Just the default clocks - What am I doing wrong? In case I can't find my way back here my email is meerupps@hotmail.com

Thanks to any that can help - I love the Garfield - they are all in the directory but don't show up in settings...