Taking Requests

[Buster's Uncle]

So, I've had a little fun with this sort of thing in the past; does anyone have any art requests?

I'm known for my avatar work, and I've done a lot of smilies and sig art, too.

Of course, custom SMAC(X) faction art is best, but little easy jobs are great.  Any takers?

[Buster's Uncle]

BTW, another thing I like doing is lessons, so I'd be happy to talk anyone through anything I know how to do, or can figure out.  Hit me with your questions.

Teach a man to fish...

[Unorthodox]

Might have some teaching requests later. 

Tryong to update a page on my website, which means I need some mad photoshop stuff done. 

A collage (sp), specifically.  Any great hints on how to compose one. 

I also got to html code a new button/banner and forgot how the specifics of what I'm trying to do...gotta look that up. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Of course, I'll be glad.  A collage is easy in GIMP, tougher in Photoshop, but not hard.  What do you have?

Also, my html skills are pathetic, but I'm not totally helpless at building a page...

[Unorthodox]

Never heard of GIMP, we have photoshop elements. 

[Unorthodox]

here's the page my wife made last year using some digital scrapbooking template.



We have much better pics from last year to use, so it needs an update, and I was hoping for something less cookie cutter...

[Buster's Uncle]

Definitely doable.  The text is too big, thus too crowded...

[Unorthodox]

Well, she was constrained by the template.  I won't have that problem. 

[Buster's Uncle]

That's not comic sans, is it?  That font will launch a bunch of aspies on the net into fits of rage.

[Unorthodox]

No idea. 

New button. 

[Buster's Uncle]

What's it to do?

[Unorthodox]

Just a button for my website, links to the info page.  Not sure if you can BB code such a thing or not, and fairly sure html don't work here. 

I tried to upload my first attempt at a collage, and my image host absolutely refuses not to resize it to illegible, and I don't want to hotlink directly from my server as I'm not sure how the service would handle such a thing. 

Basically, I used the magic wand to crop and drag pics around.  Is there a simpler way, or perhaps a way to make the magic wand tool more precise (without me having to go painstakingly trace images manually).   

Also, what would be the best way to 'fade' the edges of a pic to black? 

It turned out "OK" but could definitely use an improvement. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Hmm. I could never get hotspot linking to work in Front Page and I've never tried in Kompozer.

[Unorthodox]

Oh, I do raw HTML, no fancy 'helper' programs.  Got it working fine.  Just don't know how to translate that onto the forum. 

[Buster's Uncle]

For display/demonstration/link to your page and maybe score some views purposes?  Like this:



What I did was load it to an album and img link from there.  Around that, I wrapped a hotlink - the button here only gives you [ url ][ /url ], but it's a simple matter to add the url, which looks like this:  [ url=http://alphacentauri2.info/My%20Custom%20Factions/Custom%20Factions.htm]

If you don't want to fool with an album, you can attach it to the post - and even link from the attachment using 'copy shortcut'.  AC2 does resize some images, but it's worth a try.  Now, if you're asking how to post an image with multiple working buttons embedded, I don't know how, or if it can be done.

Basically, I used the magic wand to crop and drag pics around.  Is there a simpler way, or perhaps a way to make the magic wand tool more precise (without me having to go painstakingly trace images manually).   

That's one of those things I use GIMP for; the controls on the magic wand are greatly more precise and it will let you drag a pasted-in bit around before you drop it in, which my copy of Photoshop won't do.  You can also fiddle with the size of your select box in GIMP, and don't have to get it right on the first try.  (I didn't see these questions when I posted yesterday.)

Also, what would be the best way to 'fade' the edges of a pic to black? 

I assume this is going onto a black background, and there's probably some way to do it with semi-transparency, but I don't know how.  What I'd do is work with two copies of the image>darken one maybe 80%, erase few pixels around the edges of the second copy, copy/paste the result over the first, darken the result maybe 10%, and repeat, darkening the result another 10%.