Photo-editing question from a novice

gufcfan

Hi guys, I only usually take a quick look through this section to see your handywork, but I need some advice on how to do something...

I have made some pencil cartoon sketches that I wish to convert to digital.

By digital I don't mean scanning. I have scanned them and what I have done is, trace over the lines of the cartoon with mspaint so that the cartoon is clearer and obviously slicker looking for being on the internets...

What I need is for the original image in the backround to dissappear, leaving me just with the bold lines I drew using the original as a guide.

I dont need someone to just do it for me either, as I would like to know how to do it for future reference.

This way i can just use the "fill" tool to colour in the drawing or whatever.

Im not very knowledgeable when it comes to graphics editing so, any references to photshop features will be lost on me.

If it does happen in mspaint, gufcfan doesn't know how to do it.

I just downloaded paint.net if any of you know how to do it in that.

I think I have GIMP aswel on pc.

Cheers lads

forbairt

If you're starting from scratch then I think that http://www.getpaint.net/ has what are called layers.

A layer is basically a layer ... you'd put your original image on one layer ... lock the layer so you couldn't alter it ...

Then you'd create a new layer on top of this and make your lines on this layer.

Gimp has a similar feature ...

I've not used paint.NET or mspaint (as such) so I can't be more specific sorry

There is also Inkscape ... which depending on your files might be a better idea
Its a vector based graphics package (means you create shapes and lines that are easily altered ... a line can become a curve .. .. a shape can scale up.

Hope thats of some help (its late on a saturday I may not be too coherent )

gufcfan

thanks forbairt.

That is very helpful.

I had a rough idea of what layers where used for before but never used them.

I will try doing it with paint.net.

I knew about layers but never thought to lock one and then create another on top.

Obviously that is what I wanted to do but I would not have been able to explain it like that.

Cheers. I'll post a quick thumbnail or 2 of how its goes after a while, if I have no further problems.

gufcfan

thanks forbairt,

i seem to have gotten the hang of the layers thing.

Just the basics mind.

Enough to get me by.

Cheers

forbairt

no worries all part of the service :P

I remember when I started with graphics I never went near layers ... had absolutely no idea what they were apart from another window. Once I realised what they were ... I went wow .. thats exactly what I need.

Fire up a thumbnail when you're done

gufcfan

Another question...

Im drawing lines over the original in the second layers.

But when I draw the lines i'd like to have lots of points at which I can reshape the line, rather than a default 4 or something.

Does anyone know what the name of doing such a thing would be called or how to do it.

I have some complicated curves that I am drawing across and in order for it to look fluid it really needs to be drawn in one go.

Get me?

forbairt

Inkscape might be good for this ...

It'd be Add new Nodes

Photoshop it'd be Add new Anchor Points

gufcfan

At this point I think I should add that I am never going to use mspaint again...

It was the only thing I knew how to use.

LOL

gufcfan

That is the end product.

A bit rough around the edges, but not bad for a first attempt.

I'm going to do a few more Irish soccer cartoons around the Simpsons theme and then move on to trying my own character designs.

Have to say that i'm very happy with that.

Thanks to forbairt for the tips on layers.

I never figured out how to add extra nodes or anchor points.

I went through the help files on their web, but it doesnt make reference to nodes. It does reference anchor points but not in the sense I expected.

No matter. I think I'll do some basic tutorials on the site to figure out a bit more, and just for general knowhow.

gufcfan

I'm using paint.net for now, but if I was to keep at the graphics editing, would it be better for me to change to something else now in the long run or is paint.net sufficient for most things?

forbairt

I'd probably say get yourself Photoshop ... but it would really all depend on what you are doing and what your budget is ... Photoshop has a fairly hefty price tag attacehd it is however the industry standard for most graphics.

Gimp and the alternative gimpShop ... might be of some interest. I tried to get to grips with Gimp when I wanted to go over to linux full time .. I just couldn't get used to it. Maybe it was being so used to photoshop maybe its just that the UI isn't as nice as Photoshops. (I can't remember if I got GimpShop working for me I don't think so though. Its basically a hacked version of Gimp that gives more of a feel of the photoshop UI.

sineadw

I think for what you're doing a vector based program such as Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator would be way better. Photoshop and the likes produce bitmap images, which when scaled will pixelate - go all grainy. It takes a while to get into vector images if you're coming from a photoshop type background (I'm still hating it most of the time.. ) but for your needs it would be perfect. Its a matter of getting used to the pen tool. There are lots of great tutorials out there

Inkscape is open source, (illustrator costs a bloody fortune ) and the windows version (making assumptions you're windows with the MS paint reference) is available here

Nice start though

gufcfan

Another question from the novice.

Any tips on how to warp selection. Like if you have a graphic and you want to bend it into a different shape, so that if you put it onto a backround that isnt flat, like an item of clothing, it will look good???