I have been waiting for a Dee tutorial since the day I was born. Congrats to Deeeeee, and great job on the interview and the tutorial! *runs off to photoshop to practice*

RAAAAH DEE! That interview and tutorial are SO GOOD. I've been wondering how you do that lens flare thing for FOREVER. And now I know! yay!

And no wonder your graphics look so good: You're a graphic artist in real life! So cool! Congrats again.

Hey hey graphics peoples

In addition to the competitions going on in this forum, there's also a graphics contest going on in the Professors' Fan Club if you all want to join

Heyyy!

I was wondering if anybody had any idea how to use these textures:

They're called "mask textures", and the set also came with mask brushes. Anybody have any idea what to do with them?

Thanks!

There are a couple ways that I use those the most basic is to set that layer to 'screen' or 'lighten' over an image you are using to make an icon. It pretty much "nullifies" the black part there and reveals the image underneath. Like this:


There are other things too - literally turning that into a mask layer over another texture to create other effects, and I believe you can find tutorials for that (and other things) online if you google

^^ That's what I was going to say. With any texture, I just scroll through each option (screen, overlay, lighten, darken, etc.) and pick which one I like best for the picture and adjust the opacity accordingly.

Ohh, thank you, Pixie and Sarah! So the white spot around the picture--is it typically left white, or are there other options for it? Or, is that basically what you were talking about, Pixie, with adding the other textures? Also, would the mask brushes basically work the same way?

Sorry for all the questions, but thank you two once again for replying!

To change the color of the white part, I would make a plain fill layer of whatever color you want it to be and then set it to color or screen or whatever to get the color on the white area. But since you want it only on THAT area, be sure to hold down the ALT button and click the line between the two layers (as you hold down the button and move your mouse over that line, two little circles will appear on your cursor so you know it's working!) That allows you to set that color layer so it ONLY affects the mask layer rather than messing up the coloring of your whole graphic! You can do this will any layer - so if you have a layer you want to add a texture to and you just want it on THAT layer, it'll work for that as well, or only one layer you want brightened or saturated, etc.

As for the brushes - I usually make sure I only download brushes that are actual BRUSHES so I can't say for sure, but I believe the brushes will work the same way, yes

Oh, okay! Thanks! I should have asked this a long time ago, because I've had the textures for about a year and a half and never used them. lol

I'm totally going to have to remember this one:

Cause i usually just have a transparent background, but to keep it that way it needs to be saved as png (unless there's another way i don't know about!) and png files are always soooo large So yea, totally need to remember this one with making the background the same as your SS profile

*loves all the tutorials and graphics and ALL the things in the forum*

I wiiish to become half as good as you guys are.

Also! I wanna use an avvie that's in an old grab-bag thread. So I suppose I just credit the maker, right? And like, thanks MeredithRodneyMckay for the awesome avatars. *_* *hopes she sees this, is likely to shoot a VM*

-returns from the proverbial dead-

Heeeeeeey. <3 Do any graphics peeps here use Photoshop CC? I'm pretty sure I'm going to bite the bullet and spend the $10 a month anyways, but I just wondered if anyone here had experience with it.

-luffs each and every one of yo faces-

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to let you all know that the site mods are having trouble getting into the "Submit Your Siggy Here" thread. We know a lot of you are waiting very patiently to get your new signature in, but we're working on a solution. We have our very best trying to figure out a way to get that thread to load for us, instead of just showing a blank page!

If you have any questions about a siggy you want in, feel free to PM any site staffer or school staffer on the signature mod list. Thanks again for your patience!

~Roro

Hello everyone!

The mods of SS decided to go ahead and make a new Submit Your Signature Here thread, since the majority of us were unable to get into the old one to see your posts. We believe this was caused by a build-up of too many people having "viewed" the old thread, although that's just a theory and we aren't sure of the real reason.



Long story short, go HERE to submit your siggy now, and all the same rules and everything apply!

Thanks for reading,
Roro

random question to everyone...because I am curious how everyone's process works...when you are making a set (siggy, PP, and avvy) WHICH do you start with and which do you end with? I've found that I HAVE to do things in a certain order or else I get totally disoriented

Siggy, avvie, PP. Always I think it's because the siggy is the one most everyone is going to focus on and see most often? So I find it most important to get the style of that one FIRST and build from there?

I also do siggy first! BUT OMG THE IDEA OF DOING AVVY BEFORE PP MAKES MY SKIN CRAWL I can't even put into words WHY but it just does my head in

I always do PP first. That one needs the most space and I can do siggies easier if I know for a fact that the model's entire head is going to fit on a PP.

*makes sense*

I always do the siggy first. And then usually the avatar, but sometimes the PP. It depends on where my head's at when I'm graphicking, but always the siggy first. Because then I base the general idea of the PP off the siggy.

Siggy > PP > Avatar.

ALWAYS the siggy first, though.