Lesson Two
Lesson Three
Lesson Four
Lesson Five
Extra Credit Project
Initially I found that the MENU BAR, was a floating bar (I could move it anywhere on the desktop), but when I went to FILE>WORKSPACE>LOAD, and chose the DEFAULT WORKSPACE as suggested in the lesson notes, the MENU BAR settled into its usual position.
Exercise 1A -PSP8 Desktop Features - I familiarized myself with the Desktop Features: MENU BAR, STANDARD TOOL BAR, OPTIONS TOOL BAR, TOOLS BAR, and then the COLORS AND MATERIALS PALETTES, and also the STATUS BAR. The only thing I found missing here was the OVERVIEW PALETTE, and the LAYER PALETTE.....but I presume that these would only show if there was an image on the screen with which to work. I will check this out later. In the meantime, I opened them up from VIEW>PALETTES>OVERVIEW and >LAYER, and placed them at the bottom right of the screen. The only thing which I cannot see is the ZOOM TOOLS in the OVERVIEW PALETTE, but that again might be solved when an image is available on which to work. We will determine that when we get that far.
Exercise 1B -Setting Preferences - I checked out the "Setting Preferences" under FILE>PREFERENCES>AUTOSAVE SETTINGS. As requested, I turned on ENABLE AUTOSAVE, and I set it for 3 minutes. Under GENERAL PROGRAM PREFERENCES, I clicked on the UNDO TAB, and ensured that the ENABLE UNDO SYSTEM and ENABLE REDO SYSTEM were checked. Under the UNITS TAB, I set the default resolution at 72 pixels. Under the MISCELLANEOUS TAB, I set the "Recently used file to 10, and I turned off that annoying opening picture which shows as PSP8 is loading. I then closed and restarted PSP8. I checked out the FILE>PREFERENCES>FILE LOCATIONS window.
Lesson 1-2 - First New Image
Exercise 2A - Opening A New Image - Opened new image screen as described, and checked out the presets, dimensions, resolution, rastor, color depth, color background (had to uncheck transparency), color wheel, (and I set them for the requested settings), and I also checked out the texture panel.
Exercise 2B - Image Settings - Clicked Ctrl-N, and an "image settings" window popped up. I ensured that all the setting were incorporated into that window as requested in the lesson, and clicked OK. A "New Image" window popped up, but without the "Ruler", so I accessed VIEW>RULER, and a ruler appeared on the top and left of the "New Image" window. The MENU BAR, the TOOL BAR, and the STANDARD TOOL BAR (including the PHOTO TOOL BAR) got a bit more lively. But I had to go to VIEW>TOOLBARS>SCRIPT to get the SCRIPTING BAR to show.
Lesson 1-3 - Painting Tools - Paint Brush and Settings
Exercise 3A - Accessing the Paint Brush - OK, got the paint brush available, the cursor becomes a circle enclosing a "paint brush".
Exercise 3B - Foreground/Strokes/ - Background/Fill Colors - OK, got the Foreground/Stroke (it was mislabelled once as "Foreground/Fill" in the lesson text) to the 'strong red' requested, and the Background/Fill to the 'strong blue' requested. And I understand the uses for the left and right mouse button, and the alternating colour double arrow. 'Texture' is unchecked on the color wheel. And the 'All Tools' is checked in the COLOR PALETTE.
Exercise 3C - Paintbrush Settings - OK, got the Options Tool Bar/Ribbon familiarized. Except the "Density" description section of same seems to be missing.
Lesson 1-4 - Painting Tools - Paint Brush Characteristics
Exercise 4A - Choosing a Brush Tip - OK, I selected the default brush shape/type and unchecked the Variance setting, and clicked OK.
Exercise 4B - Brush Settings - Hardness - My result of that exercise is shown here.
Exercise 4C - Brush Settings - Step - My result of that exercise is shown here.
Exercise 4D - Brush Settings - Density - My result of that exercise is shown here.
Exercise 4E - Brush Settings - Opacity - My result of that exercise is shown here.
Exercise 4F - Brush Settings - Thickness - My result of that exercise is shown here.
Exercise 4G - Brush Settings - Rotation - My result of that exercise is shown here. But this latter exercise result is obviously not right. The brush stroke did not rotate, no matter what setting I adjusted it to. Help!
Lesson 1-5 - Saving Your Graphics
Exercise 5A - Saving a PSP File - Nag, nag, nag.
Exercise 5B - Saving Graphics for Presentation on the Web - This has been accomplished as shown in the last lesson.
Exercise 5B-1 - Saving a Graphic in a .GIF Format - The "GIF-Optimizer" is certainly a wonderful simple tool to reduce the size of GIFs for Web-use.
Exercise 5B-2 - Saving a Graphic in a .JPG Format - Here is a photo (using the JPG-Optimizer) of one of my Basenjis, an 'African Barkless' called "Chyrolas Adimu Aina, JC, CGC, CD, TD, TDX", uh...."Adi" for short.
Lesson 1-6 - Power of the Paint Brush
Exercise 6A - Variations of the Plain Paint Brush - Results of this exercise.
Exercise 6B - Spiky Brush Tip with Variance Additions - Results of this exercise.
Exercise 6C - Switching to Another Brush - Showed us how to get our default settings back.
Lesson 1-7 - Adding Text to your Graphic
Exercise 7A/B/C - Adding Text to your Graphic - All three exercises ended in a navigation button which looks like this. Nice, eh? Now, how did you know I was Canadian?
Lesson 1-8 - Combining Techniques for Homework
Here is an examples of combining things we learned this week. First of all, Eugene Button, but I think you lost me on the "rotation" thingy. Mine does not seem to be working. As a result of the second exercise, my sleepy tiger is what I get.....no swirl/rotation.
Exercise 2-1A - Properties of Picture Tubes - Here are some fruits, if you will pardon the expression.
Exercise 2-1B - Uses for Picture Tubes - The URL given at the start of 2-1B must be out-of-date, since clicking on it brought up the JASC store. Searching through their website, I came upon http://www.jasc.com/support/kb/articles/psp8components.asp which provided two resource packs that one could download. When attempting to download them I found that the first pack was already on my computer, but the second (and largest) provided many more Picture Tubes to add to my Tube Collection, including one which Rollie mentioned last week at the end of the last part of Lesson One: "ancient corrosion".
Here are a couple of my doodlings to end off this unit: A mouse button, .....And something to celebrate!
Lesson 2-2 - Picture Tube Graphics and Effects
Exercise 2-2A- Have Fun with Picture Tubes - Here is my version of the Yellow Roses Signature. I tried all of the other tools teamed up with the Sharpen TooL but really did not like any of them. Actually the first two did not seem to do anything at all, the Smudge seemed to erase, the Push seemed to misalign, the Soften did the opposite of sharpen, and the Emboss gave it a messy metalic and grey look.
Exercise 2-2B - Picture Tube Divider Bars - Tube division bars and a Sig Block".
Exercise 2-2C - Picture Tube Color Change - a sample of the hue up/down.
Lesson 2-3 - Introduction to Layers
Exercise 2-3A - Layer Elements - OK, to this point, this is what I got in the primary layer elements.
Lesson 2-4 - Completing Layered Graphics
Exercise 2-4A - Make Many Graphics from One Layered Image - Here are the samples of three layer images shown in the lesson: example one layers, example two layers, and example three layers.
Exercise 2-4B - Make a Copy of the Original - copied, resized, sharpened, and text added.
Exercise 2-4C - Cropping The Image - cropped image.
Exercise 2-4D - Merge Layers - merged layers with text.
Lesson 2-5 - Preset Shapes
Exercise 2-5A - Introduction to Preset Shapes - A bit of confusion here in the use of the term "Retain Shape" instead of "Retain Style" a couple of times through the lesson.....but I am sure that we all understand.
Exercise 2-5B - Practice with Shapes Create as Vector Un-Checked - A couple of doodlings: here, and here.
Lesson 2-6 - Preset Shapes
Exercise 2-6A - Preset Shapes Created as Vectors Retain Style Checked - Vector Graphic # 1.
Exercise 2-6B - Preset Shapes Created as Vectors Retain Style Unchecked - Vector Graphic # 2.
Exercise 2-6C - Practice Altering Shapes and Perspectives - Presets # 3, and deformed brass flower.
Exercise 2-6D - Text on a Preset Shape - Preset With Text # 1, Preset With Text # 2, Preset With Text # 3.
Lesson 2-7 - Pen Tool
Exercise 2-7A - Pen Tool Basics - I was quite confused here with the term "Background/Fill Turned Off" used in the lesson (I never knew that you could do that), until Shirlee let me in on a secret (to me, anyway): you can turn off/on the Foreground/Stoke or Background/Fill usage by clicking on the "Transparent" button under either of the colour blocks in the "Materials Palette". Thanks, Shirlee.
Exercise 2-7B - Segment Types Line Segments
Exercise 2-7C - Segment Types - Point to Point, and Abstract
Lesson 2-8 - Freehand Pen Tool and Homework
Exercise 2-8A - Freehand Pen Tool with Curve Tracking - Contiguous Off, and Contiguous On
Second Week Homework - Here are a few doodlings for this week's HW... Mars Button, Falling "Leafs", Creepy Crawly divider. Can anyone tell me how to obtain a "screen shot" as mentioned in the class lesson? I would have liked to have put up the 'Layers Window' to go along with "My Messy Desk", and Panda In Danger. This latter one used some 10 or 11 "layers", just to be on the safe side. But I am sure that it could have been done with fewer. To finish off this week's Lesson 2, here's another bit of doodling..... Broken Heart. This one started out as a freehand line pen drawing, but finished with some added text.
Exercise 3-1A - Isolating the Photo Subject - Because of lack time this week, I D/L'd the photos which were offered to us from throughout lesson 3.....the first one called "pic1lg.pspimage". And then I worked with it following the instructions provided in the lesson.
Exercise 3-1B - Final Resize.
Lesson 3-2 - Automatic Photo Enhancements
First, I chose a portion of the previous photo.
Exercise 3-2A - Automatic Color Balance - Added.
Exercise 3-2B - Automatic Contrast Enhancement - Also added.
Exercise 3-2C - Automatic Saturation Enhancement - Also added.
Exercise 3-2D - Unsharp Mask - and with this, the result was this.
Exercise 3-2E - One-Step Photo Fix - I used the same picture portion from the beginning of the lesson, and the result was this. And another was an old out-of-phase 'retirement party' picture of a dog breeder friend of mine. But I think I overdid the "Sharpening Brush" quite a bit on the face. I also wanted to try lightening a sky/water background to these racing Basenjis.
Lesson 3-3 - Additions to Photos
Exercise 3-3A - Add Picture Tubes - A castle of dreams/nightmares.
Exercise 3-3B - Applying Text - A dreaming elephant.
Exercise 3-3C - Framing a Picture - A framed kitty.
Lesson 3-4 - Basic Photo Fixing
Exercise 3-4A - Clone Tools - "Free At Last" and "Unwired Camel"
Exercise 3-4B - Red Eye Correction - "red-eye corrected girl" and "red-eye corrected kitty"
Lesson 3-5 - Quick Photo Fun (& Homework)
Exercise 3-5A - Effects - "Flower # 1 with brush strokes", "Flower # 1 with magnification", "Flower # 1 with page curl", "Flower # 2 with fur texture", "Flower # 2 with wave effect", and "Flower # 2 with kaleidoscope effect".
Week 3 Homework - Framed Photo: Here is a photo of a framed Basenji dishwasher.
- Additions: this is not really additions 'to a photo', but I liked this little bunny blowing up one of his treasure trove of bubblegum.
- One Step Photo Fixing: Here is the orignal "unfixed" photo, and the same with "One Step Photo Fix".
- Photo Fixing: Here is a photo of a Basenji with his leash, and the same photo with the leash removed. And here is a photo of my brother and our mother from 1925, which I cropped, edited out minor imperfections, and enhanced in various ways.
Lesson 4-1 - Layered Picture Tube Bouquet
Exercise 4-1A - Picture Tube Bouquet - Daisy Bouquet # 1
Lesson 4-2 - Coloring and Enhancing Bouquet
Exercise 4-2A - Color Changing - Here are some posies for my teacher. I could not afford to give her an "Apple"; those "Macs" are far too expensive.
Lesson 4-3 - Layered Photos
Exercise 4-3A - Straightening a Photo - Here's my attempt at straightening the collumned building. And thank you, 'Eagle', for the album of sky images.
Lesson 4-4 - Introduction to Masks
Exercise 4-4A - Using Masks - Don't trust tigers with masks...... Masked Tiger # 1, Masked Tiger # 2, Masked Tiger # 3, Masked Tiger # 4, and even a Double-Masked Tiger # 5.
Lesson 4-5 - Finish Masked Photo
Exercise 4-5A - Patterned Mask - Here is the framed/masked Daisy Portrait, and the framed/masked Elephant Portrait. I left the white background in this latter instead of the blue sky-like fill. I just thought it gave it a little more lightness and contrast, since I had thickened up the drop shadow quite a bit. Just a personal choice.
Lesson 5-1 - Flood Fill Tool Interaction
Exercise 5-1A - Flood Fill Color, Gradient, and Tolerance - An example of Flood Fill Color, Gradient, and Tolerance.
Exercise 5-1B - Flood Fill Color, Gradient, and Opacity - An example of OP: 25% filled 3 times Flood Fill Color, Gradient, and Opacity.
Exercise 5-1C - Gradeints with Tolerance and Opacity - I found this exercise results very light in effect. Almost could not see the effect at all.
Exercise 5-1D - Patterns with Flood Fill - A Pattern with Flood Fill.
Lesson 5-2 - Warp Tools - Mesh Warp
Exercise 5-2A - Mesh Warp
Exercise 5-2B - Making A Cat - Cat Face
Lesson 5-3 - Warp Tools - Warp Brush
Exercise 5-3A - Warp Brush - Here is a Warped Daisy
Lesson 5-4 - Downloading Filters/Plugins
Exercise 5-4A - Download and Install Plugins - I downloaded the plugin from Visman Filters.
Exercise 5-4B - Using Visman Filters - and then I tried using them without success. Every time I tried to access them (and apply them to my work), a warning window popped up saying "Paint Shop Pro was unable to load the requested plug-in filter. The plug-in may not be installed properly or may be missing files. (plugin: mosrp 8bf)" Therefore I was not able to work on the assignments for this section of the lesson.
But Shirlee came to our rescue...she supplied (from her organization's website) a link to one file which I was never told about, and I downloaded and installed it, and it worked. Thank you, Shirlee. So here are some images using the Visman filters, and following the instructions in the lesson... number 1, number 2, number 3, number 4, and number 5.
Thank you, Lan, for the Grapho Maniac website which you listed in the Discussion Board. Neat site for a lot of things for PSP.
My time is getting distressingly short this week, and because of the slowdown on this last problem, I wish to get started on my Homework and Exam slogging. Best wishes to all in your attempts.
Homework or Exam follows
Extra Credit Exercise - Well, I really slugged it out overnight, and this is what I came up with.....a Golf Ball Dilema. I hope you enjoy it. And see you back next term. Have a good Summer.
Any additions &/or corrections to the material on these pages will be
gratefully considered, and should be sent to...... Donald Parkes .
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