axxa

Anyone know where I can find good tutorial's for using this program? Just got it last night. Seems to have alot of neat features just understanding them and using them is another task for me. Thanks
Below is my first stab at making a sig

Dante Moradis

I work in CS all day. The video tutorial that comes with it is good, but only for folks with experience using the programs. If you're new to graphic artistry, I'd suggest a class. New Horizons is one of the places near me that offers solid training. You can also email me with any questions, I'm quite the fount of knowledge...

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Sanchek

Sigs need to be within 600x150px. Show him how to use the resize feature first.

Akom of Cazic Thule

If you have any experience with Graphics Arts programs, just start playing with it. I love photoshop, and am self taught. Then again... I started using and learning how to exploit MS Paint on windows 3.1 when I was 8 hehe.

Here's a test for ya. Do you know what layers are? If the answer is no, take a class. If the answer was yes, but have no idea how to use them, you might still consider taking a class. If you know how to use layers, then you'd probably be ok getting some how-to's or watch some video's like Dante suggested.

If you are picking it up as a hobby, I'd say just play around with it. Check out what each feature does and think about how you could use them in the future. LEARN YOUR SHORTCUT KEYS. They are beyond helpful and time saving.

Oh... here's a "Photoshop" I did for fun the other day. Its my Zippo.




But... everyone is always super critical of their own work. In hindsight, looking at this I really should have put a left back leg in the picture... looks odd without it. I guess some probably wouldn't have noticed, but the best looking photoshops come from people who can see these things as they work on it. I'm an amature compared to people who do it for a living.

Gekster

Just start using the program for simples things that you would normally use windows paint for, even if you takes you 4x as long. After you get down the basics, learning many more of the features of the program goes pretty fast.

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Gekob

Tranzure

My boss is a huge asshole...wait...I meant he's a huge believer in teaching yourself how to do stuff. Stuff you learn how to do on your own, you will retain.

I believe that you can speed up this process by attending a *quality* course. Not one of these 3 day seminars that companys are so fond of these days.

If you really want to learn how to use the program to it's fullest potential, take an acredited course. A long one.

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Tranzure
Enchanter
Vallis Aspectus

Bylimet Spiritwalker

Heh, I like the Zippo

I have kicked around the idea of trying some of the programs like Photoshop, but seeing the replies here, I am deciding for now to save my money. Besides which, I have no web site anyway for storing a sig or pics. That is also pretty much a prerequisite for having sigs and such, isn't it?

(See how much of a serious novice I am to this stuff)

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Tranzure

Hey, don't let what I said disuade you. It's totally worth it and quite entertaining. (if you're a dork like me)

Anyway, free image hosting exists. http://www.photobucket.com/

Great for stashing sigs and such. Not so great for hosting all the images for an entire Web site. Unless you don't have a lot of images. But then, if you ever reach your max bandwidth usage, you site would look real funny with their little "You used too much bandwidth this month, dork" messages all over your page.

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Tranzure
Enchanter
Vallis Aspectus

Akom of Cazic Thule

By the way... while Photoshop is one of the most advanced and complete photo-editors, there are a number of very powerful free tools that you could use. The ability to use layers is one of the most powerful parts of any high end photo editor, and I believe both of these support that:

Paint.net (Designed as a powerful replacement for MSPaint)

Serif PhotoPlus 6.0 (Also lets you create animated gifs simply by manipulating layers, something that even Photoshop dosen't do)

Oh... another couple notes... Paint.net is still considered a Beta program, I believe, so it may have some bugs. Feels pretty complete though. Expect updates to be released periodically.

On the Serif software, it requires you to register, and I don't know if they spam your email address or not, but I would still suggest using a "spam" account. They mail you your activation key when you register. Registration is free.

If nothing else, these will help you to get a feel for what a powerful photo editor can do without having to shell out the dough, then if you find that you need some particular features found in Photoshop later on down the road, you'll feel more comfortable in your investment, knowing you'll be able to take advantage of it.

Bylimet Spiritwalker

Thanks for the tips.

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