Anorter try with a change to the eraser. Rich
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Anorter try with a change to the eraser. Rich
Illumination of the lower wing by erasing the application of light in the dark areas and allowing light to remain in the lighter areas.
Rich
thanks for the explanation of the blue, blank butterfly--Rich. understand this well. clipart;this is what I've been working on with X.
have no idea what Drifter's "intersect shapes" are, but do need an explantion of what is/how to make -- light caster (sounds and looks like your using a shape and intending to cast light on it). for the eraser what application are you using (as you know I cannot get my X eraser to work on freehand)
Ive been missing from the site here some cuz very tired, lately. your honest evaluation of the use of white on my "water" is appreciated. I'll see how it goes for me.
very nice sea scene. but you got me on this bird (piper or similar type family would be my guess) very unfamiliar with sea/beach birds. will have to look it up in my bird books--but I'll enjoy that:D
This Erase Blending Mode is done in Expression. I made a color and a grayscale stroke. The color stroke was placed on a layer in back. The grayscale stroke was placed on a layer in front. As a grayscale stroke, the the white becomes transparent. The gray becomes a variation in transparency. Erase Blending depends on transparency. I applied light strokes under the erasing stroke. Where the erase stroke is dark, erasing occurs. This is a non destructive method, and things can be moved about. The light strokes were grayscale stokes, too. Therefore, they can be colorized. The dark areas in the erasing stroke eliminate the light.
Rich
Rich, about your bird:
this is a large and difficult group of wading birds to id from; even more so when you have very little experience with this group as I do. definately is in the sandpiper family (Family Scolopacidae--61 species in N. America)
your photo gave me very good important info: 1. the bill is medium long, straight, black 2. the bill is broad at the base and gray 3. the bird has a short 'white eybrow' 4. the bird had an incomplete white 'eye ring' 5. a 'black mark thru the eye' 6. a white belly 7. all other colors appear indistintive (gray or buff-brown) 8. it appears the legs are straw yellow or yellow-greenish in color
what your photo cannot tell me is also alot of informaion--for example the size. what are the color/marks on the back from the top of head down to the tail. any important markings during flight or pecular behavoir....etc.
based on the info I have I feel fairly good in saying that it's most likely a:
Willet--if it is 14-16inches in size and tends towards buff rather than gray. but if this is so the legs should be more blue/gray than yellow. how accurate is your color?
Wandering Tattler --if it is about 11inches in size and tends towards gray. the color of the legs in your photo would then be accurate. best I can do unless you get a photo of the same bird in flight (in flight there is a distinct difference between these two). birds are still in their winter plumages and don't yet have the more distinct, colorful breeding plumages
hope you enjoy
nance
The shots were early moring before any good lighting. The birds are more like 11 inches tall. As I remember, their wings had black and white markings in flight. Rich
Pelicans at Natural Bridges. I separated the foreground from the sky, and replaced the sky background (Xara). Rich
you know, it's almost march. I don't know how long/quickly it takes birds to put on their colors. typically the one's I see are already in their colors...so perhaps your giving me older photo's;) ...
your pelican photo is breeding season with one adult and one immature. the other birds are cormorants--double crested I believe with at least a couple juveniles. the second picture is definately a Willet--you observed the critical mark of bold black and white on wings in flight (here there is no yellow in the legs). the lovely sandpiper is either a sanderling or one of the 'peeps' (western or semipalmated most likely but part of the bill is hidden in the sand?)--a sanderling is known as the 'wave chaser' and will also have more bold black & white when flying
I never thot of using the eraser in the fashion as you described. interesting idea.
I won't be back on the site for a bit--too tired. thankyou very much for sharing your birds
nance
The image data from the pelican photo was February 10 2005. I photographed them the first time I photographed Monarchs. The Monarch file data matched the date. An older photo, but at the same time of year. Rich
Bird object drawings that I used to extract the images. Rich
Rich, since your post #89 here's some things I've learned:
pelicans keep the same plumage thruout the yr---only during breeding their cinnamon neck and nape get more intense. other possibilities: 1. some birds are not connected to seasonal changes--particulary in temperate down thru tropics, and will breed thruout the yr.. 2. birds that get larger in size take longer to mature. for ie--bald eagles don't get their complete white head until approx. 4yr old. they are immatures and don't breed until then. wouldn't be surprised if pelicans are immature for awhile. don't know about the cormorants; inclined to think they mature in their first yr.. these can be birds about to see their first spring or they might breed thruout the yr and these are juveniles.
can't open your .xar file. will try again another time
nance
I saved the file from the forum and was able to open it. Don't know why you couldn't open it.
We are just back from the beach. No birds in sight. It was low tide and we went shell looking. No shells either. Mook and Kai needed to run on the beach before it rains again.
Rich
Nance, Did you right click on the file name and use save target as to save the file to disk. Then open the file in Xtreme. Just a thought.
I'll have to look at the pelicans more closely.
Rich
an experiment with one of Rich's butterflys (used with permission)
I couldn't open your .xar file cuz my X is temporarily 'down'
nance
Rich, here is a scan of bird silhouettes (shore birds) taken from one of my bird books. the extractions that you are using--straight from your photos--are exactly what these are (non-graphically speaking). one of the first ways of id-ing a bird is by seeing its Sill-O-ette. you can id a bird without ever seeing any color becuz bird postures/profiles by species are always the same.
4. cormorant (flight)
5. loon (flight)
6. great blue heron
7. mallard
8. pied-billed grebe
9. marbled godwit
10. greater yellowlegs
11. dowitcher
12. clapper rail
13. whimbrel
14. black-bellied plover
15. turnstone
that looks like a very very OLD rock layer. looks like it has a fossile folded into it?? where's that from?
oh, about your bird extractions. the extraction in the far upper right corner, the one you used and posted a page or so earlier in this thread...I'm curious about this one becuz you've got a G.B. Heron in yours, but this is the Sill-O-ette of a crane. remember herons fly with folded necks and cranes fly with neck fully extended---that is IF you want your birds to be realistic
Thanks Twidder,
That was a bird from two images. The one standing in the grass, and one flying. I added the legs. Didn't know about the neck. Maybe some image warping. Rich
oops, sorry, need to fix my own mistake: if you are intending to change your extraction from which you combined two others others from---also the beaks for both crane and heron are extended as well
nance
I was intending to warp the image to change the neck.
The rock image was at Davenport Landing. Years ago ships were loaded with cement for transport. The cement plant is still active.
Rich
that's neat how you can 'warp' something in the manner you're showing. I wouldn't know--yet--if psp has any comparable feature to do that
that looks much better for the heron. you have an excellant photo of your own to interpret from--the one where you caught the heron just as it appears to be taking off. now, can you warp to pull the bill up straight, then try pulling the entire head/neck back towards the body some?
here is a sketch of G.B. heron in full flight. you are welcome to download this. maybe you have the ability to change the perspective to more of an overhead viewpoint(??)
nance
here's my first attempt at simulating your extraction (got the bill wrong---a few other parts as well--- and don't know how to change it except for doing the whole thing over). could only place it on another layer. suppose if need be I could float it and use in another image that way(?)
used the photo from one of my bird books of the Willet
nance
I didn't see an equivalent warping function in PSP. There is a plugin for PI, but it isn't that good. I used the warping grid in Expression. That capability would be in E3.3 the free MS download.
I drew an object in Extreme for the Willet. The tools make this very easy.
Rich
oh, MUCH nicer job on the willet than mine! gonna have to take a look at that E3.3 freebee...
the experiment with Rich's butterfly, continued:
nance
Th butterfly was changed using the free AutoFX plugin Dreamy. I made a grayscale mask, and applied the effect to the background. The plugin runs standalone of with a host. It may work with PSP. There is a Mosaic plugin that is free, too.
With AutoFX plugins, you load a grayscale image as a mask.
Rich
the metamorphis of Rich's butterfly.......
Rich, don't know what Auto FX --Dreamy is? did look at the expression free downloads and unfortunately all have system requirements beyond my capabilities. will be getting new computer sometime this yr, tho. hope to be getting X back up soon
in meantime, I could try using my mask feature in psp to do what you did with the butterfly(?)
nance
http://www.autofx.com/freeplugins/dreamyphoto.asp?id=1
http://www.autofx.com/freeplugins/mosaic.asp?id=20
I have E3.2 installed and it will run on a minimum of Win95. I expect 3.3 will do the same. EGD(E4 requires XP with SP2). I have read it will run of SP1, also.
Rich
thanks Rich. will check out the links another day. don't think I saw E3.2; will check that out as well. what I read was about Expression having the capability to do lots of customizing---just as you have demonstrated. love to have that (sooner or later). will continue to see what I can do with transparent/extraction files as discussed
nance
E 3.2 was the last Creature House released version before the Microsoft take over. E3.3 is similar except it is a non expiring trial version. I think there are a few minor differences. E 3.3 download includes the manual as well. E 3.2 isn't available any longer, but E 3.3 will do the same things. Rich
Rich's butterfly turns into a painting (the experiment continues)
wow, this was a blast!!!:) :D:D :) first time I've ever used the free download Art Rage. now this is REAL digital painting--the feel, the pace. all mouse'freehand'. never tried oil in the natural medium or pallete knife; so not entirely sure how these tools (oil techniqe w/p knife) are used-- but it was SO MUCH fun. saved it to a png file, maybe should've tried another format
I've now included the same image with .bmp format. (not sure if there is any difference)
http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage/html
I'll have X back tomorrow...been watching the demos on the web site and found them very helpful
nance
File sizes. BMP 675KB, PNG 326KB & JPEG 35KB
JPEG may have been a better format for file size. I didn't see any difference in image quality.
I use 32 bit PNGs when displaying an image with transparency. Your image was 24 bit. I thought PNGs compressed a little better.
Looks like fun.
Ten days of pounding rain with thunder here.
Rich
typically I use png becuz of the transparancy quality. don't have a bmp optimizer to compress the image. for photos I use jpeg, but have been less than satisfied using jpg on artistic renderings
after staring at the two for awhile I did notice a difference: in the darker blu patches one has darker values than the other. don't know if this causes the eye to 'see' the whole image as darker as adjacent colors can effect an image in how one 'sees' the whole---or if one format truly saved differently, or if it is that one is uncompressed(?) I'll take a look at the original .ptg (Art Rage extension)
I believe all my images are 24bit as I almost always use 16million+ color pallette. this is required in psp
you could try and send some of that moisture this way since this winter has put us back in the drought:(
nance
The 32 bit PNGs are 24 bit color and 8 bit alpha channel. So the alpha channel can have 256 shades of gray. There are a couple of other PNG types.
We have had 120 inches of rain in some years. Lots of mud, too. I sort of lived in a swamp for a while. The water was about a foot deep on the road. Actually had a river running through the garden.
Rich
oh. I don't think I knew that--that one format could have different types. the 32bit part--if you mean windows 32 that is what I have; but then don't know much yet about Art Rage
you might want to think about building a big boat--if you know what I mean:eek: stay safe
nance
24 bit color means 2 to the 24th power and is about 16 million colors.
8 bit means 2 to the 8th power or 256 colors (or shades of gray).
The alpha channel is the transparency. In AutoFX applications, the method of creating a mask is to use the alpha channel in Photoshop to make a grayscale image. That image is loaded as a mask.
Rich
A transparent image and associated alpha channel. I captured the image on a checkered background to show the transparency. Rich
yes, thankyou
good bug:p ...might want to invite him into your big boat. looks friendly:D
nance