Amoran Kalamanira Kol

[quote name='darlec77' date='01 May 2010 - 07:50 AM' timestamp='1272718220' post='59066'] Interlased causes the GIF to act similar to an interlased JPEG: It splits the image into rows of pixels and and numbers them repeatedly e.g. 1-3,1-3 or 1-5,1-5. When the image is displayed in a browser the browser innitiates scans (how many dependes on the greatest numbered row). A scan is where the browser dispays rows of a certain number. The browser repeats the scans until the image is displayed at full quallity. At the first scan there the image is of low quality but after each scan it increaces in quality. The interlased JPEG/GIF ability is only normally useful if the file size is very lage and you want your user to be able to use(e.g image map)/see the image ASAP. Therefore in smaller file sizes interlasing a JPEG/GIF only increaces the file size and loading time. [/quote] Thank you very very much for explaining that. I've been playing with Photoshop for awhile and not once did I ever have any inkling of an idea as to what 'interlaced' was. @Irene: If you've got a tablet you can also just make a transparent canvas (upscaled of course) and do the avatar using the tablet. Its difficult to make it look hand-drawn unless you have a certain brush type (charcoal, natural, etc.). But yeah, tablets are fun and I'm glad it helped. @Sir Kamil: PM me what questions you have and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability.

[size=5][u][b]Photoshop CS3[/b][/u][/size] Before I begin, I would like to say that I have Photoshop CS3, every Photoshop version is somewhat different, but versions CS1 and CS2 may be similar to CS3. I am not certain of this. Not everyone will do this process the same as I do and not everyone has Photoshop. There are most likely simpler ways to edit the avatars, but this is simply the method I tend to use. [u]First: Cropping/Cutting[/u] When you open your picture, cut away a lot of the white space by cropping the main part of the picture. I do not use the crop tool usually, but instead I use the rectangular marquee tool. It works a bit easier and gives you some room to fix mistakes if you mess up. [u]Second:[/u] Cut and paste the selected canvas into a new area. [u]Third: Adjusting/Lightening and Darkening - etc.[/u] Then go to 'Image' and 'Adjustments'. You can adjust the image by either tinting the black space using the 'color balance' tool, or use levels to lighten/darken the image with the 'Levels' option. This helps with clarity when you resize. [u]Fourth: Greyscale[/u] Depending on how you have adjusted the image with color balance and 'levels', you can choose to use the greyscale option in the 'Image --> Mode --> Greyscale' tab. This will flatten the image. [u]Fifth: Remove flaws[/u] Now because I am picky, I usually go through using the eraser tool and remove any little splotches in the white area that may have come off with the graphite, but the white area will be removed soon anyway. [u]Sixth: Resizing[/u] Now you will need to revisit the 'Image' tab once more and go to 'Image size'. Be certain that the 'Constrain Proportions' option is enabled, otherwise it may warp the image. I normally start with the 'height' first as the width will automatically adjust when you enter the proper number. (In this case 160x100. But depending on how the image is cut, it will resize without warping it, thus it might leave it a bit off of the proper size.) [u]Seventh: Adjusting the Size[/u] Continue to remove as much of the white space as you can with either the 'cropping' tool or the 'rectangular marquee' tool. Be certain to open in a new window, adjusting the size of the new window to 160x100. Make sure that you set the 'Background Contents' to 'Transparent' when you make the new window. When you paste your picture, if the image is still not quite fitting in the window, go to the 'Edit' tab and choose 'Transform --> Scale'. You will see that the area is able to be manually adjusted, to keep the image shape, hold down the shift key as you adjust. [u]Eighth: Removing the White Space.[/u] BE CERTAIN THAT THE BACKGROUND LAYER IS REMOVED! If it is not removed, the image will not show up as transparent. Now that the image is in the center of the resized space, use the 'Magic Wand' tool to remove a lot, if not most of the outer white space. If you have shaded the image heavily, I would not suggest using the magic wand tool in the inner white space of the picture as it can take away a lot of the quality. Instead I would suggest upscaling the image to 300-600% (using the scaling area in the lower left hand corner) and manually removing the white space with the 'Lasso' tool and the 'Eraser' tool. [u]Ninth: Adding the MD Symbol[/u] Use the type tool and select a simple, clear font at around 2-10pts. depending on which font you use. I would suggest Arial, Tahoma, Comic Sans..etc. [u]Tenth: Saving as a Transparent GIF[/u] Go to 'File --> Save for Web & Devices' be certain to select the 'GIF' option. You can give it a dither but I've found that this tends to make the image look a bit scratchy, you can also click 'Interlaced' though I'm not entirely certain what that does. Sorry folks, that tiny bit I haven't figured out yet, but it doesn't appear to harm the image so, eh- I click it anyway. And last, hit 'Save' and name it. Finally, you are ready to upload the avatar. Tips:[list] [*]I would suggest keeping the image in the MD style, if you use too much shading the picture will look somewhat flat and be difficult to edit. The shading may come out looking strange and not give the desired effect as well, so I would stick to light shading or 'sketching' when making these avatars. [/list][list] [*]If you have a tablet, use it as much as possible, it makes this whole thing ten times easier. [/list][list] [*]You can darken/lighten in several ways in photoshop, there is also a tool called the 'Burn' tool that helps with darkening certain areas. So if you want some shading to stand out more while others you want to 'fade', darken certain areas with this. It will give your avatar a polished look. [/list][list] [*]Do not make the image too dark, if it is too dark it will look too contrasted against the textured background of MD. You can lighten the image by using 'Image --> Adjustments --> Levels or Brightness/Contrast'. Both work equally well. [/list] Again, not everyone will do this process as I do, and there are probably simpler ways.. but I do hope this helps for those of you who decide to go to photoshop.com and download the free trial. Not sure if it will help with the GIMP program that Yrthilian had suggested, I have never used that particular program before. If you know of easier ways to do this, please post them below. [img]http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif[/img] EDIT: Free TRIAL not trail. Stupid lack of sleep.

It is truly a sad day, one of our most proud, most passionate in Loreroot is going invisible. Those of us in the Eclipse were honored to have you serve with us, and we are even more honored to call you a friend (in game and out). Should you ever wish to talk to someone, you know very well how to get ahold of me.

Happy Birthday Burnsie!!!

I hope you know I wasn't trying to mock the artwork or anything, I have just had trouble with outlined shadows coming out looking somewhat similar to stickers. very flat and not quite so smooth.

That doesn't make any sense to me, why would it reduce to 1000 and sabotage all of your work? Why not just revert to the max limit of 4000? And Pip, yes, it's simple to get the principal charge back.

You do decent work. I am impressed Kamil. I do have a suggestion, take the shadows out of the pictures, they tend to not look quite so good if you leave them when you edit the images. (Its up to you really, that's just my opinion on it.)

I have a question about avatars and color. What if I wish to upload an avatar with gold (or another color) accents? Or perhaps put gold on my own and upload it to my vault?

Happy Birthday Clock Master!! I hope you have a good one

[quote name='Udgard' date='21 April 2010 - 11:32 PM' timestamp='1271910746' post='58392'] Ah.. that answers some things.. [/quote] Yes, yes it does.

Was it Karak's avatar? I am not certain he is willing to trade that one.

Congratulations Rendril! I have hope for you and I know you will do well.

Happy Birthday!

Pardon, Meru-chi was not a founding member but was one of it's earliest members. Logan also helped with founding the alliance.

Happy Birthday you two!!

Nelya's avatar says 'magic duel character' so I doubt that'll get removed. Dark Mystic and MysticSiren are active all the time, they just tend to go idle. ggseverin - active lupinus - active Ox Taurius the Red - active Dark Mystic - active braiton - active, but not often. lady renata - active, but not often. getschi - active Envy of Endurance - active, but not often. monsoon - active princek - active Aeoshattr - active MysticSiren - active kaiseryo - active, but not often the witch doctor - active, but not often assurancetourix - active Maybe there should just be an avatar gallery set up? Watermarked and such so none of the artwork can be stolen? @Seeker: Aleron was around not even 3-4 days ago. He sent me a pm. @Marvolo: I miss Morrel!

I did not know you well, but I thank you for helping to create the Children of the Eclipse. Happy Birthday Penny.

Happy April Fools Day, birthday Jester. Though the wishes are belated, I should hope you at least had a wonderful alcohol filled birthday.

[quote name='Chewett' date='30 March 2010 - 01:09 PM' timestamp='1269972548' post='57184'] No he didnt it was Steve Anyways, its a good question. The fact that the wall separates Necrovon and the other land leads me to believe that it may have been built by the beserkers whom sought to protect necrovons bad influence effecting more area. [/quote] Leave Steve out of this! That would make sense considering how aged and broken the wall actually looks. However, I'm not certain its a question of "Who", seeing as there is very little lore, if any, to base it on.

[quote name='Malaikat Maut' date='24 March 2010 - 12:27 PM' timestamp='1269451653' post='56852'] It sounds like the monitor is a CRT, in which case there would be no "pixels". Also, leaving electronics powered on is generally considered to be fine as they experience substantially less wear and tear than mechanical components, such as a motor. In fact, it may actually prolong the life because electronic devices tend to generate heat. Powering them off allows them to cool which could lead to condensation when they heat again. I agree with your prognoses though, Fenrir. Amoran, If you've tried that monitor on another computer with similar results, the only other thing I would have you try is to put a different monitor on your computer. If it shows a display than the monitor is definitely bad, and at this point they aren't worth fixing. I don't know that the parts are even worth anything, and I wouldn't recommend messing with the insides of a CRT monitor. They have huge capacitors which can hold a charge for a long time after being unplugged. The lethality of the charge is debatable...but still not worth the risk in my opinion. [/quote] I set up another computer monitor on my computer, its a temporary fix unfortunately. But yes, my brother fiddled around with my monitor and declared the same thing. The monitor has gone bad, I shouldn't open it up and explore it's insides, and that I should get a new one. I just sort of wish it hadn't of gone bad, and at a terrible time too. Thank you for your suggestions on this, I really appreciate it. [quote name='Malaikat Maut' date='24 March 2010 - 04:17 PM' timestamp='1269465460' post='56864'] Just to be pedantic...It's cathode ray tube. And those electrons are fired by an electron gun which "activate" phosphors and not pixels. It's impossible for a CRT to have "dead pixels" in the same convention that the language is used to define nonfunctional liquid crystals on an LCD. [/quote] Good sir, you have broken my brain. But that is most certainly interesting to know.

In the forums, you are free to say your opinions, so I think I will say my opinion. I don't think this thread has produced anything interesting or constructive and in truth I hope it gets closed soon. I would not like to see this turn into another flaming thread.

"Maybe they know what I know, that the true way to a man's heart is six inches of metal between his ribs. Sometimes four inches will do the job, but to be really sure, I like to have six." — Laurell K. Hamilton (Narcissus in Chains) "When in doubt, ignore and be horribly unimpressed." — Laurell K. Hamilton "Stupidity isn't punishable by death. If it was, there would be a hell of a population drop." — Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake)

I intend to get a laptop soon, the problem is deciding whether or not I want to spend so much money yet. I wasn't expecting I'd have to pay for a monitor, at the moment I've got a temporary fix.

As before, we await your return friend.

Now I have already tried to troubleshoot this issue, and have discussed it with a couple members already but if anyone can give me any idea of what might possibly be wrong or if it's repairable, I will deeply appreciate it. I woke up this morning to find my monitor screen black with the power button blinking. I tend to keep my computer monitor on sometimes at night, it works very well as a night light. ([color="#808080"]Don't ask, I wake up every 4 hours it seems[/color]) Some time during the night something must have fried or happened with my monitor because it will not display a screen. It gives me nothing but black with either a green blinking power button or a glowing green power button that is not blinking- as though the monitor is displaying picture ([color="#808080"]which it is not[/color]). Now I'd like to see if there's something I can do about this without spending $99-150 bucks of my money, but my last option is to salvage the monitor for parts and throw the remains out and get a new one. ([color="#808080"]Or just get a laptop.[/color]) To give those of you who might be curious of how old my computer is in general, it still takes PC3200 memory. Though I am not certain what the age of the monitor is, I can only assume that it has not been passed around between computers. [b]Troubleshooting:[/b] [list] [*]I have checked to see if everything is plugged in correctly, and it is. [*]I have checked to see if it is displaying a green line or a dell logo,it shows nothing but a green blinking on button. [*]I have unplugged the monitor from not only my computer tower, but from the strip I have and then plugged it back in again. It gave no result. [*]I have tried it on another computer, again....nothing but a blinking green light. [*]I have also tried giving it a decent smack, but again.. nothing. [*]I have left it off for a prolonged amount of time to see if it is over heated or something of the sort, again it gives me the same result. [/list] [b]Other Information:[/b] [list] [*]The monitor and the computer are Dells. [*]They are quite old, at least 2000-2004. [*]The computer takes PC3200 memory, if that says anything about it's age. [*]The monitor has 1 power lead that plugs into a power strip or a wall, and 1 lead that plugs into the computer tower. [/list]