Problems with paint

[Hart av Srednak]

Main problem is that I'm using it :smallwink:

This is my prologue:
I haven't had time to learn any vector graphic programs.. ages ago (back in 97 when a lived in home) I used to use coreldraw. After that I spent six years without a computer (and without drawing with one).

From end of 2002 I've had computers of my own. (yes computers - I tend to get old ones of my friends). But any time I have wanted or have had to draw something I've calculated times: doing it with paint against learning better program. SO I'm stick with paint and nowdays very fast with it + quite good of doing almost unimaginable things with it.

And towards the problem:
these two are first OotS avatars of mine. I made them this morning with paint then changed them to .jpg format for sake of space:

idea is from OotS #103 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0103.html) Where MitD asked would parsley be scarier than nutmeg.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/Srednak/nutmegetparsley.jpg


Before drawing those I spent my first good many number of hours going trough Iron Avatarist contests and saw that last one was about animated objects. Somehow this came to my mind :smallwink: I'm gonna post these there when I get decent solo pictures out of them

After transforming those to .jpg I've had problems converting that nutmeg to decent avatar. I know that I need to but it in .gif format.. but I can't get it look good enough. It seems that I have to study myself some vectorgraf program.. as if I didn't have enough hurries allready:smallannoyed:. Is there some advises to get big .bmps into avatar .gifs?
??

I can't get myself not to say that somehow I prefer pixel grafic to vector grafic.. when I did vector pictures ages ago I always had feeling that I was designing or engineering that picture... not drawing or being artistic...
Well you can call me mad :smallbiggrin:

[Bryn]

Firstly, nothing says it has to be .gif. While thats quite common, you get better anti-aliasing and image quality with .png (which works in modern browsers like Firefox or IE7, which everyone should have by now - even though most don't). Even a .jpg is acceptable, although it can bring compression issues as are evident from your picture.

If I were you, I would get GIMP instead of Paint. It's still a pixel art program, but it can do all sorts of things that Paint can't (and it can still do pixel-by-pixel work), such as anti-aliasing, transparencies, layers, all sorts of filter effects, and the ability to save in a variety of file formats including png. It's also free and open source. Even if you don't want to learn how to use it, it can be used to re-save your Paint files in a variety of other formats.

You can download it here (http://www.gimp.org).

[Ego Slayer]

Ahh, no me gustan simu-ninjas!!

GIMP (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html) will help you!. I'll link to the guide for it in a minute.
(You need the GTK installer downloaded before GIMP will download, btw)

I was using Adobe Photoshop Elements before vector art. I really liked having an eraser too. :smallwink: I'm using InkScape, and learning Adobe Illustrator right now. People can do simply amazing works of art with Photoshop but once to get down to a 117 square space things don't look to great.

EDIT: Beginning at step 13 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8742&page=4) of Amorelli's post the proper use of GIMP is explained.

[Hart av Srednak]

If I were you, I would get GIMP instead of Paint. It's still a pixel art program, but it can do all sorts of things that Paint can't (and it can still do pixel-by-pixel work), such as anti-aliasing, transparencies, layers, all sorts of filter effects, and the ability to save in a variety of file formats including png. It's also free and open source. Even if you don't want to learn how to use it, it can be used to re-save your Paint files in a variety of other formats.

Thank you very much.
I think that this should be just what I'm looking for. Transparencies, layers and other than 90 decree turns are the only three things I've missed in paint.

EDIT: thanks to Ego Slayer for the guide
EDIT: now I have my nutmeg as I like it.. thanks again. I still have lot to work with, but I think it's go to be just fine.