Delta

Turnback Tuesday! From 2004 here, and wow I can't believe some of you (well, us) are still lurking about. Happy anniversary, Baron! That makes your dancing gif, like, 6- 7-ish years old? OB looks great--good job guys! Is the Graphic Worm still alive?

[COLOR=#35425e]Hello. Could you wait for my sign-up? I'll have it up by tomorrow. Thanks![/color]

[COLOR=#35425e][quote name='The Professor' date='12 September 2010 - 02:38 PM' timestamp='1284273490' post='700429'] [font="Comic Sans MS"]Burning a work of fiction attacks someone's interests. Burning a religious text attacks their beliefs.[/font] [/quote]THIS. James, not everyone is level-headed as a utopia would like them to be. And even if they agree that burning religious text is no more shocking than burning a book about a wizard boy, there will be a nagging voice inside their heads telling them that the former is more grave. I imagine it would be like burning [i]The Origin of Species[/i]; the perps are actually saying "b***s***, Darwin".[/color]

[color=#35425E]Hello! If you want me to change anything, please don't hesitate to send a PM.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#35425e]Oh, so there are only 50 of them? The news agencies seems to have forgotten to mention that teensy weensy fact. Because the way the news reaches us here across the Pacific, it sounds like a good percentage of Americans stand behind Terry Jones. Apparently, that is not the case, but the damage has been done: from this incident, we feel that US education system sorely needs an overhaul, to put it mildly. Sorry. eleanor, I totally understand where you're coming from. The media has been known to blow things out of proportion, and create rifts between interest groups. These then lead to more hating, and consequently more news fodder like this. It's a really vicious cycle. Like that Lambchops song.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#35425e]One time, a typhoon coincided with a volcano's climactic eruption (Mount Pinatubo, 1991). I woke up from my afternoon nap and saw what looked like snow on our neighbor's roof! I was whooping with glee until my mom told me that it was just ashfall. Now I'm a geologist.[/COLOR]

[quote name='CaNz' date='09 September 2010 - 10:24 PM' timestamp='1284042243' post='700359']however it does mean that i cant work on any of my other projects either, so if you want i can fixyou up somthing with this old photoshop 7.0 thats instlled on this computer. I can work with it, i just wouldnt be at my A-game.[/quote][COLOR=#35425e]It's doable; the banner he was referring to was made with PS7. ;D[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#35425e]Maybe you can turn this rut you're in into a project! Film yourself as film student with a pad in hand, looking for inspiration. And everytime you look down to your pad to write, something really exciting happens behind you (marching band passes by, marriage proposal, a Trojan invasion). Let us know how your project works out yeah? Tell us about it after.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#35425e]Yes, [b]Triple Triad[/b] was really enjoyable especially when playing in an area where the Random, Plus, and Diff rules are in place. I must have spent an hour playing with [spoiler]Elone[/spoiler] to get the Laguna Card! Then it quickly became frustrating when somebody got my GF cards with just Funguars and Blitzes. But oh the rewards! I collected Biggs and Wedges and Fuujn and Raijins because they be Card Modded into X-Potions! And that for 1 Gilgamesh, I can get 10 Holy Wars! Card Mod really got me through the final battle. Now that's some integrated minigame! Oddly enough, Triple Triad's successor in [b]Final Fantasy IX[/b] was really disappointing. Even after reading guides and walkthroughs, I still don't get the numbers on the cards. It was like reading hexadecimal! I have fond memories from playing [b]Blitzball[/b]. Can't remember who was in my team (I think it was people from Luca, aside from Tidus, Wakka and Brother), but they always won. I love how everyone in the radar just swarms around whoever has the ball, and one can try to break as many opponents with one shot. The Jecht Shot was really something, wasn't it? Everything was a breeze after acquiring that move; Jecht's bragging rights were well-justified. Was there a mini-game in FFXI? Because by the looks of it, minigames from every odd-numbered installment lacked [i]je ne sais quoi[/i]. (I didn't really enjoy anything from that carnival in FFVII. They were very... forgettable) Great topic, CaNz![/COLOR]

[COLOR=#35425e]This was meant to go in my thread (now long extinct) but I figured to put it up as a tutorial instead. I was never really a fan of rectangular banners, so I often end up making ones with irregular shapes. How do I do it? With transparent pixels of course! Well, they're not really transparent (that would require me to save them in ridiculously large image files), but their color is the same as OB's background. That's why they blend into it! I do hope more artists make transparent banners after this, because they're really, really not that hard to make. Please excuse the format; I don't know how to teach this subject without using an example. And I've left out the extraction process; that's another tutorial. So is "How to Make [i]Sakura[/i] Petals". Oh, and if you think this post is tl;dr, feel free to skip to the summary which I've put at the very end. [center]~*~*~*~*~*~[/center] [center][img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/meoi/banners/Beretta-Byakuya2.jpg[/img] [b]SENBONZAKURA[/b] [b]Made:[/b] 08 August 2009 [b]For:[/b] Beretta[/center] Word Association Game! When I say "Byakuya", you say... "Sakura!" Thus the cherry blossom theme. Because however manly and stoic Kuchiki Byakuya's character is, he goes very well with pink and purple. (Go on, google "Byakuya wallpaper" and the main color theme would be pink. Blue is a far second.) Now for the extracted image: [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/meoi/Tutorial/Beretta-Byakuyasharp.jpg[/img] Notice that the raw had sharp and jagged lines that didn't go well with the quiet, serene feel I was going for. So I blurred Byakuya's shoulders to shift the focus to his face (well, his chin) and make him look 3D. Oh, and I felt that the scarf needed texture, so I blurred it to make the whole thing look soft and fluffy... like very fine pelt! To give the banner depth, I made two layers of petals: one behind Byakuya, and another in front. I varied the blurriness of each petal in the background to play up the concept further. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/meoi/Tutorial/Beretta-Byakuya-nobg.jpg[/img] Niiice. Now for the background. This is a photo of a tree (mangrove?) by the sea which I used because it has a large expanse of white space that I can blend into OB's background. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/meoi/Tutorial/Beretta-Byakuya-bg-untreated.jpg[/img] Aside from making the white space look like OB's background, the rest of the image had to carry the pink/purple theme. To do this, I needed to desaturate the image, tint it the right hue, and adjust the levels: [list=1] [*]I placed a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above the stock image, and set its Saturation to 0. [*]I made a Curves adjustment layer above the previous layer and played around with the red and green channels (select from the drop-down menu) to achieve a purplish tint. [*]Top the whole thing off with a Levels adjustment layer and slide the arrows until the white space is totally white. [*]From here on, it was just a matter of putting a border. I didn't surround the whole banner with a border, just the parts where the image goes up to the edges. [/list] And just to make sure that the lighter parts blended seamlessly into the webpage's background, I made a new layer over everything and filled it with OB's background color. Then its Blend Mode was set to "Darken". [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/meoi/banners/Beretta-Byakuya2.jpg[/img] Q.E.D. [center]~*~*~*~*~*~[/center] [b]IN SUMMARY:[/b] [list=1] [*]Color the to-be-transparent pixels white. [*]Create a layer over everything and fill it with OB's background color [*]Set the layer's Blend Mode to "Darken" [/list] [/COLOR]

[COLOR=#35425e]Oh my goodness! The water background is amazing, CaNz! It's like level 99 in banner making. Loads of cool! You know what else I really like? The brainstorming bit. It's the first time I've seen it in action here, and I am mighty impressed! I'm sorry I can't make banner for you, cm, but I think your future banner is in very good hands. Thanks very much, CaNz and Lilt for seeing to this request![/COLOR]

[color="#35425e"][quote name='Heaven's Cloud' date='08 August 2010 - 06:09 AM' timestamp='1281218980' post='699051'] [color=indigo] they follow something that they not only fail to understand, but something that they fail at attempting to understand. [/color] [/quote] Religious institutions, law enforcement, the stock market, mass media, labor unions and the academe. Also, with reading maps. Happens everywhere. So it must be a human thing. Give this time, and the whole thing will boil over. Same thing happened with women's suffrage, Uniformitarianism, and the heliocentric solar system. Everyone just ended up accepting it. Just how long will this be fully accepted is the question. The sooner the better.[/color]

[COLOR=#35425e]Umm, I'll give this a shot too. Please wait for it.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#35425e]Ooh how about those [b]morphing/upgrading weapons[/b]? Like Haru Glory's Ten Commandments Sword in [i]Rave Master[/i] or Cloud Strife's Fusion Sword in the movie. Amazing concept, not to mention they make room for a few [i]deus ex machina[/i].[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#35425e][quote name='Allamorph' date='05 August 2010 - 11:30 AM' timestamp='1280979032' post='698888'] [b]Haters gonna hate[/b] [/quote] Indeedy. My $0.02: I really thought that a lot of religious institutions would back same-sex marriage, because a lot of classic religious texts state that all men are equal in the eyes of the God-equivalent. Apparently, not everyone is over the "homosexuals included" clause it implies. (Our priest is for same-sex marriage so...yay!) In any case, congratulations stakeholders! Especially the kissing ladies in the picture over at CNN. [/color]

[quote name='Sangome' date='03 August 2010 - 04:47 AM' timestamp='1280782061' post='698582'] [color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]But in all seriousness, kiddo...trying to emulate a fictional television show, regardless of how grounded it may be in reality, to pursue love is generally a [i]really bad idea[/i].[/font][/color][/quote] [COLOR=#354253]Come now. Given infinite possibilities, [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem"]it will work[/url]. But yeah, ditto with Sangome: [b]man up[/b], OP. Just say it. And please don't bring any of her or your friends around. Not only is that corny, but once her friends start teasing her about you, your chances will go kaput. And stop being protective. You're not her father.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#35425e]Perfect. I'll schedule an appointment with my dentist on the 21st so that I can trade my impacted wisdom tooth. But I think it as to be drilled and fractured before it can be pried off; does the Tooth Fairy accept damaged goods? It's may not be as amazing as Kiss and Makeup Day, but I think it's as important as any: August 9 is the International Day of the World's Indigenous People. Yay culture![/COLOR]

[COLOR=#35425e]Mmm... CS5 looks delicious! I especially love the way it resized the man/cow image. But for my purposes, my CS3 serves me just fine. I am hoping for a drastic revamp of the Layer Styles function though. Being able to pick which styles go above which (i.e., Pattern Overlay over Color Overlay) would be a big plus! About the tabs, I hated them at first too. But like Office 2007, the system grows on you. I think they added the tabs because new features will just make 7's interface more confusing sloppy, and therefore, less user-friendly for those who are using Photoshop for the first time.[/COLOR]

[color=#35425e]Just for the sheer length of this tutorial, I think a standing ovation is in order! Good job, Katana! One question: Katana, do you plot them points first before you round out the corners? Because for me, it's easier to just drag the leading arm while plotting each point to make a curve. But maybe this is easier. Or maybe it's because I use a mouse? [/color]

[SIZE="1"][COLOR=#35425e]Simple food, anyone? I have just recently discovered how yummy [i]aioli[/i] is. Still can't get over the fact that it's just garlic and olive oil. Dead simple! Any sauce that's quicker to prepare than pasta makes my list. Oh and bruschetta! When I have to leave *really* early for a trip, I make this; my day is made by 4 am.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"][COLOR=#35425e]Simple is fine, but I draw the line at frumpiness. That's my kryptonite. I'm lucky enough to have found my style, so I look presentable even if I dress down. Practice makes perfect, and perfection simplifies things greatly. As for going all out, I'm for it as long as it's well-planned and within my budget. I'm much too afraid of an impaired reward center in the brain, so I treat myself to something nice when I've done something commendable. Great topic, KG![/COLOR][/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"][COLOR=#35425e]Excellent topic, Raiha! I like to DIY everything: eyebrow trims, manicures, pedicures, even hair trims! It's way cheaper and more hygienic to do them myself, and I get the results I want (I'm one of them shy customers who can't speak up even if the technician is butchering my nails). Shoot, which reminds me: I've run out of topcoat. The only thing I leave to a professional is my skin. I have a good relationship with my dermatologist so I get the best treatment--infinitely better than in the hands of aestheticians who are hell-bent on picking every single blackhead on my face.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"][COLOR=#35425e]Oh wow. You know what? Lady Gaga's production numbers always remind me of [B]Jem and the Holograms[/B]. Used to watch it every weekend back when I was a liiiiittle kid. [CENTER] [I]Jem is my name No one else is the same Jem is my name![/CENTER][/I][/COLOR][/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"][COLOR=#35425e]I got all lazy so I just added the 4 1000's and then added the rest. Got 4100. Commutative property + laziness = math smarts! Kind of reminded me of this: [CENTER][COLOR="DarkRed"][B]The Missing Dollar[/B] [/COLOR][/CENTER] I borrowed $50 from A and another $50 from B. I bought a dress that costs $97 so I now have $3 worth of change. I gave $1 to A and $1 to B, so I still have $49 + $49 = $98 of debt. But I have only $1 left. That's $98 + $1 = $99. Where's the last dollar? [/COLOR][/SIZE]

[COLOR=#35425e]I won the heart of a very good man.[/COLOR]