More Fan Art Questions & Answers

[DreamingOfMax84]

Lora, I think Tas was right about the picture hosting site screwing it up. I used Image Station way back when and if you made a picture larger than 400 pixels either way (I think it was that much) when you posted it somewhere, it would become smaller in size, blurry and distorted. That's one of a few reasons I switched to Fotki. Image Station was a pain for me.

Maria :onfire:

I actually have a Fotki album- a free one- but when I tried posting an image somewhere else the only thing that would appear was the little box with a red X. So, I went to Imagestation. I hate the fact that it makes the images smaller. Do you pay for your Fotki account?

lora

Yeah, it's only $30 a year, so I don't think it's bad. You get tons of storage. I haven't even dented my storage amount yet. The free Fotki account you had may have only been a trial, because when I signed up I got a two week (I think it was that much) trial and then if I decided to keep it I payed for the year.

Maria :onfire:

[Tasyfa]

Fotki does have free accounts, not just trials, but there's a catch. (Of course ) With the free account, the URL does not stay constant. You can link a pic from a free Fotki account, but the link will break within a few hours. If you're paying for the service, your URLs stay put.

As for Imagestation, I've never used it, and find that since I don't have an account there, I can rarely see anything that anyone else has posted that's hosted by Imagstation. But I have heard the same thing about that service messing with resolution.

I use hp photo (aka Cartogra), which is free and so far still allows outside linking. To get a URL, you click on the photo you want then click on "Create link for auction" and use the URL provided there. Generally I save my art in a 1024x768 WP size and a 550x413 posting size, and upload both versions, then choose "original size" for the auction link.
hugs, Tas

[puredreamer05]

Q: How do I get font and effects like this for my Avis and Icons I make?

Made by roswelllover

My fonts are always too large and then you can't get much on there or they are too small and you can't read them......I also like the speckles and many other cool effects I see people use but I don't know how to do that......

[Tasyfa]

Can't help you much with the font; I generally play with the size quite a bit myself LOL. But one thing you might want to look at is the kerning. No idea why it's called that, but it regulates the amount of space between each letter. Some fonts have a fair bit of space built in, and you can reduce that, make the letters closer together (and therefore fit more into the desired space). I don't know how to adjust it in PS yet, but it's an option in the text editing box in PSP.

Another option that comes to mind is to do the art work, shrink it to the size you want, and *then* add the text. That way you're working with a finished size and you can tell how readable the font will be ahead of time. Which font you choose has a huge effect too--some are just naturally more readable. Times New Roman is the office standard for that reason.

As for the speckles, etc., they are typically the result of applying brushes and/or filters to the art. There are a number of different filters that will give a "glowy" effect, as well as the technique of duplicating a layer and Gaussian blurring it then setting opacity at a low level. Speckles can be brushes, or a layer floodfilled with a texture, or sometimes a filter effect (example: I have a filter that will apply scanlines automatically).

Hope that helps!
hugs, Tas

[puredreamer05]

Thanks so much Tas! It helps a ton!

[roswelllover]

Fonts such as the normal Times new Roman and Serif Sans fonts are generally readble when sized down to as small as 7 or 8. But in my icon there i used a pixel font. Pixel fonts such as silkscreen. Here is a bunch of pixel fonts you can use but make sure when using pixel fonts to take off anti alias or they'll look blurry. Most of the time play around with the fonts and different sizes to see what you think fits.

Pixel Fonts the sizes in which the fonts are best readable at are on the right hand side.

As for the speckle if you mean that on my icon, that was a stars brush That had stars and planets which i'm not sure where i got it from though. Check out Vered's brush search engine for stars brushes.

And the effects..i'm not sure of what you're really looking for in effects, maybe you give me some specifcs.

hope i was any help.

[puredreamer05]

Thanks so much roswelllover!

I'll see what I can do with specifics, lol

[Lorastar]

I use hp photo (aka Cartogra), which is free and so far still allows outside linking. To get a URL, you click on the photo you want then click on "Create link for auction" and use the URL provided there. Generally I save my art in a 1024x768 WP size and a 550x413 posting size, and upload both versions, then choose "original size" for the auction link.
hugs, Tas

Tas, thank you so much for telling me about that! I went and signed up for a new account there today! I love how you can actually find free image hosting without having to have the banner on the top that starphoto puts there.

I think I'm actually going to try to make an avatar tonight! Woo-hoo! Now if I can only figure out what size they're supposed to be!

-Lora

[puredreamer05]

Does anyone know how I can get my letters on my avies to highlight like this?

Made my roswelllover

When I do it....all the frames change to the settings of my first frame. Please help!

[Tasyfa]

Does anyone know how I can get my letters on my avies to highlight like this?

Made my roswelllover

When I do it....all the frames change to the settings of my first frame. Please help!

I don't know how to do it myself, but I know it's called "blinkies." I believe that 1greeneye.net has a tutorial. Prolly a lot of other sites too, if you just look for blinkies.
hugs, Tas