Adobe Adventures or Making Things Explode the PhotoShop Way!

[sisabet]

Today I am trying to fix my neck. I am being aggressive in applying heat and taking anti-inflammatories.

Be Aggressive. Be, Be Aggressive

::claps twice::

::stomps twice::

::hopes football season will not last much longer::

Last night was the first time the neck pain actually kept me awake, so I am also considering taking muscle relaxers just for this weekend. I don't like taking Things-That-Make-Me-Sleepy-and-Are-Not-Red-Wine so I'm still debating.

In other news, linzeems probably needs to get her ass online asap as I am liable to hurt someone if I continue this unsupervised use of PhotoShop.

I am not kidding. Yesterday I gave just_eunice a headache and I *still* don't think we were talking about the same thing at all. renenet spent like an hour patiently trying to explain to me the concept of layers and while I now get the gist (and I can make a background!! Whee!! - this took me *hours* to grasp) I still fail to understand how they interact.

Now - please do not try to explain any of this to me here. Trust me. I won't get it at all. Right now I am just playing with buttons and I have discovered the clone tool (I LOVE IT SOO MUCH) and I can crop and resize and I can paint! With a BRUSH!! And make it change colors! (thanks tzikeh!!!)

I love that. So while there is much I really don't get at all about PS, the three things I know how to use are keeping me very busy. I'm just afraid I could accidentally combine commands in my playing with strange buttons and I could cause the cyber equivalent of a chemical reaction and break my photoshop. Or make Eunice's head hurt more. Or something explode.

I watch Smallville. Things just explode for no reason all the time. I have no reason to think that I am any better than a character on Smallville, so I am just exercising due caution.

I'm also answering innocent IM's thusly:

Unsuspecting Friend: So watcha doing?

Me: Making anime

UF: ...


So you see - linzee needs to stop me. I was singing Dana Carvey's "Chopping Broccoli" at poor renenet:

She's a laaadddyyy
She's making anime
She's...
Chopping Broccollliiiiii


In other news: I miss sockkpuppett. She'd not even blink if we had the "making anime" conversation. Also, she probably would have made certain I was kept too busy to ever be sucked into PS.

My idle hands are really really scary things.

Comments

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

B,E, A-G-G, R-E-S-S-I-V-E, Be aggressive, B-E aggressive!

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I was floored once when a co-worker asked if I had ever been a cheerleader. He was confusing my hyperness with pep.

As we both know - I would have taken out an entire triangle the first practice - it is for the best I never even tried.

I told you that I was kicked outta ballet for being a danger to myself and others, no?

[permetaform]

I told you that I was kicked outta ballet for being a danger to myself and others, no?

::is impressed::

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

If you want more Photoshop coaching, I'd be happy to help. I've used it professionally for almost ten years now.

Ping me and I will attempt to make it less confusing for you.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I can't play with it now for I am on the work computer and there is no need for fancy things like photoshop or spell check on the work computer.

Also - see, asking questions is a problem because I have not idea of what things are or how to phrase what I want the program to do because it is in the visual center of my brain and there are not always words that correspond. There are various grunts and gesticulations but that really cannot be communicated via IM (yet). I know what I want to see but I just can't say it. This is a problem.

[permetaform]

because I have not idea of what things are or how to phrase what I want the program to do because it is in the visual center of my brain and there are not always words that correspond.

::wishes one could screencap brains::

[lumenara.livejournal.com]

Last night was the first time the neck pain actually kept me awake, so I am also considering taking muscle relaxers just for this weekend. I don't like taking Things-That-Make-Me-Sleepy-and-Are-Not-Red-Wine so I'm still debating.

Buy a massage-thingy here. (http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/categoryview.jhtml?catid=304&pcatid=3&clpos=1) Seriously.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

right now I have one of those stick on heat packs going and the difference is just incredible.

I'd buy the neck wrap thing, but it has magnets and sounds and I don't need all that. I just want the heat and the massage. The magnets freak me out and if they do do something and it is not a buncha hocus pocus, well I think that my body probably does not work on the standard polarity and perhaps the magnets could do more harm than good. I mean - my kidneys are all turned around backwards - who is to say my magnetism isn't as well?

[zandra-x.livejournal.com]

PS is just fun.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

::is afraid::

[zandra-x.livejournal.com]

If you're into books, the Adobe Classroom in a Book is a good starting place for learning the tools. I just learned to do the moving avatar thing using the ImageReady that comes with PS. Sometimes I sit down for a few minutes and end up still fooling with PS 4 hours later. God, I love it. Don't get me started.

[just-eunice.livejournal.com]

Or make Eunice's head hurt more. Or something explode.

Oh! Maybe you could make my head explode. That might be kinda cool.

[renenet.livejournal.com]

Hey! I'll have you know that I didn't blink at you making anime. I was cheering the making of the anime. I did blink at broccoli, but only because you mind leaped ahead of me too fast for me to keep up. And then you had to wait for me to catch up. Poor sisabet. You're right to miss sockkpuppett.

Re: layers...think organ systems of the body transparencies in an anatomy textbook.

Love you!
-r.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Yes - you were very supportive of the entire making of the anime. I still think that if Lum asked me what I was doing and I told her "Making Anime" then she would probably have responded "Me too!"

::is glum::

Hey - that rhymes with Lum!!

Re: layers...think organ systems of the body transparencies in an anatomy textbook.

I really really get that - but how do you make it less and more transparent? And how do you keep track of them all? And if I painted all over a layer and then I wanted to see just the paint that I did and not the layer or the layer under it - just the paint - then how could I do that? And I can't phrase questions correctly because I don't even know what it is that I am looking at and why oh why can't it be a civilized program like Premiere!?

And why can't Premiere have a cloning tool? DO YOU KNOW WHAT I COULD DO WITH A PREMIERE CLONING TOOL??

Um, I could clone things. There could be like an ARMY of Lexes and they'd all be marching and I'd set it to Eminem's "White America"

Maybe not having a cloning tool is for the best.

[just-eunice.livejournal.com]

psst...After Effects 6.5 has a cloning tool. I'm just sayin'

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Don't I have AE 6.5??

Hey - how do I make whatever I am working on in AE longer than 10 seconds? Cause if doesn't matter what I am doing - AE will export 10 seconds.

::smiles sunnily::

How is your head?

[permetaform]

And why can't Premiere have a cloning tool? DO YOU KNOW WHAT I COULD DO WITH A PREMIERE CLONING TOOL??

Um, I could clone things. There could be like an ARMY of Lexes and they'd all be marching and I'd set it to Eminem's "White America"

!!!! ..I need to find a cloning tool FOR you if you're vidding that.

[permetaform]

And how do you keep track of them all?

Ohhh! ::lightbulb:: is your layer window not open?



Click on the layer in the 'layer window' that you want to change and mess with it accordingly.

As for less and more transparent...you're thinking in Premiere I think...You just erase it more or less (you can set the erase to less than 100%...)

[permetaform]

http://pics.livejournal.com/permetaform/pic/00002b5c/

screenshot of the layer window thingie

[renenet.livejournal.com]

but how do you make it less and more transparent?

What do you want to make less and more transparent? Do you want to make the circulatory system more transparent so you can see the digestive system better through it? Or do you want to make everything on the circulatory system layer that is not the circulatory system completely transparent so you can see other things around the circulatory system? If the first (the see-through heart — like Edgar Allan Poe! Kinda.), then look at your layers palette (bottom left box, probably) and put a value in the "Opacity" box or click on the arrow next to that box to do, um, other stuff....there is allegedly a pop-up slider for Opacity and I assume that's where it is. If the second (you want to make some stuff disappear into transparency but leave other stuff showing)...um...given your fondness for the paintbrush, you might like the eraser tool, but the more sophisticated way to do it might involve 1) duplicating the layer so you don't ruin it forever, 2) choose Filter > Extract, and 3) Use the options in the Extract dialog box to specify which parts of the layer to extract. For more info on how to make use of those tools, go to PS Help and search on "extracting objects".

And how do you keep track of them all?
Box in lower right corner of screen (if not there, go to Window on top menu and click "Layers" so it's checked). All of your layers are listed there and if you right click on them and go into the layer's properties you can rename them anything that's meaningful to you. If the picture of the eye is showing next to a layer then it is visible. Click the eye to hide a layer from view. You can change the stacking order of the layers by moving their order up and down in the box.

And if I painted all over a layer and then I wanted to see just the paint that I did and not the layer or the layer under it - just the paint - then how could I do that?

Did you paint right *on* the layer? (Newbie!) Or did you make a new layer and paint on that layer? (**This is what you should do in future**) If the first, then you're screwed and see above re extracting objects. If the second, then just click on the eyes next to the layers until you have hidden the ones you want to hide and are looking at the one you want to see.

You are making me realize that I know more about working with PS than I thought I did. Except that extracting objects shit I've never done. I just looked it up in PS Help because I'm all obsesso like that. Actually there are other options for doing similar things. I just picked the one that looked best to me right now.

*smooches*

[aimeelicious]

I snorted water on my keyboard at the "Chopping Broccoli" reference. The IS department hates me now. Or, more than they did before. If that's possible. But god I needed the laugh! =)

[coiledsoul.livejournal.com]

I find it highly amusing that you have such a highly adept mastering of Premiere but not Photoshop.

On the neck thing:

Having read your 50 somethings manifesto, I'm sure you have extensive experience with the aches and pains of your body, however I have a lot of neck and back pain too and I recently discovered that heat is not actually the way to go at all.

Right now you're probably saying "Blasphemer! Someone get the rack and the hot coals ready!" But seriously. Get one of the blue icy pack things that stay in your freezer when you aren't using them (they work best, but old fashioned ice in a ziplock or a bag of peas works too.) Get it as cold as it will get, then apply it directly to the area for at least 10-15 minutes and that's it.

Apparently cold works better in these situations because the cold brings blood to the area and gets it circulating faster and therefore relieves the tension or something. Heat does the opposite thing. I was a non-believer once too, but I have been reformed.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

See my understanding of any injury (soft tissue) was ice at first and then heat after -- because cold actually *decreases* blood flow - blood flow will retreat from extremities and concentrate on keeping the core of the body warm and this is why we get frostbite, or something. So I always thought ice is used to keep swelling down (which is important in an initial injury) and it does that by limiting blood flow. Heat then increases circulation so you use it when danger of swelling is past to aid in healing.

But right now I am willing to try anything.

[twistinside82.livejournal.com]

I know I'm the strange lurky-Liz in your journal, but I just had to say that everytime you post I love you more. I think I might stalk you. If I haven't already been. Well, whatever.

I have PS too, and I can't figure it out to save my life. I have layers, I do, but I can't see one through the other and I thought I change the opacity, and it just all whizzes right over my head. I still have a near-coronary whenever I open it up just cos there's so. Much. You can do. And I don't know boo about any of it.

And also, I love that you made references to Bring It On (or cheerleading in general, but I'm choosing to believe that you were referencing Bring It On) *and* Dana Carvey's Broccoli Song in one post.

"Oh Torrance, can't stand your cheerleading squad, but I love your pom-poms. I'd feed you bon-bon's all niiiight . . . "

Bring it on!

[truthseekersara.livejournal.com]

"You're just what I want, you're just what I need...."

Re: Bring it on!

[twistinside82.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[piper47.livejournal.com]

What are you going to do tomorrow when linzeems goes straight from work to spend the day and night with me. You're going to be all alone with PS. Tee-hee...

Actually wait... that might be a bad thing huh?

OH!! I blame you for her new interest in comic book images... btw. I got bombarded last night with comic scans. I know this is your influence... I just know it. You continue to corrupt. You must be so proud? ;)

Actually you turned me into a geek. Because everything you send to her somehow gets filtered to me... so now I have this comic book knowledge, which I proceeded to tell my roomate all about the other night.

Me: You see, Clark and Lex have this tragic story. They start out as friends, but become enemies. It's very sad.

Kelly: Clark is pretty.

Me: Yes, Clark is pretty. So is Lex.

Kelly: Oh look!! Lois is going to be on soon. She's Lana's sister right?

Me: No. They aren't related. Lana Lang, Lois Lane. See, Clark was in love with Lana when he was in high school, but then when he moves to Metropolis he falls in love with Lois. Lois is actually the cousin of one of Clark's friends. It's this whole complicated situation.

Kelly: Clark is pretty.

::le sigh:: My roomates think I'm oober obessed with Superman. As of 4 months ago, I didn't even know who Lex Luthor was. No joke. I know so little about comics, I didn't know there was this evil Lex who was in all the stories. I thought it was just a SV thing. My *mom* knew who Lex was and I didn't. Look what you turned me into.

Again, you must be so proud. ;)

[linzeestyle.livejournal.com]

Bwah! Careful - PS bites. And does not let go.

Clearly I should never, ever go to work - I leave you alone and I come back and you've gotten ahold of PS and made anime. I should, obviously, stay online all the time, otherwise I'm going to come back one night and find that you've learned how to manipulate clothing onto comic book characters and will have put Lex in full Sailor-Moon attire, having him flash around the screen in time to horns.

Man, I want to see that now. Heh.

Although the anime - you should continue with, because damn. Socool.

Linzee

Insurance Investigator

[truthseekersara.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't you love to be a claims investigator in Smallville??
Um, the cappucino machine just blew up... The red truck just blew up... the cellar just blew up...

Re: Insurance Investigator

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I *cringe* when I think about what the Kent's premium rates must be at this point! No wonder they keep losing the farm - they are nonstandard 20 times over!