Thursday, August 03, 2006

Storyboard Tute!

Whew. Finally.

I use a free program to do my storyboard (Paint.Net) which is located here:
http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

It's very easy to use, and has a few neat little tricks that make it quite a step up from your regular old Paint program on most Microsoft pc's. (There's no Mac version, Nina! Sorry :( But...if you don't mind a bit more of a learning curve, try The Gimp, which is also free.)

First, I copy & paste the line drawings from the pattern websites (or PR!) into a new window in Paint.net:


I cut out any part I don't want (back views, etc.) using the dotted square in the Tools (left side of your screen). This selects a rectangle of space.


So I just select all the stuff I don't want outside of the garment view and hit delete.


After deleting you will probably have a square/rectangle of grey/dk grey checkered area. That's transparent. I'm such a brain child I took a screenshot of the TRANSPARENT CHECKERED spot and actually thought you'd be able to see them. Hee. (Note the line pointing to the transparent checkered area.) :D


The fill bucket can be used to cover those checkers up with white. It can also be used to add color to your line drawings!! For a lime green jacket, I choose lime green in the Color box, then click the fill bucket & click again in the area I want to fill. Just like coloring with Crayola!


To add a fabric instead of color, we're going to use a layer. I go to LAYERS (top toolbar) and choose IMPORT FROM FILE.


I browse my hard drive for the picture of my fabric (you can also do LAYER, ADD NEW LAYER. Then copy/paste off the web if you don't have it saved on your drive.) Resize this picture as needed so that it's approximately in scale to your line drawing. (To resize you might have to choose the dk grey arrow with a plus sign under it in the Tools. )

You're now working in a different layer than the background (which is the initial line drawing). (Your layers are over on the bottom right of your screen.) You might have to select it first (or again) with the dotted square "select" button, then click the arrow and you'll see the "move" handles appear on your pic and you can then drag it to a new size or move it around. Drag the fabric over your line drawing to completely cover it.

(Above: and yet another obvious screenshot by yours truly of the fabric completely covering the line drawing. Hee again.)

Now look at the Layers box on the bottom right side of the Paint.net screen. Click on your line
drawing Background layer so that it's blue (the one you're working on is blue). Then move that layer to the top by clicking the arrow button down at the bottom of the Layers box.


Your line drawing should now be on top of the fabric (you won't even be able to see the fabric pic at this point but don't worry!)


Now over in the Tools again, choose the "magic wand" which is a red tipped microphone-looking thing. That selects only a specific area (like within an enclosed area.) Think of this as being the opposite of the fill bucket. It's the best! Click inside your line drawings (anywhere you want the fabric to be). Clicking will hi-lite everthing within a border.


Now click delete. Voila!! Like magic your fabric appears!


The fabric shows now because you just deleted the "white" fill of the line drawing, and the fabric is showing through from behind this layer!

That's pretty much it! Pretty snazzy, huh?

You can add words to your storyboard by clicking the A button in the tools.

Tip: When you save your storyboard, save in .jpg or .jpeg as file type. The default is .pdn (which is a Paint.net type and internet browsers won't recognize it.) You just drop down the file type arrow in the Save box when saving and choose .jpeg or .jpg. Paint.net will also give you a message when saving to .jpg that you are going to "flatten" the layers. That's fine! We're turning it into a solid picture at that point. You won't be able to switch back & forth between layers anymore from a .jpg image tho.

You CAN, however, add different garmetns/images you've created to a new paint.net project by going back to your Layers button (top toolbar) and choosing Import From File (just like you added the fabric). Then just use the grey arrow (top right button in tools) to drag that picture around the page until you like the placement.

Hope you enjoyed the tute! It's not Friday...at least not in this part of the world, but I'm thinking its Friday somewhere!! TGIF!!!

a

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:21 AM

    WOW! Great tutorial! On my way to download Paint.net right away. Thanks!

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  2. Anonymous1:00 AM

    Angie - I've been following the fall SWAP progress at patternreview. I started doing a storyboard but manually cutting and pasting was just too tedious when I could be sewing. This tute is the BEST! I have Photoshop, haven't played around with it and always wondered what the magic wand was. Now I know! Thank you so so so much for writing this up. I learned a lot. Off to put together my storyboard for my upcoming sewing vacation.

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  3. Yay! I'm glad it helped! Thanks ;)

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  4. thank you for this.
    somehow my photoshop got deleted off my computer, and I've been struggling with the generic thing that is left there. Nice to know I can find Paint on the web. I'm going to bookmark this and refer to it. Hope I don't spend more time doing the storyboard than sewing :)

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  5. Anonymous10:19 PM

    What a great tutorial. Thanks so much for posting this.
    --Linscee

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  6. Anonymous10:19 PM

    Wow! I can see I've got some homework to do here - I'm way behind on this stuff. Great tutorial, though. Thank you so much.

    Sue
    (moushka)

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  7. I have Paint.net and and have used it like this is couple of times. I'd forgotten about it. One thing I found is that it can be necessary to darken some of the lines and/or delete some of the fuzz when enlarging the line drawing so that the color stays where it is wanted. This does not take long, however and is worth the time. I am going to have to do this more often, as I want a casual wardrobe with lots more style than T-shirts and jeans.
    Thanks for the reminder.

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  8. Thanks for the link and a very clear explanation. This looks great. Just made a storyboard, but next time I'm going to try this!

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  9. Anonymous9:32 AM

    You mentioned there not being a Mac version... Seashore (http://seashore.sourceforge.net) is usually named when people go looking for a Mac MS Paint equivalent. Not too many features to get scared and overwhelmed by, but it's got the basics for this sort of thing...

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  10. Anonymous11:41 AM

    Wow! This is awesome. Just saw this as a link on PR. Thanks a bunch!

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  11. Angie, I don't think this tutorial could be more helpful. Thanks for putting in the time and effort for illiterates like me.

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  12. Thank you thank you!
    I Finally got this to work. You'd think that I was completely computer illiterate, with the trouble I had following directions, but your directions are superb.

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  13. Again it's SWAP time over at Stitchers Guild, and I just linked this tutorial to a discussion board there.
    How are you Angie?

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  14. Anonymous6:53 PM

    Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

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