Pixel Sky
Written for Paint Shop Pro 7; will work in almost any program that supports layers.
| 1. The graphic I’m making sky for is 50×50; it would probably be easiest if you started with that. So, make a new image with transparent background, 50×50 pixels. Pretty easy so far, eh? |  This is the palette I’m going to use. |
| 2. For the sake of ease, flood fill the layer, then add a new layer and call it SKY. Always work on new layers for ease of editing later, and SAVE OFTEN. On the new layer, paint a circle (in the center) using these settings: |  |
| 3. The circle should extend to the edges, but not farther than the canvas. |  |
| 4. Next, take your erase tool (make sure the opacity and density are 100) set to size 1, and erase in a zigzag motion, to make the edges of the circle blend better. You only really need to do this once; you can copy the left side, invert, delete the right side, paste the left side, mirror it, position it. Or, you can do the right side like you did the left. I liked the right side I did better, so I deleted the left side and just used the right side. |  |
| 5. Now comes the fun part–coloring. The palette I’m using is above. Create a new layer called LINES, and roughly divide the circle into five parts (or four, if you don’t want to use white). The very bottom section will be bigger than the other colors. If you use lines like I did, be SURE to put them on a new layer. |  |
| 6. Grab your Color Replacer tool, size 10, Density 100. Back on your SKY layer, color in between the lines and on the lines. |  |
| 7. Now turn off the LINES layer. Looks kinda wierd, doesn’t it? That’s where something called “dithering” comes in. Why it’s called that, I have no idea. Basically, in the “graphic” sense, this means breaking up solid lines of color so it blends better. This is an example of dithering: |  |
| 8. So. we’ll start “dithering”. Get your Paint Brush tool, same settings as above, EXCEPT change the size to 1, then create a new layer and name it DITHER. Start making a “checkerboard” effect in a small area. Since just plain checkerboard doesn’t work, also add an extra line of pixels. See the example. Also see how nice it makes it? Kinda smooth, but still in the line of pixel art. |  |
| 9. Copy the dithering until you fill the canvas. It doesn’t matter if it overlaps the circle. |  |
| 10. Now to get rid of the extra dithering. Go back to your SKY layer. Press Ctrl A, then get your Magic Wand and click the sky. All the colors will be selected. Go to Selections > Modify > Invert, go to your DITHER layer, and press Delete. |  |
Now add whatever you want to it.  |
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Posted on May 23rd, 2006 @ 11:08 am | Filed under: Website Updates |
September 2nd, 2006 at 11:51 pm
[...] Today went well. got the kids up nice and early, Christian was up before 6, too eager for school to start. I am not going to have that every day! Jaiden was not happy that everyone left her and went to school. Christian, Alexys, & Jason Jr. all went to school. Preschool starts next Tuesday so she will be very excited for that. Jocelyn has been walking all over the house today. You can tell how much she has advanced since this weekend. *tear* I am just so proud of her. I finished my book, The Amulet of Samarkand yesterday and started The Golem’s Eye. I really do love this series, Very humorous. I completed a tutorial challenge for A Pixie Village. It was week #8. I like how it turned out. Here is a link to the tut. [...]
January 10th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I always wanted to do that. Thank you