balls n balloons

lakewud · Post by **lakewud** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 10:53 am

Hi all,

Creating a dvd cover for my baby daughter. Originality not my strong point...hence decided to have a pic of her on cover along with smaller pics floating about the place - aka balloon or bubble effect.

Have PI12....have tried looking at 3-d shapes etc...can anyone please advise me how i can go about creating some photo into a 3-d shape.

Thanks for any replies.

Oh, and also...could someone please inform me, if im working on a cover over a period of days etc..and plan on saving as i go along...best to save in what format? UFO?..BITMAP?...just to keep the quality until i print it.

thanks again for any time taken to reply.

G

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:27 am

To use a photo as the texture in a 3D object, after creating your 3D balloon object, go to the Tool Settings-Path, Window menu>Panels>Tool Settings or just press F3 on your keyboard.

In the Tool Settings Panel, press the More button beside Lighting. In the dialog window that opens, the very first option on the left will be Color/Texture. Select it if it is not already selected. Now on the right, locate and select File, and a browse window will open allowing you to navigate to the location of the photo on your PC.

Once you have your photo selected the Options button beneath the File, will be enable. This provides a few options, such as rotating it..

UFO is the native PI working file. When editing photos in PI, the first thing I do after opening an image is to Press [CTL] + D on my keyboard to create a duplicate of the image in UFO format. Then I edit the photo. This also provides a safe-guard in case something happens, that may corrupt the file I'm working on, I still have the original to start over with. So that's a long-winded way of saying, work with the UFO format...

lakewud · Post by **lakewud** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:46 pm

Vidoman, firstly thanking you for your quick responce....with a baby to hand time is very short ..and need to make the most of the little time i have to myself.

Sorry to be a pain, but aside from the UFO comment, i couldnt follow exaclty what i need to do to create my balloon or ball effect.

You mentioned, " after creating my 3d effect"..wouldnt know where to start..was hoping it would just be a case of take photo, and wrap it into some form of 3-d ball...end of.

Also, could find the tools setting...pressing F3 pulls up layer box? Have tried to help myself honest, and looked on the Help menu....but still stuck.

Any chance you could run it past me again..in even more basic speak.

Thanking you.

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 4:33 pm

To get a good balloon appearance it takes quite a bit of trial and error, and some basic knowledge of the program, such as how to create 3D objects, and how to use the Edit Path Object tool.

Create a 3D Object

Go to the Path Drawing Tool, located on the Tool bar (left side of screen).
With the Path Drawing Tool, the Attributes tool bar will appear at the top. Select the Ellipse shape from the Select a Shape drop-down menu.
From the Select a Mode drop-down menu, select 3D Round.
Draw your 3D Round ellipse object. It will be filled with some color or the last texture you may have used. So we need to use an image for the texture.
With your 3D object selected (in the Layer's Manager), you should see the Tool Settings-Path window along the right side where the Easy Palette, and Layer Manager are located. Click on the box beside the X on it to enlarge/expand it if it is not already expanded.
At the top under the 3D section, click the More button. This will open up the Materials window, where we can change many of the attributes for the 3D object. The one we're concerned about right now is for the texture.
On the left side click on the Color/Texture. Now on the right side you should see several attribute options for textures, such as one color, gradient, texture, File, and so on. The File is what we need.
Select the File radial button, and the browse window opens. Navigate to the location of your photo on your system and select it.
If you photo tile fills your object, select the Options button, and change that to Fit the texture.
Now you have a 3D ellipse that is using your photo as a texture. Click OK.

Now to make it appear more like a balloon we need to edit the path object. You need to have the Path Tool selected, and not the Object picker tool.
Making a Balloon

From the Path Tool fly-out menu select the Path Edit Tool.
Click on the first icon on the left of the Attribute toolbar. This is the Toggle Mode icon.
Now your object should appear to be a single line ellipse shape with nodes. From the attribute toolbar you can add or delete nodes, change them from Line to Curves, ect... We will add 2 nodes then move them.
Click on the + in the attributes toolbar, then click once on either side of the bottom node of your ellipse shape.
Go back to the Pick a node tool, and click on one of the nodes you added. You will see handles appear on both sides of your node. You can use these handles to reshape the object on either side of the node. Pull the handles toward the node to shorten them. Do the same for the other node added.
Next grab one of the added nodes, and drag it inwards to make the bottom of the ellipse narrower, doing the same for the other node.
Continue adjusting until you get the look of the bottom of a balloon, the part that is tied closed.
Once satisfied, click the Toggle mode icon to toggle back to the Path Tool, and you should see your image in the shape again.
Now you can use the Line and Arrow tool to create a string for you balloon. Use the Freehand tool, since the balloon is a 3D round object, select the same for your Line.

Example

I hope that gets you pointed in the right direction. I'll also recommend a website that provides a free course called Beginners Workshop. It sure helped me get a good understanding of PhotoImpact. The instructors (mentors) are what I consider experts with PhotoImpact.

lakewud · Post by **lakewud** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 7:42 am

Thank you kind sir for your informative and very helpful reply

Did as you suggested, and happy with the results.

Not wanting to take your generosity for granted, however as mentioned, with a baby to hand - time is very precious - ...titles....and how to enlarge the font...a simple enough question..but say I dont want to enlarge the title lengthways so to speak but more just height?

A simple suggestion?

Thanks

Post by **Ron P.** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:11 pm

To enlarge or resize the text, with your text object selected, use the transform tool. On the Attributes toolbar for the transform tool, click on the padlock if it appears locked. With padlock unlocked you can resize the width or height. If you mouse over this padlock the tool tip that appears will say Keep aspect ratio.

With the padlock unlocked grab one of the blocks on the top or bottom of your text object and drag.

lakewud · Post by **lakewud** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 5:36 pm

Once more your useful tips delight me with their results - thank-you.

Not wanting to be a nusiance, and promise this will be my final question / s..

My cover is now looking grand, thanks to you and PI12.

However, my balloons and stars image inset..all work well...but i cant seem to move the photo around within the 'star'/'balloon'...for example..automatically the balloon captures only part of a head whereas i may want to shift the photo within the balloon a little..if you see what i mean.

Also, a slight concern..and knowing next to little regarding anything pixal related!...but on test print i notice ( even at best setting for printer at least ) the photos ( taken on my dslr 10megapixal camera no less ) are very blocky...not expecting razor sharp here..with my aging printer..saying that i do get very clear results most times...so...

When i incorportate photos onto my blank dvd cover document...whether they be in the form of a balloon aka the Path method..OR..even just placing them on myself as per normal....what am i doing wrong....the wrong settings?

If you could advise please do..most appreciated. Ideally, when comes to all things pixal related - in simplic easy terms. I have my photo taken from SD card......now how do i go about making certain that image is as good / sharp as possible once placed onto my blank dvd cover?

Sorry once more to bother the likes of yourself with these im certain fundamental questions for you...but it will be my last, as dont want you to hold my hand throughout this entire dvd project!

Post by **Ron P.** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 2:51 am

Well I'm stumped now. I've tried everything that I can think of, but am not able to find a way to reposition the image in/on the balloon. That does not mean it can not be done, just that so far I can't find it..

Hopefully one of the more experienced users of PI will jump in with a solution..

Post by **Ron P.** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:51 am

Well I think I found a workable solution for the images inside the balloons.

Once you have placed them you can not reposition, however you can prior to final placement. The method for doing this is to use the Copy/Paste. Copy the image or part of the image you want to use. Then with the balloon selected, go to the Edit menu and select Paste>Into Selection. Now here is the important part. Do not click on the balloon until you have your image positioned. If you move your mouse around over the selection before clicking, you will see your image moving.

Now for your image pixel problem, go to Adjust>Resolution. There are 3 choices, Display, Printer and User Defined. Generally the default for printing is 300. You can set it more or less. It may be set to Display which is around 96 or 72ppi, and is not good for printing.

lakewud · Post by **lakewud** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 7:32 am

A thousand thank yous particulary for the pixa/printer tip, and am enjoying using the padlock feature.

Nice to see even the great and the good can have an off day re: the moving photo thang.

Thanks for the solution, however having tried it..although Yes indeed it works fine your cut n paste..however Ive noticed that in the process you lose all the beveled/features of the balloon...aka your simply inserting into a flat object...unless ive skipped something somewhere. However, for my little project it will do.

Also, again unless it me, now ive adjusted the pixals for printer settings, PI seems a little slower...best to change setting once ive created my cover in a User Defined mode? when seems faster..or does it have to be changed at the beginning.

Please do not feel the need to reply to these questions, as have promised not to bombard you continually..and youve helped me more than enough to get going.