Yup. Like, for instance, instead of an adjustment layer, you could copy the layer you want to effect (or select all, copy merged, and paste, if you're working with multiple layers) and then change the merge mode of the new layer to colour and adjust the opacity, or play with other merge modes.

I'm saying stock now. draws back in kung-fu stance Hwwwwah... Yeah, go ahead and start a new thread though, dropping your challenge, and message me about it.

Trick!? blink blink Photoshop has bump maps. They are just called using an alpha channel as a texture on Lighting Effects. Or a displacement map. BTW I'm pretty sure he used an inverted bumpy leather -- it's in the goodies somewhere. Okay, what's the simplest way to autogenerate photorealistic clouds? Mushroom and anchovy please. I'll provide the answer later.

Hey, the Pizza thing goes for me too, provided you're not talking about anything specific to over 5.5 which is all I have (and, really, all I need) One note of major difference between Trick's technique and mine is that his works to totally change the colour scheme, while mine does it subtly. Before the Gradient Map tool you could get largely the same effect by a technique similar to mine above, except the difference is you would convert to Indexed Colour using a set number of colours -- say, 32. Then you would load up a colour table with that many colours arranged in the right order and all and replace the colour map, then continue on as before with my technique. The one I listed, however, takes advantage of the fact that Photoshop will try to dither a set colour map to match as closely as possible on conversion -- this makes the end result look very similar to the original within the realm of what colours are possible with the limited palette.

Welll, if you can figure out how to build a custom syntax for poser and OBJ files, my hat will be off to you! I generally just use the C syntax settings, but I'd be thrilled if someone came up with a Poser or OBJ syntax colouration set. As far as ascripts -- I never use vim scripts myself, though I know a few people who do. For scripting, I use Perl when I need it because it's what I know best. But if vim catches on amongst Poser creators, I'm sure there will be a lot of demand for Poser VIM scripts.

Another potential thing I discovered whilst teaching myself this stuff, mostly from Bloodsong's tuts... Do not not NOT atempt to edit a CR2 file for a conformer in cr2edit. I don't know why... well, I kinda do, but I don't know why it only seems to really affect conformers... Basically, I was trying to pull out MTs in CR2Edit and things kept going awry. I could not figure out what I was doing wrong, kept thinking I was pulling somehting I shouldn't have by accident. Then I got a wild hair up my arse and decided to simply open an existing Mike clothes CR2 and save it to a new filename from CR2Edit. No changes at all. It was hosed. Mangled. Looking at it in CR2Edit it looked identical to the original. I think the lines are flipped or something. I'm not really sure. But since then I've done all my CR2 editing in gvim (www.vim.org) and I'm having success now and even hacking in new body parts and things ('hood', for instance, in my hooded cowl) and it's been working fine.

I recommend gvim (www.vim.org). There's nothing like being able to auto-select a block (a section delimited by curbly brackets) and yank it. It does take some getting used to using though unless you have XWindows experience (it's an X-windows program ported to Windows and everything else). Use the C or C++ syntax for a Poser file, it works pretty well.

Okay, I'll go, but only if I have you around to lure the yobbos into the acid-pit trap first. 'Hey, check her out. It's a vampire chick! Wanna suck my... blood baby? Hey, she's goin' in that wurrhouse. Lit's folla her. Ahhhh! sizzle'

Umm, actually I almost sort of already did L No one's gotten back to me yet. Though I am not sure I'd want to move to Nashville. It's kind of country music capitol of the world, and I don't know how fun it would be being gothis there (should note that it's a lot more common to get thrashed for being a goth in the US than in Aussie)

Those bloody session keys. L Wish I could have a weekend to hack the source to BondWare. I'd stash those puppies somewhere invisible.

Ack. I left the session ID info. Sorry. My bad. sheepish look

PNG graphics can also do transparency -- and with a greyscale alpha mask at that -- but not all browser support it.

Internet Explorer can also apply finters, including an alpha channel sourced from a seperate greyscale image, internally. Netscpae doesn't support it.

For a fake-out semitransparency effect, like a gradated drop shadow, the following works okay:

Make the image 3 times the resolution you want it displayed at. Copy marged and paste into a nee file. Change to greyscale mode, discrading colours. Change again to a screened bitmap mode (so your greys come out as a halftone).
Select all and copy.

Go back to the original image and create a new channel. IN the channel, paste the copied bitmap mode image. Then DON'T use save for web (just for this trick). Instead, use the File->Export->GIF89a plugin. Set the alpha channel as the transparency mask.

When loading the image into the web page, set the height and width to 1/3 their actual value (i.e. a 300x300 pixel image would have height="100" width="100"). The image will appear to have a semitransparency to it. Works best over patterns, strangely.

Attached Link: http://www.dodger.org/Recent%20Art/pics/sin.jpg

Fire is easy with or without a tablet, though tablets are always faster and more fun.

Do this:

make a new layer

using a relatively hard brush, blot in the white points of the fire. The hottest bits.

Use the smudge tool (at 100% with tablet or 65%-85% pressure without) to smear the white about. Make it look like smoke. Fire is merely glowing smoke.

Now to make it glow...
Add a layer below this layer. Fill it with black. Merge the smoke down.

Change the merge mode of the combined layer to screen.

Adjust hue/saturation. Colourise mode. Turn up the saturation really high and set the colour to a colour you'd want.

draw in edge in almost-white
add drop shadow
make shadow into layers
erase inappropriate bits (places it shouldn't be)
texturise almost-white edge

Watercolour background skies and sea and stuff?

Make layer with wide brushstroke. Multiply mode.
Duplicate layer
Ink Outlines
Select original layer transparency.
Gaussian blur slightly.
Smart blur
set Layer Merge mode to overlay or multiply on low opacity
smear with finger smudger to blend to taste
Add fresh basil, parmesan and serve.