Gorgeous card Skiwillgee and a belated Merry Christmas to you and all as well.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all. Big kiss and a hug going out to Rosie.

Happy Diwali Rosie...nice pic. Hope the economy gets better for all soon.

I think that’s wonderful and terrific news Bobby. Congratulations and enjoy it to the max.

Hehehe...there are some beauties in there...loved them all, thanks!

Tom, I'm so sorry to hear of your dilemma and your mom's impending passing. Four years ago I was going through a similar situation with my mom. With everything happening so fast and things coming at you from all directions and all at once you won't have time to take it all in for a little while and it would be natural for you to feel overwhelmed by it all. Keep in mind that this is the way of it. That nature will take it's course and given time, things will begin to normalize for you. It is strange or some may say a form of Devine intervention but somehow things always manage to work themselves out and often for the better. Talk to the good people of hospice because they see these situations everyday and would know how to steer you in the right direction. Incorporate their help and facilitate the social services and remember that pride holds no place in survival. Allow yourself time to grieve and remember your mother well and allow her thought to guide you to a better place. God speed my friend.

LMAO! Loved them Willie.

I was up late last night linked to JPL NASA live HD media stream watching the gripping moments "7 minutes of terror". It was spectacular to say the least. And while I was applauding the landing I couldn't but help think about TheBryster and if maybe the craft had landed squarely on his chair or at the very least that he was fully dressed when it stopped by to peak in on him. Extraordinary piece of technology all around.

 Very funny image Ravyns :lol:

Fran is correct, GIMP is a image editing program and cannot create uv mapping for mesh objects. Most modeling programs nowadays offer  some sort of uv mapping module within it.

Wings 3D is an excellent freebie package that allows you to model mesh objects and uv map them under the same roof, as do several other modeling programs. UVMapper is solely for UVMapping although it offers simple primitives such as spheres, cubes and cylinders but it's more geared toward uv mapping.

You must first output a uv template from these modeling programs. Therein every polygon on the model is given a uv coordinate location on the map and is flattened according to the type of uv mapping you decide is best for that particular model (cylindricle, planar, spherical, box and so on). Once you've created the uv map template, that template is outputed in whatever format you chose (Jpg, bmp, png...) so that it can be imported into your image editing program; Photoshop, GIMP, Paintshop Pro or whatever.

When you open the file in your editing program it will serve as a guide on which to paint on (usually on different layers) and will fit the model it was generated from. You must save the model from which the uv map was created from so that the model contains the coordinate system that was generated for it. And when you've finished creating the textures for the model in your image editing program, you must use the model that generated the original template because it contains the mapping information. You can have two copies of the same model but only the one that the map was generated from will accept the mapping coordinates although some packages allow you to save uv coordinates so that any model of the same type can aquire the coordinates. I hope this was helpful in clarifing the issue.

I've often used UVMapper Pro for models I was going to use in Bryce and other rendering engines. UVMapper has a free classic download which works pretty much the same as the Pro version and will suit most your needs. As with most mapping packages the user has to decide which type of mapping format will best suit their needs when they first import their mesh model. In the attached image I show how I uv mapped my rendition of the Viper Mark II Battlestar Galactica Fighter which was rendered in 2009 using Bryce. Some models are easier to map when using Box mapping, like I used on the Viper fuselage because you can design (paint) the bottom, sides and top separately on the same template. On the same template also together with the box format I used planar mapping on the cockpit control panels of the ship and a planar split along the Z axis for the pilot's helmet and pilot. It is best to divide your model into groups such as; fuselage, control panels, pilot and helmet as in this case so that you can separate each element and move them around the template so that it would be easier for you when you export the finished template into your imaging editor program. Same box mapping was used on the F-16 model rendered in View. These renditions and others can be viewed in larger resolution in my gallery.

UVMapper tutorial and download pages;

http://uvmapper.com/tutorials/tutorial_classic_win.html

As a P.S. The same options can be applied using the menu by going:

Layer>New Fill Layer>Gradient...>OK

Fran, perhaps you're refering to the "create new fill or adjustment layer" button at the bottom of the Layers panel whose icon is a little circle half black and half white. Select the layer you want to make the change on and click that button and select "Gradient..." a small window will pop up and there you can select the style type of gradient you want rotate, scale and reverse it. By LMB clicking the gradient box there you can also edit the gradient colors, placement and opacity.

For future reference: In the document you were working on select the layer you moved then press and hold "Ctrl" key and LMB click in the layer's image icon to select the boundry of the moved layer. Then using the "Move" tool and pressing/holding the "Shift" key, move the new image document onto the document with the moved and selected layer. This should center the new image layer directly on top of the moved layer.

Hi Fran, from the reading and watching the video, it seems a little slow to be used as part of a render farm at least at this point in time. Unless you're thinking of daisey chaining a few of them together and then going off on holiday somewhere while the little raspberries churn out a render. I do remember programing with the Sinclair back in the day. Interesting possibilities.

Thank you very much Willie for this update. It’s comforting to know that the fundamental basics of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity are still secure in the realm of physics…at least in this dimensional membrane. I must say that OPERA experiment did make for some exciting discourse and speculation even if so far it’s looking more and more like experiment setup flaws lead to erroneous findings. I can’t help but wonder about the backlash to those scientist’s reputations and standings in the physics community for botching the experiment. According to the article OPERA is planning to rerun the original experiment with all the setup flaws ironed out of the equation. I guess we’ll eventually find out if neutrinos will get to keep their faster-than-light sneakers on.