Even today, "Resolution" is still one of the most elusive subjects of digital imaging. Something Paul and Chippwalters touched on - about lower final DPIs for the final print - the larger the image being PRINTED, the lower you can make your final DPI.

Bear with me here.

Inside a computer, ppi/dpi means absolutely nothing. An 800x800 pixel image is the same size whether it's 72 ppi, or 1,600 ppi. Once you decide you are going to go to print, some math is needed.

An 8x10, at 300dpi, is 2,400x3,000 pixels. THAT is what you need to set Vue to render, IF you plan on making an 8x10 with the final image.

When you jump up to 11x14 inch territory, or larger, this is where things get a little fuzzy. You see, an 8x10, or smaller, is viewed close up - at most an arm's length away. But an 11x14, 11x17, 16x20? In order to see the whole thing, you really are STARTING at an arm's length away. The bigger you go, the further away your viewer will physically BE from the final print. So you can start lowering your DPI needs.

A billboard you read while driving? That's likely 39dpi. Yes, you read that right! If they made those puppies 300dpi images, the files would be unmanageable. They would just be enormous, and you wouldn't be able to see a difference at that distance anyway, which is why they can drop the dpi so drastically.

Which is why, for a 13x19 inch image, you can drop down to a 150dpi image if you want, which means you set Vue to render out 1,950x2,850 (13x150 / 19x150). The highest you would need for a 13x19 print would be to have rendered it at an equivalent of 200 ppi: 2,600x3,800 pixels in Vue.

16x20 inch final print? You can set to 2,400x3,000 and it will look just fine when printed - BECAUSE you are going to be more than an arm's length away in order to see the whole image on the wall.

Now, every framed print may have a different ratio, which is why you need to figure out what you're printing ahead of time. Grab a calculator, and figure out how many pixels you need to set it to in Vue.

If you plan to print at varying sizes, the BIGGEST being x-amount of inches, then set it to those dimensions, and just realize you may be a little cropping if you plan of doing different sizes, but you have your largest size to start with.

Once you've rendered it out (which will simply be 72ppi in Vue), you bring it into something like Photoshop, and merely click Image > Image Size, and up will come a dialog box. UNCHECK the "Resample" box, then highlight the ("Resolution") 72, and type 300 - or whatever it is you set this up for - 200, 150? This will simply change the SETTING for how Photoshop recognizes it - meaning, how it will be PRINTED OUT from Photoshop. Nothing about the image itself was changed - just how it is recognized by software, for the purposes of printing.

I hope this makes sense.

The big reason many folks in ImagineFX switch back and forth is for specific toolsets that makes things easier.

Example: Start your drawing, then color washes, and painting the full image in Painter. You're done, right? No.

Save that image (TIF, PSD, dealer's choice, really) and bring it into Photoshop (PS). In PS you can do overall color adjustments, masked adjustment layers to hit large areas but not the whole thing (or the whole thing - change what you want to change), big changes, small changes, etc., adjustting tint, tone, color, and contrast.

This is what graphicnovel was getting at as far as "finishing". You can adjust individual colors or color sets - if you wanted your yellow brighter, the reds richer, the blues darker, etc. If the scales of the dragon were too low contrast you can punch them up REALLY fast with complete control - get the idea?

I hope this was helpful - enjoy painting!

-Lew

For the sake of argument, let's say the first picture was just monochrome - the whole thing just had a pale blue tint.

If I was going to colorize it to that level, I would create an Adjustment Layer (down in your Layers Palette). I'm a big fan of the Levels Adjustment Layer, but this could be done with any nuimber of them - Curves, Hue/Saturation to name a couple.

Make the Layer, make adjustments to taste, invert the mask (the white box to the right of the thumbnail - hit Ctr/Cmd+i to invert it to Black which will hide the layer), then with a BIG SOFT brush, paint white where you want the change of color. Adain, for the sake of argument, that was the purple coloring.

Do it AGAIN, but adjust the color to a rich Blue - invert, paint white where you want the color to change.

Any other colors, rinse, repeat.

I hope this helps - happy Photoshopping!

-Lew

Apeing - I love it!!

Sweet - thanks Bobby!

That did the trick with my field of view - thanks!

-Lew

Thank you rstar!

Yeah, I thought that for the Alpha maps - bummer, maybe next time...

Gonna play more in Bryce today - I'll do that!

Thanks again!

-Lew

AAHH!! Okay, lemme make sure I have this right - you have finished around 10 individually rendered movies (I'm gonna call them "chapters" now) you want to put on a DVD (or Blu-Ray) so that someone can either play all, or select individual chapters.

Do I have that part right - just making sure?

And do you have a custom DVD Menu you've made -or using a preset one that came with Encore - either is fine - just making sure which one we're talking about.

-Lew

Ah - sorry!

Okay, I'm not totally sure of what you're asking, so give me the end-user functionality of what you want it to do - something like, "When they click THIS, I want it to do THAT", kinda thing.

-Lew

An excellent purchase - I hope you like it.

Once you're used to it, you'll be using it instead of a mouse... And yes, I mean I periodically surf the web with mine!

I could never go back to a mouse again to use PS.

-Lew

BTW - if you have the marker in the wrong place, you can move it after the fact - I was wrong, you don't have to have it EXACTLY in place when you first place it, but you get the idea - it'll place the maker exactly where the play-line is sitting.

I hope the helps, and you have fun making DVDs and BluRay discs-

-Lew

While I've never used a Bamboo, the button on the pen is like the button on a mouse for extra functions - not to actually "use" for normal activation - like it replaces a middle and right button - not the left button.

I'm gonna guess there's no way, but what you may be looking for are in the brush settings - in Photoshop, get a brush (hit the letter B), then hit F5 and all your controls are in there - click on individual tabs and adjust their parameters - don't be afraid to play all over the place - if you don't like what you've done, click another brush and it gets rid of all the info you just changed.

If you LIKE it and wanna SAVE it, click the little right-arrow at the top right corner of the dialog box and one of the text menu options is something like "Save New Brush Preset" - click it, name it, and have fun playing with it again and again!

I hope this helps - good luck and happy painting-

-Lew ;-)

Never heard the question asked...

Yeah, generally no one puts much thought into downsizing algorithms because they've been done again and again by so many industries (not just imaging, think video as well), and the logic is all the same - you're trying to take OUT details because you're removing pixels/detail.

You reduce something /5 and you have to figure out which 4 pixels are to be thrown out so you can only have 1 pixel left - what is the dominant color for it to be to "simulate" what detail is now gone - get it?

Yes - the big deal has always been UP-sizing since pixels need to be manufactured that were never there in the first place. How do you keep clean lines instead of simply bigger jaggies? How do you deal with the notion that the subtle colors were actually a cloth texture pattern? Stuff like that?

Just about ANY program will do the trick well when it comes down to down-sizing - any differences they may end up having will simply be so minimal no one would bother caring.

Hope this helps-

-Lew

I have the 6x9 Intuos3 here at work, and the 6x9 Intuos4 at home - love them! Could NEVER go back to a mouse!

That said, expect to be cussing and pulling your hair out for about 2 weeks after you get it - it takes a little getting used to as far as the disconnect of drawing "down here" and "seeing it up there".

Keep your fingers off the little side button and you'll be happy and cuss less.

Some folks use the buttons on the side of the tablet, I still keep a left hand on the keyboard cuz I use lots of shortcuts as well - dealer's choice.

Have fun and happy painting!

-Lew