Ask something - We can help.

[Ghost]

I'm considering mooneybookers, any advice on them?
Thanks!

I may not be the best person to ask, since I don't do any online banking at all, but from what I've heard their service isn't that great. Friends told me that in several cases orders were not processed and customer service wasn't too good too, often taking a week until an answer came.

[cat]

I have a Wacom tablet that I currently use with a 4:3 monitor. However, I would like to have a larger monitor or two smaller ones but then it won't fit the resolution of the tablet anymore. When I use a second monitor it works fine, but I can only use a small area of the tablet because the desktop is directly mapped on it. Not sure if anyone understands what I want to say? To cut a long story short: How can I use a widescreen monitor or even a dual monitor setup while still using the full area of my tablet?

[miguel]

Thanks Ghost. I sorted out things with paypal and never had to use moneybookers after all.

[Anian]

I have a Wacom tablet that I currently use with a 4:3 monitor. However, I would like to have a larger monitor or two smaller ones but then it won't fit the resolution of the tablet anymore. When I use a second monitor it works fine, but I can only use a small area of the tablet because the desktop is directly mapped on it. Not sure if anyone understands what I want to say? To cut a long story short: How can I use a widescreen monitor or even a dual monitor setup while still using the full area of my tablet?

Is this a 4:3 tablet? Because there is an option in the the tablet settings to turn a 16:10 area (which the tablet has) into a 4:3 by basically making a part (on the side) of the tablet surface unresponsive (it reduces the area that's active so it fits with 4:3 resolution). You can change the area of the monitor and the tablet. I'm not sure if 4:3 tablets can turn into 16:10 though, but you can change all kinds of things.

I have a Bamboo and the option to change this is in Control Panel under "Bamboo Preferences", so check there. Then you go on Pen and there should be a button Mapping, set it from there. There might be a way to set up things automatically, but I had to go there and change the tablet area (reduce the height) and then I checked by drawing a circle in Paint, it's best to use something like a cd hole to make sure that you're drawing a circle). You lose a milimeter or two in the height but at at least it stops you from thinking you're crazy (for a month of so I was just puzzled why I couldn't copy drawings from paper properly.

Again, I'm not quite sure what you're asking here, so I hope that helps.

[cat]

Actually, this disabling of the surface was done automatically when connecting a second monitor. But the height was so much reduced, that I only had a few centimeters in height to draw. This renders the tablet almost useless.
Is it possible, to fix the tablet for example on one of the monitors and use a mouse for the other monitor? I don't want to loose much of the tablet surface. Or can I remap the tablet surface so it is stretched in width (or is that what you meant in your post?)

[Anian]

I'm not quite sure, I don't have dual monitor set up and also have about 10cm to draw anyway. There is a setting there for choosing the monitors, so I'm guessing you can choose just 1 to work with a tablet. Many people who design and draw use 2 monitors, so it should be made for such things.

[Khris]

It should be possible to map the tablet to the screen(s) in any way you want. Just look through the options in the tablet's properties. (I did this exactly once a few years back, but I distinctly remember being able to move and resize the tablet area inside the desktop area.)
Here's a video for an Intuos5, the procedure should be similar with other Wacom tablets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClDSx_wE-sE#t=133s

Tablets map to the desktop in an absolute fashion (as opposed to the mouse, which transfers movement to the cursor), so mapping the tablet to just one monitor is perfectly possible and should be extremely simple to set up.

[cat]

Thanks for your help, I found the hidden menu where this is set. Dual-screen setup, here I come!

[selmiak]

I have an animated gif and use save for web in photoshop but somehow the used frames don't disappear and are shown under the new frames. There is transparency in the gif and so you can see the old frames. When I save it with background it works fine. In photoshop only one layer is shown per frame and there are no settings left to check... how can I make the gif refresh the canvas?

[Anian]

I have an animated gif and use save for web in photoshop but somehow the used frames don't disappear and are shown under the new frames. There is transparency in the gif and so you can see the old frames. When I save it with background it works fine. In photoshop only one layer is shown per frame and there are no settings left to check... how can I make the gif refresh the canvas?

I haven't tried this, but I think you're suppose to add an alpha channel into each frame then save as gif, that way Photoshop overwrites everything for each frame.

On a more practical level, you might not have checked the box for Transparency (in the Save for web and devices panel). I've just tried with and without this checked and when I try without, the animation leaves a certain trail. Also you have to choose No transparency dither in the dropdown menu right below the the Transparency check box just to make sure (gifs don't have transparency blending, it's either 100% or 0%).
Also uncheck the Interlaced option just to be sure.

I found for GIMP there's two solutions depending on the version:
- by choosing from "Frame disposal where unspecified" option "One frame per layer (replace)"
- For the current version (2.8.0), in the name for each frame layer, include (replace). For example: 

Code: AGS

frame 1(250ms)(replace)

[selmiak]

thanks for your help, but it didn't work that way.
Only saving it as gif with background, then copying every frame from the animated gif into a new file, removing the background and animating it again did the trick. When saving as gif with background, then just removing the background and save it as an animated gif again still had the trails were in the final gif. And when saving as animated gif without a background the trails were there in every frame, even when opening the animated gif in Photoshop, creepy stuff. I don't know why this happened but now it works. Stupid workaround, I'd prefer a checkbox in the save for web dialog that ask to refresh every frame or something like that.

[bicilotti]

So, I am turning into an hipster and decided to make some hipster music.

What I basically I am looking for is to sequence a series of sound (rain, footsteps, things like that).

Since what I need is basic sequencing plus some other simple features (panning, sound envelope), I thought of using MIDI. To describe the process more thoroughly:

     0. recording some sound
     1. write MIDI with some kind of language (let's say, using a Haskell library)
     2. making the MIDI score play using said sounds
     3. record the mess

What am I unsure about (and what I am asking you): is it possible to 'plug' a virtual instrument to a MIDI score? Let's say I want to play a .wav file instead of a crappy synth piano, how to tell that to MIDI? Do I have to build a MIDI instrument? How so?

Basically I want to do what people did with fastrackerII and the like (sequence my own sound). I'd choose MIDI only because there are a throng of libraries out there for MIDI.

tl;dr: plug a particular instrument to a MIDI score? Possible? How so?
   

[Problem]

If it has to be MIDI, you could try to create soundfonts from your recorded samples and play your MIDI file using a soundfont player. I guess there are several tools you can use to create a soundfont. For example there is a tool called "Viena" on http://www.synthfont.com/.

I'm not sure if I got you right, but why do want to create the MIDI score with a programming language? Wouldn't a sequencer software do it?

[bicilotti]

[...]
I'm not sure if I got you right, but why do want to create the MIDI score with a programming language? Wouldn't a sequencer software do it?

Thanks Problem, much appreciated!

Yes, I want to create a MIDI score with a programming language, because the music I have in mind is pretty much algorithmic (e.g.: I can compute fibonacci and other series and dump it in the MIDI).

[Stupot]

My laptop just died on me.  This is the worst timing ever, as I am trying to find work and have no money to buy a new one.
There are a couple of things I want to try to make sure it is actually the laptop that has died and not just the adaptor or something (my laptop runs only through the mains because its own battery is dead).

The question is.  If you were me, would you risk testing your adaptor on someone else's laptop?  I know this is ill-advised, but I'm kind of desperate.  My mum's laptop and mine have the same 'input' details on the adaptor (100-240V~1.5A 50-60Hz), but the 'output' is slightly different, mine is 20V and 3.25A compared to her 19V and 3.75A. All I would do is test it for like ten seconds to see if any power comes out of it.

One possibilty (which I hope is the case) is the fuse has just blown which I could easily replace, but I can't find a screwdriver at the moment due to them being cleverly stashed in a storage container with most of our stuff while we sell the house.  But if it's not the fuse, or the adaptor, then it's the laptop, which is the worst thing that could happen to me right now.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any thoughts from you guys.  I did a brief online search and results ranged from people who  were adamant that you must never use another adaptor or the world will end to others who said it was absolutely fine as long as the numbers were similar... so I don't really know where I stand.

Cheers.

[Khris]

The voltage has to be really close; it can be slightly more than supposed to; if it's too little, the device will usually just refuse to work, not break.
Connecting a 20V adapter to a 19V device should be fine, although for microelectronics it's a different story than for electric devices.

As for the amperes, less won't do but more is fine as long as both are roughly in the same magnitude; connecting a 4A adapter to a 3A device is fine; the device will simply use only 3 of the provided 4.

BUT: don't connect it to the other laptop yet, get yourself a volt/ampere meter and measure its output instead.

Also, given that connecting your mom's adapter to your own laptop is much safer, I'd try that instead. (lower voltage, enough ampere, also I guess a broken adapter breaking a laptop is much more likely than a broken laptop breaking the adapter)

[Stupot]

Thanks for your advice Khris.  I'm going to have to think long and hard before I try anything.  I simply can't afford to replace my own laptop, not even with a cheap one, and I would be out on my ear if I broke mum's, which is already riddled with adware and has to repair and restore every other day.

[InCreator]

Does anyone know how does CG mastery happen?
I mean these breathtaking 3D and 2D digital painted pictures found in 3dtotal.com or cgsociety.org... how did those people achieve such incredible levels?

I do believe that I can draw and model, yet at my very best, it feels like millenia of endless training away compared to what those people do.
And they dare to call their work imperfect, while yet feels like something impossible for human to do.
Are art schools/courses truly that effective or do those artists just have insane amount of talent and free time?
Some of those people reside among us -- here, too.

[Anian]

Are art schools/courses truly that effective or do those artists just have insane amount of talent and free time?
Some of those people reside among us -- here, too.

FZD (the storyboard/concept artist) commented on this in one video, what basically happens with those people that go to specific art schools (the ones dedicated to design etc.) is that they take the students with most perspective and then push. The comment was on the fact that how people have these awesome portfolios - because they make about 2-3 paintings per day (some just speedpaints, some get fully finished), every day. Then they do that for 2 years or more with constant guidance, correcting their style and techniques with each work.
He further explains that if you want to compete, that is the only way to do it and that you can't expect to compete if you do a painting a week and just work work work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8V88OvCx10  (there are a lot of videos in that channel, check them out)

Some 3d stuff makes me speachless, especially since I know the basics much better than 2d art. There are things I find I can do as well (some things are just a matter of detailing), but then there are those zbrush sculpts that just blow me away.

[maxpin]

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