[Home]
[Getting Started]
[What's In Your Toolbox?]
[Viva The Color Palette!]
[Go, Go BrushInfo!]
[Making Use Of Layers]
[Main Menu Mania]
[N-n-n-networking!]
[TIPS and TRICKS]
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Main Menu Mania
The main menus have a lot of options that can enhance and save your work. Covered here are File, Edit, Show and Network. WARNING: THIS IS GONNA BE A LONG ONE!
This is the File menu. All the basic functions such as Save, Save As, Open and Close are here. While most of these options are self explanatory, I'll go over the more ambiguous ones to help you, mmkay?
Close(C) - This will close your current file. Knowing what happens to me, you might inadvertantly click this and click "__(Y)" when it asks if you really want to close (especially if it's late and you're tired.) And if you haven't saved in a while, this is going to really piss you off. Trust me. So SAVE, SAVE, SAVE your file CONSTANTLY! TRUST ME! If you inadvertantly click Close and haven't saved in a while, you're going to be SO mad at yourself!
NOTE - OpenCanvas 1.1 autosaves as you work so if it happens to crash on you or otherwise be forcibly closed, all of your progress is not lost!
SaveCopy(Y) - Basically, this is a quick way to save the whole picture as a .bmp or .jpg file. It will take what is currently displayed on the canvas and save it under the file's Save name. For instance, if you were working on a picture called murphy.wpb and wanted to quickly save it as a .bmp (bit of a back-up measure), it would pop up a save window with the file called murphy.bmp. You can save pictures as .bmp or .jpg only.
Import event file(I) - Ah, now for a long time I didn't know what this meant! This is an option where you can choose to play event files (if you have any.) Basically, it's just the option that lets you play event files. That's it. That's all it does. Event files are like the animation you can see when you finish an animated oekaki. To make/save an event file, you have to start and finish the picture in openCanvas without pasting or importing anything. You have to start a new picture (opening a picture will show you the message "After this event, you can't export event data, OK?" which means THERE WILL NOT BE AN EVENT FILE!) and continue it solely using the things in oC. Pasting an image from elsewhere (even if it's a file you started New!) will also give you the same "You can't export event data, OK?" message. If you want an event file, you have to say "___(N)" to that message and not paste anything. Trust me.
Export event file(E) - If you've been a good child and solely used openCanvas as a new picture and answered "___(N)" to the "After this event, you can't export event data, OK?" question, you can export your event file. This means you can save the event file! Just click this option, type in a name and press save. Wow! Now you can watch the file animate and complete itself every time like an oekaki animation!
Export "protected" event file(L) - "This format never upload to portalgraphics.net, OK?" is how this starts out. My best guess is that this is a file format that's protected. I don't mess with this a lot, so I can't tell you more about it. What's portalgraphics.net? Check it out! It's the homepage for openCanvas (they have newer versions of openCanvas with more options/features available for purchase, even!) You CAN upload openCanvas pictures onto the site, but I think you have to have a username or some such. However, apparently this format won't upload there. Heh. Just click "___(Y)" if you don't care anyway. My guess is that if this file is protected, you can't delete or move it or share it. So why use it?
Preference(P) - When clicked, this shows a bar from 0% to 100%. Basically, it's for how compressed a JPEG will be if saved as JPEG. At 100% it is saved at very high quality. If you choose 0% that thing will be JPEGged within an inch of its life into something you won't even recognize. A good JPEG compression size for this program is around 75-90%.
Exit(X) - "Are you ready to close the application?" Exits the program if you answer "___(Y)"
More on saving files - There are three file types you can save as: WPB, BMP, or JPG. If you want to keep your layers in the image, choose to save in WPB. Otherwise, select BMP or JPG
Here's the Edit(E) menu. And here we go with more explanations! Hold on, this is going to be REALLY long. XD;; So let's get started!
Undo(X) - Simple. It undoes your last action. It can undo up to eight actions per layer. Enjoy. The shortcut for this is Ctrl+Z.
Paste to clipboard - What it says. Pastes what is visible on the canvas (hidden layers won't paste) to the Windows clipboard. Shortcut for this is Ctrl+C.
Paste from clipboard(V) - What it says. Takes the clipboard data and pastes it into the canvas. Voila. Shortcut for this is Ctrl+V.
Resize - Congratulations, you've stumbled upon openCanvas's equivalent of Photoshop's Canvas Resize tool! This takes away and adds pixels. (NOTE - This cropping is undoable, so make sure you've saved your picture before attempting this!) It's very hard to do, but here we go: First, you decide how many pixels you want to take away or add from the height or the width. Then, click one of the radio buttons -- if you want to take away/add pixels to the TOP of the composition, choose the BOTTOM radio button. If you want to take away/add pixels to the LEFT of your picture, click the RIGHT radio button! Basically -- it will crop away or add to the directional opposite of which radio button you choose (which means if you choose the LEFT radio button, it will crop away at the RIGHT side of the picture!) Do this one at a time, otherwise you may come out with funky cropping -- i.e., take away from the height before taking away from the width. Don't do both at the same time. It could get messy.
Reolution - ALRIGHT! This is what you NEED! This is your proper resizing tool! Make sure that the "Fix width and height rate" button is clicked, then shrink/enlarge the picture down to whatever size you'd like.
Change paper color(P) - Basically changes the paper color to whichever color is currently selected. Makes some cool effects. Not undoable, but if you change paper color back to white it should be back to normal.
See "Making Use of Layers" for the basic instruction on these. This time, though, they affect the WHOLE image. Not just one layer.
Vertical turn over (Active layer)
Horizontal turn over (Active layer)
Reversal (Active layer)
Rotate 180[deg] (Active layer)
Rotate right - Physically rotates the whole canvas to the right, i.e., not only the image moves, but the canvas too.
Rotate left - Physically rotates the whole canvas to the left, i.e., not only the image moves, but the canvas too.
Now here's the Show menu. It's very simple so this won't take long.
ZoomIn - Well, that's self-explanatory.
ZoomOut - Do I have to explain this?
Event play with weight and Stop event playing will be covered in another section.
Quick save as BMP - Exactly what it says. Just click on this option once and it displays a pop-up window that tells you "Captured active window" and gives you the file extension of the BMP you just saved. When it quick saves, it names the file after the day's date.
Now here's a little something about Event playing with weight and Stop event playing. Say, do you guys remember when I was talking about Event files in the beginning of this section? Yeah, Event files apply to both of these options.
Event playing with weight - This is an option you can choose that applies to how fast an event file plays out. When you select it, a check mark appears next to it. What it does is play the event file at the speed you [and others, possibly] drew it.
Stop event playing - If you have an event file open, this will make it stop playing as soon as you click it. You can not start up a file once you have stopped it using this option.
Our last menu covered here is Window. The menu for Network will be covered in the next section "[N-n-n-networking]."
Cascade, Tile, Arrange and Minimize - These all apply to how your open file windows. If you're still confused, go ahead and google these processes. I mean, this stuff isn't that difficult to understand, seriously.
Show all tools - Exactly what it says. If you've closed some windows, like the Preview Window or the Color Palette, then it will pop them all back up.
Set default tool pos - This places all the tool boxes back to their default positions specified by the program.
Show ToolBox, etc. - If you click on a checked option, that window will disappear. Click on an unchecked item to make the window reappear.