Made minis today (showing off)

[demonsbane]

Nice minis, Xorn. I like them.

[storminj]

I am having problems with making the tokens using paint.net. I do not know how to promote the layer. After using the magic wand and saving the DM can not resize the token to fit battle grid.

[Griogre]

There is not really any reason to use layers for these tokens in Paint.NET. Here's what I do:

1) Copy the pic in. Use Cntr Alt V (Paste into new image)
2) Select Magic Wand Tool. The tolerance defaults to 50% (middle of the second tool bar at the top). Change it to like 20% by dragging it to the left.
3) Click on the white background of the image to select the background.
4) If there are other background areas hold down Ctrl and click on them too until you have all the background selected.
5) Press the delete key to delete the background. You should see a checkerboard pattern where the background was - this is Paint.NETs pattern for transparency.
6) Press Ctrl R (Image Menu -> Resize).
7) Make sure Maintain Aspect ratio is checked and look at the Pixel sizes for height and width. Whichever value is larger is the one you want to change. If you you are using 50 pixel squares for medium and it is a medium figure then change the larger number to 50. If the figure is large then change the figure to 100, ect. Press OK. What ever your values are you want to be consistant.
8) You might want to sharpen the figure. If so then pull down the Effects Menu -> Photo -> Sharpen. Leave 2 as the default value. Hit OK. Then Hit Ctrl E to redo the last sharpen so you shapen it twice.
9) Sharpen usually helps but not always (that's why we did it twice at a low value). Now take advantage of Pain.NET's nice redo, undo list. Undo once and see what it looks like, do it again to see the other. Then redo up to twice to get the best looking one.
10) When happy Cntrl S (File -> Save). Note Paint.NET saves over without warning (it would be too annoying if it didn't) so make sure you have the right file name. When saving a token make sure the Bit Dept is on Auto-Detect.

I'll actually use a few more steps sometimes; I usually crop a pic before I move it into Paint.NET. You can crop inside of Paint.NET too.

[EugeneZ]

I just want to add the cropping steps in because I feel they are very important:

5.1) Use the wand tool again, click on any transparency on the outside of the figure (like for example, don't click in the area between legs, etc)
5.2) Hit Ctrl+I to invert the selection.
5.3) His Ctrl+Shift+X to crop the image to the selection, making sure your image has no dead space.

However, I hate the base (thing on the bottom) that the figures are on, so I like to crop that off too...

5.2.1) Switch to the Rectangle Select tool.
5.2.2) Holding Alt (subtract), carefully select only the base, the part you want to crop.

Then when you hit Ctrl+Shift+X above, it will also remove the base.

I have some other tricks, too... like using the original art out of the monster manual and cropping THAT down... or using an outline filter to make give the figurines a nice defined outline... or using the Hue/Saturation controls to make one figure apply to several similar monsters.... if you want more details on any of that just ask and I'll post.

[Captcorajus]

I've scanned some old modules and copied the text into fantasy grounds. Cool. I've also made some minis using the method described by Xorn.

Of course, I wasn't satisfied with the giant spider scan, and there wasn't one for a giant crab or octopus, which i needed for the adventure. What do you think?

Then, of course there's the lovely lady that I have as a graphic to show the players, and then made a mini out of her too.

Finally, I used my "World Works" collection to make some "placable objects" that I could move and manipulate on the map such as treasure chests, a deep well, wizard's desk, a torture rack, etc.

[Xorn]

Very nice! Now that FG2 lets you click through transparent portions of a mini, I think a lot of my minis would get redone now. Heck, I need to add the last mini set, actually--but Tuesday night is the only night I'm not playing WotLK or watching SG1 from start to end. (I'm nearing the end of season 3.)

[Kilsek]

nice work wish I could use graphics programs like that.

Be nice if the program came with these minis already.

[Blue Haven]

https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mix/gallery

Enjoy

Don´t you think that the first sets of miniatures are too small?? when i copy/paste the image from the site is almost set to instant dwarf lol did they changed the pictures or they are the same...?
Thanks

[unerwünscht]

Don´t you think that the first sets of miniatures are too small?? when i copy/paste the image from the site is almost set to instant dwarf lol did they changed the pictures or they are the same...?
Thanks

You don't want to use those images any ways. I made that mistake as well originally. WoTC owns the copyright on those images and you can not change or modify them, by law. So you are basically wasting time making minis from those images.

The work around to this (in US law) is that you can take a new picture of said miniature, and wizards does not own the copyright to your new image. You are free to do whatever you want with it. You just have to find someone who has all the minis so you can take pictures of them (I am still looking for someone who has them).

[ozziewolf]

He's allowed to use them for personal use. He just can't distribute them to any one else or try to make a profit from them.
It's why Xorn can tell people how to make them the way he did but he can't share any of the tokens he made himself.