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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 13</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../2.15/feat/index.html" target="">Livin' 
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  theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's <b>The Sims</b>, 
  asking the inevitable quesiton, &quot;is <b>The Sims</b> the first step toward a virtual 
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  Vasquez on <b>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</b>.</font></p>
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        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
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        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We're adding the bottom shadow 
          now. I don't want it to be as strong as the top, though, since lighting 
          would typically prevent that. Thus, in the next image...</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="images/gcontent3_pic8.jpg"><img src="images/gcontent3_pic8_sml.jpg" width="413" height="207" alt="Click for fullsize image" border="0"></a></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">...I drop the opacity to 
          50%, rather than 70% (remember to set the layer mode to "multiply").</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="images/gcontent3_pic9.jpg"><img src="images/gcontent3_pic9_sml.jpg" width="420" height="208" alt="Click for fullsize image" border="0"></a></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I've now merged all of my 
          layers except the two shadows (after saving, of course. I average 5 
          or 6 .PSD's for each texture I make. I never merge anything without 
          saving first, except in very rare exceptions where I'm dead positive 

          I know what I want). I left the shadows unmerged so that in the event 
          I want to add more to the bottom texture (which I do), the shadows will 
          affect those additions. This is important, because things will look 
          very much incorrect if that doesn't happen (it would make any dirt/scratches 
          I add appear to be floating over the texture, for example).</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="images/gcontent3_pic10.jpg"><img src="images/gcontent3_pic10_sml.jpg" width="389" height="221" alt="Click for fullsize image" border="0"></a></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Now I want to make some "dripping 
          water marks". To do this, I use channels. Channels are a cool technique 
          photoshop offers for making custom selections (among other things). 
          They're a lot like quick-mask mode, but they're extremely versatile, 
          and I don't claim to have mastered them. I use essentially use them 
          as follows: You edit your selection in grayscale (black = selected, 
          white = unselected, 50% gray = 50% selected, etc). You can then load 
          this selection onto any layer you want, and apply filters or brushes 
          to it as you would a normal rectangular/elliptical selection.</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="images/gcontent3_pic11.jpg"><img src="images/gcontent3_pic11_sml.jpg" width="426" height="215" alt="Click for fullsize image" border="0"></a></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We've created the channel, 
          and are ready to begin editing it. That red isn't really there. It's 
          just photoshop's method of showing you the selection you're editing 
          while also displaying the actual picture. You can turn the background 
          image off and on (which I do in a minute) and work either just in grayscale, 
          or in this red-transparent mode. You'll end up using both modes a lot 
          to check your selection against the effect you want.</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="images/gcontent3_pic12.jpg"><img src="images/gcontent3_pic12_sml.jpg" width="408" height="204" alt="Click for fullsize image" border="0"></a></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There's that grid again. 
          I'm selecting the bars, because I don't want anything I do to affect 
          them. So in the next image I'm...</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="images/gcontent3_pic13.jpg"><img src="images/gcontent3_pic13_sml.jpg" width="421" height="210" alt="Click for fullsize image" border="0"></a></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Filling them completely with 
          white. I made this channel in reverse, and thus in five pics or so, 
          when I go to load the selection, you'll see I have "invert" checked. 
          This selects the exact opposite of what the channel would define. For 
          now, I want the effect I'm planning to blend in with them. I'll then 
          go back and fill them with black in the end. This would cause them to 
          be selected, if I didn't invert. It's kind of confusing, but if you 
          play around with channels for a bit, they become a really useful tool.</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="images/gcontent3_pic14.jpg"><img src="images/gcontent3_pic14_sml.jpg" width="413" height="208" alt="Click for fullsize image" border="0"></a></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I just scribbled on this 
          with the brush tool and the pencil tool. It lays out the basic effect.</font></p>
        <br>
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> <b>Credits:</b> 
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