Daniel Hess

@Ann Seeber Maybe search the "documents" folder for USA-MAP.PspShape and see where it landed. Apparently NOT in the documents/Corel Paintshop Pro/2023/Preset Shapes folder. ??? I don't have 2023...I didn't see anything that tripped my trigger better than 2022 but am ANXIOUSLY awaiting to see what 2024 is going to bring. I figure the best of 2023 will also be included in that. Punctuation is KEY in the file names and folder names...you miss one capital letter and it will give you nothing.

@Ann Seeber @Mary Solaas @Corrie Kinkel OK. Need to lose the period that ended up in the link at the end. Let me try again. http://www.toroscope.com/files/USA-MAP.zip Better to copy and paste the link in the address bar. When I tried on my reply, it gave me something about unsecure download. Should work fine just typing it in or pasting it. OR BEST...right click then "Save link as" from this post.

@Mary Solaas @Corrie Kinkel You can get the pspshape file here: http://www.toroscope.com/files/USA-MAP.zip. I warn you...it wasn't done as elegantly as it could have been...if you load it up and look at the vectors there are ALOT of objects throughout the thing and I wasn't completely methodical i.e. start in upper left and work all the way across then down some and again etc. I kind of jumped around until I had all the borders. PS...remember Carole's lesson on file types regarding this...just unzip and put the pspshape file into documents/CorelPSP/Preset Shapes folder.

I'm now wondering what painting with paintbrush with "Lock" tool is all about. Didn't see anything like that in the PSP help topics.

Added the states to my USA pre-set shape. I'm happy with it.

Totally enjoyed this workshop. Gonna do a diamond membership for a few months and try to pick up some of the classes and information available for PSP. My next project already started is to do a preset shape of a USA map. I guess to do state borders internal to the closed vector path, you just select the lines (vs edit) with pen tool and put them in seperate. I'll find out if that is just a folly in my mind LOL.

Carole, on the "invisible" question, I don't believe so...it disappeared when I CUT it from the base image and showed up for final repositioning after pasting. It just (many times) did NOT paste the cutout (transparent) into the original vector. The "undo" to the Reverse Path command with a new Reverse Path inserted in the process worked. I'm sure I have been doing something wrong but the only thing I can think is using the "Select None" after creating a selection to change multiple nodes to Symmetrical...I couldn't seem to get it back into edit mode any other way. Anyhow, I finished the 16 cups rendition AND some of them with additional cutouts. Also Lessons 6 and 7. I did NOT do the text part of that...I just went for a real complex "cut with knife" thing on a circle using a compass layer to divide it equally into 4 parts. Here are the results.

If you tried to edit it after already "exporting it", then exported it again, you may have to shut down your PSP and restart it because the "new" exported version wasn't re-uploaded into the preset shapes...if that makes sense. I had that happen to myself...made a change and it didn't show up when I tested it as a preset shape. Then I "reloaded" the preset shapes, the changed version was in there. OR (and I didn't try this), maybe selecting and using one of the other tools then selecting preset shapes again will reload the shapes without having to shut down completely.

@Cassel and everyone else as well. Going back to the 16 cups file, I have found that OFTEN, after doing the cutout, then pasting it into the vector, the cutout doesn't happen i.e. I do NOT get the transparent section in the cup handle. Then I start using the undo step by step until the NEXT undo is the Reverse Path command. If at that point I go into the cutout section and select Reverse Path AGAIN, then select all, cut, then paste into the vector, IT WORKS. I don't know what I've been doing that "already" reverses the path before I try to do it on the first attempt but somehow, when my initial reverse path is invoked, the path was already reversed (apparently...if doing it a second time makes it work). Anyhow...I'm now up to "Multicup07" preset shape in the cups file. I have also a couple of times tried to get fancy and paste a second cutout into one of the vectors but that hasn't been working. When I'm done with the 16 cups, I'll go back and tackle that and figure out how to make it work.

OK...I have done Lesson 5. Here is my submission.

I was running into that as well. I did the right click on the vector path, then edit, then "select none". As long as you are in edit mode on your pen tool at top, you should be back to editing nodes.

OK. Doing "ONE" object/cup and changing the stroke width to 10 (from 5) actually worked. I still do not know what I was doing wrong when using the whole cup file. I'll take the "win" and might go back and try the big file again. Originally was going to see if could make a shape file with multiple preset shapes as per lesson two from a few of these.

I am going to take just one of the cups in its own file and try it that way. If that doesn't work, I'll look at getting loom set up. Right now the "layer" view is very small on the screen and I'm not sure how to zoom just that...but the vectors will show up much "larger" in the view I have after I go to just one of the cups in its own file.

I honestly don't know what I'm doing wrong at this point. I've deleted everything and gone back the drawing board and followed along step by step with Lesson 4, pausing the video with each step. It "cuts" the cutout vector and I can paste it into the "cup" vector and reposition it but the cutout is filled when I check it. The only thing different is that I'm working on the original canvas of many cups and started with the upper left one. The vectors are in the layers palette and show up on the canvas and when I switch to fill AND stroke its all there except the cutout is NOT cut out. GRRRR !!! To the best of my knowledge I'm set up exactly as Caroline was in the video for the pen tool. The image below is what I have right after I paste the cutout into the main cup vector and reposition it. The "test" fails (so far) every time.

Lesson 4 "Failure". Haven't figured out where it went wrong but the "cutout" isn't truly "cutting out" for me. Maybe I missed one of those double node merges but I didn't see any to merge. At any rate I should be seeing transparency in the handle after using the Preset Shape I exported and it is filling just like the main cup. The dog is pestering me for his walk and he won't let me concentrate on anything else until that "ritual" has been observed. As of September last year, we had 3611 (and change) miles logged with my Garmin watch (since Nov 2016) and have done a couple or more hundred since September. He is almost 11 and we won't have him for too much longer...he is a large doberman...getting gray and he runs out of steam early after commencing our walks these days. Pretty much maxing out at 1.5 miles on good days.

Here are Lessons 2 and 3. I ran into a snag...somewhere sometime, I had added the Corel_11 preset shape folders for 2019 to 2022 inclusive to my file locations for Pre-set shapes as well as the "documents/Preset shapes folders for all four years. Whenever I tried to export a new shape, the program locked up tight and refused to work. When looked, the new shape was in the 2022 preset shapes folder so it had saved...but forever and a day I could NOT select preset shapes to try out my new vector...the program locked up tight. Had to Ctrl/Alt/Del and go back in. Finally I compared my preset shapes file locations to others that worked i.e. Picture tubes etc...and the ONLY Corel_"number" folder in those was the current/latest year. When I deleted those file locations for 2019, 2020, and 2021, everything started working again. Woo Hoo ! Anyhow, I'm behind a lesson now...need to do the cutout lesson and whatever is in Lesson 5 (haven't yet looked. )

Not great getting it actually symmetrical editing cusps...that will take some practice.

OK. It seems to be working, mostly...I probably DID have something different on Brush Variance...used it for "snow globes" quite awhile ago and probably didn't reset defaults afterward. The CURRENT "thing" I was trying to do was change a "black" horse to "white". I'm guessing there are limitations or parameters for the tool and the colors approaching #000000 and #FFFFFF are probably in that boundary. Might explain the previous times it appeared that the tool wasn't working. On the family photo project I was trying to colorize a dark suit in an old black and white photo.

I originally used the contact link on the campus to try to email Carolyn but (excuse the pun) it has now occured to me that it was not the proper "forum". So anyways, here is my question/problem... a PS is that I also opened up PSP 2021 Ultimate and same thing is happening there. Have any others or yourself started having issues with the Change to Target tool? Mine has quit working for some reason. I’m using Paint Shop Pro 2022 Ultimate. I was working on a project to colorize a family portrait of my Mother and the rest of her family awhile back and it was working although occasionally intermittent. Currently if I try to paint with it, nothing happens with changing color but it does record an “instance” which can be undone so inside the program it is recording a “usage”. I’ve tried changing parameters (step, opacity, density, mode, foreground color etc.) but it just isn’t changing the color. Anyways, if any others or yourself have experienced this and found a solution, I will be “all ears”. Interesting sidenote… a couple of decades ago, my aunts and mom were contacted by a “lost” brother who found them using one of those genealogy sites. He knew he was adopted and was looking for his original parents/family. It is pretty much speculated, based on their conversations and memories that a “crooked” doctor reported him stillborn and he was placed from a shady adoption agency. They did DNA tests and he was a full brother. My grandparents had passed so the “truth” will never be fully known. Since then, my aunts and mother have also passed on (there was an older brother as well who passed away before Uncle Ron came on the scene), so he is the only relative on my mother’s side of the family in her generation who is still with us. I “ADDED” him to the aforementioned family photograph (photo-shopped) which I am still working on colorizing and hope to finish it sometime this year. He recently celebrated his 83rd birthday. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide. Take Care, Dan Hess.

The font for the "month" is Handycheera. The one I used for days of week is "a dripping marker". Not sure exactly where I got either of them...I THINK I got Handycheera from Creative Fabrica.

My last one...finally finished October.