**Program Tutorials** : Digital Image Pro : *Program Basic

This tutorial was written using and is intended for use in Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006.  There are other methods for making and installing art strokes, however, the techniques here were outlined by kimlizzy, MJ Greene (mjgicy) and Yvette.  Please contact me at mjgicy@yahoo.com if you have any questions or concerns

There are a couple of things you need to think about and do before you actually start creating the art stroke. 

SECTION I:  PREPARATION

A.

1.  Create a temporary folder on your desktop to hold the new files you will be making.  You may name it anything you wish, it will be deleted at the end of this tutorial.  I have named mine “My New Art Strokes”.  You will be creating five files for this folder.  One .txt file, one .bmp file and three .png files. 

2.  Navigate to the Artstrok folder in the Microsoft Digital Image program directory.  You can find it under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Digital Image 2006\PiFiles\Paint\Brushes\Artstrok

Right click on any one of the .txt files and choose “Copy To Folder…”

In the window that pops open, find the folder you created on your desktop and choose “Copy”

3.   Decide on a base file name for your art stroke.  You don’t need to change any file names at this point.  Just keep the name in mind for steps that follow later on.  So that you can easily identify the art strokes that YOU have created, I suggest you name them with your initials and an identifying term such as feathered, wavy, brushed, etc.  In this example I will use my initials, ‘mjg’ and the word lattice, because I am going to show you how to make an art stroke that resembles a lattice pattern.  So, the base file name will be “mjglattice”.  You will add a number pattern and file extensions to this base file name later in the tutorial.

SECTION II:  CREATING THE IMAGE FILES

A. CANVAS SET-UP

1.  Open your Microsoft Digital Image editor

2.  Click on FILE > NEW                               

At “Select a canvas size:”

-choose ‘Custom’ from the drop-down menu

Go to the “Units” field and select ‘pxl’ in the drop-down menu

-enter 486 for the Width and 166 for the Height.

Choose Landscape

3.  Click DONE

4.  Go to INSERT> SHAPE

  -choose the Square

5.  Go to FORMAT> SHAPE OR LINE

 -choose LINE THICKNESS  

-choose NONE for outline thickness

6.  Click OK

7.  Go to FORMAT> RESIZE OBJECT TO FIT CANVAS

  -choose STRETCH TO FIT

8.  Go to EDIT> LOCK

9.  Go to EFFECTS> FILL WITH TEXTURE OR COLOR

   -choose Black

10.  Click DONE

11.  Go to FILE> SAVE AS

12.  Choose .png as your file type and save with the file name you choose in SECTION I: A. PREPARATION,  step 2, adding the number pattern 1_11 and the extension .png  Save it to the temp folder you created on your desktop in SECTION I: Step 1.  My example will look like this:  mjglattice1_11.png

B.  MAKING THE ART STROKE

There are many ways to make the art stroke.  This section of II: CREATING THE IMAGE FILES (Section B) simply outlines steps I took to make the Lattice Art Stroke illustrated.  Sections C and D remain the same no matter the technique you use.  Once you are comfortable with the procedure outlined here, you may use any tools, textures, stamps, filters or combination of those to create your own original art stroke.

A note about basics:

It works best if you use a black background with white or light colored effects, but you can flip it and use a white background with black or dark effects.  It makes for an unexpected look in your art stroke!  You can use color, however it will not appear as color in your finished art stroke.  It will only appear as a shade of gray.  You may add color to your art stroke after it is installed and you are using it in a project.

1.  Go to EFFECTS>PAINT BRUSH>FREEHAND

At “Select a paint tool:”

 -choose: pencil

Click a paint color: white

Click a brush size: 40

2.  Click on “Customize paint settings…”   

At “Click a brush shape: first angled shape

  -Adjust transparency to 40

3.  Dot the “pencil tool” across the length of the canvas and then repeat with the second angled shape creating the lattice effect. 

4.  Click the small button at the bottom with the arrow pointing to the left to go back. 

5.  Click DONE  Click OK if you get a pop-up asking if you want to continue applying this effect.

6.  At this point you may have to re-center your layer. 

Go to FORMAT> CENTER OBJECT ON CANVAS

7.  Click on FILE> SAVE to resave the file.

C.  THE OTHER TWO .PNG IMAGE FILES

1.  Open a blank canvas as instructed in section II. A. CANVAS SET-UP, this time entering the dimensions of 1753 for the Width and 210 for the Height and then click DONE.

2.  The first file you created should still be in your files palette in the editor.  If it is not, open it and click on it to make it the active image.

3.  Go to EDIT> COPY 

4.  Now make your blank canvas the active image.

5.  Click EDIT> PASTE 

6.  Go to FORMAT> RESIZE OBJECT TO FIT CANVAS

 -choose STRETCH TO FIT

7.  At this point you may need to re-center your image.

Go to FORMAT> CENTER OBJECT ON CANVAS

8.  Go to EDIT> LOCK. 

9.   Go to FILE> SAVE AS

10. Choose .png as your file type and save with the file name you choose in SECTION I: A. PREPARATION,  step 2, adding the number pattern 1_12 and the extension .png  Save it to the temp folder you created on your desktop in SECTION I: A. Step 1. 

My example will look like this:  mjglattice1_12.png

11.  Repeat the above steps 1-10 for the next file, but use the dimensions of 179 for the Width and 123 for the Height and saving this file with the file you choose in SECTION I: A. PREPARATION,  step 2, adding the number pattern 1_10 and the extension .png  Save it to the temp folder you created on your desktop in SECTION I: A. Step 1.

My example will look like this:  mjglattice1_10.png

D.  THE .BMP IMAGE FILE

This is the thumbnail that you will see when you open the tool options to choose your art strokes when your editor.  Please note that no matter what your finished art stroke looks like, your .bmp image MUST be on a white background with black effects in order for it to show up in the editor thumbnails.  Making this image a negative is the simplest and quickest way to do this.

1.  Make the original file created (mjglattice1_11.png) the active file in your editor

2.  Go to EFFECTS> NEGATIVE

This is what your image will look like now:

2.  Go to FORMAT> RESIZE IMAGE

3.  Adjust Pixel Dimensions to 140 for Width and 32 for Height

4.  Click DONE

5.  Go to FILE> SAVE AS

6.  Choose .bmp as your file type and save with the file name you choose in SECTION I: A. PREPARATION,  step 2, adding the number pattern 1_1 and the extension .bmp  Save it to the temp folder you created on your desktop in SECTION I: A. Step 1.

My example will look like this:  mjglattice1_1.bmp

Click OK if you get a pop-up box asking you if you want to save as a flat file.

7.  Close your editor and navigate to the folder you created on your desktop.

SECTION III:  CREATING THE TEXT FILE

1.  Go to your desktop, open that folder, find the text file you put there in SECTION I: A. step 2,

and open it.

We will be editing six of the lines in this document.  *It is important that you enter the correct file names and appropriate index number in this document as this is the file that the program reads when you tell it to use your art stroke.

2.  The first line you need to edit is the “index” line.

Replace the number there with any number NOT listed below. 

In my example I choose the number 9.

**The following index numbers were installed when you installed Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006, so you should NOT use them:  1  2  6  7  8  10  11  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  25  27  28  29  31  36  38  41  44  48  51  54  55  59  61

Remember to make note of this list and add any additional numbers if necessary so that you can keep track of all numbers in use in YOUR program.**

3.  The second line to edit is the “Display Name” line.

This is the name that describes what the stroke actually looks like in your project.  (It is totally subjective, so don’t worry too much about this one.  You could even name your art stroke(s) after your kids or pets if you wanted to!)  In this example I choose the name: Lattice

4.  The third line to edit is the “Thumbnail File Name” line.

Replace the file name there with the .bmp file name.

In my example it will look like this:  mjglattice1_1.bmp

5.  The fourth line to edit is the first “Brush File Name” line.

Replace the file name there with .png file containing the number pattern 1_10

In my example it will look like this:  mjglattice1_10.png

6.  The fifth line to edit is the next “Brush File Name” line.

Replace the file name there with .png file containing the number pattern 1_11

In my example it will look like this:  mjglattice1_11.png

7.  The sixth line to edit is the last “Brush File Name” line.

Replace the file name there with .png file containing the number pattern 1_12

In my example it will look like this:  mjglattice1_12.png

This completes the editing of the text file.  Check to be sure you have no typos in your editing. 

8.  Click on FILE>SAVE AS

Enter the file name you choose in SECTION I: A. PREPARATION, step 2 in the “File name:” field adding the numbers 1_1 and the extension “.txt”

9.  Click “Save”.  Be sure you are saving this file to the temporary folder you created on your desktop in step 1 above.  You may close this text document. 

10.  Go to the temporary folder you created on your desktop.  There will be two .txt files there now, one named with your file name and the other that is the original we opened for editing.  Delete the original one.

SECTION IV: INSTALLING THE FILES

Your temporary folder should be open and you should now see the following files:

mjglattice1_10.png

mjglattice1_11.png

mjglattice1_12.png

mjglattice1_1.bmp

mjglattice1_1.txt

1.  While holding down the Ctrl key, Hit A, to select all files.

2.  Then EDIT> “Copy To Folder…”

3.  Navigate to the Artstrok folder in the Microsoft Digital Image program directory.  You can find it in under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Digital Image 2006\PiFiles\Paint\Brushes\Artstrok

4.  Click on the “Artstrok” folder to highlight it and then click “Copy”

5.  Close your “My New Art Strokes” folder and open Microsoft Digital Image Suite editor.

Now you can see how it looks in a project!

There are two ways you can use your new art stroke, as an edge or as a paint brush.

To use as an edge:  Go to EFFECTS> EDGES then click on “Art Stroke…”

To use as a paint brush:  Go to EFFECTS> PAINT BRUSH then click on "Art Stroke..."

Under “Select a brush stroke:”  find your art stroke edge. They are arranged alphabetically, so, hover your mouse over them to see the display name, or you might recognize it on sight.

Adjust the settings to your liking. 

Once you see that your art stroke is installed in the program, you may delete the temporary folder and all the files you created on your desktop at the start of this tutorial. 

Here is the Lattice art stroke created with this tutorial and a couple others I have made. Experiment with colors, layering and using different strokes together.  Have fun!