Artisitc Merits

yep

Its proper name is the free select tool- it should look somethinglike this-



Once selected you can use it to mark out an area, simple mark out around the foreground you want to keep. When you get to the end just connect it back to the first point and the whole thing will sort of flash and look like this-



With a dotted line marking the selcted area.
Now you need to go to edit tab and find copy visible.

Now just bring up your sky background.
Go back to edit tab and this time paste selected to add your foreground.
Then select the move tool and position it as you want on the background.
Then paste layer down to put it in place.

That will give you something like this-



as you can see there are ugly ragged edges, gaps where the background isnt visible ect- you could get round that with layers alpha channels ect- but I am trying to keep this to only using a minimum of tools. So I will show next how to clean up the image- once youve got to this stage.

Houston we have a problem, which is the edit tab/copy visible?
How do you bring up the sky?

Well, the good news is- good work so far.

As to bringing up the sky just open it as another picture.

I have no idea where the copy visible will be!

Hold on- Ill try to find out.

I think you just need to find copy. Try control-J

To paste onto your sky picture try- shift+control+v

Just noticed- it looks like you have selected the sky not the foreground!

I may have to try this tomorrow, its 2 in the morning and my computer is tired, its had a hard day, and its hot. its 26 degrees in the house and its not happy. thanks for your patience with the hamster brain.

ok here again.
if you have gimp and I have Photoshop will the commands be the same? also I dont know how to get two images up at the same time. if I get one from my immages on the computer and then I go to get a 2nd image, the first one disappears. how do you keep both images, I dont know how to do it. I know this stuff is really easy but not for me.

I think in photoshop you have to open the second picture as a new layer!
Couldnt you just use GIMP? Its easy to install and its free. And would make explaining stuff easier.

The keyboard shortcuts I gave you are for photoshop- well acording to their online manual anyway- so they should work, probably.

dont know how to get new layer.

On another matter- been trying to increase my ability with Terragens animation- trying multiple cameras- theres no sound on this yet and the plan is to add particle effects, engine flares and a film grain filter eventually (as well as make it longer).

Should be an 'add new layer' option- been a long time since I used photoshop but I seem to remember there is a layer box somewhere thats shows you all current layers and lets you add and delete new ones.

is this it, where it says livello, which presumably means levels. what do I do?

Ok, um not sure.

Try this- bring up your picture with the foreground selected.
And press control-J. With any luck that will put it onto your clipboard.

Then bring up the sky picture -dont worry if the first pic goes away when you do that- the info should beon the clipboard still.

Now press shift + control + v that should paste the foreground from the clipboard onto the background.

ok I will try it, if you dont hear from me its exploded.

erm I can see which is control and V but which one is shift?

 theres one called ALT next to the space bar on the left  and one called ALT GR on the right side of the space bar.  got a feeling its alt gr.

The shift key is the one you press when you are typing to get a capital letter. like THIS. Its usually just below the caps lock key on the left side of a keyboard, and theres another one below the return key on the right side.

are you sure its not   alt gr? do you press control shift v all at the same time?

Yeah you need to press down all three.
The alt key is a different thing from the shift key however.

ok I tried control shift and v and nothing happened. the first bit seemed to work, i could see it had created a level. I got the sky photo from images and then did control shift v and nowt.

have you given up Petty?  its hard work innit

Im working it out for you mrs Figg- couldnt you just use GIMP?

I am installing photoshop instead- and I hate bloody photoshop.

I cant use Gimp on principle, its got a stupid name.

But its easier, less processor heavy and its FREE.

I dont know if I can download it, is it heavy? I am kind of used to Photoshop, it would be nice to be able to utilize it better.