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paintapastime — MLP Tutorial: Adding Manes and Tails to Bases

Published: 2012-01-02 19:16:53 +0000 UTC; Views: 40958; Favourites: 679; Downloads: 771
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Description The image is a very large file, and I apologize for that.


*I do make icons for those who, for whatever reason, cannot make ones of their own. I do not require or ask for any sort of payment. All I want is to help you guys out and for you to find this tutorial useful!

This is a tutorial on how to add manes and tails to the My Little Pony bases provided by ~medli96 , used with her permission. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me via personal message or comment on this tutorial.

Female Bases: [link]
Male Bases: [link]

MLP Creator: [link]

Links:
Animation Site: [link]
Photoshop Tutorials: [link]
Paint.Net Tutorials: [link]
GIMP Tutorials: [link]
Microsoft Paint Tutorials: [link]

Question: What should we save each slide as?
Answer: If you want the image to remain transparent, save it as a .PNG file. If you have added a background, .PNG is still the best option, but .JPG or .JPEG will work as well.

Question: How do you select a mane/tail with two different colours?
Answer: It depends on the tool you use and the program you’re working on, but generally, if you hold CTRL+Shift, that will allow you to select multiple areas without losing your previous selections.

Question: I’ve tried resizing and drawing the mane/tail, but it still looks crummy! Do you have any other tips?
Answer: If you resize by percentage rather than pixels, it can sometimes give you a cleaner image. There are various tutorials on DeviantArt that I’ve seen that show you how to resize by percentage.

Question: I have a favorite mane, but it’s in Pony Maker on Facebook/on another drawing/elsewhere. Can I use the same concept for that?
Answer: You most certainly can! It may be more difficult without the transparent background or line colors, but by all means, apply this tutorial wherever you feel like it.

Question: I’m trying to select the mane/tail, but I have a touchpad and my hand is anything BUT steady.
Answer: This is a bit more tedious, but if you zoom in enough, you can employ the CTRL+Shift option and select the mane/tail a few pixels at a time. It takes a lot of work, but it will get you reliable, precise results in the end.

Question: I am using GIMP/Paint.Net/Microsoft Paint/another program that doesn’t offer the tools you describe in the tutorial. What can I do?
Answer: Unfortunately, I’m rather inexperienced with other types of programs, having used Photoshop CS2 for most of my editing days. I can answer your specific question to the best of my ability, but if my answer seems vague or incorrect, there are plenty of tutorials you can view on blogs, official sites, and through Youtube videos that will be of astounding help. It’s where I get all of my information! I have placed a few links to the more popular image editing software above. If the program you are employing is not on that list, let me know and I’ll find some good tutorials for you and add them to the list.

Do you have a question that isn’t answered in this list or on the tutorial? Send me a comment or a note! I will be delighted to assist you.
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Comments: 616

got2lovethatfire In reply to ??? [2012-01-23 07:47:37 +0000 UTC]

Used this for the hair and mane on my new avi, but I repixeled the hair after i shrunk it cuz it looked pretty unrecognizable in my program (paint.net) I hope it turned out ok also, i anchored the hair, tail and cutie mark together so they wouldn't wiggle aroud... Hope you like

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paintapastime In reply to got2lovethatfire [2012-01-23 14:18:17 +0000 UTC]

It looks wonderful! You did a good job repixeling

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got2lovethatfire In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-24 00:39:43 +0000 UTC]

Thanks! I saw another tut afterwards that suggests using "nearest neighbor" for the quality when resizing, and that helps a lot XD of course I found out after I redid the whole thing by myself

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to got2lovethatfire [2012-01-24 01:50:35 +0000 UTC]

Haha, aww, that sucks. I've never heard of "nearest neighbor". I'll have to take a look at that

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got2lovethatfire In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-24 20:23:29 +0000 UTC]

ya I saw it here: [link] and it works the other way too

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paintapastime In reply to got2lovethatfire [2012-01-24 20:39:48 +0000 UTC]

oh, sweet, thanks for showing me

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AskJuicy In reply to ??? [2012-01-23 02:25:53 +0000 UTC]

so helpful thx

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to AskJuicy [2012-01-23 02:44:45 +0000 UTC]

Glad to hear it!

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AskJuicy In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-23 23:08:44 +0000 UTC]

Hehe!

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DemonNeuro-of-Hell In reply to ??? [2012-01-15 06:18:06 +0000 UTC]

So you didn't draw the hair at all? Is the hair on your icon even by the creator?

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paintapastime In reply to DemonNeuro-of-Hell [2012-01-15 06:23:16 +0000 UTC]

No, I didn't do anything with the hair. Both the mane and the tail are from generalzoi's creator, yes

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DemonNeuro-of-Hell In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-15 06:36:09 +0000 UTC]

Oh okay. Why not draw it though? ;;

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paintapastime In reply to DemonNeuro-of-Hell [2012-01-15 06:42:04 +0000 UTC]

Because I am not good at pixel art Or...any art for that matter, lol. But if you want to draw it, then by all means, do so!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

DemonNeuro-of-Hell In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-15 06:46:03 +0000 UTC]

Ah well in that cause I guess it's fine. I mean in my personal opinion it's kinda like no work was actually done but recoloring and resizing but....I guess it works. C:

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paintapastime In reply to DemonNeuro-of-Hell [2012-01-15 06:49:11 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, I agree with you. I just wanted to give the bronies out there who can't draw a chance to make their own icons without having to pay for a commission or something. I would never claim to be at all decent at art or say my work is special or anything, because I know I haven't done anything, haha.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

DemonNeuro-of-Hell In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-15 06:52:33 +0000 UTC]

Well it's nifty trick and I never thought of it. Props to you for figuring it out. C:

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to DemonNeuro-of-Hell [2012-01-15 06:56:51 +0000 UTC]

Oh, well thank you

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Skudflaps In reply to ??? [2012-01-13 14:27:00 +0000 UTC]

[link] Here is mine ... It's very slow :/

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to Skudflaps [2012-01-13 17:40:28 +0000 UTC]

Aww, so cute! It' fantastic I love the glasses <3

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Foal01 In reply to ??? [2012-01-07 13:42:54 +0000 UTC]

what did you use to crop the hair?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to Foal01 [2012-01-07 16:48:09 +0000 UTC]

Personally, I use the Magic Wand Tool on Photoshop, and set the tolerance to 5. If I want to change the hairstyle a bit from what the Creator gives me, I use the Magnetic Lasso Tool with the tolerance set to 0

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Foal01 In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-07 16:53:42 +0000 UTC]

what photoshop do you use?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to Foal01 [2012-01-07 17:02:53 +0000 UTC]

I use Adobe Photoshop CS2. Kickin' it old school, lol

👍: 0 ⏩: 2

medli96 In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-07 23:56:16 +0000 UTC]

LOL, Adobe Photoshop 7.0 babay.

It's my life

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to medli96 [2012-01-08 04:07:32 +0000 UTC]

Lol, I hear that one is great It's just too darn expensive for me xD

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Foal01 In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-07 17:26:58 +0000 UTC]

where do you get it?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to Foal01 [2012-01-07 17:36:04 +0000 UTC]

Unfortunately Adobe doesn't sell CS2 anymore, but if you aren't against pirating, there are a few websites you can find through Google. If you come across a website that charges you for it, don't buy it. I fell into that hole thinking that it was a legit Adobe website and paid $63 for a pirated version that promptly crashed 30 days after I got it.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Foal01 In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-07 17:39:18 +0000 UTC]

do you know any paint website things that have a good croping tool like yours?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to Foal01 [2012-01-07 17:43:00 +0000 UTC]

Hm...I can't think of anything off of the top of my head that would be able to crop as specifically as you'd need it to. If you like, I could make the image for you?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Foal01 In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-07 18:01:58 +0000 UTC]

ohh you would thx your too nice. i will have i pic of her in just a little, i am working on a comic and i can use one of the pics to show what she looks like.

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paintapastime In reply to Foal01 [2012-01-07 19:41:23 +0000 UTC]

I'd be happy to Alright, sounds great. I have to leave for work in a minute, but I'll be back on in less than eleven hours, so I'll make it when I get home

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Foal01 In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-07 20:51:14 +0000 UTC]

ok thx

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

sjsaberfan In reply to ??? [2012-01-07 06:43:33 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the help!! But after you make every frame, how do you turn it into an icon animation?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to sjsaberfan [2012-01-07 07:08:20 +0000 UTC]

Happy to be of service! I'm glad it was useful. As for the animation, it depends on the program you have at your disposal. I use Photoshop CS2 which has an Animation window to use for such a task. I haven't exactly mastered the animation process myself, unfortunately, but if you tell me what sort of program you're using, I could take a stab at giving advice.

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sjsaberfan In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-07 16:41:45 +0000 UTC]

I ususally use Paint, and I have this program called UnFreez, but when I save my pictures as .gif, the picture's color gets all distorted and weird, so if I'm going to make a pony icon, I will use Photoshop :3 so could you please give me some Photoshop tips? I have the version Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 :3

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paintapastime In reply to sjsaberfan [2012-01-07 17:01:13 +0000 UTC]

Certainly! What you do, is you move each frame to a different layer of a 50 x 50 image. What I prefer to do is make Layer 0 a background color, or keep it transparent, and then put frame 1 on Layer 1, frame 2 on Layer 2, and so on. Once you have all of the images on separate layers, click Save For Web, and make sure the matte color is set to Transparency. Click the Animate box on the Save pop up, then in the bottom right hand corner, click Preview in Default Browser. It should be a little circular icon with an arrow next to it. If you're not happy with the end result, you can go back and move some of the layers to their proper positions. Once you've done all that, it should be good to go!

Note: A possible reason for the transparency issues is that Paint, from what I hear, does not approve of transparency. I think it would be easiest if you make the pony in Elements from start to finish, or else go through and delete the background of every frame once it's saved in Elements.

👍: 0 ⏩: 2

sjsaberfan In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-07 20:38:07 +0000 UTC]

You were a great help as you can see by my icon BUT why is her eye all smeary? It wasn't like that when I made her

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paintapastime In reply to sjsaberfan [2012-01-07 21:12:26 +0000 UTC]

What the problem might be is, when you filled in her body color, the tolerance was set too high and it also filled in some of the eye lines. What program did you use to make her? I can give you tips on how to fix it depending on the program. Or, what may have happened as well, is when you put in the mane or tail piece, if you erased a part of either of those, either the cursor may have slipped and accidentally erased part of the eye, or for some reason it was somehow covered up by the hair file

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sjsaberfan In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-07 22:59:58 +0000 UTC]

I made the whole thing in paint, but I imported all the pics into Photoshop to animate it

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paintapastime In reply to sjsaberfan [2012-01-08 04:10:19 +0000 UTC]

Hm...I'd recommend making it start to finish in Photoshop. I'm not a fan of mixing and matching programs due to the chances of the two programs getting into a spat and not cooperating with each other. What you could do is go frame by frame and check the pixels on each one to see which frames are responsible for the vanishing eyelash and then copy and paste that part of the good frames into the bad ones and see if that helps

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sjsaberfan In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-07 17:10:00 +0000 UTC]

This should help me a whole lot!! Thank you very much!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to sjsaberfan [2012-01-07 17:12:03 +0000 UTC]

Yay, I'm glad! Happy to be of help If you need anything else, don't hesitate to ask

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sjsaberfan In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-07 17:43:19 +0000 UTC]

thanks!! <33

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paintapastime In reply to sjsaberfan [2012-01-07 17:43:40 +0000 UTC]

No problem <3

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KiwiiStyle In reply to ??? [2012-01-05 12:17:04 +0000 UTC]

omg! thx it helped me allot!!

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paintapastime In reply to KiwiiStyle [2012-01-05 16:18:48 +0000 UTC]

Yay, I'm glad to hear it

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medli96 In reply to ??? [2012-01-04 03:16:35 +0000 UTC]

The way you do it seems so much easier haha xD I pixel them on and then copy paste for each frame

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to medli96 [2012-01-04 06:04:59 +0000 UTC]

Haha, I never was very good at pixel art unfortunately

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Burningstar13 In reply to paintapastime [2012-01-04 22:29:30 +0000 UTC]

Meh neither

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

paintapastime In reply to Burningstar13 [2012-01-04 22:33:06 +0000 UTC]

Haha. I love all the little icons you have

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