Anybody heard of a good software Refferance option ?

[BAN_KAI]

So guys i installed Artrage and CorelPainter 11 and my PC a few days ago just to see if its any better suited for paint that photoshop and i noticed ArtRage has a really awesome options called Sticker in which you can stick a refferance anywhere you want even in full screen, this is really handy cause i cant do this in photoshop CS2 in full screen and i have to click a lot of time to see the refferance, so does anybody know if there is a plugin for photoshop CS2 or later that has this option .



Btw off topic i am the only 1 on this forum that uses a MOUSE ???

[Portus]

You could copy the reference image into a layer then just hide it when you don't need it.

[BAN_KAI]

You could copy the reference image into a layer then just hide it when you don't need it.

that could work but i would still need to un click it over and over again, i just want the refferance to stick in one place the whole time,

[Portus]

that could work but i would still need to un click it over and over again, i just want the refferance to stick in one place the whole time,

The best solution would be to get a second (cheaper) monitor, then New View

[BAN_KAI]

The best solution would be to get a second (cheaper) monitor, then New View

lol i cant get a cheaper monitor than this crap, its heavier than me

[Portus]

In that case it's more complicated, I don't think it has any reference feature like Artrage, I know in later Photoshop versions they use Panels, for instance the color-wheels were possible due to this and it wasn't even Adobe who made the two color-wheels but the users, maybe it's possible to do something like that for references. It would be much more practical because they work like drawers.

[hecartha]

Someone started this thread on CGTalk
Image Forground Reference Utility (Windows only)
I tried with Photoshop, Painter or SAI on Win7 64-bit and it works great.
Just press F1 and the program becomes an untouchable layer on top of your graphic program. You can even control opacity of this windows without coming back from overlay mode. You just need to select it on your taskbar and use your mouse wheel.
Thread from Luxology (you can download it from there)
Demo video
Direct Link

Someone else has written about this more advanced shareware also
Reference Image
You can look at these two videos:
Latest Reference Image Demo
Reference Image General Usage
You can download the trial here (Windows Only) (This new demo has fewer restrictions than the old and allows 3 images to be loaded at once. Clipping and all other features. Though it does contain a watermark. and it for personal, non comercial use only.)
I tried it quickly also, you can zoom in the image, rotate, mirror it in two axis, change opacity, switch quickly from multiple images (till 9 images) and it shows the RGB value of the selected color. For quick use, see these shortcuts:
CTRL+MAJ+W Focus and bring reference pane to front
press and hold CTRL+A (over the image reference Pane) with middle or right mouse button allows moving or changing size of the image reference pane
press and hold CTRL+S (over the image reference Pane) with middle or right mouse button allows using zoom and pan on the image inside the image reference pane
CTRL+W Toggle 30% opacity (so it is still there but almost invisible)
CTRL+Q Toggle reference Pane On/Off
of course there are more shortcuts but that's enough for a first try
I think it is worth the £8.99

[Portus]

That's great, seeing the video demo it would be really useful to overlay your sketches in SketchUp to line up, made further tests but it doesn't work too good with SketchUp.

[BAN_KAI]

Someone started this thread on CGTalk
Image Forground Reference Utility (Windows only)
I tried with Photoshop, Painter or SAI on Win7 64-bit and it works great.
Just press F1 and the program becomes an untouchable layer on top of your graphic program. You can even control opacity of this windows without coming back from overlay mode. You just need to select it on your taskbar and use your mouse wheel.
Thread from Luxology (you can download it from there)
Demo video
Direct Link

Someone else has written about this more advanced shareware also
Reference Image
You can look at these two videos:
Latest Reference Image Demo
Reference Image General Usage
You can download the trial here (Windows Only) (This new demo has fewer restrictions than the old and allows 3 images to be loaded at once. Clipping and all other features. Though it does contain a watermark. and it for personal, non comercial use only.)
I tried it quickly also, you can zoom in the image, rotate, mirror it in two axis, change opacity, switch quickly from multiple images (till 9 images) and it shows the RGB value of the selected color. For quick use, see these shortcuts:
CTRL+MAJ+W Focus and bring reference pane to front
press and hold CTRL+A (over the image reference Pane) with middle or right mouse button allows moving or changing size of the image reference pane
press and hold CTRL+S (over the image reference Pane) with middle or right mouse button allows using zoom and pan on the image inside the image reference pane
CTRL+W Toggle 30% opacity (so it is still there but almost invisible)
CTRL+Q Toggle reference Pane On/Off
of course there are more shortcuts but that's enough for a first try
I think it is worth the £8.99

thank you very much for your time, i downloaded the program and installed it, i learned the shortcuts but i cant chose my own refferance only the MAIn Windows with the shortcuts and the damn frog, do you know something about that ?

[joeparis]

i downloaded the program and installed it, i learned the shortcuts but i cant chose my own refferance only the MAIn Windows with the shortcuts and the damn frog, do you know something about that ?

I had to use a regular mouse to do the screen grabs, my Wacom pen/tablet wouldn't allow me to drag select. I also had to change the shortcuts as the defaults interfered with Painter/Photoshop shortcuts.

[hecartha]

i cant chose my own refferance only the MAIn Windows with the shortcuts and the damn frog, do you know something about that ?

You miss the program icon in taskbar notification area .
Anyway, I have a problem with the license file the developer sent me, I am still waiting for his reply (Machine ID changes depending of the Windows account used).

@joeparis
Hi Joe, it was a surprise to see your name as artist using Reference Image on the developer page, I suppose you followed this project for long time. So did you ever have trouble with the license system?


About Image Foreground Reference Utility, I just found the page where the developer posted the first time his program. It was on Blender forum here:
new Standalone utility - Foreground Reference
Keep this link because he has posted an update there

OK, I have made a slight update... I dont' have time right now to do everything I want to. But this takes care of two usability issues (I hope).

So changes:

There is now a check box that you can select that turns the control panel on and off. So, once you have the opacity set, you can turn off the panel so it doesn't obstruct the view as much.

And the F1 (Attention) button is now a toggle. It will put you in and out of the overlay mode. This sets up for the other changes which are coming (whereby you can flip through pictures and resize the image using mouse and keystrokes, etc...)

The new file is here:

New Version

Hope this helps somewhat...

In the same thread he is talking about features he hopes to add in next releases.

Yep, it's pretty lightweight.. But in future revisions, I intend to let you load up a bunch of images and then flip through them. I may even have a whack at letting you load a video clip so you could do rotoscoping... We'll see how much time I have :-)

[joeparis]

@joeparis
Hi Joe, it was a surprise to see your name as artist using Reference Image on the developer page, I suppose you followed this project for long time. So did you ever have trouble with the license system?

Hi Hecartha,

I guess I was just one of the first downloaders! Leigh, the developer, posted in the ImagineFX forum when the beta was available. I thought it was a great idea and followed his progress. It's "perfect" for my needs. I wasn't aware of any similar app, although I now know of one, much more limited, free alternative.

I haven't had any trouble with the licensing, fortunately, but then I'm the only user on my PC. There were a few quirks that I had to sort out and Leigh responded almost immediately to my queries. I don't know why you are still waiting for a reply.

With all due respect to Leigh, I think that there are a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out (not unusual for a new application - maybe they have been already) but I still believe it to be a great little helper.

[hecartha]

Thank for your reply, that's good to know.
About my issue, in fact I am logged as standard user and I avoid using administrator account when it is not necessary. Each time I need administrator privilege, I just enter my password. The problem is the machine ID I sent to Leigh was given by the program when I used standard account, and it seems it is different if I am running the program as admin...something weird there.

[edanduarte]

Hecartha, thanks for the foreground reference utility. It's a step in the right direction, but personally, I have upwards of 100 reference photos I scan through, and cumulatively download as I paint. Does that utility have an option to load an entire folder of photos?

Am I also to assume that reason this thread exists is because neither Picasa nor Windows Photo Gallery has an "always on top" option? If anyone knows how to activate that for EITHER of those programs, or direct me to the proper thread, you would make my month. Cheers to all.

E

[Portus]

ACDsee classic has "always on top" option.

[winstonterr]

Hi,
I just got a wacom bamboo fun, and I want to color a picture to post on deviantart. But whenever I try to color a picture on Corel Painter Essentials that came with it, i foes over the lines and you can't see them! How to I stop that from happening? I think it has something to do with layers, but I can't figure out how to make them work.

[hecartha]

Hecartha, thanks for the foreground reference utility. It's a step in the right direction, but personally, I have upwards of 100 reference photos I scan through, and cumulatively download as I paint. Does that utility have an option to load an entire folder of photos?

No, it was not designed in this way.

Am I also to assume that reason this thread exists is because neither Picasa nor Windows Photo Gallery has an "always on top" option?

You miss the point here. The problem is not only about an "always on top" feature which is something pretty easy to achieve.
Those utilities allow something a lot better:
-it makes the reference window a kind of "ghost" window, so you can paint freely on your program without messing focus even when you are painting on the reference window above your painting.
-You can resize the reference window and it will resize the reference image and you can zoom in or zoom out inside the reference window when you need to show a specific detail.

They did not replace a second screen, they allow to put the reference image directly at the side of the detail you are working on avoiding you to check constantly the reference on another screen. So it has been designed to be flexible and less intrusive than a simple "always on top" from a window manager tool.
A second screen is still the best for more than one reference images displayed in the same time (especially if you need massive amount of reference images).

If anyone knows how to activate that for EITHER of those programs, or direct me to the proper thread, you would make my month. Cheers to all.

There are plenty of programs than can help you in this task. I looked years ago for such small utilities and here are those I tried (I just checked on Windows 7 64-bit if they are still working for this system):
-Always On Top Maker
it works in an invisible way activating always on top of the current window using a keyboard shortcut (CTRL-ALT-T)...same shortcut to make the window normal. It is not good if you graphic program use this shortcut, I suppose it will mess something~
-Auto Window Manager
It allows not only always on top but also opacity control, alignment and minimize to tray using program list...boring program which is not intuitive IMO
-BringWndTop
This one works from the notification area, you can make any opened program always on top using a windows list
-DeskPins
pretty easy to use, it works also in notification area, you just need to click on it and click on the window you need to make always on top (a red pin will be visible on the top bar)
-PowerMenu
It adds new options on the top bar of any window such always on top, transparency, priority and minimize to tray...it doesn't seem to work with every program (it works with firefox and it does not work with notepad...)
-TurboTop
it just works just like BringWndTop but without submenu
-Window Pinner
It works just like TurboTop but it show program icon in the list instead of just their name.

that's all

[nikolaibaluev]

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