mart44
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Post by mart44 on Sept 7, 2023 20:03:37 GMT
Twenty-eight years ago I bought my first computer. It was a 486 running the newly released Windows 95. Windows Paint impressed me straight away. This scrawly old image is the very first thing I ever did using a computer. Quite fun at the time and I still have it all these years later..  These are the second and third images, all shaped pixel by pixel before I learned there were other image programs. They are just models I had at the time. I sat them on a shelf above the monitor and painted them the best I could, including the slightly oval wheel on the Mercedes  . Then constructed the frames..  Here's a little collection of all other images I did at the time in the same way. Simple things but they got me hooked on images and various art programs. They meant a non-artist like me could draw something..  |
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Post by cats4jan on Sept 7, 2023 20:26:59 GMT
You were good at this from the beginning đ
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Post by Jim on Sept 7, 2023 21:28:17 GMT
This scrawly old image is the very first thing I ever did using a computer. Quite fun at the time and I still have it all these years later.. I agree with Janice. I'll wager that you are an excellent mathematician, right Mart? Great pix but I don't think I'd buy a used car from that blue-eyed dude! |
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Post by Lillias on Sept 7, 2023 22:01:36 GMT
Here's a little collection of all other images I did at the time in the same way. Simple things but they got me hooked on images and various art programs. They meant a non-artist like me could draw something.. Iâm a frustrated non-artist too Mart and when I found Inkscape it allowed me to create things I wouldnât have been able to do otherwise and provided me with untold hours of fun. |
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Post by cats4jan on Sept 8, 2023 2:27:10 GMT
That's exactly my experience with Digital Scrapbooking. I discovered I could put a page together that really made me smile and the hobby has provided me with 20 years of such fun. As a bonus, I ended up with beautiful scrapbooks of my and my family's lives because the pages I created were usually personal. I no longer share many of these layouts, for privacy reasons, but in following the challenges provided on various Digital Scrapbooking sites, I have compiled so many chapters of my life.
I started using Word to make newsletters with photos and text for inclusion in my Christmas cards - then I made the Christmas cards themselves. Then I found Digital Scrapbooking while looking for graphics for greeting cards.
I also had fun learning software - easy to hard - culminating with Photoshop Elements. I did try Photoshop for a few years, but I went back to Elements. I prefer Elements because I don't have as many options in Elements - so it makes creation easier.
However, I could never do the photo-realistic work you do - that a whole different skill set.
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pontiac1940
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Post by pontiac1940 on Sept 8, 2023 2:49:28 GMT
This scrawly old image is the very first thing I ever did using a computer. Quite fun at the time and I still have it all these years later.. Just awesome. Love it! Surely Tate Britain will be interested. Clive PS: Bought my first computer in 1984! Arrgh! 39 years ago! I was writing magazine articles at the time so was over the moon with the simple word processor of the day. Scripsit. |
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Post by cats4jan on Sept 8, 2023 3:03:13 GMT
Bought my first computer in 1984! Got you beat - 1982 - Company wanted DH to learn computers and provided a deal we could not pass by. $3600 IBM - we paid 1/3 - the company 2/3 - with a deal that anytime within 3 years, we could give the computer back and they would give us our money back. Well, little did they know, personal computers had a 'shelf' life of less than a year before they became obsolete. I still can't believe it - we had to upload the OS, then take that disk out and put in the software disk to run Word Perfect - with another disk drive for saving the files.We moved out of town in 1985, gave them their computer back ... That started us on a journey of spending over $3,000 every few years for a new computer. We started with Lotus for him, Word Perfect for me. I still think Word Perfect was superior to Word, but Microsoft won... |
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mart44
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Post by mart44 on Sept 8, 2023 6:13:33 GMT
My brother was into computers years before me (made his living from them). I always used to wonder how he could spend so long sitting there looking at the monitor. When I bought a computer some years later, I found out why. I've been just like him ever since. . He knew I liked playing with images and gave me the job of optimising them for a website developer he was working for. Image file size was all important in the days of old modems and slow Internet speeds. Shaving a few bytes off an image's file size made a difference to how fast a web page could display them. Always been a bit conscious of that factor ever since even though it isn't all that necessary now. Never a true artist or very clever but it all gave an interest in editing or making images that has lasted for years. |
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Post by cats4jan on Sept 8, 2023 11:37:15 GMT
Image file size was all important in the days of old modems and slow Internet speeds. When I used to upload my layouts in the olden days - there was an option "save for web" - I still run across some layouts I have saved in that format. I was pretty good at computers - in those days - had a real interest in solving issues and learning new things. Unfortunately, my brain isn't what it used to be and I no longer have it in me to solve issues. But computers have always been something that have fascinated me from day one. And now - smart phones - I still can't get over that I have that powerful of a computer in my purse. I have gps, google etc. at my fingertips. And it even makes phone calls.  But my favorite thing is my iPad. Son bought one for me when they first came out - can't imagine life without it. |
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mart44
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Post by mart44 on Sept 8, 2023 13:24:19 GMT
Many of the images for optimising were GIFs. A way reducing file size in those was to reduce the number of colours from the standard 256 to a lower number. This could be done with most smaller images without it being noticeable. Some could look OK with only 20 or so colours. Each colour discarded made the file size smaller and so faster loading in the web page.
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Post by cats4jan on Sept 8, 2023 16:11:43 GMT
Never used gif. Always saved in photoshop format then flattened to jpg. Had to use âsave for webâ for the digiscrap websites I visited - until it no longer mattered. Now I save only best quality. I just buy hard drives large enough so I never have to think about file size
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. Then constructed the frames..
