Original Introduction Thread

[Peter]

Welcome to AIN! This is the place to say hi and tell us about yourselves. If you have any questions, this is also a great place to ask us anything regarding AIN or Sim City! Feel free to check out our informational thread. Or you can just check out the union forums and tell us what you think!

[Aleks]

Hey y'all, Im aleksfacco (Facco on st, and bobthebobthe elsewhere on the web). Y'all can just call me Aleks though

[Thomas]

Hi y'all I'm Thomas, I'm currently producing a CJ that will hopefully join AIN someday.
I do have a question: HOW do you guys get so good at photoshopping?
The logos of your CJs, the adverts, writing on images are amazing.

[Aleks]

Withs me, practice and exparimenting

[Aranho]

Hello guys! You'll know me, I'm Aran. My username says it all.

Well Thomas, my answer is the same with Aleks: practice and experimenting. Others may use Photoshop to do these stuffs, but I use Microsoft PowerPoint 2007. Paint and GIMP do help. With the techniques I have right now, I can't believe it how bad I was a year ago.

Such skill takes time (about 2 years for me). Curiousity also plays a part.

[Aleks]

Yah, I learned what I know over about a year. I takes time

[Thomas]

Hello guys! You'll know me, I'm Aran. My username says it all.

Well Thomas, my answer is the same with Aleks: practice and experimenting. Others may use Photoshop to do these stuffs, but I use Microsoft PowerPoint 2007. Paint and GIMP do help. With the techniques I have right now, I can't believe it how bad I was a year ago.

Such skill takes time (about 2 years for me). Curiousity also plays a part.

Do you mean something like this?

[Aranho]

For starters, yes.

Play with the features on Powerpoint, you'll discover stuff you'll never expected on Powerpoint.

[Blakeway4]

Hi, I'm Blakeway, I truly hate photoshop, not because I don't think it is awsome!! but because I'm still stuck with it Viva Paint!) I'm Blakeway everywhere, that's a universal username for me. I'm from Montréal, Québec - The best place of the World! I'm speaking English (just a bit, learning it from 4 years about now), French (totally, it is my first language) and learning Spanish at school since this year Holà, soy Blakeway! I'm a separatist, I want the Québec beeing independent from Canada and a country. I wish I'll be one day better then all of you in SC4, that's why I'm here twice, trying to surpass you all!

I'm not good at photoshiping, so if someone ask me to help him, I'll said: "Paint own" so don't be sad with that...

Call me bob if you want but it's not my name.
Yo deseo ser arquitecto. Mi perro es fantastica! Ella es una perra
I'm the creator of the fictive country of Lydosia.
I'm actually working on Prodisiac, the capital of the Republic of Lydosia.
I think French is the beautifulest and the greatest language of the World.
Perhaps, English is the best to sing on It sound special. When I heard songs in French, I understand too much the lyrics so it is more boring.

I like alot music, like The Beatles in particular. I hate rap, sorry for people who like it but I don't.

I think I said alot about me, so it's your turn guys!

[JJ]

Hey y'all I'm Sharaunque1 everywhere but please call me JJ! I am working on the ficticious country of Ascadylea and just recently became a Jr. Member of AIN! I enjoy going out to the club! I use a combination of all of these programs. I take advice from everyone. I use Paint, PowerPoint and PhotoShop!

[Peter]

Welcome to AIN you guys!

@Thomas: Just like everyone above me said, you just have to experiment and practice with photoshop. There's a buncha tutorials on how to make stuff and if you see something here at AIN and want to know how its done, just post that pic in the Member Services Forum and we will try and help you!

[Edge]

Hey JJ, welcome! Hope you have a good time here!

[Thomas]

Thanks Peter, thanks everyone. I'm going to keep working on PowerPoint, hopefully I'll get a half-decent banner for my pictures.

[Neil]

Hey everyone,

I'm Neil, 16. Doing my GCSEs atm so I'll be active one minute and gone the next until the summer when I'm hoping to contribute more to the union. I'm currently rebuilding my nation - Holidia into a more realistic CJ loosely based on Northern Ireland (very loosely based).

I'm also working on a website, blog thing for the sheer bant and to help me get familar with some basic web design for a course I have to take.

[Thomas]

Another question (I'm full of these!), how do you guys get such amazing maps? I've tried, but it's impossibly hard to get a decent one. :study:

[Aleks]

i just make them one city at a time

[Thomas]

I mean, a map of the nation (like something done in paint, showing the roads, major cities and stuff)

[Aranho]

Basically it's a mixed of Photoshopping and with the help of SimCity 4 Region maps as a reference and a guidance. It can also be done using Paint and PowerPoint. Google Earth or any detailed online maps can be useful too. Practice and patience are a kep to make such maps though, but once you've gotten the basic skills, a map should be a breeze to you.

For my method of a country map (by using my country Lanna as an example), I take a snapshot of Northern Thailand using Google Earth and import it to PowerPoint. With a brief research, I determine the size of the country that I wanted and, using the Freeform function (for 2007 edition, Insert > Shapes > Lines > Freeform), I trace the outline I wanted. By adjusting the curves a little and deleting unneccessary points via Edit Shape function, I've gotten the outline I wanted and deleted the Google Earth image, revealing the country map. A little color change and a professional looking map is complete.

Remember, there are always various methods you can use. Just experiment and always remember to have fun!

[Daniel]

Thomas - For me it's rather painstaking. I don't have Photoshop, so I use Paint. With SC4 open, I go to the stats menu in Mayor Mode and show the map, with all stats turned off. I then take a screenshot and import it into Paint, where I cut out the map and delete the rest of the image. I don't resize large maps, but medium maps need to be resized to half, small maps need to be resized to half and then half again. Once I've done every city in the region, I piece it all together and then add details like borders and cities. It usually takes about a day, but I keep all the map segments and a completed blank map in a separate folder in case there are any changes. It make editing a lot easier than starting from scratch.

For the political map, I had to spend a couple of hours making the colours uniform - tracing out the coasts and essentially colouring it all in. It took an evening, but, like the physical map, I keep a blank in a separate folder.

[Liberater444]

Hi! I am Liberater444, as on ST; you may find that name on some other sites as well. You can also call me Geoff. I'm from the Chicagoland area, born and raised.

I am white.

I enjoy running Track and soccer.

I listen to mainly rock, alternative, and house/trance (dance) music.

I am a war junky; I research military topics at random for fun.

I am interested in World Cultures and Studies, and history. I may major in History but so far there has not been a good career that I am interested in.

I am currently writing a military novel, with a fairly creative plot (in my opinion)

And lastly I play CoD MW2 and some other games on Xbox Live

[emgmod]

I'm emgmod.
I live in Hawaii.
Figure the rest out yourself.

[Guest]

I'm 976. All of my acounts are same. You can always add my facebook: Sc4gamers@yahoo.co.id
I'm live in Kuta, Bali

[Aranho]

Hello guys!

Bali ay. Nice to see a fellow Asian in AIN. I'm from Singapore btw.

[Blakeway4]

New members and no new posts here since a while?????

I'm Blakeway glad to meet you all!

[Guest]

Aww. They just forgot about it.

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