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MacDuffie
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 2:49 pm |
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Fearless Leader |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:42 am Posts: 2819
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_________________ Patty MacDuffie Computer Haven Administrator
Live Long and Prosper Mr. Spock
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jaylach
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 3:00 pm |
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Resident Geekazoid Administrator |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:09 am Posts: 9484 Location: The state of confusion; I just use Wyoming for mail.
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That sounds like an easy work-around to my method. I've always used PaintShop Pro and resized keeping aspect reatio adjusting the width. Then I'd manually crop to get the height. This sounds a lot easier.
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bbarry
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 3:28 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2432 Location: North Central Arkansas
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I've been using my animal photos (deer, coons, etc) as my background for several years. In Win 10, I simply go to Settings then select Background. I indicate which photo album I want to use and then choose 'fill' as the fit. That's all there is to it.........no resizing, no cropping. And I don't see any distortion on my screen. Is that because all my cameras shoot at about the same resolution?
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jaylach
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 3:41 pm |
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Resident Geekazoid Administrator |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:09 am Posts: 9484 Location: The state of confusion; I just use Wyoming for mail.
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I normally do just the same as you BB but there times that you actually want the size to match such as when creating a Theme Pack that you may make available to others such as http://jaylach.com/downloads/themes/win ... erland.zipI should warn that, if any try this Theme Pack, it will change your mouse pointers to rainbows.
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MacDuffie
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 5:40 pm |
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Fearless Leader |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:42 am Posts: 2819
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Hi BB, I would guess it was something like that. It's a personal pet peeve of mine to have my pictures stretched or distorted. I used to normally use "fit" which wouldn't give me the distortion, but would leave edges around the picture (I just made sure I used a black background); but fill always distorted the pictures. This is just an easy way to make sure it doesn't distort, and also to use the part of the picture you want, in case you don't want the entire thing.
_________________ Patty MacDuffie Computer Haven Administrator
Live Long and Prosper Mr. Spock
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bbarry
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 8:12 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2432 Location: North Central Arkansas
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jaylach wrote: I should warn that, if any try this Theme Pack, it will change your mouse pointers to rainbows. Well, I don't want a rainbow.......my current pointer is a coon's tail, lol.
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MacDuffie
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 12:59 pm |
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Fearless Leader |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:42 am Posts: 2819
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OMG! That's awesome, BB. How'd you do that?
_________________ Patty MacDuffie Computer Haven Administrator
Live Long and Prosper Mr. Spock
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bbarry
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 3:39 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2432 Location: North Central Arkansas
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MacDuffie wrote: OMG! That's awesome, BB. How'd you do that? I didn't. I was just pulling Jay's leg, trying to thwart off a rainbow cursor. But it's an idea worth investigating, so I will. And I will let you know if I'm successful.
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jaylach
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 9:21 pm |
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Resident Geekazoid Administrator |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:09 am Posts: 9484 Location: The state of confusion; I just use Wyoming for mail.
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If you want I can email you a couple of racoon cursors...
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bbarry
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 9:47 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2432 Location: North Central Arkansas
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jaylach wrote: If you want I can email you a couple of racoon cursors... Thanks, Jay. I have found some that show either the raccoon's animated face or its entire body. What I'm really looking for is one that shows just the coon's ringed tail as the cursor. Do you have anything like that? If I can't find one, I was going to investigate how to 'design' my own, using a cropped image from one of my trail camera photos. Any suggestions?
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jaylach
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 9:58 pm |
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Resident Geekazoid Administrator |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:09 am Posts: 9484 Location: The state of confusion; I just use Wyoming for mail.
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I just have two and neither are animated. Also they are faces, not tails. Let me look through my old software install disks. I THINK that I have an Icon program that also does cursors. If I find the program I'll let you know... you know me... remind me! You could do it from a trail camera video but it would be tedious as you would have to go pixel by pixel to make everything but the tail one color so it can be made transparent. You would also have to capture frames of the video to work with.
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bbarry
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 10:02 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2432 Location: North Central Arkansas
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Jay, my trail cameras can also be set to take still photos, and that's what I planned on using rather than the videos.
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jaylach
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 10:22 pm |
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Resident Geekazoid Administrator |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:09 am Posts: 9484 Location: The state of confusion; I just use Wyoming for mail.
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If you use still shots it would have to be a case where it does a burst of quick shots in sequence if you want the tail animated. What you would do is to use the sequence of shots to make an animated GIF image with just the tail and all else transparent. Then you would convert the GIF image to and ANI format which is the format for an animated cursor.
Unless Patty says different we should probably split this off to another thread as we are sort of kidnapping Patty's thread. Not that we are big on staying on topic but this makes 8 straight posts since anyhing was said about Patty's initial post...
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bbarry
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 9:43 am |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2432 Location: North Central Arkansas
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OK with me if you all want to split it off. Also, I'm not looking for the coon's tail to be animated. I just want it to replace the black arrow that I currently use.
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MacDuffie
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 11:30 am |
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Fearless Leader |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:42 am Posts: 2819
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No need, guys. This is quite on topic for fun things to do with your computer! I look forward to seeing if this can successfully be done!
_________________ Patty MacDuffie Computer Haven Administrator
Live Long and Prosper Mr. Spock
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JoanA
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 5:19 pm |
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Moderator |
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Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:25 pm Posts: 1916 Location: Pembrokeshire, South Wales, UK
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Me too, it sounds like fun, I just use the large Black cursor.
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jaylach
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 9:17 pm |
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Resident Geekazoid Administrator |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:09 am Posts: 9484 Location: The state of confusion; I just use Wyoming for mail.
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MacDuffie wrote: No need, guys. This is quite on topic for fun things to do with your computer! I look forward to seeing if this can successfully be done! It can definatly be done as I've done it. It is just a bit tedious if you are starting from a photo. The tedious part is removing the background from around the tail.I'll see what I can do to find free software once we have an image. I DID find the installer for the software I've used in the past but forgot that it is not freeware. It was a freebee that I got when getting MS MVP awards. It just would not be right to supply the registry hack the company supplied to MVP awardees. BB, get your image and crop to just the tail and add it as an attachment to a post. Things to consider... 1) Which end of the tail do you want as the 'hotspot' for selecting something? 2) Do you just want the end of the tail as the pointer or do you want it to have an arrowhead attached? 3) How large do you want the thing? On my main system my pointer is about about 3/4 inch long. That may seem overly large but my screens are 42 and 32 inch.
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bbarry
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 9:27 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2432 Location: North Central Arkansas
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jaylach wrote: MacDuffie wrote: No need, guys. This is quite on topic for fun things to do with your computer! I look forward to seeing if this can successfully be done! BB, get your image and crop to just the tail and add it as an attachment to a post. Things to consider... 1) Which end of the tail do you want as the 'hotspot' for selecting something? 2) Do you just want the end of the tail as the pointer or do you want it to have an arrowhead attached? 3) How large do you want the thing? On my main system my pointer is about about 3/4 inch long. That may seem overly large but my screens are 42 and 32 inch. Thanks, Jay. I will start looking through my photos to find a suitable tail. If I can't, I will try and get a fresh photo (by changing the settings on a couple of my cameras to take photos instead of videos). I will then practice my cropping to get just the tail. The size, direction and need for an arrowhead will depend on the photo I select. I will stay in touch......thanks again
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MacDuffie
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 12:14 pm |
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Fearless Leader |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:42 am Posts: 2819
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I have a few decent tail photos if needed, Bb.
_________________ Patty MacDuffie Computer Haven Administrator
Live Long and Prosper Mr. Spock
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bbarry
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 3:09 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2432 Location: North Central Arkansas
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MacDuffie wrote: I have a few decent tail photos if needed, Bb. Thanks Patty - yours may be better than mine. Can you post or PM a couple? I did go through a lot of my coon photos last night and identified a few good ones. The next step with any photo (yours or mine) will be to edit/crop them to see what I end up with.
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MacDuffie
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 5:52 pm |
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Fearless Leader |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:42 am Posts: 2819
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I'll email them to you. Much easier.
_________________ Patty MacDuffie Computer Haven Administrator
Live Long and Prosper Mr. Spock
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bbarry
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 8:47 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2432 Location: North Central Arkansas
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MacDuffie wrote: I'll email them to you. Much easier. Got 'em..........thanks my friend!
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MacDuffie
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 8:50 pm |
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Fearless Leader |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:42 am Posts: 2819
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You're welcome!
_________________ Patty MacDuffie Computer Haven Administrator
Live Long and Prosper Mr. Spock
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jaylach
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 11:52 pm |
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Resident Geekazoid Administrator |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:09 am Posts: 9484 Location: The state of confusion; I just use Wyoming for mail.
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When you have your tail how you want it you will have to do a conversion to make it acceptable as a cursor. I have not actually installed this yet but look at the following: http://www.gdgsoft.com/anituner/It is designed to create animated cursors but no matter, just use two copies of your static tail. It may well also have the option to do regular cursors as well, don't know any details yet.
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bbarry
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2016 9:32 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2432 Location: North Central Arkansas
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Attachment:
coontail2(11).jpg [ 70.75 KiB | Viewed 24237 times ]
jaylach wrote: BB, get your image and crop to just the tail and add it as an attachment to a post. Things to consider... 1) Which end of the tail do you want as the 'hotspot' for selecting something? 2) Do you just want the end of the tail as the pointer or do you want it to have an arrowhead attached? 3) How large do you want the thing? On my main system my pointer is about about 3/4 inch long. That may seem overly large but my screens are 42 and 32 inch. OK, attached is my first attempt at cropping a coon's tail from one of my trail camera photos. I really have trouble drawing a smooth free-form line around the tail (is there a trick to doing this?). 1) I want the tip end of the tail to be the hotspot 2) I do not want an arrowhead attached (at least for now) 3) I want the tail cursor to be about 1/2", which is the same as my current arrowhead cursor on my 27" screen. Thanks Jay.............
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