Welcome post

[helens78]

Welcome to the Dreamsheep community! Unexpectedly, the dreamsheep are quite a hit, and rather than continuing to collect all the sheep in one random post on my journal, I thought it would be nice to have a comm out there where we can parade our flocks at will. (Also, this way I don't have to keep track of which sheep are for sharing and which are private. Score!)

The community guidelines are in the profile. They can be summed up as: No off-topic posts, don't hotlink, be clear about whether your sheep are shareable, mark any NSFW sheep as NSFW, tags are your friends. Please read them!



To start things off, I give you the dreamsheep blank and base!



dreamsheep_blank.psd -- Photoshop
dreamsheep_blank.xcf -- the GIMP (though tG will also open .psd files) -- thanks to cheyinka!
dreamsheep_blank.cpt -- Corel Photo-Paint 11 -- thanks to tornir!

Thanks to cheyinka for the .xcf file and tornir for the .cpt file! Donations of other program's sorts of layered file are very much welcome, and if it would be useful to have a collection of eight separate files for the layers, so you can create your own layered file usable in other programs, let me know. I'd love to be able to offer this in other formats.

A note on the border around head and hooves: This was done in blending options on the head and hooves layers: it is a 2px black "stroke", done that way for ease of coloring.

A note on fonts: I am told that the fonts for the graphic are as follows: "ream" is Futura Medium and "width" is Gill Sans Bold. The D, of course, is a custom graphic! Stock imagery is available on the wiki.

ETA: tornir comments on the fonts, below (where to get Futura Medium/how to get a good copy of "WIDTH"). Thanks!

The sheep in this entry are shareable; please take, use as-is, or recolor/restyle as you please!

Comments

[cheyinka]

I just saved it as an .xcf in the GIMP, which preserved the layers. I'm not sure this is necessary, since the GIMP was perfectly content to work with the .psd, but in any event, here it is:
http://www.endersgame.net/~cheyan/images/dreamsheep_blank.xcf

[helens78]

\o/ Thank you! (And thanks for letting me know about the GIMP and its ability to work with .psds! :) )

[superluminal]

this doesn't include the eyes or the borders around the head and feet, though, at least not in gimp 2.6 from debian unstable. the eyes & borders are also missing if i open the .psd file directly.

[helens78]

Eyes and borders were done with a 2px stroke attached to the head and hooves, so as to more easily change their color! Is that something that can be done in GIMP, or would it be better to have them as a separate layer as well?

[cheyinka]

If you can make them a separate layer, I think that'll fix that. I don't know enough about GIMP to know - I'm using 2.4.5, but got used to an older version and am still learning all the differences.

[cheyinka]

huh! and to think until just this moment I didn't notice the borders were missing... yeah, they're missing for me too, either way.

[lunaris1013]

When I download the .psd file and try to open it (in CS3) I get an "invalid file" message. Has the file become corrupt? Or is it me?

[helens78]

*makes cursing noises* That was an issue with the file before, so I've re-uploaded it; try it again and see if it works!

[lunaris1013]

That did it! Thanks!

Now to start those MLB sheep :-)

[helens78]

\o/ \o/ \o/ Woohoo!

[loriel_eris]

Thanks for the psd! Not that I am at all competent in the ways of photoshop, but y'know, I can always live in hope! *g*

[helens78]

Dreamsheep are a very easy place to start, IMO! :D

Re: A note on fonts

[tornir]

It may be useful to know that Futura Medium is free to download.

Gill Sans Bold is a proprietary font, retailing at around US$30.00.
However, if you want the word "WIDTH" as a 72pt (max) copyable bitmap, you can use the font demo function on this page to get it.

Finally, if anyone wants it, here's the Corel Photo-Paint 11 version of the basic dreamsheep_blank file.

Re: A note on fonts

[helens78]

Thanks so much for the extra info and the Corel Photo-Paint 11 version! I'll link to this comment from the profile and this post. :)

[ex_pseudonym472]

I just wandered over here after the discussion of dreamsheep swag was going on in the latest news post.

What exactly are your rules for using the dreamsheep for something other than icons? If I for example, made a vector version of the sheep and resized it to be a wallpaper, would that be okay?

If I do create a vector version, am I allowed to share the psd for it here?

[helens78]

Those things would be totally fine! I would be more than happy to have them! :) I have also put up dreamsheep in banner-ish size and teensy icon size (for use as a "powered by" button), so yes, alternate sizes and sheeps shapes are great!

Really, the only rules are "unless you're Dreamwidth, Inc., please don't use the sheep to make money." Anything else is fair game. :)

PS: Wallpapers in 1680x1050/1280x800 are made of win. ^_^ *has visions of tiny dreamflocks*

[ex_pseudonym472]

Cool, hopefully I'll find time to play with that later today.