Chinky

A few times I tried drawing something, but after placing thirty or so pieces around a single spot, my work starts deteriorating. Just now I was working on an eye. While getting the shape of the lower eye lid in, the pupil and iris that I had already drawn started to disappear. At first I figured it was because I was placing too many pieces on my palette, but after viewing some other people's works that applies an incredible amount of detail, not once did I see the work start to disappear. Is there some sort of trick to it? A certain time to draw when less people are active? reducing the image quality of the computer? not having so many things going on at once? I mean I know people have had problems with this in the past, but it doesn't seem as frequent for them. For me it's every time I attempt a drawing now. It's bothersome, but I was just wondering.

mdawrcn

I have never had anything like that happen before. Must be really bothersome. Hope you get it figured out cause I want to see some more of your art!

bluemoon

I want to see more of your work too... hope this gets resolved!

inked_gemini

Okay Chinky. This is going to be a long and confusing post, but…

If I understand your problem correctly, what happens is that when you layer pixels over and over again in the same small area it causes the picture to break down. Meaning, white cracks/splotches begin to show up through the picture. I am familiar with this because it happens to me. All. The. Time.

The Reason You Don’t Notice This in the Gallery: If you were to go ahead and finish a picture that has these white splotches in it and hit the “Submit” button, the white spots will disappear in the submitted picture. For example, take a look at this picture by marg and read the comments:

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=48280

She intended to use those white areas as a part of her finished piece. However, upon submitting it to the gallery, the white spots disappeared. Even though they are on the specific picture’s page, they are not there in marg’s picture gallery (go to page 5-ish of her gallery and take a look to see what I mean). Nor would they appear on the Top 5 page or the Showcase or the main Gallery or in thumbnails, etc, etc.

Here’s something weird that didn’t use to happen. There was a time when the white spots would NOT appear on the picture’s Id page when you clicked on it. What I mean is, when you clicked on the picture to look at it there would be no white spots. You could hit playback and replay the original picture showing the white spots and all. But then if you refreshed the page or clicked the vote button, the white spots would disappear again. Think Draw must have changed the format that pictures are displayed on the picture Id page because this is no longer the case.

inked_gemini

The Reason You Don’t Notice This in inked_gemini’s Gallery: I am somewhat of a perfectionist or maybe just retentive or compulsive—call it what you will. I don’t like the little white bugs to appear at all, so I use methods to keep them out of my pictures.

-Try switching to a different pixel. I especially have this problem when I use the same piece over and over again. If you are using the same blue flower petal for one area, simply rotate to one of the other blue petals. Sometimes it helps.

-Try changing the size of the pixel. Make it a few sizes larger or smaller and see if you get different results.

-Keep the layering to a minimum. I have a bad habit of just adding more and more pieces until I get the color or shape that I’m going for. So when I see white areas starting to show up in my picture, as much as it pains me, I will undo all the unnecessary layering and use the very least amount of pixels as possible.

Sometimes these things work. Sometimes it just can’t be helped. In my picture “John 1:14” the eyes were supposed to be all blue. Those white spots in the eyes were not intentional. I finally just let it go because there was no getting around it.

Also, I believe the Theme makes a difference. If I recall correctly, Think Draw allows more pixels to be used in Beads and Avatars (and maybe Lunartics?) than in the other palettes. I still have problems with Avatars (when trying to draw eyes no less), but I have never had this issue in Beads. And I’ve layered my Beads pictures to death—so much so that playback won’t work at all.

Renee355

Thank you for both the question and very helpful answer. I have encountered this problem.

mdawrcn

I'm sorry, I do know what you mean - when the white starts to appear when a large number of pieces are placed around the same area. I asked this question before and got a response from Q that I cannot find now. The best I can remember she had some of the same suggestions Inked Gemini made and talked a little about what caused it. I will continue to look for it.

inked_gemini

Random Helpful Information:

Click on this picture:

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=136211

Once you click on it, click on the “Print” button beneath the voting star. What comes up is a print window displaying the picture in full size the way I intended for it to look. See the eyes? No white splotches. Just cancel the print menu that pops up, right-click on the picture and you can save a copy to your computer. This is helpful if you want to upload it to a gallery elsewhere (Photobucket, Facebook, etc.)

I hope this long, babbling essay helped at least a little. I don’t know the correct computer lingo for this—Q might be able to explain it better. I’m not even sure if I am right about what causes it. But these methods have worked for me when trying to prevent it. Hope it works for you Chinky. Good to see you around!

five

I don't layer as much as some people, but I have gotten the white spots from time to time. Usually in avatars, or with the stems in fruit, or with the stems in flowers, or with the grey whisker (?) in animals. I attribute it to the thinness of the pieces and the fact that it takes a lot of them right on alongside one another to fill in an area. When it happens, I usually don't mind. I don't mind watching the white bits develop and move around while I am working; I actually was kind of disappointed when the white spots did not show in the final image after submission the first time it happened). Sometimes, I also take it as a sign that I've spent too much time at the drawing. Anyhow, I second all of inked's work arounds.

inked_gemini

Now that I think about it, I should clarify one thing. I've been calling them white spots, but that is not what they are. It is the background showing through the picture. When Chinky said that parts of his picture started to deteriorate and disappear, that was a better description. If you were to use a black background, they would be black spots or leafy spots or alien planet spots or whatever. Another tip would be to use this to your advantage.

In my "Daydreamer" picture I was having a problem with the white spots appearing in the eyes when trying to fill them in with black. So to get around it, I just changed to the black background. The white spots turned black exactly where I needed black to be. Problem fixed.

It's not really a matter of the picture being ruined since submitting the picture seems to correct the problem. But if it's a distraction for you (like it is for me), there are ways to work around it.

Qsilv

hi guys -- I'm not home so I can't find that post of mine either just now...
short version is just that it's a known math issue in Flash, basically like a zeroing error. You could Google that and in some of the more hard-core tech forums you'll find more'n you ever wanted to know...
BUT.... there is no real fix... no official "work-around"...
AND... inked_gemini's explanations of how to best deal with it are spot-on.

...and hey, Chinky, like the others, *I'm delighted to see your shining pixels here again!

;>

Qsilv

<--- a bit tired... meant to add one other possibility worth considering.

Sometimes graphics get weird when you're just asking too much of your computer. Time to clear your cache and reboot!

...unless, of course (eying Chinky, considering college-age male... murmuring "hmmm" and beginning to laugh here...) you're running a fairly hard-core gamer's set-up, with huge amounts of RAM and a hog of a cache etc etc ad absurdum...

..but even then... I sometimes realize I've got like 27 tabs active in my browser, 3 instances of MS Word, 2 of Excel, plus a draw program and a virtual reality world.... just tooo many different graphics-intensive programs going at the same time!

REBOOT !

Chinky

Thank you for the tips and suggestions guys . When I feel the want to Thinkdraw again I'll take them into consideration.

indigo

I'm on a new computer and I'm experiencing problems with Think Draw. Maybe someone has had this before and can help. When I click on DRAW to make a picture the pieces look jagged and or distorted. When I click on a piece and drag it, it's like on a rubber band and sometimes I can't get it to stick to the canvas. I'm not very computer savvy and my husband (who is more savvy then me) doesn't know what to do either. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks! *J*

Normal

Sorry to hear this Indigo. I know less than anybody about why, but it sounds like the same thing that happens in JigsawSudoku when pieces stick to the arrow and won't let go, while the timer is clicking away!
At times, I think it's because I grabbed too close to an edge of the piece. It feels like glue, won't even knock off at the edge of the frame.
Hope knowledgeable folks can help you!

clorophilla

I worn on two different laptops and one of them gives me troubles when I try to draw on TD.
While on the old laptop the drag and drop function goes smoothly, in the new LT when I'm dragging a piece it proceedes as on a rubbing surface, in a hiccuping movement. It makes it hard to place the piece on the canvas, not because I can't release it, but b/c I am not able to place it in the exact location I want to. It moves with small jumpes and I have to adjust it again ind again before releasing it.
Is this similar to your problem Indigo, and there is any clue to what the problem is?
My husband too is very smart with computers but didn't achieve to fix it.
In the end, I go to the old laptop - it's quite a clunker but for TDrawing is better!

clorophilla

I worn = I work