The Friend Collage App

Muzy’s Friend Collage app is similar to the Collage app, but it allows you access to your friends’ photos on Facebook. Creating collages with your friends’ pictures is a social activity, something you’ll want to share. It’s easy to start. If you’re not connected to Facebook, it’ll ask you to connect so that you can get and use your friends’ photos.

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Making Simple Shapes: Star, Cloud, and Sun

Cloud, Star, Sun

Here are some more simple shapes that you can make on Muzy.

Star

What did your teacher stick on your paper when you got an A? A gold star, of course. Muzy is a gold-star kind of place. So let’s look at how to make a simple star. Read the rest of this entry »

Making Simple Shapes: Heart and Flower

Want “stickers” to put on your photograph? Why don’t you make your own custom one? After all, what is collage but a super-sticker machine? Here are some simple iconic objects that you can make in Muzy collage to stick anywhere, using a little shading and a few simple 2-dimensional shapes.

Heart

Let’s start at the “heart” of things, as it were. Hearts are everywhere. There are plenty of hearts on Muzy, but why not make your own? Personally, I prefer the swirling, free-style hearts that are off-center and tumbling over themselves toward something amazing… but let’s start with a balanced, geometric heart. Read the rest of this entry »

The Wonders of Muzy Collage

Reflections on the Nature of Life by 1918underwood. Click to view.

We’ve got tutorials for using the collage editor, but I wanted to post a video of the whole process of making a (fairly complex) collage that involves manipulating images, editing images, and (a little) drawing. So, I recorded a video the creation of this collage, “Reflections on the Nature of Life,” which started with a background made in Muzy’s photo effects editor for inspiration.

Thanks to all the people who contributed fantastic items to the making of this collage: qtgillie, Suntan, Tee, Miyuki, mafer, visK, smws, Cooperweb,  alynch66, leech, amagic2u, babsblueeyes, Gerbear, mike, jameegrisham, tiatodd, Riff,  and Meno. Read the rest of this entry »

Making an Alphabet

"The Alphabet" by qtgillie uses a block template as a starting place for creating each letter. Click to view.

Muzy has a number of alphabets. Making one is a large undertaking, since an alphabet has twenty-six letters, and more, if you’re feeling ambitious. That’s a lot of inspiration and perspiration. If you want to take on this task, here are some hints, tips, ideas, and inspiration.

What will your font look like?

There are many font decisions to make. Most Muzy fonts are specialty graphic fonts. On the other hand, smws’s amazing font renders a serif font beautifully in a comprehensive set of hand-drawn letters, numbers, and symbols. Read the rest of this entry »

Textures, Patterns, and Fabrics

concrete by smws. Click to view.

Muzy has acquired many textures, patterns, and fabrics that have exquisite uses. There is always room for more. Look around you: tabletops, chair backs, your favorite pair of jeans, the sand at the beach, the wall or ceiling or floor, the intertwined twigs of an empty winter tree… all of these things are fascinating textures and patterns that can be put to creative use on Muzy. You’ve got a digital camera somewhere, right? On your phone? How about a webcam? Find the intriguing patterns and textures around you, and send them to Muzy. Read the rest of this entry »

Making Simple Shapes: Three Dimensional Shapes

3-D Shapes by 1918underwood

Three dimensional shapes are the real-life objects we see around us every day. This is the world that we interact with: height, width, and depth. If you can draw simple three-dimensional shapes, you’ve got the building-blocks of drawing the three-dimensional world.

Cubes and Rectangular Solids

A cube or rectangular solid is like an extension of a square or rectangle into three dimensions. Rectangular solids surround us: buildings, filing cabinets, stereos. Read the rest of this entry »

Making Simple Shapes: Two Dimensional Shapes

All Around by bldalton. Click to view.

Simple shapes are great additions to Muzy. After all, every complex shape is made up of simple ones… Here are some tips and ideas about making simple shapes.

Straight Lines

Lines are the simplest shape, aren’t they? They’re useful for so many things. Of course, drawing a line is as simple as putting down your brush and moving it on the canvas.

A straight line is a little tougher. On Muzy, you can draw a straight line by holding down ctrl (or command on the Mac) before you start drawing. You can also hold down shift to lock your line into 15 degree increments. This lets you draw a straight line at a perfect angle, if you desire it. Read the rest of this entry »

Editing others’ creations

On Muzy, sharing is a big part of what makes the community interactive and friendly. Editing is often what gives it its sense of humor. There are skills of all levels who enjoy creating all sorts of things, many of which can include editing and utilizing someone else’s creation if the option is available, and either using it as the main focus of their piece or an accent. A lot of artists really appreciate seeing how creative you can be at integrating their work into your own!

There are a few ways to go about editing others’ work. On each usable item’s detail page, such as this dragon by Ash,  there is an expandable menu to the right titled ‘Use’. Click this and it will give you the options to put the item in a collage, add effects, stretch it, or write a caption in Comic. Since we will be editing the item, we’ll go with using it in a collage. You’ll also notice three other options below this:

• Using in an activity – Yes! You can use others’ Read the rest of this entry »

Kaleidoscopes of Color in Muzy Collage

"Red Mandela" by Gerbear. Click to view.

If you’re looking for something truly cool to do in Muzy collage, here’s an idea inspired by and in honor of muzier Gerbear. Gerbear has made a few of these unique and fantastic kaleidoscope-like collages on Muzy. Though she is the master, I thought I’d try my hand at it, and let everyone know about my experience. A warning: this is my own personal take on the “kaleidoscope,” inspired by Gerbear. Muzy’s collaging capabilities lend themselves to creating kaleidoscope-type images, so this is a fun and challenging activity, with pretty impressive results. Read the rest of this entry »