Saturday, March 29, 2014

Creative Image Creation Roundup, Part 3: The Mules

Creative Image Creation Roundup, Part 3
I made this nifty 3D book cover image using
GIMP and Clipping Magic, one of the tools below.
This is Part 3 and the final installment of my series on creative image creation ideas. Part 1 covered free online photo editing options. Part 2 covered similar tools that were a bit more specialized. In this part, I'm talking about the least glamorous batch in the bunch. They do things like resize your images, remove backgrounds, or add clickable HTML to them. These tools aren't always pretty and they don't have a lot of bells and whistles, but boy, are you glad when they're there to haul the shit you don't have time or strength for. 

Let this fact sink in: there are almost half a million icons available on this site. Let's say you want to make a rating system for your book reviews. Well, you could come here and download icons that represent book elements. I actually found a bloody knife icon that could represent "murder," for example. There's all kinds of stuff you could do with these. If you search "social," you'll find a crap-ton of customized social icons, should you want to embed them on your website. I found all-pink social icons, for example. Don't worry, I won't use them. Or will I...

The other cool thing here is that you can download each one as an "ico," which is what you need in order to use it as your site's favicon. How kick-ass is that?

Login required? No


Creative Image Creation Roundup: IconArchive
Pimp out your site with new social media icons.
Select "Social Network Icons" from the "Categories" menu.

Upload your image and easily resize it for a variety of custom outputs for FB, Twitter, G+, etc. If you're sick as shit of seeing Facebook posts in your feed where the images don't show up in their entirety, that's because the poster didn't size the image correctly before posting. Use this tool in combination with a current social media sizing cheat sheet and you can avoid that social shame. For example, did you know that Facebook fan page post images should be no more than 403 x 403 to display fully in your fans' feeds? This tool lets you select a custom size, or select from handy pre-sets including Facebook cover photo, Twitter header, G+ cover photo, favicon, and more.  

Login required? No

Creative Image Creation Roundup: Image Resizer by Internet Marketing Ninjas
If you're at all interested in SEO or internet marketing, these guys know their shit.

36. Irfanview
This freeware tool does a little bit of everything. It can do screen captures, add text to an image, sharpen, blur, cut, crop, change color depth, or convert an image between filetypes. In fact, it probably belongs in Part 1 of this series. The only reason I didn't include it there is because you have to download the tool and store it on your hard drive. It's not something you can choose to use on the fly, which is the emphasis for this series. The good news? It's entirely free for non-commercial use, which is also a focus of this series. There are also a boatload of plugins that you can download either all together, in 4 packs, or at the individual links provided. 

Login required? No, but you have to download the program in entirety

Creative Image Creation Ideas: Irfanview
Don't let the old-school interface fool you. Irfanview is a powerful program,
powered by a really smart guy named Irfan. No joke.

If you use Windows, this tool is a total time-saver. If you're like me, you download an image, then open it in Paint or GIMP to resize it before attaching it to a social media post. Now you don't have to. This program lets you resize directly from Windows Explorer when you right click. You can choose standard sizes (small, medium, large, or mobile), or enter a custom width and height.

Login required? No, but you have to download the program in entirety

Creative Image Creation Ideas: Windows Image Resizer
If you hate having to open Paint just to size an image
for sharing on Facebook, this is the tool for you.
38. Pic Resize
This is a fast, easy way to upload a picture and resize, rotate, crop, or add filters. There's also a bookmarklet that you can add to Chrome, Firefox, or Safari to make it even faster to use. If you're browsing public domain photo galleries, this bookmarklet makes it a freakin' snap to load the photo straight into PicResize without having to save it first.

Login required? No

Creative Image Creation Ideas: Pic Resize
No muss, no fuss. Pic Resize is designed to be fast and easy to use.


39. Resize.It 
Another fast, easy way to upload a picture and resize, crop, blur, sharpen, or make a few more basic tweaks without having to own or use photo editing software. To resize, just select "portrait photo" or "landscape photo." You can also turn an image into an avatar.

Login required? No


Creative Image Creation: Resize.It
Simple, easy to use...and I love the Swiss Army Knife graphic on the right.

You know how some people have a nifty Facebook profile photo that looks like it's part of their cover? And you see it, and you're like, whoa, how the hell did they do that? They might have used this. Upload one picture and slice it onto parts. One part will be your profile pic, the rest of it will be your cover, and parts can also be your app cover photos. I really want to do something cool with this. Surely all of you guys have some ingenious ideas already. Please share them with me so I can curse my own lack of creativity. 

Login required? No


Creative Image Creation Ideas: TimelineSlicer
Still wrapping my brain around all the cool ways to use this tool.

41. PicMark
Don't let the haters totally bogart your artwork. Instead,watermark those images before sharing! And by watermark, I mean put them in a nifty, colorful frame that contains your name, website URL, or other text. You have to sign up, which is kind of a drag, but they're giving you analytics in return, so it's a good thing. You can save the picture, or share it directly to Google+, Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. There's also room for customization if you're not crazy about the width or colors of their standard frames. You can customize the font and size of your text, too. Of course, the haters can always swipe your image, throw it into Paint, crop to the interior image only, and re-use that, but you're at least forcing them to use a little time. It's the little things.

Login required? Yes


Creative Image Creation Ideas: PicMark
I can see this totally working for creating the Featured Image for each WordPress blog post.
It's branded, so if it gets pinned, you get more attention.

42. Vector Magic 
So you have a photo or a bitmap, but you really want it vectorized so it can be scaled. No problem! You can upload jpegs, gifs, and pngs to this site and get a vectorized eps, svg, or pdf in return. There's one catch: you only get 2 free ones, and then you have to pay. Use them wisely. After you use up your free conversions, it's $7.95/month. I haven't used this yet, because I get all my vectors from royalty-free vector sites, but I figured I'd include it in case you just have to have a design that you drew vectorized.

All you do is upload your image and select it. The program will "trace" it into a vector image. Your original will be on the left, with the vector version on the right. You can make a few tweaks in terms of color and how much detail is included. Then, click "Download result" to have your vector image emailed to you. They'll send you an email with a code. Copy it and paste it into VectorMagic, click "Enable download," and choose your file output type: EPS, PDF, SVG, or PNG.

Login required? Yes

Creative Image Creation Ideas: Vector Magic
This site might come in handy if you have a photo
you want to vectorize and use as a logo.

This site has saved my bacon more than once. Yes, you can clip in Photoshop. I don't have Photoshop. Yes, you can clip in GIMP. I can't figure out how to clip in GIMP. So upload your image here, and make quick work of stupid tasks that waste time and give you floaters. Did I mention I love this site?

Login required? No

Creative Image Creation Ideas: Clipping Magic
Once you upload your image, select the green plus sign and click on what you want to save.
Select the red minus sign and click on what you don't want to save. It's that easy.

So we've mentioned other tools that can make favicons, but if you want a dedicated go-to site, this is it. Import your existing image, and this tool will help you size it, color it, and pick which parts need to be transparent. Download the result, and voila, you have a custom favicon.

Login required? No

Creative Image Creation Ideas: Favicon Maker
Favicons are a great opportunity for branding.
Use your logo or author photo for maximum impact.

Have you ever seen a blog header with embedded, clickable social media icons? I did, and I wondered how the f#*& they did it. Well, this is how. Upload your image, select the areas you want to be clickable, insert the link you want them to point toward, and grab the resulting code. Plop that code in your blog header or post, and you're good to go.

The only caveat? You need the final URL where the finished image will go. If you don't have that, you need to be able to tweak the resulting code once you do know that URL. If you're not good with HTML, it's probably easiest to upload the non-mapped image, grab the URL, and then start making your map. You can paste in the updated code, and everything should work because you started with the image's correct destination URL.

Login required? No

Creative Image Creation Ideas: Image-Maps
Look for a new header for this blog in the next couple of weeks, made using GIMP and this tool.

This tool lets you make a nifty little badge for your site. If you have friends who blog (or if you yourself have more than one blog), you can each make a badge and post them on the other sites you want to help publicize. Just enter your site title, URL, and an image URL. Then you get to tweak the design a little bit, and voila! I'm not suggesting you ask your co-workers to grab your button, but hey, if the shoe fits.

Login required? No.

Creative Image Creation Ideas: Grab My Button Generator
Minimal design required! You do need a hosted image, but that's about it.
47. Design-Seeds 
If you kinda suck at picking colors or designing new colorscapes, this is the tool for you. Me, I get locked into pink. This is going to help me break out of my rut. Oh, who am I kidding. I'm going to use this to see which shades of pink look really good together. Click "palette search" to see what looks great with your favorite colors.

Login required? No

Creative Image Creation Ideas: Design-Seeds
Take the guesswork out of selecting a color theme for your blog or the images that accompany a particular post. Start with a color you love, or search by theme to see what colors blend well together.

BONUS! Word Clouds

48. Wordle
You can make a word cloud out of any text you paste into this site. If a word frequently appears in your text, it'll appear larger within the word cloud. There are different color schemes and fonts to pick from, too. You also have the option to paste in your blog URL and find out what you *really* spend all your time talking about. Don't say I didn't warn you. 

Login required? No

Creative Image Creation: Wordle
This tool can also be used for web research.
Pop some competitor's web copy in and see which words
come up largest in their cloud. Those are probably their target keywords.

49. Tagxedo
On this site, you can choose an overall shape for your word cloud: classic, apple, dove, heart, or star. You can use your blog's URL, your Twitter ID, or a search term. There are a lot of themes to pick from, with names like "Arizona Sunrise" and "Quiet Morning." There are 9 fonts you can use, and I'm not even going to comment on the fact that "Avril Lavigne" is a font. Nope, not gonna do it.

Click the "Learn" tab to see what other people have used Tagxedo for...and find out how to make a cloud using just your own name. 

Login required? No

Creative Image Creation Ideas: Tagxedo
"Tagxedo" is a really hard word to type. The brain
just resists the "x" following the "g." Try it.

BONUS! Infographics & Charts

50. Infogr.am 
Make your own infographics! You can specify a share button, as well as add a map, chart, text box, pics, or a video. Let's take a minute to let that sink in. A map. What kind of kick-ass infographic could you make for your book if you could embed a map of where the characters go? Holy crap, I'm about to combust just picturing the possibilities. You do have to create a login, which is a drag, but you can login with Facebook or Twitter if you don't feel like giving them your email.

Login required? Yes

Creative Image Creation: Infogr.am
Infographics = link bait. Do it right, and you could earn your book or blog a lot of free publicity.

This is another make-your-own-infographic site. It's all based on "themes." You start with a theme, which is a basic infographic template (in their demo video, a stylized map of the U.S. is the sample theme). Then, you add graphics and your content. It's all done through a drag-and-drop interface, so you don't have create any of your own artwork.  

Login required? Yes

Creative Image Creation Ideas: Easel.ly
Watch their demo video first and browse samples to get an idea of what you can create.
Then go gather your data and come back to create your infographic.

52. Piktochart 
They make no bones about the fact that you need no design experience to use their site. Cool. 'Cause I don't have any. Choose the "Create for Free" option, and you'll be prompted to create a login. You can sign in with Google or Facebook if you can't bear to remember yet another password. Like Easel.ly, you start your design by picking a "theme." Then, fill in your text and tinker with the design (select an element, and hit the + or - button in the menu on your left to reposition it on the template).

Login required? Yes

Creative Image Creation Ideas: Piktochart
Keep it simple by using a "theme" and filling in the blanks. Boom. Instant infographic.

53. HohliCharts 
Need to beef up your book proposal package with some scientific-looking graphs? You can do that here. Create line graphs, bar graphs, pie charts, Venn diagrams, radar charts, and scatter plots. (And you thought that was just what I did when I wrote a book.)  

Login required? No

Creative Image Creation Ideas: HohliCharts
"HohliCharts" reminds me of "Holy cats," which is what my grandma said when you told her something crazy. Coincidence? I think not.

54. amCharts
Here, you can generate impressive interactive charts for your website. Granted, it's a little scary looking at first, but it's cool because you can input your data and get html code to paste to your website. If you want the chart to resize automatically for mobile or tablet viewers, be sure to check the "resize chart when window resizes" box.

Login required? No

Creative Image Creation Ideas: amCharts
I wish I had information cool enough to showcase in an interactive chart. Alas, I am bereft. 

Phew! Are you guys exhausted? I kind of am. 

If you're like me, you might be thinking, "Okay, great, you've shown me all kinds of places to create cool graphics. But not only am I shitty at art, I'm shitty at photography, too. Where am I supposed to get all the images to upload into these photo editing tools, anyway?"

I've got you covered. I'm stockpiling big-ass lists of image sources, all royalty-free, because I know you're probably a cheapskate just like me. I'm going to do a couple of fiction-focused posts, and then I'll go back and do a few more reference-oriented posts, full of places to get ALL KINDS of images.

If you're like me, and get overwhelmed easily, just try one or two of these sites a week.  

So...for those who have already used some of these sites, which have become your go-to sites? I admit to a pathological dependence on PicMonkey, and a growing dependency on Clipping Magic. 

How about you?

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Creative Image Creation Roundup, Part 2: The One-Trick Ponies

Creative Image Ideas: Pho.to sample
Yes, that is Tom Cruise taking a selfie with a photo of me.
See how much fun image creation can be? 
In addition to the workhorses I talked about in my previous post (items #1-11), there are specialty programs that might be a better fit for your art project. If you don't need all the bells and whistles, or get distracted by too many options, check some of these out. 

For example, if you just want an inspiring quote about writing, there are a bevy of places to get that done. If you just want to slap a quote from your book on a beautiful photo (but don't have any beautiful photos), that's easy, too. I pointed out whether each site requires a login, since I'm biased towards the the ones that don't. I can't even remember my own phone number most days, let alone a billion usernames and passwords. 

Now go forth, experiment, and have fun!  

Use this site to make sharable quotes with pretty backgrounds. I've used this one a fair amount for work. It's great for reaching a younger audience because they have pics of celebrities you can shamelessly use to promote your own work. I've made Taylor Swift and One Direction graphics that are, if nothing else, eye-catching. Basically, you pick from a huge variety of background images, slap on your text, add a filter (if you want), and right click to save that puppy. All your images are saved to your username, but you have the option of keeping them private if you don't want them displayed in a public gallery. This is also a fantastic place to find the kind of background images that hipster edit memes make fun of. If you're into that sort of thing. 

Login required? Yes 

Image Creation Ideas: LivLuvCreate
Bonus! You can submit your OneDirection fanfic here, too.
(Please tell me you don't have OneDirection fanfic.) 

This is solely to help you kick ass at Pinterest. It helps you pin things other than pictures, which sounds weird, but can actually be helpful. You can pin quotes, stuff from Spotify, a Tweet, etc. For writers, the easiest thing to do is to make a quote, and grab a great line from your book. To do that, all you do is paste your quote into a blank box, add an author name, and apply the style you like best from their scrollbar. No muss, no fuss. When you're done, just hit "Pin." If you want to grab the image to use elsewhere than Pinterest, you have to copy it and paste it into another photo editor.

Login required? No

Image Creation Ideas: Pinstamatic
Pinstamatic deserves attention just for the beauty of their home page design.

When I typed this into Google, it asked me, "Did you mean pinworms?" No, Google, I didn't mean pinworms, and freakin' a, what the hell is a pinworm? Anyhoo. This is a quote-image-making site. You can upload an image of your own, or use one of their pre-supplied backgrounds. You choose your theme, click on the sample text, and update it with your own. Easy, breezy, beautiful, Cover Girl. 

Login required? No

Image Creation Ideas: Pinwords
Pinwords: simple yet effective. 

15. Quozio
This is another quote-making site. Just enter your quote, and add the author. Click "Go," and scroll through a bunch of pre-formatted backgrounds and font choices at the top of the window. You can't customize the font, size, or background, but it's an incredibly fast way to get something on paper that you can post if you're pressed for time. Most of the backgrounds are solid color, but there are also some generic forests, trees, leaves, flowers, cloudy days, rain puddles, footprints, and the like for all your inspirational quotation needs. Right-click on your image to save it, or use their "Pin It," or "Send" buttons.

Login required? No

Image Creation Ideas: Quozio
Quozio requires you to enter a quote before checking out
the available backgrounds and styling options.

16. Recite
Creative Image Ideas: Recite sample
See how cool Recite's
graphics turn out?
Another entry in the crowded quote-making site field. Here's the thing: this one's styled a hell of a lot better than most of the others. It produces much better graphics, to the point where my cover artist asked me who did the artwork you see at right. That's saying something, because this guy is a genius when it comes to covers, artwork, and styling in general. To get started, just type your quote in the blank box and click "Create." Preview your quote by scrolling through the image carousel below the blank box. When you hit one you like, click "Create." The only downside? You'll have a little bit of branding on your image. I didn't give a crap. The result was so good I didn't care. It's small and relatively unobtrusive. Throw them a bone. 

Login required? No

Image Creation Ideas: Recite
Recite shows you right away how your quote looks in all their templates.

Should be self-explanatory based on the title. The "Keep Calm" thing is wildly overdone, but if you're determined to jump on the bandwagon, this is how you do it.

Login required? Only if you want to keep your creation private

Image Creation Ideas: Keep Calm-o-Matic
Keep calm and try not to be a douchebag.

With this site, you can add text and filters to any image and share it to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Google+. You can grab photos right from Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram, and then output them back to social. They want you to install it as a bookmarklet or browser add-on, which I'm not fond of doing. I'd rather grab the image and drag/copy/paste/save/re-upload to PicMonkey or BeFunky to avoid running yet another add-on to my browser (I've already got six; it's enough). You can click "try the app," but on my computer, it took forever to load and I just quit. Still, it can produce pretty things to post on the fly, if you need that sort of thing. They used to make you pay to create more than 3 images; now they don't. Score for cheapskates everywhere!

Login required? No, because you're using a browser-add-on

Image Creation Ideas: ShareasImage
ShareAsImage works as an extension in your Chrome browser. Because who
doesn't need yet another extension constantly running in the background.

Another quote-making site. You paste in your quote, add a name (author), click "Submit," and you'll go to the "Designing" phase. There are quite a few choices here in terms of backgrounds, from abstract to crystal-clear photos of landscapes and people. Your quote will always be available for everyone to see, however, so be aware before you release the Kraken. 

Login required? Not if you right click and save your image once it's done. Otherwise, it asks you to log in with Facebook.

Image Creation Ideas: Inspirably
Inspirably has a lot of high-quality photos you can use
as quote backgrounds, which is a big selling point.

Yet another quote-making site. Who is paying for all of these? That's what I want to know. Anyhoo, to use this one, you can either choose one of the pre-loaded quotations (Frederick the Great, Ninon de Lenclos, Federico Fellini, Marie Curie, etc.) or enter your own in the box on the right. Be sure to select "Viral Status" after you select your quote. The colors and backgrounds aren't wonderful here. They remind me of those concerts in the 60s and 70s where they squirted colored water onto an overhead projector so all the high-as-shit concertgoers had something to trip out on besides the bad fashion.

Login required? No

Image Creation Ideas: QuotesCover
QuotesCover asks you to choose your quote before seeing the
styling available. Most of it is abstract and kinda psychedelic.

21. BeHappy.me 
There's not much to do here except build your quote. Type it in, include the author (if you want), choose a font, and choose a background. It has "Behappy" branding on the bottom, and is pretty limited. Basically, you get a square with words in it. If that's what you want, awesome. You also have the option to download a Facebook cover from your quote, or submit your quote to be put on products for sale and earn 30% of any sales. 

Login required? Yes

Image Creation Ideas: BeHappy.me
This site is like those people who are always telling me to smile.
What if I want to make a quote about death, doom, plague, and everlasting damnation? 

This site lets you clip quotes you want to save or share from wherever you find them online. The downside? Your quote has to be online already. You can give them a font/background, and add them to your collection or share them on social media. You do have to login, either via Facebook, Twitter, or by creating a username/login. It's a drag, which is kind of the opposite of their slogan: "The easiest way to quote and share on the web."

Login required? Yes; login with Facebook or Twitter

Image Creation Ideas: Findings
Findings isn't the most stylish quote maker out there, but it gets the job done.

Like Findings, you can create a fast image for social media sharing. Unlike Findings, you can type your quote in if it's not on an existing web page. Include the author if you want (it's optional). You can add the bookmarklet to your bookmark bar if yours isn't, like mine, already as crowded as Imelda Marcos's shoe closet. It can post your quote to Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter.

Login required? No

Image Creation Ideas: ProQuoter
ProQuoter, styled with all the flair of a
Communist-bloc apartment building.

24. Roflbot
Fellow meme lovers, rejoice. This is where you make those images that have cats, dogs, rednecks, or babies captioned with those white block letters that display the creator's piquant wit. You can use a random picture they offer you, upload your own, or enter a URL to caption a picture that's already been posted somewhere else. Remember, folks: with great meme-making power comes the responsibility not to suck. Also to spell shit correctly. One time, I found the perfect Conway Twitty meme...just take a second to absorb the fact that I was in a situation that called for a Conway Twitty meme...but then I realized the meme said "Cownway" instead of "Conway." Now take a second second to absorb the fact that someone actually created a Conway Twitty meme. It's a strange world we live in.

Login required? No

Image Creation Ideas: Roflbot
I can haz meme.

25. Citrify  
This one is designed to help you spiff up your selfies. It can reduce red-eye and wrinkles, plus air-brush out your zits. You can also adjust things like hue, saturation, and brightness. There are some nifty filters here, including "Obamify" and "Hulk."  I'm not in the habit of taking selfies (no smartyphone), but if you are, check this one out.

Login required? No.

Image Creation Ideas: Citrify
Citrify: when bad photos happen to good people.
Or you're like me, and just plain unphotogenic.

26. Chisel 
Add text to photos, using either your own images or their library of almost 4,000 images. You can share directly to Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and more. The biggest drawback is having to create an account. The good news is that some of their images are amazing, so it's worth the time to prowl through them and pick out some favorites. The landscapes are something else. My favorite quote in their home page background image: "Plan over bourbon. Execute over coffee." That kicks the shit out of the obligatory Lorde quotation that floats above and to the left of it.

Login required? Yes

Image Creation Ideas: Chisel
Is it just me, or does that kid to the left of the site name look really creepy?

27. Picfull
This site aims for simplicity. You upload a photo, slap a filter on it, and you're done. You can save it or share it as needed. If you don't have the time or energy to make many choices (I know I get exhausted by having a lot of options sometimes), this clean, easy-to-use site is a welcome alternative.

Login required? No

Image Creation Ideas: Picfull
Make your own Warhol-esque pics with Picfull's filters.

This site is for basic photo edits, as well as creating animated GIFs. In terms of photos, we're only talking the basics here: resize, crop, add text, or add borders. The cool thing you can do here is make a GIF. Plus, you know those sparkly glitter messages girls post to other girls' Facebook pages on their birthdays? Yeah, you make those here. You can add animated rain, flags, glitter, and more to any image. When you want to indulge your tacky side, this where you go. (Everyone has a tacky side. Don't deny it.)

Login required? No

Creative Image Ideas: Online Image Editor
So tell me Online Image Editor...what is it you do again?

Want more GIF magic? Step right up. You can start with either images or video. You can also download your GIF for sharing. If you create an account, you can store it for retrieval with each login. You'll have a small watermark on the image, but it's a free service, so that's fair game. If that bugs you, you can pay to upgrade your account. 

Login required? Optional

Creative Image Ideas: IMGflip
IMGflip. Because the world never has enough GIFs. If you pronounce
that as the plural of a peanut butter brand, I don't think we can be friends.

30. Gickr
Here's another GIF-making site. Upload photos, make GIFs, hilarity ensues. 10 photos max per GIF. Hope that doesn't cramp your style. 

Login required? No

Creative Image Ideas: Gickr
Gickr's interface is clean and easy to use. The only bad part? You have to say
"Gickr" if someone asks you where you made that butt-kicking GIF.

This site offers a fast, free way to add one or two simple things to your image: rounded corners, blurry edges, etc. There are 12 total tools you can use here: embossed text, wallpaper calendar, multiple picture wallpaper, rounded corners, stripe frame, printed photo, combine images, embossed line frame, line frame, blur edges, add text, and crop.

Login required? No

Creative Image Ideas: Quick Picture Tools
Quick Picture Tools is exactly what it sounds like.

32. Pho.to 
This site has several sub-sites that let you do different things with your photos: edit, enhance, makeup touch-ups, etc. The most unique features are down at the bottom of the screen: Funny.Pho.to and Cartoon.Pho.to. At Funny, you can put your face into a celebrity photo, which I find hilarious. Yes, that's Tom Cruise taking a selfie in front of a picture of me...just one example of the fun you can have on this site. You can also add text and remove the pho.to watermark on Tom's shirt, if you care. You can also put your face on magazine covers, which would be awesome if you're promoting a book (do it for yourself, or your character). There are also some creepy-as-hell "human-to-animal montages" that are probably going to give me nightmares. If you need to get over an ex, pop their picture into the creepy orangutan montage and there you go. 

Note: Occasionally, I got error messages when clicking to a new features...try again and it will probably work. It took me two tries to get the photo above created.

Login required? No

Creative Image Ideas: Pho.to
Pho.to has my everlasting gratitude for the celebrity photos you
can insert yourself into. I find these things hilarious.

If you ever wished you sparkled just like the vampires in Twilight, here's your chance. Add glittery effects to photos of you, your pets, your possessions, or anything that seems dull on its own. Play wit "night lights," "glitter," dappled light," "reflection," and "night and day." Pictures with high contrast turn out the best, according to their tips.

Login required? Yes

Creative Image Ideas: Glitterboo
So, as I was saying, the secret to achieving world peace is...oooh, shiny....

Okay, that's it for part 2. While I was researching, I found four more "workhorse" image manipulation sites that got added to the original post. Click here to go back and check them out.

So now that we've covered workhorse do-it-all photo editing sites and one-trick ponies, what's next? I'm so glad you asked. 

In part 3, I'll turn my attention to some of the more boring but necessary kinds of sites: one-step photo resizing, making icons, doing product placement shots, converting images to different formats, removing backgrounds, creating charts, and other stuff that used to take a crap-ton of time but can now be done in a couple clicks. 

Have you used any of these sites, or created a freakin' masterpiece? I'd love to hear about it. Here's a little something I made with LivLuvCreate for work:

Creative Image Creation: Example from LivLuvCreate

Don't let anyone tell you image marketing is boring. :)