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This tutorial was written by me on July 15, 2005. You may link to this site through your groups but please link to my main page first. Thanks! NOTHING is to be removed from this site, including my ideas! I used version 7 but as far as I know it can be done in the later versions as well. I used the incredible artwork of Aqua Sixio. Please support this talented artist by visiting his site. * Warning: this tutorial is heavy on filters!* You will need the following supplies: Tube and font of your choice (a “long” fantasy-type tube works best) Ulead Gif-X 2.0 (if you wish to animate your tag) *Have you been having trouble with black “specks” after applying the Flood filter? Download the Flood Fix HERE and then reopen PSP.* Install the plugins; open your tube in PSP. Let’s begin! 1. Open a new transparent 650x250 image, or a size that will fit your tube most appropriately. Copy and paste your tube onto your canvas. Resize as needed, being sure that “resize all layers” is unchecked. 2. Use your eyedropper tool to select a light color from your tube for your foreground and a darker for your background. Create a gradient with foreground/background and use these settings:
3. Layers/new raster layer and drop it beneath your tube. Flood fill with your gradient. 4. Go to Effects/plugins/Flaming Pear Flood with the following settings; you may need to play with the Horizon settings depending on the size of your tube. See finished tag for reference.
5. Activate your selection tool set on rectangle, feather at 0. Use it to draw a selection around the “sky” part of your flood effect. Go to selections/promote to layer. 6. Effects/plugins/Xenofex 1/ Little Fluffy Clouds. Change the shadow color to a color from your tube or gradient and hit ok.
7. Deselect. Lower the opacity on your layer palette to 50 or so. Duplicate this promoted layer and go to Image/mirror for more dispersed clouds. 8. With the top promoted layer active, Selections/select all; selections/float. 9. Go to Effects/Illumination effects/ Sunburst and use the following settings:
10. Deselect. Hide your tube. Merge visible the two promoted layers and the bottom gradient and then unhide your tube. 11. Duplicate your main tube layer. On the bottom layer, not the copy, go to Effects/blur/Gaussian blur with a radius of 7. Reduce the opacity of your top tube layer to 60 or so; this depends on what tube you used. Thank you for teaching me this simple but beautiful effect, Sugar! 12. Give it a drop shadow. I used Loka’s 3d with these settings, but a regular drop shadow will do.
13. Back on your merged layer, go to Selections/select all; selections/modify/contract by 5; selections invert. 14. Layers/new raster layer and then layers/bring to top. Flood fill the selection with a dark color from your tube. This creates a frame around your image. 15. Layers/new raster layer and go to Effects/3d effects/chisel with these settings. Have your background set on a dark color from your image or black.
Deselect. 16. Activate your text tool, being sure that anitalias and vector are both checked. Add your name in a font and colors of your choice. I used Sans Logique. Stretch the text to fit your “sky” and then layers/convert to raster layer. Give it a drop shadow. On your layer palette, change the blend mode to “soft light” and reduce the opacity to your liking. 17. Add your watermark and the appropriate copyright information. If you’re happy with your tag as it is, layers/merge visible and save. If you’d like to animate it, continue reading! **Animation** 18. Make your merged layer the active layer (your background). 19. Go to Effects/plugins/ Ulead Gif-X 2.0. Click on the lighting tab at the top; at the bottom, click on “gallery” and find lightning 3. Ok. Change the “ambient light” to 100. Press save, and save your gif in a file where you will remember where to find it! Then press CANCEL.
20. Launch your animation shop and open the gif file that you just saved. You will see that it has ten frames. On the first frame, hit “control A” to select all of them. 21. Back in PSP: hide your merged layer that you applied the lightning to. Merge/visible the rest of the layers, including the frame you created. Hit “control C” on your keyboard to make a copy of it. In animation shop, right click and paste it as a new layer. Then hit “shift control C” nine times, or “paste after current frame,” to create the same number of frames as your lightning gif. 22. On the first frame, hit “control A” and “control C” to select and copy all of the frames. Use your mouse to drag the images over to your lightning gif; make sure that everything is aligned properly! If you don’t get it right the first time, you can always hit “control z” to undo it. 23. Hit “control A” one more time and then go to Animation/ Frame properties. Change the speed to 15. Then click INSIDE the first frame; animation/frame properties at 200. Click inside the last frame and change the properties to 100. Go to View/animation to see your tag in motion! Save as a gif file and you’re finished. I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial and didn’t find it tedious! If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Thanks for stopping by! © Shawn & Laura Emch, All Rights Reserved |
