Catarific Paint Shop Pro for Beginners: Fading Tag

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Fading Tag

Click for larger view.
Using a Texture

Click for larger view.
Using a Pattern

This tutorial will be utilizing the following PSP Components:

Template
Colorizing
Copy and Paste
Layers
Magic Wand
Merging Layers
Animation
Image Transition (Fade)
Pasting Graphic File into Animation Frames by Propagate Paste
Changing Frame Properties
Adding Text in Animation Shop

Needed:

Tubes of Choice (two): The lovely tube images I am using are Gorjuss images created by Suzanne Woolcott.

The fade templates and the heart line created by me can be downloaded here.

Settings Used in this Tutorial:

Magic Wand:
Mode: Add/Shift, Match Mode: RGB Value, Tolerance 38, Contiguous checked, Feather: 0, Anti-Alias checked and outside selected.

Drop Shadow:
Vertical Offset 2, Horizontal Offset 2, Opacity 80, Blur 5, Color Black

Regarding the Templates and Creating Your Own

There is a blank template as well as three other templates which have various effects. With the blank template, there are two layers. The bottom layer, which is the background layer, can have any texture effect added to it. Just left click the magic wand using the settings from above, and left click inside the border to select the inside area. You can use PSP textures or textures from outside filters. For the three additional templates that are included, I used filter effects from Penta.Com's Dot and Cross, Screenworks' Box Dot, and PhotoEffex Scanlines. Once you add the effect, go to Selections/Select None. Then go to Layers/Merge/Merge All (Flatten) and your template is ready to use. Should you wish to add a background rather than a texture to your tag, that would work too - plenty of opportunity for creativity using the blank template.

Reminder about Texture Effects:
Make sure when starting out with the blank template to decide what size tag you want. You will find that when applying and then later resizing tags with some of these filter effects, the tags may not, in most cases, have the same look as the initial tag. So do decide from the outset what size tag you want. If my blank tag template is too large for your taste, resize it before adding your texture effect. With the premade templates included, those will need to stay as is. Resizing them will change the look of the tag. If you look at my smaller tag and click on it for the full size tag, you will see what I mean.

Making the Basic Tags and Merging Them

Step 1
Open up the template you will be using and the two tube graphics you will be merging for the fade effect. On the Template, copy and paste your copyright and licensing information as a New Selection so that it is on the same layer as your template. Go to Layers/Duplicate. On the first template layer, go to Adjust/Hue and Saturation, Colorize and move the sliders over until you get a color that will work well with one of your tube graphics. Go to the Duplicate Layer, and again colorize the template to a different color that will work with the second tube graphic you will be using.

Step 2
Open up the layer palette, right click on the bottom layer, go to rename and left click. Rename this layer Background 1. Go to the top layer and rename this layer Background 2.

Step 3
Make one of your tube graphics active and go to Edit/Copy. Make the tag image active and go to Edit/Paste as New Layer. If the image needs to be resized, go to Image/Resize, using the percent option, bicubic and resize all layers NOT checked.

Step 4
Make the second tube graphic active and go to Edit/Copy. Make the tag image active and go to Edit/Paste as New Layer. Resize as necessary. Left click the mover tool and move this image directly on top of the tube graphic you added in Step 3 so that it is superimposed directly over the tube image.

Step 5
Open up the layer palette, and rename the tube layers Tube 1 and Tube 2.

Step 6
Go to Layers/New Raster Layer and on this layer add your text phrase (not signature text) using the floating option.

Step 7
Go to Layers/New Raster layer and on this layer add a second line of different text directly over the text in Step 6 so that it is superimposed.

Step 8
Open up the layer palette and rename these layers text 1 and text 2.

Step 9
Still at the layer palette, you should now have 6 layers comprised of two background layers (the two different color templates), 2 tube graphic layers, and 2 text layers. Holding down the left mouse button, physically move the layers so that you have the layers in this order from bottom layer to top layer:

One background layer, one tube layer, and one text layer. Then again, one background layer, one tube layer, one text layer. See my screenshot below:

Merging the Layers

Step 1
As on the screenshot above, left click on the eye on the second set of tag elments comprised of a background, tube and text to close off these layers. What we want is to leave open a set of tag elements: one background, one tube and text. Go to the background 1 layer (the bottom layer) and go to Layers/Merge/Merge Visible. Left click the eye on the Merged layer and you will now have a red X closing off this layer.

Step 2
Left click each red X on the background2, tube and text layers to open them up. Leave the merged layer closed. Go to the background 2 layer and again go to Layers/Merge/Merge Visible. You should now have two merged layers. Left click the red X on the closed merged layer to open it up. You should have both merged layers open.

Step 3
Save this file as a psp or psd file without text.

Animation Shop

Step 1
Open the psp or psd file. Go to View/Normal Viewing. You should have two frames (both sets of tags). Go to the 1st frame and left click on it to activate it. Go to Edit/Copy. Click on the 2nd frame to activate it. Go to Edit/Paste after Current Frame. You should now have 3 frames.

Frame 1 is Tag 1, Frame 2 is Tag 2 and Frame 3 is Tag 1 (same as Frame 1).

Step 2
Left click Frame 2. Now, holding down the shift key, left click Frame 1 in this order. Go to Effects/Insert Image Transition and click the down arrow to select fade, using the settings as you see below.

Holding the shift key is important because it allows you to select the settings for the starting and ending frame you see on the screenshot. If you did not hold down the shift key, the starting and ending with Animation Frame would not be an option you could select.

Step 3
You should now have 19 frames. Left click Frame 19. Now, holding down the shift key, left click Frame 18 in this order. Go to Effects/Insert Image Transition and again apply the fade transition. You should now have 35 frames.

Step 4
Holding down the Control Key, left click Frame 1 and Frame 18 to activate both of these frames. At Frame 18, right click, go to Frame properties and type in 200. This will slow down both Frame 18 and Frame 1.

Paint Shop Pro

Open up your heart line file in PSP and colorize it. Go to Edit/Copy. Go back to Animation Shop and go to Edit/Paste as New Animation.

Adding the Heart Decoration to the Tag in Animation Shop by Propagate Paste

Step 1
Your heart line file should now be activated. Go to Edit/Copy. Go to Edit/Propagate Paste.

Step 2
Have your tag file open. Go to View/Normal Viewing so you can see all the frames. Click the Control and A keys to activate all the frames and go to Edit/Paste into Selected Frame. Holding down the left mouse button, go to the very first frame and place the heart line exactly where you want it and release the left mouse button.

Read about Propagate Paste

The Propagate Paste function works as a control or switch that has been turned on. Once you have used the Propagate Paste function one time, and want to continue pasting one image or text file on all the animation frames, you can continue to do so. BUT, DO NOT GO TO EDIT/PROPAGATE PASTE. Instead, just go to Edit/Paste into Selected Frame. As long as you continue to have Animation Shop open, all pasting is done by Edit/Paste into Selected Frame.

Saving the Animation without Signature Text

Step 1
Before we save the animation, click the Customize button to make sure you have all the correct settings for this animation. You should see two tabs: Colors and Optimizations.

Here is what each setting should be under the two separate tabs:

Colors
255 Colors, Optimized Median Cut and Error Diffusion should be checked.

Optimizations
The middle three selections should be checked.
The top and bottom selections - unchecked.

After customizing the animation settings, click Ok and click Next and you will get the following screens:

Screen 1 Animation versus output Size - just click next.
Screen 2 Optimization process - just click next.
Screen 3 Optimization preview - just click next.
Screen 4 Optimization results - click finish.

Step 2
Save the file as a gif file. This is your template file. We will now add the signature text.

Adding Signature Text in Animation Shop

Step 1
Go to File/New with canvas color transparent. You can make this file as wide and high as you like. We will only be adding the signature text to this.

Step 2
At the color palette, select the color for your text. Just left click the top color box.

Step 3
Left click the text tool located at the top of the Animation Shop Program. When the Add Text window opens up, select your font, style, and size and type in your text.

Step 4
Go to Edit/Copy. This time DO NOT go to Edit/Propagate Paste. The Propagate Paste is a control or switch that has been turned on. Remember, you already used this function to add the heart line. Just go to Edit/Paste into Selected Frame.

Step 5
Holding down your left mouse button, go to the very first frame of your tag (all tag frames should already be activated when you added the hearts), and place the text exactly where you want it. Now release the left mouse button. Resave the file again with a new name.

Comments and Sharing Your Results
Please do let me know how this tutorial worked for you. You can post your comments at the Blog and do email me your results so I can see!

A Little About Me (Sue aka Catarific) =^..^=

My name is Sue but I go by my screen name, Catarific (because I think Cats are terrific!). I live in South Florida with my wonderful husband, Bruce, and our two delightful blue lynx kitty brothers, Nikki and Nichie.

I love creating graphics and have been writing PSP Tutorials and working with graphics for many years. I am hoping that I can share my knowledge of PSP with you so that you, too, can create those awesome graphics for web pages, blogs and forums.

The majority of these tutorials will acquaint you with PSP components and applications rather than my sharing with you a design result for you to copy. It is hoped that at some point, you may want to create your own designs using your imagination and Paint Shop Pro ability rather than copy the creations of others. These tutorials are geared to give you the working knowledge of Paint Shop Pro to this end.

PSP for Beginners

Paint Shop Pro for Beginners

This blog is a bit different than most PSP tutorial blogs because I will try and not spotlight too many cut and paste creations (those utilizing scrap kits) but instead try to help you learn how to use many of the wonderful features Paint Shop Pro has available for you.

I have been using Paint Shop Pro for a very long time now and have written many PSP tutorials - teaching Paint Shop Pro from versions 5 through 9. I have seen many trends come and go. The latest trend (and by far, the longest one) is making tags with Scrap Kits. Scrap kits contain beautiful elements which make for creating magnificient tags. Basically, to make an awesome scrap kit tag - your basic understanding of resizing, copy and paste, rotating elements and having a good design sense are the major components. These tutorials will explain these techniques. But the design sense - that is your ability to take the elements and combine them in such a way to make a wow tag - that cannot be taught - that comes from within each of you.

The good thing is - if you do lack that design potential, there are many tutorials available that will give you the design, tell you where to find the elements (scrap kit, template, mask, etc.) and give you the steps to create that tag. The tutorials in this blog will cover the same type of steps that will be used in tutorials created by others. Once you know the basic steps, you will see many of them are repeated time and time again when creating tags.

When doing the tutorials, start with the non-animated (or static) tutorials first, which are less complicated, and with far less steps. From there, do try the animations.

Paint Shop Pro Tools, Features and Applications

The following are some of the basic Paint Shop Pro tools, effects, elements, and applications that are used when creating tags. An explanation of many of these components, including settings that are primarily used, will be added, as well. Also you will find tutorials posted that will include these elements and applications.

Do share your results with me via email with any questions you may have.

Tools

Magic Wand Tool - Selects content within an image to paste a background, flood fill the background, add a drop shadow, expand a selection or decrease the selected area, to name a few. The basic magic wand setting would be: Mode: (Add/Shift), Color: RGB, Tolerance - depends on how much area of an image you want selected. The smaller the tolerance, the smaller the area of selection. The larger the tolerance, the bigger the selected area. Continguous is checked and feather is usually 0.
Flood Fill Tool - is used to fill a selected area with color, gradient, texture or pattern. The setting is basically Match Mode: None, Tolerance 0, Sample Merge Checked, Blend Mode: Normal, Opacity 100 for full color depth flood filling.
Selection Tool - To select areas to fill with color - or to copy and paste that portion of the graphic. Selections come in various shapes - rectangular, square, elliptical, triangle, pentagon, etc.
Dropper tool is used when selecting a solid color to flood fill.
Free Hand Selection Tool is used when you have a selection that is oddly shaped that you would usually like to cut and paste for a tag. The best setting to use for the Free Hand Selection Tool is: Selection Type: Point to Point. This allows you to stop and start and change direction easily. Mode: Add (Shift) Feather:0, Smoothing: 0
Paint Brush Tool - used to fill in areas of color or touch up graphics. A good setting would be: Shape: Round, Size: Depending on how large the area - a small size might be 1 or 5, a large size might be 40 or more, Hardness: 50, Step: 10, Density: 100, Thickness: 100, Rotation: 0, Opacity: 100, Blend Mode: Normal
Eraser Tool - used to erase parts of an image or areas where too much color application may have been applied. A good setting would be: Size: If small around 5 or 6 or if larger 40 or more, Hardness: 50, Step: 25, Density:100 Thickness:100, Rotation:0, Opacity: 100, Blend Mode: Normal
Preset Shape Tool - Used to create shapes such as rectangles, elipses, circles, stars and other shapes as well.
Raster Deform Tool - This is a great tool when you get the hang of it. With this tool you can stretch images larger or smaller as well as rotating them too. To stretch the image larger, you will left click on one of the side or top nodes, hold down with the left mouse button and pull out or up. To make the image smaller, left click one of the side nodes and pull inward toward the image. To rotate an image, move the mouse over the raster deform until you see a rounded arrow. Left click on the arrow and move it left or right to rotate either way.

Drop Shadow Effect

Drop Shadow is a dramatic effect that is added to text or an image. There are many wonderful drop shadow settings - but I will give you a few of my favorites:

This is a crisp drop shadow: Vertical and Horizontal 2, Opacity 80, Blur 5, Color Black
This is a more subtle drop shadow - almost reminiscent of Xero's Porcelaine Filter: Vertical and Horizontal 0, Opacity 50, Blur 10, Color Black
Another nice one is Vertical and Horizontal -1, Opacity 40, Blur 4, Color Black

There are so many variations of Drop Shadow. If you do one in a tut that you like, be sure to save it in your drop shadow settings.

PSP Elements and Components

Colorizing

Colorizing is one of my favorite, favorite features in Paint Shop Pro. You can colorize a full layer - or a portion of a graphic on a layer by using your magic wand, selection tool or freehand selection tool. Once you have your area of choice selected, go to Adjust/Hue and Saturation/Colorize and select a color you wish to use. Or if you have a very particular color and you cannot match it - with your dropper tool left or right click on the color so that it appears in the color boxes at the right of the program. Left click the color box that has your color. When the color selection window opens up, write down the hue and saturation. Now close the color box up. Go to Adjust/Hue and Saturation/Colorize and type in those hue and saturation amounts. You should come up with a color that is either the same or close to the one you selected. Colorizing is wonderful when using scrap kits. You may not like the colors that are being used - and you have the tools to change them.

Resizing Images

Resizing images is an important function especially if you are working with scrap kits. In most cases those images are enormous and will have to be made much, much smaller. The way I resize is I always use the percent option, bicubic resample, and lock aspect ratio. Once I resize, if my image looks dull, I go to Adjust Sharpness/Sharpen. Many times I also add my crisp drop shadow (setting under drop shadows).

Copy and Paste

Another important function is copy and paste, especially if you are using scrap kits. To copy and paste an image, you can either select the whole image or a portion of it and go to Edit/Copy (Control C) and go to Edit/Paste (Control V). You can paste your image as a new image or a new layer or even as a new selection. If your image is too large, resize your image as explained above.

Layers

One of the most important aspects of Paint Shop Pro is the use of layers. To see what layer your image is on, open up your layer palette (two squares plus an eye icon). This is something you will use all the time. If your layer palette is not on your PSP desktop - make sure to add it there. When you add images to your tags, paste them each on a separate layer and add whatever effects you want. When they are on separate layers you can move them around, change them out, color them, etc. When your tag is completed, always first save as a psp file to keep all your layers intact. That way, if you want to change something - you easily can. Later, you can save your image as a png (with transparency around it) or a jpg.

You can move your layers around, rearrange the layer order, add new layers, if needed, or delete layers, as well.

Noise

The noise filter adds a grainy type texture to graphics and text by applying this feature to multiple duplicate layers. The noise filter is often employed when doing animations and sparkle text. To find this filter, you would go to Adjust/Hue and Saturation/Noise.

Should you want a dense grainy result, the setting I use quite a bit is this:

Gaussian, Noise 83%, and Monochrome checked. If you want less compaction, reduce the noise percent.

These are the most common elements of PSP that you will be using over and over. Once you work with these elements and familarize yourself with them - you will be able to tackle many tutorials with ease.

We will stop here - and do a few PSP Tutorials to familarize yourself with using these tools and elemental components. For those of you who just love graphics and really want to create your own, PSP is the most economical and easiest graphic program to use. Do take the plunge - because once you are hooked on making graphics, it will become an addiction - but a fun one!

After we cover this section and you have a good basis of these PSP components, we will then move on to my favorite area of Paint Shop Pro - Animation!

Animation Shop

Animation Shop

Animations make use of frames and the speed of the frames in relation to the general graphic as a whole. While you can have animations that have all the frames moving at the same speed, you may also see animations that effectively have different speeds for different frames.

In most cases, you will be making a tag in PSP and then opening it up in animation shop to add an animation or animate the premade PSP tag.

Copying Pre-Made Animations

To copy a premade animation on to your tag, you need to make your tag have as many frames as the animation has. To do this. you would open your tag and go to Edit/Duplicate Selected. Or you can right click on the frame, go to Duplicate Selected and left click. You would continue duplicating your frames until you have the exact same number of frames as your animation. To see how many frames you have, go to View/Normal Viewing. If you end up with too many frames, while duplicating, just hold the down the shift key and click into those extra frames to highlight them and right click on any frame, go to delete and left click.

Now go to your original animation and again, go to View/Normal Viewing so you see all the frames. Click the Control and A Keys to highlight all the frames and go to Edit/Copy. All the frames will be highlighted in blue.

Go to your tag frames and again hit the Control and A keys to highlight all the frames. Scroll all the way to the left so you are in your first frame and go to Edit/Paste into current Frame. Holding down your left mouse key, place your image exactly where you want it in the first frame, and release the left mouse key - and viola - all your animated images are now in all the frames of your tag.

Adjusting the Speed in Each of Your Animated Frames

You now have your animation in all the frames - but the default speed is 10 (which is very fast) and which may not be the speed of your animation. Have your original animation open so you see all the frames and the speed of each frame - it will say D - meaning display time and a number next to it - being the speed of that frame. To change the frame speed, highlight the frame and right click in the frame. Go to Frame Properties and left click. Type in your speed and click ok. If you have multiple frames that have the same speed, hold down the shift key, highlight those frames. Go to any of the highlighted frames, right click, go to frame properties and type in your new speed.

Propagate Paste

If you have a non-animated image or non-animated text you wish to add to an animation, you need not have to copy all the frames of the graphic or text.

What you would do is open your animation and click the Control and A keys to activate all the frames (they will be highlighted in blue).

Make your static (or non-animating graphic active) and go to Edit/Copy. Then go to Edit/Propagate Paste. Go back to your animation frames that you highlighted, go to the very first frame, and go to Edit/Paste into Selected Frame. Holding down your left mouse button, carefully place your graphic exactly where you want it in the animation and then release the left mouse key and viola you have the graphic in every frame.

The propagate paste will continue to work without having to go to propage paste each time you wish to do this function. What this means is once you have used the propagate paste one time, and you are still in Animation Shop, copying and pasting images will not require you having to go to propagage paste. With subsequent images, you will just go to Edit/Copy and Edit/Paste into selected frame - and the propagate paste will continue to work. It is a control, and once opened, this control will continue to do a propagate paste until you close animation shop.

Saving Animations

Below are the steps for saving animations that have a solid color palatte as part of the tag.

Click the Customize Button to make sure you have all the correct settings. You will see two tabs: Colors and Optimizations.

Here is what each setting should be under the two tabs.

Colors

255 Colors, Optimized Median Cut and Error Diffusion should be checked.

Optimizations

The middle three selections should be checked. The top and bottom selections - unchecked.

After customizing these animation settings, click Ok and click Next and you will get the following screens:

Screen 1 Animation versus output Size - just click next.

Screen 2 Optimization process - just click next.

Screen 3 Optimization preview - just click next.

Screen 4 Optimization results - click finish. Make sure to save your image as a gif file.

Now there are other types of optimizations settings as well dependent on the type of animation you are doing:

In some cases you may have a transparency as a background, so when doing the optimization settings, you will have three tabs - one being Partial Transparency. The most popular widely used setting for Partial Transparency is this:

Convert pixels less than 40 should be checked. Yes blend with this color and make sure that the color in the color box is white.

Although there are cases when you may have to do something totally different.

But on the average, these are the two most widely used animation optimization settings.

Resizing

Go to Animation/Resize Animation and select Percent of Original, Bilinear Resample, and have retain aspect ratio checked.

Mirroring

If you have an animation that you wish to mirror (to go the opposite direction), click the Control and A keys to activate all the frames and go to Animation/Mirror. You can now either save the animation or copy and paste it on to a tag.

Rotating Your Animation

If you wish to rotate your animation, make sure all your frames are activated, go to Animation/Rotate and add your direction and degrees you want it rotated.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Fading Tag

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