Krystal Dreams
I originally wrote this tutorial when I first started writing tutorials about 18 months ago. As I can't find the original images or text for the tut I am re-writing It is still dedicated to Krystal Dreams, a friend I met on MSN groups about 2 years ago. Krystal has changed her name now, but you know who you are, hugs to you Krystal.
This tutorial was re-written by Fiona Pomfrett on May 9th 2006. Any resemblance to any other tutorial is coincidental. Do not copy and paste this tutorial any where on the net. Scripting and translating of this tutorial is strictly forbidden. If you have any problems please contact me
HERE
For this tutorial you will need:
:PSP (I used PSP X)
:Animation Shop
:Ulead Gif Animator 5 - This is a stand alone programme NOT a PSP plugin
:2 or 3 Images of your choice
:Font of your choice
-:1:-
Open up 2 or 3 images and a new canvas 600 x 600
Copy and paste your images onto the canvas re-sizing if needed
With your freehand selection tool, set to freehand, Add (shift), feather set to 0 and anti-alias checked, draw a selection round the area you want to delete
-:2:-
As you can see I've lowered th eopacity of the top layer so I could see and drawn round the lower image, make sure you are on the layer you want to delete part of, for me my top layer
When you have deleted the area you want, put the opactiy back to 100%
-:3:-
Grab your selection tool, set to rectangle. same settings as above and draw a rectangle round your image, ignoring any parts you don't want
Image crop to selection
Re-size if your image is still huge, mine is 465 x 295
-:4:-
Edit, Copy Merged, Edit, Paste as New Image On the new image we just pasted, Image, Decrease Color Depth, Settings as below
-:5:-
Now copy this image and paste as a new layer on your original image. Change the blend mode to Overlay and lower the opacity 70
-:6:-
Image, Add borders, as below Use a really bright color, green or yellow something bright and that is not in your image
-:7:-
Now on the layer palette, right click on the layer and Promote Background to Layer
-:8:-
Now with your magic wand select inside the border
Magic Wand settings:
Add (shift), Tolerance set to 20, Contiguous and anti-alias checked, Feather set to 0, Inside
Press delete on your keyboard to get rid of the border. DO NOT DE-SELECT
-:9:-
Layers, new raster layer, selections, modify, expand by 1 pixel. Now flood fill the selection with a dark color from your image. DO NOT DE-SELECT
Selections, invert, modify, expand by 1. Activate your layer with your blend on, Edit, copy, paste as a new image
-:10:-
On the image with the border, selections, none
Add your tagged by info and any copyright info needed
Now save as a .png file
-:11:-
Now open Ulead Gif Animator 5
File, open and find the image we just saved
-:12:-
Frame, add Banner Text, In the box that pops up, type your text in the space available, like PSP any fonts minimised to your task bar will show up
Click the color box to change the color, if you want the same color as your border, go back to PSP and get the codes for it, you will need all the numbers from the boxes (R, G, B, H, S & L) Write these down on a bit of paper (no wonder my desk is cluttered with bits of paper lol) Now back to gif 5, select Windows Color Picker from the options when you click the color box, add the numbers you just wrote down, then may change a bit but don't worry Mine were, (from PSP) Red=19, Green=13, Blue=18, Hue=220, Sat=48, Lum=16
When I added, the hue, sat and lum, th ered, green and blue boxes changed themselves, they became red=20 Green=14 and Blue=17 Leave these numbers as they are very similar to the original ones from PSP
-:13:-
Once you are happy with the color, click OK, back to our main screen
Change the font size according to your image, I set mine to 50
Now to move your text to where you want it on the image, we need to move it while the box is still up. Move your mouse cursor into the box that shows your image, when on the text it will turn into a little black arrow with a white line around it. I can not get a screen shot that will show the cursor sorry. When the black arrown is there, you can drag your text where you want it.
-:14:-
On the tabs, go to Effect, you can now select the effect you want, I've choosen, Zoom In (Rotate) for enter scene and Zoom Out (rotate) for exit scene. Both Enter and Exit scene boxes MUST be checked
You can preview your efects if you want, just click start preview and the stop. You can play about with the effects but I advise you leave the frames under both enter and exit as they are.
-:15:-
Once you happy with everything, click OK and Create As Individual Objects, ingnore the recommended option
Along the bottom of your screen are all your frames, you can preview the effects again, just press the play button
-:16:-
File, Save As, Gif File. Name it CD-BlendEffect (or what you want lol) save it where you can find it
*Take 5 minutes and chill, go grab a drink and a biccy*
Continued in thread 2
Comments
*Welcome Back, hope you're feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the remainder of this tut. I've a drink and a cig (for my sins), so lets go*
-:17:-
Now open up Animation Shop (AS)
Open the image we just saved, CD-BlendEffect
Edit, Select all, edit, Copy
Paste this animation in PSP, it will show as several layers
-:18:-
Now on the image with your blend and the border, delete the bottom layer which should be your blend, leaving just the frame on the image
Get yourself bit of paper, on the border layer, Image, canvas size, write down what size the canvas is
-:19:-
On the image we just pasted in from AS, Image, canvas size and make this canvas the same size as the frame canvas See below
make sure you centralize your image in the centre of the canvas.
-:20:-
Activate your border image, Edit, Copy. Paste as a new layer onto your blend image. It will make itself the top layer
-:21:-
Now go the very bottom layer, rename all the animation frames 1, 2, 3, etc etc till you get the top layer. Leave the border as it is. I have 21 image layers, so from the top it goes Raster 1 (the frame)
21
20
down to 1.
There is a reason in what appears to be madness lol
-:22:-
Close all your image layers and activate your frame layer (Raster 1) Duplicate your frame layer as many times as needed to match each one with an image, I have 21 image layers so I need to duplicate my frame 20 times (I hope this makes sense lol) Rename each one F1, F2, F3, from the bottom up, as you did with your images
-:23:-
Now close all the frame layers EXCEPT F1,
Now open 1 (your bottom image layer) activate 1, layers, merge visable, rename 1, then hide it
Open 2 and F2, making sure you are on layre 2, layers, merge visable.
-:24:-
Repeat this for all layers, you should end up with the same amount of layers as you had when you first renamed them 1, 2, 3 etc
Note: Each layer should be merged with the same number frame.....for example 5 & F5 will be merged
If you make a mistake, Edit, Undo
-:25:-
When you have merged all the layers with the frames, un-hide all the layers, Layers, view, all, and activate 1
-:26:-
File, Save As, make sure its a PSP extention, to make sure it will be compatable with Animation Shop (if you are uing PSP 8, 9 or X) Click Options,
in the middle is a drop down menu, click on that and find PSP 7 compatable file,
leave the other settings as they are and click OK, then save.
-:27:-
Over to AS
Minimise anything already there, File, Open and get the file we just saved in PSP. If you have not saved it as a PSP 7 Compatable file you will get this message
Once opened in AS, preview your file and save as a gif
Well done, all done you did it. This may be along tut, but I believe the finished effect is well worth it.
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