FTU Tut - Pumpkin's Bane

This tutorial was written on 09/27/2013 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any simularities to other tuts is purely coincidental and not done on purpose.

For this tutorial you will need:

PSP - I use X3 but most versions will do

Animation Shop

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Tube of choice, I used the art of Tiffany Toland-Scott

You can purchase this tube at CDO. Do not use without purchasing a license first.

Freebie Cluster available on the CDO Designer blog

Animation 35 by Simone at Scrappy Bit Of Fun

Font of choice, I used AcroterionJF

Open a new image 800 x 800. Flood fill white. Copy your cluster and paste as a new layer. I chose to mirror my cluster but this is optional. Now the grass is a bit sparce on one side. So using your selection tool, draw a selection around the grass like so:

Promote selection to layer and mirror. Use your Move tool to move the grass back over so it sits on top of the part that's a bit thin and move this layer down. Merge visible. It should now look something like this:

Give the cluster a slight drop shadow of -1, 2, 50, 5. Make sure the Vertical is negative 1 so the cluster doesn't look like it's floating.

Copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Resize if needed. I resized mine down 90%, all layers unchecked.

Move this layer under the cluster layer and arrange where desired. Your going want it to look like the cat and pumpkins are sitting in the grass. Once you're satisfied with the placement, move it back up again for now.

Use your freehand selection tool to select any areas that you want to sit on top of the cluster. I chose the leaves:

Promote selection to layer. Then click on the original tube layer and press delete. Deselect. Move your main tube layer under the cluster now and give it a drop shadow of -3, 2, 60, 10.

Activate the promoted layer and give it a drop shadow of 2, 2, 50, 5.

Now hide the white background layer and copy merged. Paste back onto your workspace as a new layer. Duplicate and mirror. Move the two layers so they're closer together and with the duplicate active, merge down. Give it a radial blur with these settings:

Move this layer to just above the white layer. Now use your raster deform tool to drag the nodes in so the blur is only slightly bigger then the cluster. Then activate your crop tool and crop layers opaque. Now resize the whole thing down if desired cause it is rather huge. I resized mine 70%, all layers checked.

Activate the top layer in your palette which should be the promoted selection. Add your copyright, license and tagger's mark. If using this same cluster be sure to include Scraps by Hungry Hill in your credits.

Add your name using colors from your tube. Give it an inner bevel of choice, I used:

Then give your name a slight gradient glow. This is what I used, the color is #eddac9:

Then a drop shadow of -2, 2, 50, 5.

To Animate:

Open your animation in AS, if you resized your tag down, you'll need to resize the animation too. I resized mine 80%.

Back to psp, hide the top 4 layers in your palette. Should be your name, the credits layer, the promoted selection and the cluster. The tube, the blur and the white background should be the only thing visible. Lower the opacity for the time being on the tube to 30%. You just want to be able to barely see it.

Copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS. Now you're going to need to make the same number of frames as the animation. My animation has 26 frames, so press ctrl shift L repeatedly until you have the required number of frames.

Scroll back and click on frame 1. Select all. Now activate your animation, make sure the first frame is active and select all on it also. Click and drag the first frame of your animation onto the first frame of your tag. All the other frames will drag along with it and place in the proper places. If you don't like the placement, undo on both and try again. I placed mine so the little orange dot on the left is above the left side of the small pumpkin:

When you're happy with placement then go back to psp. Return the opacity on the tube to 100% again and go to Layers, View and click on Invert. But then make sure you unhide the tube layer again. So now all layers should show but the blur and white background should be hidden.

Copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS. Make sure your Propagate Paste is enabled. If you're unsure there's an icon on the tool bar or you can go to Edit, Propagate Paste. Now with your existing animation that you added the sparkles to, should still be all selected. Click on your single frame and drag onto the first frame of your animation, lining the kitty up so it matches. The propagate paste will then place the same image in all frames. If you mess up you can undo and try again.

Save your tag and congrats, you're done!

PTU Tut - Simply Elizabeth

This tutorial was written on 09/17/2013 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any simularities to other tuts is purely coincidental and not done on purpose.

For this tutorial you will need:

PSP - I use X3 but most versions will do

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Tube of choice, I used the art of Enys Guerrero.

You can purchase this tube/scrap bundle kit at CDO. Do not use without purchasing a license first.

The scraps are by Rebel Dezigns and can only be used with this artist.

Mask of choice, I used WSL_Mask84 from WeeScotsLass.

Font of choice, I used Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Open a new canvas 650 x 700. Copy frame 4, and paste as a new layer. Move it down a bit. Copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Move this layer under your frame layer. Resize if needed, all layers unchecked. I resized mine 95%.

Arrange your tube where you want it to sit in the frame. I placed her so the gold metal parts at the bottom were just barely hidden. Duplicate this layer and move the duplicate to the top of your layer palette and hide for now.

Activate the frame layer and click on your freehand selection tool. Select around the frame like below:

Invert your selection, activate the bottom tube layer and press delete. Keep selected.

Open a paper of choice. I used paper 1. Duplicate the paper and close the original. Resize 80%. Copy and paste onto your workspace. Move this layer below the bottom tube layer and press delete. You may now deselect.

Activate your frame layer and give it a drop shadow of 0, 0, 100, 10.

Activate and unhide the top tube layer. Give it a drop shadow of -3. 3, 70, 10. Repeat the drop shadow at 1, -1, 50, 5.

Lower the opacity of this layer to about 50% and zoom in about 400%. Click on your eraser tool. You're going to erase everything that's on top of the bottom part of the frame. Don't worry if you go over, that's what the bottom tube is for. Make sure you erase enough so that'll be able see the frame's drop shadow.

When you're done, keep it zoomed in and return the opacity of the tube back to 100%. Now you can check for any stray pixels you missed by hiding and unhiding the tube a few times. When you're confident you've gotten them all you can zoom back out to 100% again.

Open element 28. Copy and paste as a new layer. Move below the paper layer and down at the bottom of your frame. See my tag for reference. Give it the same drop shadow as the frame but lower the opacity to 50.

Copy a paper of choice, I used paper 4. Paste as a new layer and move below the white mesh element you just added. Add mask from image. Merge group. Click on your raster deform tool and pull on the top and bottom nodes so you can see bits of the mask at the top and bottom. With this layer still active, click on your crop tool. Crop layer opaque. Make sure, however, that you don't crop off any drop shadows from your tube or frame/elements.

Add any other elements of choice or if you're done, resize the tag as desired. I resized mine 80%, all layers checked.

Add your copyright, license and taggers mark.

Add your name using font of choice. I used the same color for the foreground and background, chosen from my tube, #c39ca0. Convert to raster and give it a gradient glow using the settings below, the color is #4f1310.

Then give your name a drop shadow, I used -2, 2, 50, 5.

Merge visible and save as a png. Or merge all and save as a jpg. Congrats, you're done!

Animated Forum Tut - Moving Stripes

I have a new exclusive tutorial over at Creative Addictions. You can find it here. Remember you don't need to be a member to view or even post on the threads of my exclusive tuts. I love to see what people make from my tutorials so please share.