Glittering Graphics

Paint Shop Pro How To

Glittering Graphics

(This is for PSP 7, but other versions are similar.)

First, in PSP, open up an image you want to use. Or use the one I used in this tut. Right click on it below to save it.

Now, in PSP, duplicate it by clicking on "Window / Duplicate".

Get rid of the original in PSP, and work with the duplicate so the original is untouched.

Now promote it to a layer by clicking on "Layers / Promote to layer". Now click on the magic wand icon and then open the toggle tool options window.

See screen shot below for more details.

Use the settings I have in the box.

Now click the magic wand in the outside white area of the graphic.

Now click on DELETE on your keyboard.

You will see the white is gone. This makes the background transparent.

If there are any white areas left, do the same.

This graphic has more white between the arms.

Now you have to get some glitters to fill in the graphic.

I have links to some glitter sites at the very bottom of this page.

But for now, use the glitter below for this project.

Now open up Animation Shop.

Do that by going back to PSP, then click on "File / Jasc Software Products / Launch Animation Shop".

In Animation Shop, click on "File / Open", or click on the Open Animation icon.

Now open the glitter you saved.

You can view the animation by clicking on the View Animation icon, or right clicking on any frame in the animation and choose "View Animation".

Now get rid of the box of the preview and go back to the individual frames.

Click on the first frame and it will be highlighted.

Now click on "File / Save Frame As".

Save it to your folder of choice.

You don't need to number them...it will automatically be numbered.

But before you click on SAVE, click on the dropdown arrow in the "Save as type" and put JPG there.

Highlight the rest and save them the same way.

Now go back to PSP and open up all of these individual frames.

Be sure you open up the individual frames, and not the actual animation. You will know because the individual frames are jpg's, and the animation is a .gif.

Now minimize the individual frames.

The pic below has a circle on the part you click on to minimize it.

Now they will all still be open in PSP, but be out of the way.

Now go to the graphic we are working on. Make sure it's in the front. Do that by just clicking your cursor on the blue area up top of the graphic. That area is circled below in the pic. When you are working on a graphic, make sure it's always in the front this way.

Now open up your Layer Palette.

Below is a screen shot of what icon to click on.

Now in the layer palette, right click on Layer 1 and choose the option "Duplicate".

Screen shot below...

After that, you will have Layer 1, and Copy of Layer 1.

Now right click on Copy of Layer 1 and choose to duplicate again.

You will now have Layer 1, Copy of Layer 1, and Copy of Copy of Layer 1.

We needed to duplicate it 2 times so we have 3 copies of the graphic, because there are 3 frames of the glitter.

Now on the layer palette still, X out the top 2 layers, and highlight the bottom one, as shown in the screen shot below.

To X the layers out, just click on the little eyeglasses icon next to that layer and that layer will now be hidden.

To highlight the bottom layer, just click on the words 'Layer 1".

Don't click on the eyeglasses on this layer...just the words.

Now click on the magic wand icon, then open the toggle tool options window, like before in one of the above screen shots.

This time, have the feather at ZERO.

Now you can get rid of the toggle tool options window.

Now click the magic wand in the shirt of the girl graphic.

You should see what looks like marching ants in the inside of the shirt. You also want to click in the pants.

So hold the SHIFT key down on your keyboard and click the magic wand in the pants too, and all should be highlighted at the same time. Now click on "Selections / Modify / Expand".

Choose number 1 and OK it.

This brings the marching ants closer to the edge.

Below is a scren shot of what it should look like, except it will be animated.

Now it's time to fill the outfit with the glitter.

Click on the Flood Fill Icon.

Then in the style boxes to the right, click on the bottom one.

See screen shot below.

After you click on the bottom style box, the pattern box should pop up. Below is a screen shot of how that looks, except yours will have a different patten in it.

Now if the bottom sytle box is locked, or only colors pop up, and not the pattern box, refer to this page on my website on how to change that....

Near the beginning of that page are instructions on that.

Once the patterns are showing like the above screen shot, click once in the "Current Pattern" itself.

A bunch of patterns should open up.

Scroll all the way to the top and you will see your fushia glitter stars frames.

Hover your mouse over them and it will show the entire name and you will know what frame it is.

See screen shot below.

What is circled is the words that pop up when you hover your mouse over a frame.

They may be out of order, like mine.

You will see in the above screen shot that the first frame of the fushia glitters in the pattern box is frame #2.

I named this glitter "glitter_stars_fushia02" because I have more than one of this color.

So when they are numbered, they have the names "glitter_stars_fushia02 1", "glitter_stars_fushia02 2", and "glitter_stars_fushia02 3".

So find frame #1 ("glitter_stars_fushia02 1") of the fushia glitters and click on it once and it will now be the "Current Pattern" in the box. Now OK the box.

Now with the flood fill icon still activated, bring it to the graphic and RIGHT click in the marching ants.

Make sure the marching ants remain active and go to your layer palette. X out Layer 1, and take the X off of Copy of Layer 1 and highlight it.

Now click on your flood fill icon again, and open up the bottom style box again and click once in the current pattern.

Now find frame #2 ("glitter_stars_fushia02 2") of the fushia glitters and click on it once and it will now be the "Current Pattern" in the box. Now OK the box.

Now with the flood fill icon still activated, bring it to the graphic and RIGHT click in the marching ants.

Now X out Copy of Layer 1, and take the X off of Copy of Copy of Layer 1 and highlight it.

When you are done, click on "Selections / Select None", then "Layers / View / All".

Now click on "File / Save As" and click on the dropdown arrow in the "Save As Type" and put PSP there.

Save to your folder of choice and name it what you want.

Now go to Animation Shop and click on 'File / Animation Wizard".

At the first box, make sure that "Same size as the first image frame" is chosen.

At the next box, choose transparent.

Choose "Upper Left Corner of the frame" and "With the canvas color".

Do NOT choose 'scale frames to fit'.

Choose "Yes, repeat the animation indefinitely".

In this case, choose 10 seconds. The lower the number, the faster the animation.

Now click the "Add Image" button.

Navigate to the folder the graphic you just worked on is in, and double click on it to open it.

Click Next, then Finish. Maximize your frames.

Click on the "View Animation" icon. After you view it, get rid of that window to get back to the frames.

If you like it, save it!

Crop the animation if need be to get rid of any extra background.

Click on the crop icon and as you crop the first frame, all frames get cropped with it. Pretty cool, huh?!

Click in the middle of it to finalize the crop.

Now if you want to, you can view it again. You can either save the animation from the individual frames, or when you are viewing it as an animation.

Click on "File / Save As" (not save frame as).

Save it to your folder of choice.

After you save it, some boxes will pop up.

At the first one, slide the image bar all the way to the top.

For some animations that are either large or just have a lot of frames to it, you will have to have it lower to make the file size smaller, as long as the quality is still good. But since this is a small animation, you can choose the best quality.

In Ani Shop, what mostly determines the file size is how many frames there are, and not the dimensions so much.

Now click on the CUSTOMIZE button.

* In the "Colors" tab, make sure number of colors is 255.

Choose "Optimized Octree", and "Error Difusion".

* In the "Optimizations" tab, only have the second, third and forth ones checked.

* In the "Partial transparency" tab, choose "Convert pixels less than 1...".

And choose "Yes, blend with this color", and click in the color box to choose white. OK the box.

You shouldn't need to change any of the settings in the customize box very often.

Now you will see it load.

There will be a mini preview. Not much help as it's very small, LOL! Click Next, then Finish.

Before you get rid of the frames, put your animation in an email to see if the quality is good, if you had to choose anything lower than the best quality. I find that email is the best way to preview it. If the quality is not good, go back to Ani Shop, and with your frames still there, click on "Edit / Undo Optimize Animation".

Then save it again as a better quality by sliding the bar higher.


				*Paint Shop Pro How To* *Glittering Graphics*



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