Looking Forward to 2009

This tutorial is the property of hollys closet.com and is for your pleasure. You are welcome to link to it but do not claim it as your own.

What you'll need:

PSP (I use version X but this can be done in any version)You can get a preview copy of version X2 Here

Animation Shop. This program was bundled with PSP up through early versions of PSP 9. It is now offered by Corel as a separate program and a trial version (or a purchased copy) can be downloaded Here
Vanderlee plugin Snowflakes.
A tube of your choice. I've used one by Deedlith. This is her website. The groups I am in have her permission to use her tubes. You may use it for this tutorial or another one of your choice. Whatever artist you decide to use be sure you have permission to use their work and always remember to credit them on your tags in the fashion they require.

Both masks are ones I made myself and are included in the supplies.

Numbers for any year you choose. I have made two images (blue with a star and a xmas red and green one) including 1 through 9 in png format. You can Adjust/Hue and Saturation/Colorize them in a color that suits your tube if you wish.

The tube I used, masks and numbers are included in my Supplies

All settings will remain the same unless otherwise stated.

Preparation

Download and unzip the supplies. Open all files in PSP except the text.mng file. Open that in Animation Shop.
Shift/D to copy tube, close the original without saving changes.
If the copyright information is on the same layer as your image or even on another layer, use the selection tool to select it Edit/Cut/Paste as a new Image.
You can use this later to add the copyright back to your tag.

From your tube select a compatible dark color as the foreground and a light color for your background in your materials palette. You will want to choose a color based on the effect you want to achieve.

Now we're ready so let's begin.

Step 1

Open a new image 500x500 transparent.
Floodfill with your foreground color(dark).
Open a new raster layer and floodfill with your background color(light).
File/Save As with your final file name.
Remember to save often.

Step 2
Layers/New Mask Layer/From Image
Select hkmask, click on source luminance and apply.

Layers/Merge/Merge Group

Step 3
On your layer palette highlight the mask layer
Select the Magic Wand

Click inside the mask to select the center area.
Leave the area selected and highlight the bottom layer.
New raster layer named snow.
Floodfill with your foreground color (or you can use a different color as I did on my other sample).
Duplicate layer twice. You will have three copies of the snow layer.

Step 4
On your layer palette right click/View/None.
Open and highlight the first snow layer.
Effects/Vanderlee/snowflakes with these settings.

50%, 91, 0, 8, 85, 6, Basic-creamy yellow Random seed 0
Open and select the second snow layer and apply the snowflakes, changing the Random seed to 1202.
Repeat on the third layer with the Random seed at 2836.
Right click on Layer Palette View/All. If the snow remains only on the center circle Selections/Select None.
If it covers the entire layer, Selections/Invert and go to each snow layer and hit your delete key.
You're through with the snow.

Step 5
Highlight the top layer and open your tube.
The one I used is a little complicated since it has an extra layer with some landscape items.
I will tell you what I did but if you select a different tube you won't have to do this.
Select the layer with the girl alone and Copy/Paste as a new layer.
Position it where you want it
Open the second layer copy/paste as a new layer and position it below the mask layer lining it up as it was in the tube.
You might want to add the copyright notice and your watermark as well at this time.
Put them on separate layers so you can move them.
On the layer palette right click View/None.
Open the tube layers, mask, copyright and watermark layers.
Highlight the top layer Layers/Merge/Merge Visible
This might be a good time to take a rest before we start the numbers.

Step 6
Open the hkbluealpha file.
With your selection tool set to rectangle, select the number 2, copy and paste on your main image as a new layer.
You can wait to move the numbers until you get them all pasted, each on it's own layer.
Select and paste the 0 twice and then the 9.
Be sure to deselect each number before you select the next one or you will have multiple numbers in various places on the image.
Position each number where you want it.

Animation
This is where we start the animation. I will be taking you step by step but to make it easier I'm going to give you a sense of what will be happening. We will be opening each number in turn and on the layer palette will start with a low opacity and increase it at each step until the number is fully visible. We will start with two frames without the numbers. Then the first number will be opened at a low opacity and we will do a copy merge and paste after current frame in AS, then we'll open the second number at a low opacity and go back and increase the first number's opacity and do another copy merge to AS. We will continue with each of the other two numbers in turn changing the opacity on all the numbers. To complicate things a bit, there are three snow layers and, each time we copy merge we have to change the snow layers. I can't emphasize too much the importance of this.

It might help you visualize this by right clicking on my image and then saving it as a gif file. Open it in Animation Shop and you will see each of the layers I have made.

Step 7
Close all the number layers and the 1st and 2nd snow layers.
Copy Merge.
Go to Animation Shop and right click on the desktop and select Paste as a new Animation.
Back to PSP and leave all the number layers closed.
Open the first snow layer and close the 2nd and 3rd ones.
Copy Merge.
Go to Animation Shop and right click on the top of the frame
Paste after current frame.

You will notice only the merged layer, first copy of snow and the background are open.
These will be frames 1 and 2 in Animation Shop
Click on the View Animation button
to check how it looks.
File/SaveAs your final name as a mng file. You should do both of these things periodically throughout the process so if you make a mistake you can go back and don't have to start over. When you complete the tag you will save it as a gif.

Step 8
Okay, here it is step by step.
We will start a series of changes in the numbers and at the same time rotate the snow layers.
After each change you will Copy Merge and Paste after the current frame in Animation Shop

Frame 3

2=20 opacity
2nd snow layer Frame 4

2=40 opacity
0=20
3rd snow layer Frame 5

2=60 opacity
0=40
0=20
1st snow layer Frame 6

2=80 opacity
0=60
0=40
9=20
2nd snow layer Frame 7

2=100 opacity
0=80
0=60
9=40
3rd snow layer

Continue closing and opening the snow layers in sequence and increasing the opacity for each number until they are all at 100.
Do one more frame by just changing the snow but leaving the numbers all at 100% opacity.

Step 9

The rest of the tag will be done in Animation Shop. You should now have 11 frames.
Open text.gif. You will notice there are 11 frames in this image as well.
On the tool bar activate Propagate Paste.

Ctrl/A to select all the frames in the text animation. Right click/Copy.
Go to the main animation Ctrl/A
Edit/Paste into Selected Frame
The text will be hanging on your pointer so just move it where you want it and then left click
If you don't like the location, Edit/Undo and then Paste into Selected Frame again.
It is not necessary to copy the text again.
Ctrl/A. Right click and select Frame Properties.
Change display time to 20.

Step 10

If you would like to add your name go back to PSP. Highlight the top layer and add your text.

Effects/3D/Drop Shadow

Position the name where you want it.
Be sure the text layer is selected and close all the other layers.
Right click Copy.
In AS right click on desktop and Paste as a new animation.
Right click Copy
On main animation Ctrl/A to Select all frames.
Once again, make sure Propogate Paste is active.
Edit/Paste into selected frame and position your name where you want it.
File/Save As a mng file.

Step 11

Once again click on View Animation button.
If you're satisfied with the animation File/Save As a gif file.
This will start the optimization process.
The first screen is quality vs. size leave it as is until you see how large (heavy) the file is after optimization.
Continue to click Next until you reach the Optimization Results window. Check the size of the file. If it's over 200 I usually go back and either reduce the output size in the first window or cancel the optimization and reduce the size of the animation.

Step 12

In this case I did both, reduced the size in the optimization window

and resized the animation.
With your animation highlighted, Animation/Resize as either a percentage or pixels.

Return to saving the animation as a gif.

And you're finished.

Did I wear you out? I hope not and that you enjoyed my way of celebrating the coming new year.

Here is another sample I did to test the tutorial.

This page was developed December 17, 2008 and