Tutorials
Non-Transparent Gif Tutorial (PSP7)Gif Monster Tutorial (PSP7)
Marble Tutorial (PSP7)
Marble Tutorial (GIMP)
Easiest Orb (PSP7/GIMP)
Gif Monster Tutorial (PSP7)
I think we've all had experience with the .gif monster...that frusterating thing that makes your .gifs all pixely? Like this:
Well, I found something that will stop it in most cases.
When you export as a transparent .gif, there's a row of tabs.
All you have to do is click the "Colors" tab. At the bottom left is something that looks like this (without the x's and circles):
Always make sure the "Optimized Octree" is clicked.
Ta-Da!
Non-Transparent Gifs (PSP7)
.gif's, even non-transparent ones, are nice because they take up a lot less room than other things, such as .jpg's or .png's. But if you try to save a .gif by going File > Save As and select CompuServe Graphics Interchange (aka .gif), you get a pixely image. Instead, go to File > Export > Gif Optimizer, and instead of choosing "Areas that match this color", select "None".
Marble Tutorial
Made for PSP7; will work with most PSP versions. Requires some knowledge of PSP.Here is the end result:
First of all, you'll need the base marble image, unless you want to use your own. Here is the marble image I used. Here is the flower image I used. (I applied an effect to it by going to Colors > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast, Brightness: 10, Contrast: 20.) You can use your own image; preferably with a soft color background as opposed to something busy.
Ok, if you have your images, we're ready to begin.
1. Crop the marble image.
2. Open your image that you want to put in the marble. See above for the one I used. Since the marble is round, use your Circle selection tool. Set the Feather to 5, and select the part of your picture that you want to put in your marble. (Click in the center of whatever your thing is, and drag outward to create a circle.) Press Ctrl C and Ctrl V to copy and paste as new image.
3. Now we have the cropped image, but we have to find out the size of the marble. Again, using your Circle selection tool, go to your marble image. Starting in the approximate center of the marble, click and drag outward to create a circle. At the bottom of your screen, you should see numbers looking something like this (unless you have the statusbar turned off):
I'm not sure what the first two groups of numbers are, or the last one, but the second to last one (181x181) is the width and height of your selection. I rounded mine down to 180x180. So, resize your flower image to 180x180.
4. Create a new layer on your marble image, and copy and paste (Ctrl C, Ctrl V) the flower image onto the new layer, over the marble. (Click for larger image)
5. Right-click the flower layer and duplicate it, then duplicate it again. You want a total of 3 flower layers.
6. On the bottommost flower layer, set the blend mode to Screen. On the next one, set it to Overlay. The normal flower layer will be covering the others; you can hide it to see how it's all coming along.
7. If you didn't hide the normal flower layer to see what it looks like so far, then you wouldn't know that the flower isn't as defined as I wanted. So, on the normal flower layer, get your Magic Wand tool, Feather 5, Tolerance 20, and select the background color around the flower. Be sure to get all the background color. Then press Delete a few times, until the edges of the flower are feathery a little, and all the background is gone. Then lower the opacity until the flower is a little more defined, but still looks like it's in the marble. I lowered my opacity to about 58.
8. An optional step is to make the background grayscale, like I did. To do this, copy the original marble layer and paste as a new image (Ctrl C, Ctrl E). Go to Colors > Gray Scale.
Click and hold on the layer of the grayscale image, and drag it over to the other image, the one you were working in. It should add a new grayscale layer. Now get your Rectangle selection tool, and Feather 0. Click one of your flower layers (but not the "normal" one that you deleted the background from), and select the marble area. Click the marble to select it. You can mute the grayscale layer if you want, to see better what I mean. Then go back to the grayscale layer, and hit Delete. You should have a gray background with the bright marble.
Here are a few more marbles I made, with the same technique:
Top
GIMP Marble Tutorial
Made for GIMP.Here is the end result:
First of all, you'll need the base marble image, unless you want to use your own. Here is the marble image I used. Here is the flower image I used. You can use your own image; preferably with a soft color background as opposed to something busy.
Ok, if you have your images, we're ready to begin.
1. Crop the marble image.
2. Open your image that you want to put in the marble; I'll call it the flower image. See above for the flower image I used. Since the marble is round, use your Ellipse selection tool, and hit Shift and drag to create a perfect circle around the flower you want in your marble. It might take a few tries, but that's ok. When you have one you like, go to Select > Feather, and feather it 5. Hit Ctrl C to copy it, then Edit > Paste as New.
3. Now we have the cropped image, but we have to find out the size of the marble. Get your Measure tool, and measure the widest part of the marble. Make sure your line is straight, and goes just past the marble edges. If you have the status bar on, you should see the width at the bottom. Since marbles are round, you don't need to bother with measuring the height. (By the way, the width was 181px, but I rounded it down to 180.)
4. Resize your flower circle to the diameter and height of the marble by going to Image > Scale. Type 180 in the width, then click the Lock button, then click Scale.
5. Go to your layer palette, and drag the flower layer onto the marble image (both images have to be visible). Use the Move tool to move it to the center of the marble.
6. Duplicate the flower layer twice, for a total of three flower layers. Go to the first (lowest) flower layer, and set the blend mode to Screen. Go to the second (middle) flower layer, and set the blend mode to Overlay.
7. Go to the normal (top) flower layer, and using your magic wand (set to a threshold of 15), select all the background. To get more than one selection at a time, press and hold Shift.
8. Go to Select > Feather, and feather 5. Press Ctrl K to delete your selection. You should have just the flower. Select none. Lower the opacity on this layer to about 30.
Unless you want the grayscale background, you're done. If you want the grayscale, continue on.
9. In your marble picture layer palette, click the bottommost layer (the cropped marble picture). Go to Image > Duplicate to paste a new version of it. You'll see all the layers; that's ok. Don't do anything with them at this point.
10. Go to Layer > Colors > Desaturate to get the grayscale image. On your layer palette, drag this grayscale layer onto the marble picture (again, both image have to be visible). Make it the second-to-bottom layer.
11. Create a new brush. Set the Radius to 50, and the hardness to .75. Don't mess with any of the other settings. Now erase within the marble, being careful not to go past the marble boundaries. This gets rid of the yellowish cast the grayscale layer gives the marble, and lets the original blue back through. You should have a gray background with the bright marble.
It doesn't look quite the same as the PSP one, because I applied an effect to the PSP one that I don't know in GIMP yet. Top
Easiest Orb
Basic use of your programs must be known beforehand, such as how to get a gradient in PSP; how to fill in GIMP, and so on.
1. Create a new image; mine was 20x20. Fill it with a semi-dark color (so you can see what you're doing; I used #7D2D1D).
2. PSP Create a new layer; name it Base. Get your Paintbrush, set the Size: 20; Hardness: 100; Opacity: 100; Step: whatever; Density: 100. Now get a gradient with your foreground; use the Black/White linear gradient, angle 180, Invert unchecked. Center your tool in your image and click, to get a gradient circle. My, aren't we talented?
2. GIMP Create a new layer; name it Base. Grab your Elipse tool. Start on the bottom right corner. Holding shift down, create a selection that extends to the edges of your image. Sharpen your selection (Select > Sharpen). Fill with the gradient named Default (the black/white one). Keep your selection.
2. PSP Create a new layer; name it Inner Bevel. Change the angle to 140 on your gradient, and change the Paintbrush size to 16. Center your brush in your first gradient, and click to create another gradient, this one going top-left-to-bottom-right. Woohoo.
2. GIMP Create another new layer; call it Bevel. Go to Select > Shrink. Shrink by 2. Fill, top left to bottom right, with the same gradient.
3. PSP Create a new layer, name it Gradient. Choose a gradient you would like to use; I used #990C11 to #F89925. Set the angle back to 180. Change the size of your Paintbrush to 14. Center your Paintbrush in your circle, and click to create another gradient. This is cool, isn't it?
3. GIMP Create a new layer called Gradient. Contract your selection by 1. Fill with a gradient; I used #990C11 to #F89925.
4. PSP Select your circle, then invert. Create a new layer; name it Drop Shadow. Go to Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow. Set it to: Horizontal: 0; Vertical: 0; Opacity: 100; Blur: 4; Color: black. Click Ok. It's beginning to look like something now, isn't it?
3. GIMP Invert your selection, then go to Script-Fu > Shadow > Drop Shadow. Offset X: 0; Offset Y: 0; Blur radius: 4; Color: black; Opacity: 50; Allow resizing unchecked.
5. PSP Create a new layer; name it Highlight. Get your Paintbrush tool again; set it to 6. Center it in the top of your Gradient layer, leaving about 1 pixel between the highlight and the edge. Click. Since I thought it was a little TOO round; I wanted a little more of an oval shape, so I set my Paintbrush back down to 1, and added two extra pixels on either side. "It just looks like a hard blob of white!" Calm down. I'll show you how to fix it in the next step.
5. GIMP As usual, add a new layer; call it Sub-Highlight. Use your Pencil tool, and a 7x7 brush. Center it as best as you can on the gradient, leaving one pixel of gradient showing above. Then I used my rectangle selection to pull it one pixel apart, then filled in the gap with a smaller brush. I also thought it was too tall, so I used my selection tool to select the bottom half and shoved it up one pixel.
6. PSP This time, use your Eraser tool. Set it to: Size: 10; Hardness: 100; Opacity: 25; Step: whatever; Density: 100. Click once over the whole white blob. This makes the opacity go down. Now, what you're going to do is a tiny bit tricky. "You said it would be easy!" It is, once you understand what I'm telling you. One pixel from the top of the white area, click to erase again. Move down another pixel, and click. Repeat, moving your eraser down one pixel each time. Since your eraser opacity is low, it will gradually erase, creating a faded effect. I found this to be better than the white-to-transparent gradient. Almost done! (If you want your highlight to be a little brighter, duplicate the layer and adjust the opacity. For darker gradients, you probably wouldn't need to mess with this, but for lighter gradients like yellow, you would want to. Don't go too light, otherwise you won't see your sparkles and highlights at all. Single colors can work, too.)
6. GIMP Select your Sub-Highlight splotch of white. Create a new layer; name it Highlight. Hide the Sub-Highlight layer; then fill the selection on the Highlight layer with a white-to-transparent gradient. Lower the opacity if you wish. Delete the layer Sub-Highlight.
7. PSP Create a new layer; name it Sparkle 1. Add a little plus sign to the lower right of your gradient. Do the same thing with your eraser tool that you did to the oval in the last step. Create another layer, name it Sparkle 2. Add another plus sign on the bottom left side. The placement of these two sparkles is totally up to your artistic eye. Repeat the erase effect. The reason I placed the sparkles on different layers was so you could mess with/move them independantly.
7. GIMP Create a new layer (surprise) and name it Sub-Sparkle. Use your Pencil tool again, and with a 1x1 brush, paint a little plus sign in the bottom right. Like the last step, use your Magic Wand to select the plus; create a new layer named Sparkle 1; hide the Sub-Sparkle layer, and fill the selection on Sparkle 1 with a white-to-transparent gradient. Delete the Sub-Sparkle layer.Duplicate the Sparkle 1 layer, and name it Sparkle 2. Move it over to the bottom left of the gradient. The placement of these two sparkles is totally up to your artistic eye. The reason I placed the sparkles on different layers was so you could mess with/move them independantly.
You're done! I thought my sparkles were a little too bright, so I lowered the opacity on Sparkle 1 to 55 and the opacity on Sparkle 2 to 40 (same in Gimp, but I also lowered the Highlight opacity to 80). Have fun with it! Play around with colorizing the gradient layer, or refill with a different gradient. If you want your highlight to be a little brighter, duplicate the layer and adjust the opacity. For darker gradients, you probably wouldn't need to mess with this, but for lighter gradients like yellow, you would want to. Don't go too light, otherwise you won't see your sparkles and highlights at all. Single colors can work, too. Experiment; play around. Change the brush sizes. Have fun!
