This tutorial is written for PSP7.04. I've based my caterpillar on a Sinedots II
tutorial by Sally Beacham. Sally is respected and well-known in the graphics community
and was one of the few PSP7, Media Center Private Beta Testers. She is also one of the
two instructors who developed and teach the Filter Frenzy classes at LVS, in addition to
being an LVS instructor of Xara X. You will need to work with Sally's tutorial in additon
to mine in order to either download her sb_star1 preset or to learn how to make your own
'animated tubes'. I'll provide the link shortly. In addition to Sally's tutorial, here
are the other items which you will need:
Sinedots II which you can download
HERE.There are two versions and both are fun to have. The one being used for this
tutorial, however, is the Sinedots II version.
PSP7.04. If you do not already own Paint Shop Pro, you may download a trial version.
If you do own PSP, then you can download or purchase the upgrade to PSP7.04.
You can find and download them HERE.
The brown eye for the caterpillar, unless you want to make one of your own, you can
download HERE. After you click to
download, select the 'Open' option as it is a small PSP file which should open right on
your PSP surface.
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OK! Time to get started. Open a new 250 x 250 transparent image. Add a layer.
Go to Effects|Dragonfly|SinedotsII and follow Sally Beacham's tutorial to make your
own animated multicolor tube or you can download Sally's star tube and skip the steps
involving the SinedotsII filter. You can see Sally's tutorial
HERE.You can download her
star tube at the end of her tutorial. But, I would suggest that you also do the tutorial
as you will find it a lot of fun! :o)
One of the things I discovered in making my own SinedotII kaleidoscope image is that
after I had my SinedotsII image, I needed to go to Image|Change Canvas size and increase
the size of my canvas. Without doing that my Sindots image filled the square when I used
the PSP7.04 Kaleidoscope effect on it.
This is how I made my tube. First, when I opened Sinedots II, I opened Sally's sb_wing1
preset. The color used for that one is a bright blue, so I changed it. This is what my
settings became:
This is what the image looks like after applying those settings:
Next, in order for my caterpillar to have darker colors, I needed to darken the color
of the SinedotII image. To duplicate what I have, change your foreground color to #5D381D.
Use your paintbrush tool with the following settings:
Selections|Select All; Selections|Float. Now apply two coats of the brown paint.
After the first coat, go to Selections|Select None. Then start the process again. If
you do this you will see the image get darker, like this:
Go to Image|Canvas Size and change the size to 300x300; check both vertical and
horizontal boxes. Then to go to Effects|Reflections|Kaleidoscope and use the following
settings:
You will notice that your image is still too light. Go to Selections|Select All;
Selections|Float and apply some more of your brown color. Each time you have applied the
color, go to Selections|Select None. If you need more color depth, then repeat the steps.
If you add too much, however, you will lose some of the openings in the image. This is
what mine looks like after one more coat of brown paint:
Go to Layers|Merge Visible and save this working kaleidoscoped image in psp format and
then you'll want to follow Sally Beacham's tutorial to make your animated tube. Once you
have done that, come back and we'll make the caterpillar!
Now that you have your kaleidoscoped animated SinedotsII tubed shape, open a
transparent image 400x250. Add a layer. Select your tube and use the following
settings:
Start in from the edge and, while holding down the left mouse, make a shape similar
to the one below. If you're like me, you'll have to try this several times until you get
one that you like. When you get to the part where the head is, bring it in a bit and keep
applying the tube until you get a good color for the brown eyes, if that's what you're
going to use. This is what my image looks like now:
Open the brown eye in PSP and then Edit|Copy and then click on the caterpillar
image and go to Edit|Paste as New Layer and then position the eye where you'd like it.
If your tube image is like mine, it almost seems as though there's a nose for you so you
can position the eye above that. Then do the same with the second eye. I like to put
them on separate layers so I can move them about. Here's mine with the eyes in place:
Go to your Layer Palette and the caterpillar should be on layer 2. Click on that
layer and then add another layer. This is where we're going to put the antennae. Change
your foreground color to black. Get your line tool and use the following settings to
draw some antennae:
To finish the antennae, get your paintbrush tool and change the size to 7. Place a
dot at the tip of each antenna.
Add a layer and then draw a mouth using your line tool with the width set at 5 and draw your
mouth. I positioned mine just under the 'nose'. Go to Layers|Merge Visible and then tube
your caterpillar. Here's what mine looks like now that he's finished. Of course, my
tube does not contain the grass. :o)
Here's another caterpillar that I made. I decided to use some KPT SkyEffects with
this and also some grass and a frame.
The final caterpillar image was created by my good friend, Mon, who
tested this tutorial for me. What a happy little caterpillar family! :o)
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