Animated Fairy

You will need :-

PSP X  and Animation Shop [can be done in any version of psp]

Visit Corel.com for a free trial of the latest version of psp and to purchase Animation Shop

A Wing Tube

A Pixie Tube [or picture tube of your choice to add wings to] 

A Font of your choice. The font Ive used here is 'Bangle'

You can download one from one of the many font sites, download and save to a folder on your pc...or you can use one you'll find already listed in your PSP menu when you come to use the 'Text Tool'

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Throughout this tutorial I will be working without the thumbnails showing in the 'Layer Palette'. The palette screenshots will therefore differ from yours although the 'Layers' shown will still be the same.

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Ok...lets get started !

Locate your font file, open it and leave it on your screen or reduce it to your taskbar. While it remains open it will show in the menu in PSP when you come to use the 'Text Tool'.

Go to 'File' 'New' and open a 'New Image' '400 x 400 pixels', 'Transparent'.

Click on the 'Picture Tube Tool' and you'll see a little preview window on the 'Tool Options' palette.

Click on the preview image showing there to open the tubes menu and find your wing tube, click on it to select and it will appear in the little preview window.

Scale it down to about '36'

If it doesnt show in your tubes menu, go to 'File' Browse'..locate the file, double click to open it...then go to 'File' 'Export' 'Picture Tube'..type its name in the box and 'OK' it. It should now appear in your menu for you to select.

Click once on your blank canvas to place the tube.

In the 'Layer' palette, right click 'Raster1' and select 'Duplicate' from the menu.

A second wing will have been placed directly on top of the first and we need to turn it round, so go to 'Image''Mirror'.

Use the 'Move Tool' to place the wings side by side and move them up the canvas a little so that you've room to add text underneath later.

Go to 'Layers' 'Merge' 'Merge Visible'.

Right click the 'Merged' layer in the 'Layer' palette, and rename it 'wings1'

Still in the 'Layer' palette, right click 'wings1' and select 'Duplicate', right click the copy and rename 'wings 2'

Right click 'wings 2' and 'Duplicate', right click the copy and rename 'wings 3'

Now....'X' out 'wings 3' by clicking on the little 'eye', and click on 'wings 2' to activate

Select the 'Pick Tool'..... [NB ....if you are using an older version of PSP, select the 'Deform Tool' ]

...and a box will appear round your wings

Click hold and drag each side of the wings inwards slightly using the nodes at each side. You will see that the wings on the 'wing1' layer stay in their original place underneath  and you are moving the wings on 'wings 2'

In the 'Layer' palette, un X 'wings3' and click on the layer to activate.

Click hold and drag the wings in at each side a little further than the last ones.

Click the 'Move Tool' to remove the 'Pick Tool'

Go to 'Layers' and open a 'New Raster Layer'. In the 'Layer' palette, right click the new  layer and rename it 'fairy1'. 

Select the 'Picture Tube Tool' , click on the little preview on the 'Tools Options' palette like before and find your fairy or figure from the drop down menu. Scale it down to about 50 and click on your image to place it.....use the 'Move Tool' to position it

We need one 'fairy' layer to go with each 'wing' layer, so in the 'Layer' palette, right click on the 'fairy 1' layer and select 'Duplicate'. Right click the copy and rename it 'fairy2'. Right click 'fairy2' and select 'Duplicate', right click the copy and rename in 'fairy3'

Now for the text.

 Go to 'Layers' and open a 'New Raster Layer'

In the 'Layer' palette, right click on the new layer and rename it 'text 1'

In the 'Materials' palette, click on the colour which appears in the 'Foreground and Stroke Properties' box to open the 'Material Properties' 'Colour' palette and select a colour for the outline of your text. You can choose a colour from within the palette or, to colour co-ordinate, if you run your mouse over your image you will see preview windows of colours as it passes over the image, just click to select and 'OK'.

Your chosen colour will appear in the 'Materials' palette 'Foreground and Stroke Properties' box.

Select a colour for the fill of your text in the 'Background and Fill Properties' box

Click on the 'Text Tool' icon and select your font from the drop down menu

Select a size...you can type in a size if the size you want isn't in the drop down menu.

 Set the 'Stroke width' to '1.0', create as 'Floating' and make sure the 'Line Style' 

is set to a solid line [ '+solid]

Click on your image to open the 'Text Entry' box....type in your text and 'Apply'

Your text will appear on your image surrounded by 'Marching Ants'

Hold your mouse over the text until the cursor changes to that of a 'Move Tool' and you will be able to move your text

NB If the text isn't the right size, you can always undo it by going to 'Edit'  where you can 'undo' your last steps.

Go to 'Selections 'Select None' to remove the 'Marching Ants' and click on the 'Move Tool' to get rid of the 'Text Tool'.

Apply an effect to the text by going to 'Effects' '3D Effects' 'Inner Bevel' and set your settings to these.

We have 3 'wings' layers and 3 'fairy' layers....we now need 3 'text' layers so in the 'Layer' palette, right click the 'text 1' layer, select 'Duplicate'. Right click the copy and rename 'text 2'. Right click 'text 2' select 'Duplicate', right click the copy and rename it 'text 3'

We now need to put the layers into groups where we have in each group 'wings, text and a fairy', so in the 'Layer' palette, click hold and drag your layers about so that they look like this...

'X' out the top six layers by clicking on the little 'eye' at the end of each row.

Click on 'wings 1' to activate

Go to 'Layers' 'Merge' 'Merge Visible'

'X' out that 'Merged' layer and 'un X' the next three layers, click on 'wings 2' to activate.

Go to 'Layers' 'Merge' 'Merge Visible'

'X' out that 'Merged' layer also and 'un X' the remaining 3, clicking on 'wings 3' to activate.

Go to 'Layers' 'Merge' 'Merge Visible'

You will now have 3 'Merged' layers in your palette, 'un X' all 3.

Now for the background.

Go to 'Layers' and open a 'New Raster Layer'

In the 'Layer' palette, click hold and drag the new layer down to below the 'Merged' layers, right click it and 'rename' it 'background'.

In the 'Materials' palette, select a colour in the 'Foreground and Stroke Properties' box, and using the 'Floodfill Tool' click on your image to floodfill with colour.

In the 'Layer' palette right click the 'background' layer and select 'Duplicate'. Right click the 'Copy of background' layer and again select 'Duplicate'. Drag each 'background' layer so that you have a 'background' layer below each 'Merged' layer.

'X' out the top four layers and click on 'background' to activate.

Go to 'Layers' 'Merge' 'Merge Visible'.

'X' out that 'Merged' layer and 'un X' the next two, click on 'Copy of Background' to activate

Go to 'Layers' 'Merge' 'Merge Visible'

'X' out that 'Merged' layer and 'un X' the remaining two, clicking on 'Copy (2) of background' to activate

Go to 'Layers' 'Merge' 'Merge Visible'

You will now have 3 'Merged' layers in your palette, 'un X' all three.

Open Animation Shop.

Go back to PSP...and in the 'Layer' palette, starting from the bottom..... click on the bottom 'Merged' layer, go to 'Edit' 'Copy'....

...over to Animation Shop and click on 'Edit' 'Paste' 'As New Animation'.

Go back to PSP, click on the second 'Merged' layer, go to 'Edit' 'Copy'.....

....over to Animation Shop and click on 'Edit' 'Paste' and this time 'After Current Frame' [it will hide behind the first one so don't worry, you haven't lost it]

Back to PSP, click on the last 'Merged' layer, 'Edit' 'Copy'....over to Animation Shop...'Edit' 'Paste' 'After Current Frame'

Click on the 'View Animation'icon   to see your finished animation....click on it again to close it.

If you think the Animation's a little fast, you can slow it down.

Firstly, to see all 3 of your frames go to 'View' 'Normal Viewing (1:1)'....then click on 'Edit' 'Select All'...this selects all your frames [they surround in blue]....and next click on 'Animation' 'Frame Properties'. Here you can alter the 'Display Time', a higher number makes the animation slower. The fairy wings in this tutorial I set to '30'.

Click the 'View Animation' icon again to see your animation.

To save, go to 'File' 'Save as' and save as a 'CompuServe Graphics Interchange (*.gif)

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial

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This tutorial was created and written for HighHeelRenders and Upsited.  Please do not reword or upload the tutorial onto another website or group. You may however link to the tutorial by using a text link to the specific page.

Have fun

updated 2007