~ Fonts and Mirrors ~
Welcome and thanks for looking, this is my first
attempt at a tutorial in PSP 7.
View 800 x 600 pixels.
We will be using your text editor, layer duplication, reflection effects/rotating mirrors, alpha channel, flood fill, texture effects, eraser or lasso and layer blend modes.
Feel free to explore and create while working through the Q
journey.
The graphics on the left came from playing with the rotating mirror effect and in this case letter "Q".
This tutorial isn't carved in stone and is for you to have fun. Questions or feedback contact~
AndyG.
Open a new image 350 x 350, transparent, 16 million colors.
Click the "A" tool and open text editor.
I chose Monotype Corsiva, size 72, bold, stroke-brown, fill-( with a complimentary
gradient) ie; mauve. null textures, create as vector, with antialias checked, click OK.
Center the Q in the palette, go to Layer palette right click layer 2 and convert to raster.
Effects-Reflection effects-Rotating Mirrors, now rotate to 180, start with horizontal offset at 10, click OK, center this layer in palette(head and nose).
Layer palette,
right click, and duplicate. Go to Image-choose-Flip, now center this layer(top legs) under layer 2.
Go to layer palette and duplicate your COPY of layer 2, for bottom legs and body. Hang in there just a little more with the duplicating (name your layers if it helps). Once you click duplicate go to-Effects-Reflection effects-
rotating mirrors, 180 angle, horizontal offset around 10 and click. Take your mover tool and align about so.
Now lets make the eyes and ears. Ears first, duplicate Layer 2 (head and nose) Go to-Effects-Reflection effects-Rotating mirrors, angle 180, horizontal offset minus fifteen (-15) or so to shape an ear.
Resize tool, grab top left node and pull down to a nice perspective and move the ear to your Bear's head, tuck it under Layer 2. Duplicate the ear layer,
go to-Image-mirror and click, and move this ear to his head. Does he look like this...
Now for his eyes, duplicate an ear, go to Image- Rotate-90 deg. Resize to a nice perspective and move into your
Q's. When your happy with it Duplicate and go to Image-mirror. Now place just right and
we're done with mirroring fonts. I waited to merge in case we wanted to play with a particular layer, so change shapes now..Be Happy, Select Layers merge-visible. Please remember this has been the objective, using your rotating mirror to create and design. If you like to play with your PSP, mirrors can be fun and quite surprising.
Now we
can paint, texturize and clean until our heart is content.
First take the Magic wand and set to RGB value, tolerance around 11, feather=0, sample merge= unchecked and then click in your palette. Go to Selections-Invert. Then Selections- Save to Alpha channel and follow little windows to save, and Selections None. Open Layer Pallette-New Raster-OK. Go to Selections-Load from Alpha channel. Select color brown, and flood fill- Selections None.
Go to Layer palette and pull down layer 1 under merged.
Now in the layer palette go to Layer Opacity and slide on the Merged layer until your satisfied, I stopped at 60. Move over to Layer blend mode and on the dropdown try Overlay,
but feel free to explore. Now let's add some Fur to Layer 1. Select the layer, Effects-Texture
Effects=Fur. Blur=75, Density=75, Length=15, Transparency=255, click Okay.
We can clean up on the Merged layer with the lasso or eraser. Select merged layer and remove those lines on top paws.
Now select Layers- Merge all visible, and then
select the paint brush tool.
Tip=round, Size=18, hardness=25, Opacity=100, Step=25, Density=100, color=White or any choice.
Paint brush- center of eye - and click. How about a pupil? Same brush, change to size=9, color brown and your set.
Finally a nose, New raster layer, select tool=circle, make a
small circle on your palette and flood fill.
Then Select none, Effects=3D inner bevel, color
white, angle=300 and play with smoothness, size, ambience, and shininess till your Happy. Place
the nose, Merge layers all visible, Effects=3D-Inner Bevel for your effect. Crop image to a reasonable size and now your ready for your
P's.
This graphic and tutorial was created for fun and to share my excitement working with the mirror tool. The student shall exceed the teacher,
so I would expect your "Q Bear" is looking great! So let me know how you made out.
I hope you had some fun, I would like to thank all the good folks, who have taken time
to share and help others to learn, PspImaginarium, PSP users group, and the many others. You know who you are. THANKS!
Sincerely, AndyG.