Rockin' Elf

Tutorial by Liss

This tutorial was created by me in PSP 8. The files are PSP 7 compatible and you shouldn’t have any problems working it in version 7.

This tutorial is the property of Liss' PSP Korner and may not be copied for use anywhere else. You may however link to it and the graphic you make is yours to use as you choose. This tutorial was created by me and any resemblance to any other tutorial is coincidental.

Supplies needed

Paint Shop Pro

My zip file

OK Lets get started.

Unzip the files and open the elf and holly files in PSP. Open the gold glimmer file in animation shop. Open a new canvas large enough for the graphic with your name under it. Remember to save often!!!! Click the snow elf canvas and go to edit/copy. Click your new canvas and click edit/past as new layer. Using the mover tool, move the elf close to the top of the canvas so that you have room at the bottom for your nick. Layers/duplicate. Repeat this 2 more times until you have 4 elf layers. Rename them frames 1, 4, 7, and 10 from bottom to top (trust me lol). Click on layer 4 and go to image/rotate/free rotate, enter 10 and check left. Click ok. Now click on frame 10 and go to image rotate free rotate and click right then ok. Now hide all layers except frame 1.

Click your selection tool set on freehand selection. Settings should be: selection type- freehand, mode- replace, feather-0, anti-alias- checked. Now on this layer carefully trace all the fir trim on the elf. You’ll have to hold down your shift key when selecting past the first piece of trim.

Once all the trim is selected and your happy with it (it doesn’t have to be super precise as long as it’s only inside the trim) go to selections/save to alpha channel and name it 1. Selections/select none. Now do the same thing on frame 4 and 10, saving them to alpha channel as 2 and 3.

Now we will fill in those other frame numbers ;o). Click on frame one and duplicate layer twice. Rename your copies frame 2 and frame 3. Click on frame 4 and duplicate the layer twice. Rename the copies frame 5 and 6. See the pattern?? Lol Do the same with frames 7 and 10. Now you should have frames 1 through 12 from bottom to top. There really is a method to my madness. We don’t want that poor elf rocking too fast but we want the glitter to really glitter ;o)

Now hide all layers except frame 1 and make sure that layer is highlighted. Remember our glitter in animation shop? Well we need it here now lol so go to animation shop and click on frame 1 of the glitter. Right click it and choose export to PSP. Do the same with the other frames till you have 3 frames of glitter in PSP. Now set your foreground to pattern and look for that first frame of glitter.

Back to our elf canvas. Selections/load from alpha channel and choose 1. Viola there are your marching ants *grin* Fill the selection with your glitter. Do not deselect! Change your foreground to the second glitter frame. Now back the to elf. Open the next layer up (selections should still be there) and fill with the glitter. Again change your pattern fill to the third glitter frame and fill frame 3 of your elf with this one. Still do not deselect! Open frame 7 of the elf, change your pattern to the first glitter frame and fill frame 7 of the elf with this glitter. Activate frame 8 of the elf, change your pattern to the second glitter frame and fill the elf selections. Activate frame 9, change your pattern to the third glitter frame and fill the elf selections. Deselect. Are you remembering to save??

Hide any layers that are showing and open frame 4. Selections/ load from alpha channel and choose 2. Now change the fill back to the first glitter and flood fill the elf selections. Do not deselect! Activate frame 5 on the elf, change your fill to the second glitter frame and flood fill the elf selections. Activate frame 6, change your pattern to the third glitter frame and flood fill the elf selections. Deselect.

Hide any layers that are showing and open frame 10. Selections/ load from alpha channel and choose 3. Now change the fill back to the first glitter and flood fill the elf selections. Do not deselect! Activate frame 11 on the elf, change your fill to the second glitter frame and flood fill the elf selections. Activate frame 12, change your pattern to the third glitter frame and flood fill the elf selections. Deselect.

Whew! The worst part is over I promise lol. Grab a drink… a cookie…have a smoke if you need one and get ready to add the text.

OK make sure the top layer of your elf is active and go to layer/new raster layer. Name this layer text. Make your background white (#FFFFFF) and your foreground null. Click your text tool. Now the font is up to you but a fat one looks best I think and it looks best if you use all caps or all lower case. Also the size depends on the length of your nick. I used Mrs. Olsen size 60 -bold. OK type out your nick and move it to just under the nest so it looks like the elf is rocking on top of it. Selections/select all, selections/float. Then go to effects/3D effects/cutout and use the settings below. Color is #C0C0FF.

Deselect and add the following drop shadow.

Now you can add some holly which I’ve included in the zip. To do this, use your lasso selection tool and draw a circle around the piece of holly you want to use, go to edit/copy. Then back to the elf canvas and go to edit/paste as new selection. Add the same drop shadow then deselect.

Now duplicate this layer 11 times so you have a total of 12 text layers.

Go and add the same drop shadow as above to all the elf frames.

Now lets put this all together. Hide all the elf frames except frame 1 and hide all the text layers except the bottom one. Make sure your frame 1 layer is the active layer and go to layers/merge visible. Hide this layer and unhide frame 2 and the next text layer up. Again make sure the elf layer is the one that’s active. Merge visible and hide it. Continue doing this till all your elf frames and text frames are merged and you have 12 merged layers showing on your palette. Unhide all the layers and save in PSP 7 format. If your working in PSP 8 this is how you need to do it. When your save screen is up…name your image but don’t hit enter. Click options and make sure PSP 7 compatible file (or earlier if needed) is checked. (see below)

Once it’s saved open animation shop and open your file. Go to edit/select all. Then go to animation/frame properties and change the number to 15 and click ok. View/animation and watch your little elf rock :D Crop, save and you’re done!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions just email me :o).

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