I claim the copyright to this tutorial.  You are free to do whatever you please with what you make, but please do not take my tutorial.  Do not send the tutorial through email.  Only share my link.

This tutorial was created for some friends of mine who wanted to begin learning more about PSP.  It is intended for intermediates to learn how to use preset shapes and to shade.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

To do this tutorial you will also need Paint Shop Pro.  I wrote this with  Paint Shop Pro 9, but the steps may also be done in any version.  You will also need Animation Shop. You may download a free trial at Jasc.

Remember to save as a psp file often!

You will need the eye tube, or use your own.  The tube was NOT created by me

In this tutorial, we are going to change the eye color, and then make it an animation (winking).  Whenever we make some modifications like this, it is best to work with a large graphic, and then resize smaller when we are finished.  Since this is already a large graphic, we will work with the tube as is, and then shrink at the end.  If this were a smaller graphic, we would resize larger (about 120%) and the resize smaller at the end.

1.  Open up the eye tube.  Press SHIFT + D on the keyboard to Duplicate the image.  Close the original.

2.  You will see two layers in the Layer Palette-- the tube and the watermark of the tubist.  Click on the bottom (watermark) layer to highlight and choose that layer.

3.  We are going to flood-fill this layer with a face color.  I chose #f6e6ce .  With the paint can, flood-fill the bottom layer with this color.

4.  Choose the Lasso Tool (located with the Selection Tool drop-down menu).  In the tool bar menu at the top, set the lasso tool to Freehand.  Holding down the left mouse button, carefully draw around the edge of the eye, like in the picture below.  When you release the mouse button, the lasso selection will close to the point you started with.

5.  Now to change the color!  In the top menu, click Adjust > Hue and Saturation > Colorize.  Play with the Hue and Saturation numbers until you get the color you want.  My green color is in the settings below.

Hint:  The Hue setting affects the color range, and the Saturation affects how bright the color will be.

Hue colors:  40 = yellow, 100= green, 160 = blue, 200 = purple, 255 = red

6.  Right-click on the Tube layer to Duplicate.

7.  Click on the eye of the original Tube layer (middle one) to HIDE that layer.  then click on the top layer to highlight it.

8.  With the lasso tool, select the eye by drawing a circle around the eye. 

9.  Right-click on this layer and choose  Promote Selection to Layer.

10.  In the top menu, click Image > Mirror.  The new promoted eye layer should cover the left closed eye.  If it doesn't look right, use the mover tool to move into position.

11.  In the Layer Palette, HIDE the promoted Layer (top layer) by clicking on the eye.  UNhide the copy of tube layer by clicking on the eye.  Then click on the  Copy of Tube Layer to highlight it.

12.  With the lasso tool, draw a circle around the closed eye, like picture below.

13.  Press the Delete key on the keyboard to delete this eye.

14.  UNhide the top two layers.  Hide the bottom two layers.  Click on one of the top two layers to highlight it.

15.  Right- click on the top layer and choose Merge > Merge Visible.

16.  Right-click on this merged layer and choose Rename.  Rename the layer Open eyes

17.  Right-click on the bottom layer and choose Duplicate.

18.  Drag this duplicated layer up so that it is just under the Open eyes layer.  HIDe the bottom two layers.  UNhide the top two layers.  Then click on one of the top two layers to highlight it.

19.  Right-click on the top layer and choose Merge > Merge Visible.

20.  Rifht-click on this merged layer and Rename it to Open.

21.  HIDE the Open layer.  UNhide the bottom two layers.  Right-click on the bottom layer and choose Merge > Merge Visible.

We have just created the two frames we need to make our animation.

22.  In the top menu, click Image > Resize.  Resize this to a width = 300 pixels.  Be sure that Resize All Layers (at bottom) is CHECKED.

Oh!  we forgot to add a border.  Since this will be an animation, we must add that border to each frame in exactly the same position.  This is how:

23.  In the top menu, click on Layers > New Raster Layer.  Call this layer Border.

24.  Flood-fill this new layer with a color or gradient of your choice.

25.  In the top menu, click Selections > Select All.  Selections > Modify > Contract.  Contract by 4.

26.  Press the Delete Key on the keyboard.  And there is our border.  But now we need to add it to the other frame.

27.  Right-click on the border layer and choose Duplicate.

28.  Move the copy down so that it is just above the bottom layer

Oops!  We forgot our tag by watermark.  Let's add that to the frames:

29.  Right-click on the top layer and choose New Raster Layer.  Call this layer Watermark.

30.  Type in your watermark.  Use whatever font, color, size, embellishments (effects) that you want.

31.  Right-click on the watermark layer and choose Duplicate.

32.  Drag the Copy of Watermark Layer to right above the Copy of Border.  Double-check that your layers are in the same order as the pic below.  HIDE the bottom 3 layers. 

33.  Right-Click on one of the top 3 layers and choose Merge > Merge Visible.

34.  HIDE the top Merged layer, and UNhide the bottom 3 layers. 

35.  Right-click on one of the bottom layers and choose Merge > Merge Visible.

36.  UNHIDE both layers, like so.

37.  Now save this somewhere as a PSP image.  When Saving, click the options button and make sure that it is set to save UNCOMPRESSED.

38.  Open up Aniamation Shop.  In PSP, click File > JASC Software > Launch Animation Shop.

39.  In Animation Shop, Open up the saved image from Step #37.

The Two layers should have been opened as 2 frames.  You can slide the scroll arrow to see both frames.

40.  Click on the frame with the open eyes (should be second frame) to select it.

41.  Now right-click on the closed eye frame and choose Frame Properties.  We will set the "speed".  Set the Display to 30.  A bigger number will stay on the frame longer (slow the animation down); a smaller number will stay on the frame shorter (speed up the animation). 

42.  Now we will set the speed of the second frame.  We will set it to a different number to simulate the actual speed of an eye winking.

For winking eyes, you should have a ratio of 3 opened : 1 closed.  If these were blinking eyes, you should have a ration of 6 opened: 1 closed.

43.  Now you can view what you have by right-clicking on a frame and choosing View Animation.

44.  Now save the animation.  Animation Shop will automatically save it as a gif.

Click File > Save As

Here are some screenshots of my settings for the gif optimizer:

I prefer better quality over Size.

Then press the customize button to get to this screen.  Select Optimized Octree

.

Click OK, then Next, Next, Finished.

 Please do not remove this tutorial from my site.  Share my url.