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 beginners to learn how to colorize tubes and animate.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

To do this tutorial you will also need Paint Shop Pro.  I used Paint Shop Pro 9, but the steps used may also be done in Version 8 or 7.  You may download a free trial at Jasc.

You will need to download the Christmas light tube.  This also includes the Hood's spruce tube I used.  The spruce tube must be saved into your PSP tube folder.  The other one can be saved in any folder you want.

Remember to save as a psp file often!

1.  In Paint Shop Pro, Open up the Christmas light tube.  On your keyboard press SHIFT+ D to duplicate the image.  Close out the original image.

2.  In top menu, click on Image > Canvas Size.  Change width = 500, height = 150

3.  Right-click on the layer in the Layer Palette and choose Duplicate.

4.  Duplicate the layer again, until you have the same number of layers as letters in your name.  Pam has 3 letters, so I made 3 layers of the lights.

5.  Choose the lasso tool (menu on selection tool) and set to Freehand.  Carefully lasso the bulb portion.  See pic below.

6.  We are going to change the colors of the bulbs.  In top menu, click Adjust > Hue and Saturation > Colorize

7.  In the colorize box, change the hue and saturation numbers to get the color that you want.  For the blue, I chose Hue = 160, Saturation = 175

8.  In the Layer Palette, click on the next layer.  Then change the color of that bulb by clicking on Adjust > Hue and Saturation > Colorize.  And change the numbers. 

9.  Change the colors of all the bulbs that you want to change by repeating STEP 8 for each bulb layer.

10.  In top menu, click Selections > Select None

11.  With the mover tool, move the lights into position as a line (see pic below.  Yours will not have a name on it yet)

12.  Right-click on the top layer in the layer palette.

and choose Merge > Merge visible

13.  Choose the font tool.  Set the font and color and size to your choice.  Here are my settings:

14.  Type one letter at a time and place the letter in position.  Apply a drop shadow if you like.  then type the next letter, etc.

15.  Now let's decorate our graphic with some Christmas tubes.  Open up the tube that you want to use.  You may have to resize the tube.  Image > Resize.  Set to pixels and the height = 84.  (That's because the bulb height is 84).

16.  Then left-click and HOLD on the layer of that Christmas tube and drag that layer over to your bulb image.  Release the mouse button.  This adds that tube as a new layer to your bulb image!  With the mover tool, move the  tube into position.

17.  Right-click on the top layer and choose New Raster Layer.

18.  Load the spruce tube into your picture tube tool.    Here are my settings:

19.  Left click and place the spruce tubes in a line.

20.  In the Layer Palette, drag that layer down to the bottom.

21.  Click on the top layer and add a new raster layer.  Change the Spruce tube to Scale = 15

22.  Add some spruce to the top to cover up some of the light edge.

23.  HIDE the two spruce layers (top and bottom) by clicking on their eyes to make a red X.

24.  Right-click on one of the lights layers and choose Merge > Merge Visible.

25.  Right-click on the merged layer and choose Duplicate.

26. Duplicate the light layer as many times as necessary to match the number of letters in your name.  Pam has 3 letters, so I made 3 light layers.

27.  Grab the lasso tool set to freehand, and lasso the last light bulb

28.  In top menu, click Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Brightness/Contrast  Set the Brightness = 50, Contrast = 0

29.  Now click on the next light layer below that one.  Lasso that light bulb, and apply the same Brightness/Contrast settings as in STEP 28.

30.  Repeat STEP 29 until all light layers have been lassoed and brightened.

31.  Right-click on the bottom spruce layer and choose Duplicate.  Duplicate this layer to match the number of light layers. (I have 3 light layers, so I have 3 bottom spruce layers)

32.  Repeat STEP 31, so that  I have the same number of top spruce layers, too.

33.  Drag your layers to arrange them in this order (see pic below)--Top spruce layer (Raster 4 for my pic), light layer (Merged for my pic), and then bottom spruce layer (Raster 3 for my pic.  Do this for each layer set.  Then HIDE all of the layers except the top 3.  Click on one of those layers.

34.  Right-click and choose Merge >  Merge Visible

35.  Now HIDE the top merged layer, and UNHIDE the next 3 layers.  Right-click on one of those unhidden layers and choose Merge > Merge Visible

36.  Now HIDE that newly merged layer (top two) and UNHIDE the next 3 layers.  Right-click on one of the unhidden layers and choose Merge > Merge Visible.

Continue STEP 36 until all layer sets are merged.

37.  UNHIDE all layers. 

38.  Choose the selection tool set to rectangle selection.  In the top tool options bar click on the Merged Opaque button.  This will make a close selection box around your tag, removing the excess space.

29.  In top menu, click Image > Crop to Selection

30.  Now save this as .pspimage  with all layers intact!

31.  Now go back to ANIMATION SHOP

32.  Open up the saved file in ANIMATION SHOP.

33.  In top menu, click Edit > Select All

34.  Right-click on one of the Frames and choose Frame Properties.

35.  Change the Display time to 30.  (The smaller the number, the faster the animation)

36.   Now save your animation!  File > Save As.
 

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