I LOVE CHRISTMAS TUTORIAL

A tutorial which is very suitable for Christmas letters, but can of
course be used well for any tube or kind of letter.


    PREPARING
  1. Open your tube
  2. Select a light color for your foreground color (materialbox)
  3. Select a darker color for your background color
  4. Duplicate your tube (shift-D)
  5. Edit � Copy
  6. Close the original tube
  7. Minimize your copy of the tube

    BACKGROUND
  8. File �New Image: 1280 x 900, transparent
  9. Floodfill with your foreground color
  10. Effects � L & K Landsiteofwonders - Paris:



    Control 0: 30, Control 1: 118, Control 2: 27, Control 3: 0,
    Control 4: 103, Control 5: 97, Control 6: 70, Control 7: 143
  11. Effects � Penta.com: Dot and cross: these settings


    Amount: 68. Cross distance: 18 and Cross width: 2
  12. In your toolbox choose your selection tool: Selection



  13. In your presets box choose: Ellipse as Selection Type,
    Mode: replace, Feather: 0 and Anti Alias not checked
  14. If your rulers aren�t showing: View � rulers
  15. Now we are going to draw the borders: Startingpoint:
    0 horizontal and 0 vertical (0-0). Drag to: horizontal: 1280 and
    Vertical 220 (1280-200). Then we start again at the startingpoint:
    0-0 and push the Shift button during this process to the endpoint:
    Horizontal: 200 � vertical: 900 (200-900)
  16. Layers � New raster layer
  17. In your foregroundbox put your color to gradient:



  18. In your material properties box choose these settings:



    Foreground-background, Angle: 45, Repeats: 3. Lineair style
  19. Flood fill with your gradient with your flood fill tool (toolbar)
  20. Selections � Select none
  21. Effects � Texture � texturizer: these settings:




    Texture: Sandstone, Scaling: 100, Relief: 8, Light Direction: Top
  22. Effects � Penta � Dot and cross: same settings
  23. Effects � 3d effects � Inner bevel: these settings:



    Bevel: 2, Width: 4, Smoothness: 0. Depth: 4, Ambience: 0.
    Shininess: 0. Angle: 315, Intensity: 50, Elevation: 30

  24. Effects � 3d effects � Dropshadow: Vertical & Horizon-
    tal: 3, Opacity: 40, Blur: 10 and Color: black
  25. Effects � 3d effects � Dropshadow: Vertical & Horizon-
    tal: -3, Opacity: 40, Blur: 10 and Color: black
  26. Edit � Paste � Paste as new layer
  27. With your mover tool move your tube to the top left corner
  28. Effects � 3d effects � Dropshadow: Vertical & Horizon-
    tal: 3, Opacity: 40, Blur: 10 and Color: black
  29. Layers � New raster layer
  30. Add your watermark
  31. Layers � Merge � Merge All (Flatten)

    If you like the letter like this and don�t want your letter to
    Be animated: File � Export � JPEG Optimizer: compression
    of 22.
    And contine with point: 83. For the animated part continue
    here:

    ADDING TEXT
  32. In your toolbox activate your text tool and choose a nice
    Font, create as vector, size: 72, stroke width: 1,0
  33. Choose contrasting colors in your material box, perhaps a
    Gradient for background. Use your creativity
  34. Write your text
  35. Layers � Convert to raster layer
  36. Selections � Select all
  37. Selections � Float
  38. Selections � Defloat
  39. Effects � 3d effects � Dropshadow: Vertical & Horizontal: 3,
    Opacity: 40, Blur: 10 and Color: black
  40. Layers � Duplicate
  41. Layers � Duplicate
  42. Activate your Raster 1 layer
  43. Effects � Xero � Sparkles: with these settings



    Choose your own colors: Sparkle style: Stars_1, Distribution:
    Uniform, Density: 50, Maximum: 1000, Vary brightness: 80.
    Vary colour: 36, Use highlight, Antialias and make tileable:
    Checked. You don�t see the sparkles unless you lock the
    visibility of the other layers.
  44. Activate your Copy of raster 1 layer
  45. Effects � Xero � Sparkles: with the same settings, only
    Change �Density� to 75.
  46. Activate your Copy (2) of raster 1 layer
  47. Effects � Xero � Sparkles: with the same settings, only
    Change �Density� to 100.

  48. Selections � Select none
  49. Activate your background layer
  50. OPTIONAL: only when you want a part of the
    background or tube animated:
    With your freehand selection tool: 'point to point' you can
    select a part of the background you would like to see
    animated.

  51. Layers � Duplicate
  52. Layers � Duplicate
  53. Activate your background layer

    IF YOU DON�T WANT A PART OF THE BACKGROUND
    OR TUBE ANIMATED YOU NEED TO CONTINUE HERE
    IF NOT YOU CAN CONTINUE AT POINT 60:
  54. Effects � Xero � Sparkles: with these settings
    Choose your own colors: Sparkle style: Stars_1, Distribution:
    Uniform, Density: 50, Maximum: 1000, Vary brightness: 80.
    Vary colour: 36, Use highlight, Antialias and make tileable:
    checked.
    You don�t see the sparkles unless you lock the visibility of
    the other layers.

  55. Activate your Copy of background layer
  56. Effects � Xero � Sparkles: with the same settings, only
    change �Density� to 75.
  57. Activate your Copy (2) of background layer
  58. Effects � Xero � Sparkles: with the same settings, only
    change �Density� to 100.
  59. Selections � Select none
    CONTINUE HERE WHEN YOU SKIPPED THE BACKGROUND /
    TUBE ANIMATION PART:
  60. Activate your background layer
  61. Lock the visibility of the copies of the background and the
    Copy of Raster 1 layer and Copy (2) of raster 1 layer
  62. Layers � Merge � Merge visible
  63. Lock the visibility of this layer
  64. Unlock the visibility of your Copy of background and your
    Copy of Raster 1 layer
  65. Activate the copy of the background
  66. Layers � Merge � Merge visible
  67. Lock the visibility of this layer
  68. Unlock the visibility of the Copy (2) of background and the
    Copy (2) of Raster 1
  69. Activate your Copy (2) of background
  70. Layers � Merge � Merge Visible
  71. Unlock the visibility of all three layers
  72. File � Save as a PSP 7 compatible file

    NEEDED:
  73. Open your animation shop
  74. File � Animation wizard
  75. Same size as the first image frame checked, next
  76. Transparent checked, next
  77. Upper left corner of the frame, With the canvas
    color: checked, next
  78. Yes, repeat the animation indefinitely checked, how
    long: 10 seconds, next
  79. Add your just saved three layered file, next
  80. Finish
  81. View � Animation
  82. File � Save as: save as a gif image. You can go for
    next several times and then Finish.

    FINISHING
  83. Open you Letter Creator
  84. In your Body open your background
  85. Do NOT Tile in your body
  86. In your Footer mention your credits
  87. Finish


Another example:


And the last example:


I hope you enjoyed making this letter. I would love to see the results.
You can reach me at:
[email protected]

Please put a link to my group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IMtutorialsbyJetty
Or to my website if you have gotten this tutorial through
creatorscommunity:
http://www.geocities.com/ladyluna37/index.htm

My tutorials can be found in my groupfiles.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IMtutorialsbyJetty
or after a while at the earlier mentioned homepage.

With thanks to the brilliant women who have given me
lessons in PSP and Incredimail.
Many things I learnt have been used by me in creating.
And special thanks my testers for their testing.

Any resemblance with other tutorials is purely coincidental.

You are free to share my tutorials. If you want to use them for lessons
or a groupshare please ask me and please acknowledge it as my
tutorial.

Hugs

Jetty
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

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