JWG PSP7 Tutorials:
Gold Sun Tag
An original creation by Jewel
I was inspired to create this tag after doing the mosaic sun frame tutorial from Bunny's Attic. I loved the font used, and started playing around with it in PSP. Thus Jewel's Gold Sun Tag was born..
You will need my zip file containing the fonts and BladePro presets used. The preset will work with Blade Pro and Super Blade Pro.
Unzip this into your environments and textures folder in either BP or SBP. Unzip the fonts into a folder of your choice, and either: Install them into your Windows:Fonts folder, or just open them and minimise them to your task bar. They will then be available for you to use in PSP whilst you are working on this tutorial.
If you need any help installing new fonts, click here.
On with the tutorial......
The Gold Sun
Open a new 400 x400 transparent image. Set both your foreground and background styles boxes to white:
Then click on your preset shapes tool, and choose Ellipse with these settings:
Draw a circle on your image from co-ordinates (100, 100) to (325, 325) (Holding down the shift key whilst drawing, will give you a perfect circle) Click on View:Rulers if this helps. (click on it again to turn them off when you have finished with them!)
If you then click on the box in the middle of your circle, the mover tool appears, and you can move your circle up towards the top and centre of your image.
If you want your vector object in the centre of your canvas, Go to Object: Align: Center in Canvas
Go to Layers: Convert to Raster Layer.
Then Selections: Select All and then Selections :Float You should now have a marquee (marching ants) around your circle.
Now go to Effects:Plug-In Filters:Flaming Pear:Super Blade Pro(or Blade Pro) and apply the ShinyGold Preset. While still selected, apply the following drop shadow:
Repeat, but this time, change the offsets to -1 Then go to Colors: Adjust: Brightness/Contrast....
and use the following settings:
Finally go to Sharpen: Unsharp Mask with these settings:
Deselect: Your circle should now look like this:
Add a New Raster Layer, then go to your Text Tool and find the Sun n Moon font: Lower case k: Size 200 Bold: Stroke and Fill White: Floating and Antialias checked:
Keep selected for the next few steps: Go to Image Resize: (all layers unchecked!)
Resize your sun layer to 90% and position it on your circle.
Apply the same Blade Pro Preset as on your circle. Then the following Drop Shadow:
Colours:Adjust: Brightness/Contrast..... Change the settings to:
Repeat the drop shadow and adjust brightness and contrast steps (same settings): then Sharpen:Unsharp Mask: with the same settings as before:
Now you can deselect.
Your tag should now look like this:
At this point, merge all visible layers, and export to picture tube for future use.
Adding the text
Add a new raster layer, and make sure this is above your merged sun layer. Change your Stroke to Black and your Fill to Null ..
Go to your Draw Tool and use these settings:
Draw a line underneath your Sun Tag, roughly from one side to the other: Then click in the middle of this line about two grid squares down: Once to set the angle from the start of the line: And a second time on the same spot to set the angle from the end of the line: See the following screenshots for help:
You will see that you now have a curved line. (You would click above the line for the curve to go the other way)
As this is a vector line, you can fiddle around with it using the little boxes, if it doesnt seem quite the right shape to you. Otherwise, go to your text tool, and position your mouse as near to the bottom middle box as you can, on your line, until the text A turns at an angle with a curve underneath it:
Click, and your text entry box opens:
Change your Stroke and Fill back to white in the text entry box. I used these settings for my text: Coventry Garden: Bold: Size 72: Floating and Antialias checked: Kerning 200: (The Coventry Garden font is included in my zip file for you). The Kerning is quite important with curved text, as very often the letters start to run into each other and squash up together. I used 200 Kerning for this text, but you may need to adjust this if you are using a different font.
Keep your text selected, and apply the ShinyGold Preset, then the following Drop Shadow:
Then Colors:Adjust: Brightness/Contrast:
and finally, Sharpen: Unsharp Mask:
Go to Selections, Select None. this box will pop up:
Click Yes. You should now have 3 layers: your sun tag, your gold text, and your curved line.
Find the curved line layer and delete it. (In my screenshot it was layer 2. Check first though to make sure you dont delete the wrong layer!). Use your mover tool to position your text at the bottom of your Sun Tag. If it seems a bit too big, go to Image : Resize: and, making sure all layers is unchecked, resize to 90%
Dont forget to use Unsharp Mask on your text after you have resized it. (same settings as previously used).
You can then go to Layers; Merge: Merge Visible.
I usually export my sigtags as a picture tube first, leaving them at full size so that I can adjust the size later to suit.
You can now resize your finished tag by 75%, (or more if necessary), then go to the Gif Optimizer, and save as a transparent gif.
Here is an example of the finished article before resizing
Click here for my tutorial on saving transparent gifs successfully.
I would like to thank my tutorial testers, Chrystal and Saphy, for their helpful suggestions, and proof reading of typos :-)
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