JWG PSP7 Tutorials:
Quill Signatures by PeDrO
There are a couple of different ways to produce quill signatures, This is my method using PSP7 and Animation Shop.
If you don't have one already, please go to our gallery first to choose a writing implement. Dont download the thumbnail pic, but click on the pen/quill, you want to use, and then right click and save the full size graphic. (It will open in a new window. Just minimise or close it to get back here).
Open both PSP and Ani Shop: Keep Ani Shop minimised in the task bar for the moment. In PSP, Open a new transparent image 200 x 200. Select the text tool, and click in the image to open the text dialogue box.
Select your font, size, colour, etc and produce the required name, then click OK. You now have your name as a floating selection: At this point you can apply any effects to the text that you want to appear in the finished sig: eg: bevels, plugins....... WARNING: Do not use Drop Shadow on a transparent bg because it will not optimise well with these animated sigs. Drop Shadow can only be used on an opaque bg.
Copy the sig and go into AniShop, (Click Ani Shop in the task bar). Right click in the workspace and paste as a new animation, (the image will come cropped to the text).
In Ani Shop, go to File: Open and open the file with the writing implement as it may be on a transparent bg. If the pen is on a white or coloured bg, go to Animation....Animation Properties....Canvas Colour: Make sure transparent is checked, then select Animation again from the Main Menu and Replace Colour: Select the bg as the original colour and transparent as the new colour then click OK.
If the writing implement is a quill and inkpot, duplicate the animation (Shift+D)
Select the eraser and erase the quill in one and the pot in the other so that they are available separately.
Create a new animation, transparent bg, larger than the name and quill to work in. (Approx 300x200 is usually sufficient). This will be cropped at the end.
Now go back to your name, and make that the active image (left click on the image or title bar) and right click and copy. Return to your new animation, click on that, and then paste your name that you just copied, into selected frame (Ctrl+E) It will appear in the selected frame with a wait symbol and you can move it about by moving your mouse. When it is where you want it, left click to drop the image...
If anything else is to appear in all the frames (eg. an inkpot); copy and paste this in now as you did for the name.. You now have 1 frame with the name ( and inkpot if used ), Go to Frame: Duplicate and left click to duplicate 33 frames.
Tip: you don't have to click 33 times to do this!! The number of frames will duplicate as you click. Keep an eye on the bottom left corner of your screen, and you will see the number of frames increasing. Just stop clicking when you get to the number you want. If you don't need to use all of the frames, any extra ones can be deleted at the end.
Now go to your quill/pen or whatever you are using to "write" yourname and copy it, (Ctrl+C). Go to frame 33 of the animation and left click in it to select that frame, then Ctrl+E to paste the quill into the selected frame, position it and left click to drop.
Now you will start to erase the name in the reverse direction of writing it. (In the example I have copied the quill, taken it into PSP, and rotated it to a more suitable angle, then copied and pasted as another animation. This quill is the one used to do the writing.) Go to Frame 32 select it, and Ctrl+E to put the quill in (in this case the rotated one): Place it at the end of the name.
From now on the quill will remain on the clipboard, and you will simply select a frame and use Ctrl+E to put the quill into it. Go to Frame 31: select the eraser, and start erasing from the end of the last letter: Only erase about 1/3 of the letter at a time and place the quill on the point you have erased to. Go to Frame 30 and erase to the point you had reached, then erase a further 1/3 of the letter and paste a quill in. Continue until the letter has been erased and then go to the finishing point of the next letter.
3 or 4 quills are normally required to write each letter. Work your way towards the start of the name. When the name has been completely erased, I often use another 3 frames to return the quill to the starting point in the pot. Any unused frames can now be deleted, (select the frame and hit the delete key).
View the animation to make sure it is working correctly:
Select the crop tool and crop the bg to the signature:
Adjust the speed of the animation by selecting Frame 1 and Ctrl+A, then go to the Animation Menu again, and this time click on Frame Properties and put a new delay time in the dialog box: The default time is 10, but you will need to change this to something in the region of 15-20 (the higher the number the slower the speed). Try a few different numbers until you are happy with the speed your quill appears to be "writing".
When the quill is writing at the speed you want, select the final frame and set the frame delay for this frame to 200 so that the whole sig can be seen properly, before it returns to the start.
Next: Go to File: Optimization Wizard:
Select Animated gif and Create new animation:
Click Next: Select Customize: For the colours use Octree and Error Diffusion: For the Partial Transparency set the pixel transparency to 70: and blend partially transparent pixels with white or pale grey, then click OK.
Finish the Wizard: The last page gives you the optimised file size and approx download times: The smaller the file size the better, to keep download times short. Although quill sigs do tend to be somewhat larger than other sigs, you dont want the size to run away with you!!
Now your finished sig should look something like this one:
tutorial ©PeDrO exclusively for jewelswebgraphics.com
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