Triumphant Lover

Death, the final, triumphant lover. 

Bela Lugosi

This tutorial was written by me on May 15th, 2012. Any resemblance to any other tutorial or tag is unintentional and is pure coincidence. Please do not claim my work as your own and do not post to any other website, blog or forum without permission from me. It is written with the assumption that you have a working knowledge of PSP and its components. I wrote it for PSP 9, but it should be compatible with most versions.

I recommend that you read through this or any tutorial you are attempting before starting it so you will know what to expect and how to get organized. 

As with any of my tutorials when a plugin is required, change only the settings I recommend and leave the others on the default settings.

What you will need to accomplish this tutorial is this beautiful scrap by Hungry Hill and the art of Anna Marine.  Both come as a bundle pack from Creative Design Outlet HERE.  There are plenty of elements in this wonderful kit and three beautiful tubes by Anna Marine to inspire your mojo.  Plugins Alien Skin Xenofex 2, dsb flux, Alien Skin Eye Candy 5/Impact, and Eye Candy 4000.  Mask by me which you can find right here on this blog...Trese Mask0042.  Font is XmasTerpiece Swash you can download HERE.

Let's get started...

Begin by opening all of your elements into PSP.  You can use my image as a reference for which elements I used.  Also open your tube.  Start a new white 700 x 700 image.  We will resize later.

Copy and paste the frame3 into your new image and resize by 70%.  Duplicate this layer and resize by 80%.  With your Move tool move this frame to fit over the bottom frame layer as I have done above.  Again use my image as a reference for placement.  Now go back to the smaller top frame layer in your layer palette and then go to Effects/Plugins/Alien Skin Eye Candy 5/Impact/Perspective Shadow and use the following settings:

For the larger frame use only a slight drop shadow. 

Next, beneath the smaller frame layer copy and paste your paper of choice, I used paper 5.  Resize by 50% and with your eraser tool erase the areas of the paper outside the frame area.  Next beneath the larger frame layer copy and paste your next paper, I used paper 1.  Resize this paper by 75% and again with your eraser tool erase the areas of the paper outside the frame.  This creates a nice tiered frame, don't ya think?

Next copy and paste your tube above the tan colored paper, duplicate it and drag it to the top.  Delete any areas of the tube sticking out of the frame area to place her inside the frame.  Give her the same Perspective Shadow as you just did the frame above...you can drag the nodes around to manipulate the shadow and to move one node at a time hold down your CTRL key.

Now, copy and paste the rest of your elements.  Use my image as a reference for size and placement.  You can always use your Raster Deform tool for precise sizing.  Using this tool prevents distortion and pixelation of whatever you're resizing depending how large or small you go.  Give each a slight drop shadow except the skulls, the twigs and the candleobra...on those give the same Perspective Shadow to make them pop off the page.

Next, above your background layer add a new Raster Layer and flood fill with a deep red from one of the roses.  Resize by 90% and apply your mask...Trese Mask0042.

Now for the heart.  Duplicate the heart three times.  Once you have done this DO NOT move any of these three layers whatsoever or your animation will be off.  Hide the two you just duplicated and select the original heart in your layer palette.  Now go to Effects/Plugins/dsb flux/bright noise and use these settings:

Now hide the original heart layer, unhide the middle heart layer and be sure it's selected in your layer palette.  Go back to Effects/Plugins/dsb flux/bright noise and increase the Intensity by 10.  Do the same for the last remaining layer.  Hide the last layer and unhide the original heart layer...be sure it's selected in your layer palette and then go to Effects/Plugins/Alien Skin Xenofex 2/Constellation and use these settings:

Hide the original heart layer, unhide the middle heart layer...being sure it's selected on your layer palette and go back to Effects/Plugins/Alien Skin Xenofex 2/Constellation and use the same settings only hit the Random Seed button once.  Do the same for the last heart layer.

We will animate later...

Now for your name.  Set your antialias to sharp. Type your name and if you have an "i" in it, it's cute to add this same heart and resize it for the dot as I have done for Alison's name.  Once you have your name done go to Effects/Plugins/Eye Candy 4000/Chrome and use these settings:

BASIC TAB

LIGHTING TAB

Give your name a slight drop shadow and then add your copyright taking care that it is legal and legible.  For a professional and neat looking copyright I use pixel or copy fonts.  You can google and find them all over the web.  These fonts are best used at size 6 with your antialias set to off.

Now for the animation.  Of course, open Animation Shop and go back to PSP.  Be sure the two top heart layers are hidden.  Hold down SHIFT+CTRL and hit C to copy merged.  Go to Animation Shop and hold down CTRL and hit v to copy new animation.  Back to PSP and hide the original heart layer, unhide the middle heart layer.  Hold down SHIFT + CTRL and hit C to copy merged.  Go back to Animation Shop and this time hold down SHIFT + CTRL and hit L to paste after current frame.  Go back to PSP and repeat the the process for the last heart layer.  Resize your animation to fit your needs or preference and check your work.  Go to View/Animation.  If all is well then save as a .gif and you're done.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and hopefully learned something from it to hone your PSP skills.  Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions and please let me know about any issues with broken links, etc.  Happy Creating...

Blessings...

Trese