Classique

Classique

This tutorial was written by me on September 1st, 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. It was written for PSP 9.

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 stunning kit by the amazing Crazy Carita called Rose Tea with Rita.  It's a Barbara Jensen exclusive, you can purchase it HERE at Barbara's store along with the rest of Carita's gorgeous kits.  This kit will be released September the 4th, 2012.  Tube is a Barbara Jensen and you can purchase it at her store as well.  Mask I have provided for you HERE.  I got it in one of my groups a long time ago.  If this is your mask please let me know so I can give you credit for it here.  Animation is by Missy at Divine Intentionz, you can download a whole pack of them HERE on her blog.  Thank you Missy for your amazing talents.  This particular animation is the circlesparks.  Plugins are Alien Skin Eye Candy 5/Impact, Eye Candy 4000, Xero, and Toadies.  Font is 2 Baby Girl DNA and can be downloaded HERE.

Okay, let's get started, ready?

Begin by starting a new 700 x 700 white image.  We'll resize in the end.  Then copy and paste el22 into your new image.  Resize it 50%, move it to the left side of your canvas and then duplicate and mirror it.  Duplicate it one more time and then place this one to the bottom and middle of the other two.

Next, copy and paste pp5 above your background layer, resize it 50%.  Place the paper underneath the right frame so the decoration on your paper shows well, you may need to use your Raster Deform tool for precise sizing.  Use your eraser brush to erase areas of the paper outside your frame, then duplicate and mirror it...duplicate again and put it inside the bottom frame, give each frame a slight drop shadow....you want it to look something like this.

 Now copy and paste your tube above the paper layers of the two top frames.  Fit her face into one of the frames, erase the edges of the tube outside the frame and then duplicate and mirror your tube.  Set the blend mode for each to Soft Light and reduce the Opacity to 50%.  To darken the images inside your frames draw a black preset circle beneath each of them and then set your paper blend modes to Hard Light....magical eh?

Select your frames in your layer palette and go to Effects/Plugins/Eye Candy 4000/Corona and use these settings:

Then for each of the black preset circles you've drawn go to Effects/Plugins/Todies/Blast 'em and use these settings:

Then go back to Effects/Plugins/Toadies/Blur 'em and use these settings:

At this point copy and paste your tube into your working canvas on the very top.  Go to Adjust/Automatic Saturation Enhancement and use these settings:

Repeat this step again...

Now go to Effects/Plugins/Xero/Seasons and use these settings:

Now go to Effects/Plugins/Xero/Radiance and use these settings:

Now duplicate your tube and on the original tube repeat the blast 'em and blur 'em plugins.  On your duplicated tube go to Effects/Plugins/Alien Skin Eye Candy 5/Impact/Perspective Shadow and use these settings:

This plugin may require a little practice.  There are just a couple of important things to remember when shadowing is to attempt to make your shadows appear natural and to watch closely all the areas of whatever you're shadowing.  You can view all the areas by moving the little red box around at the top of the window of this plugin...

(You can tweak your shadows by moving the nodes around in the preview window. To move one node at a time hold down your CTRL key. You can move the whole shadow by holding down your right mouse button and clicking in the middle of the shadow.  It's very important to think about how a shadow would be cast realistically and how dark or how light it should be. This plugin is one of my favorites and one I use with nearly every single one of my tags.)

Sometimes you can add a normal drop shadow to your element as well, depending on what you're wanting to accomplish.

Now we're gonna add the rest of the elements but we're gonna colorize a little.  Copy and paste the bow, el13 above on of your frames...you can use my image as a reference for size and placement...remember you can always use your Raster Deform tool for precise sizing.  Once you have it placed use your eraser tool and erase the heart.  Then go to Adjust/Hue and Saturation/Colorize and use these settings:

Duplicate and mirror it and place it over the other frame.  Don't forget your drop shadows.

To put the key into the image so the bow looks like it's wrapped around it, simply paste the key over the bow, resize it to fit and once you have it where you want it duplicate it and drag it beneath your bow then simply erase areas of the key where you want the bow to wrap.

Copy and paste the rest of your elements, resize and colorize to match...add your drop shadows.  To make my butterflies appear more 3D, I added a Perspective Shadow to them.

Now, add a new Raster layer above your background layer, flood fill with black and apply your mask.  Flip it, duplicate it and mirror it.

Now for your name.  There are several steps.  Type your name, get it the size you want it then go to Effect/Plugins/Alien Skin Eye Candy 5/Chrome and use these settings:

Basic Tab

Bevel Profile

Apply this plugin and then go to Effects/Plugins/Eye Candy 4000/Corona and use the same settings you used before.  Give it a slight drop shadow.

Add your copyright taking care that it is legal and legible.  For a neat and professional-looking copyright I use pixel, ceriph or copy fonts.  You can google and find hundreds of these fonts.  Most work best with your antialias set to off at size 6.  Note:  For crisp edges with your fonts for your name, wordart, etc, set your antialias to Sharp.

Now we'll prepare to animate...

In your layer palette hide the layers from the two top frame layers and above and then merge visible.  Then unhide all the hidden layers except your name if you want to make more tags for others and hide the layers you just merged, then again merge the visible layers.  You should now have a total of three layers...the two merged layers and your name.

Hide your name and the top merged layers, exposing the bottom merged layers.  Then hold down CTRL + C to copy.  Open Animation Shop and then in Animation Shop hit CTRL + v to paste a new animation.  Open your animation in Animation Shop.  You will notice it has 15 layers, remember this number cause you will need to duplicate what you pasted in Animation Shop this many times.  First we're going to colorize the animation to match our palette.  On the animation go to Edit/Select All to select all the frames of the animation.  Then go to Animation/Replace Color and use these settings:

The new color is the lightest yellowish-tan color in the frame you pasted in Animation Shop from PSP and then drag the little node down towards the white to lighten the color in the window that pops up when you click on the color of the new color:

You can replace any color of any animation this way.

Now, back to the frame you pasted from PSP.  Click on the top of that window and go down to Duplicate Selected, repeat this until you have 15 frames.  Now go up to Edit, Select All and then click on your newly made animation and go to copy...hit CTRL + v to make a copy of it just in case you need it.  Do the same thing on your colorized animation, but make several copies of it...you will most likely need several copies...it's always good to have too many of these than not enough.

Now comes the part where you will realize why you will most likely need plenty of copies.  On one of your animations you need to go to Animation/Mirror and mirror your animation...make you several copies of this mirrored animation as well.  We're doing this to balance the animation in our final image.  Now be sure that you have all the frames selected in one of your colored animations and your animation you made with the posted frame from PSP and make sure the slide bar at the bottom is all the way to the left...very important.

Using my image as a reference drag the colored animation into the area where the frames fit over the faces, centering it in the middle of the circle as well as you can.  Check you animation by going to View/Animation.  If you're satisfied, drag the mirrored animation into the other circle centering it as well.  Again check your animation.  If you're happy we'll proceed.  If your animation isn't where you want it simply undo the drag by going to Edit/Undo Drag...this is where the extra copies come in handy.

Now, go back to PSP.  Hide the bottom merged layers and unhide the top merged layers and your name.  Hold down CTRL + SHIFT + C to copy merged and back to Animation Shop...CTRL + v to paste this new animation.

Just as you did before duplicate this frame until you have 15 frames.  Select all of the frames, be sure the slider bar is all the way to the left...the same with the animation which you dragged the two colored animations into.  It will again be a good idea to make you a couple copies of this new animation.  Carefully drag the newest animation into what you've been working with, fitting your frames where they should be...DO NOT let go of your work until everything is in place.  If you mess up simply undo the drag and start again.

Resize to fit your need or preferences, save as a .gif and you're done.  Do not change any of the optimization settings....leave on default.

Thank you for trying my tutorial.  I hope you had fun with it and learned something as well.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions you have about any of my tutorials or certainly with any issues over broken links, etc...it would be appreciated.  I'd love to see your results as well.

Blessings,

Trese