Denizens of the Deep PTU Animated

“There's nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater,you realize that you've been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent.” 

Dave Barry

This tutorial was written by me on March 24th, 2013. 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 the beautiful art of Danny Drake and this amazing kit by Ladyhawwk Designs called My Pirates Treasure, both you can purchse at Creative Design Outlet HERE. Please support the arts and do not use Danny's tubes without a license and certainly do not share his tubes or this kit. Mask is mine which you can download right here on this blog, it's Trese Mask0097.  The ani is Lovey's which you can find on her site HERE, along with a ton of other amazing anis.  Thank you Lovey for your generosity and talents. You can download it HERE for ease.  I put directions in the file for resizing for our tag.  Plugins are Alien Skin Eye Candy 5/Impact, Eye Candy 4000 and Xero.   A mesh element I supplied here along with the brush....SUPPLIES. Font is Ahoy Driftwood found HERE.

Let's do this...

But first let's get your brush into PSP to use....it's simple...open the brush I supplied into PSP and then go to File/Export/Custom Brush and name your brush so you can find it easily.

Now start a new 700 x 700 white image, we'll resize later.  Copy and paste LHD PL El 1, the wheel into your new image.  Resize it 75% and then go to Adjust/Hue and Saturation/Colorize and use these settings:

Now duplicate it three more times, resize each one smaller and organize them around your canvas...using my image as a reference.  You can use your Raster Deform tool for precise sizing, but be sure you maintain the shape of the element.

At this point, in your layer pallet hide your background layer and merge visible layers together....your work should appear something like this so far...drop shadows added...

For drop shadows go to Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow and use these settings:

Now copy and paste paper 6 below your work so far, resize 75%.  Go to Adjust/Hue and Saturation/Colorize and use these settings:

Apply your mask Trese Mask0097.  

Now copy and paste the close up of the tube below your wagon wheel frame, then using your eraser tool, very carefully erase any of the tube that is outside the wheels.  This will take you a minute...when you're done, we'll proceed.

Done?  Okay, now begin to copy and paste elements from the kit above the wagon wheel frame we created...you can use my image as a reference.  For the grassy elements I used a perspective shadow to give them depth....go to Effects/Alien Skin Eye Candy 5/Impact/Perspective Shadow and experiment...

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.)

For the mermaid on the top simply drag your shadow below her to make her appear to float...fun plugin eh?

Don't forget your drop shadows for your other elements.

Now back to the layer with the close up of Danny's tube, let's tweak her a bit...go to Effects/Plugins/Xero/Radiance and use these settings:

Now back to Effects/Plugins/Xero/Porcelain and use these settings:

Once again Effects/Plugins/Xero/Mistifier and use these settings:

Now add a new layer on top of the floating mermeaid and apply your brush on top of her so it appears she is swirling in the water...you can tweak the brush with your Raster Deform Tool.

Now go to your Preset Tool and put it on Ellipse and make the Mode a Circle.  Begin to make different size circles in white...then go to Effects/Plugins/Eye Candy 4000/Glass and use these settings:

Make your Blend Mode to Hard Light on each layer of the circles.

Now add your name and your copyright and we will animate and finish up.  Be sure your copyright is legal and legible.

Next open Animation Shop (AS) by going to File/Jasc Software Products/Launch Animation Shop and then go back to PSP and hold down CTRL + SHIFT and C to copy merged and go back to AS and hit CTRL + v to paste new animation.  Resize to 650 x 650.  Open Lovey's animation and resize it as directed in the file so that the width is 325.  Note that the animation has 15 frames so we need to give our animation 15 frames...click on top of your animation and go to Duplicate Selected until you get to 15 frames.  If you duplicate too many frames, just simply click on the frame and hit delete.  

Now, very important...be sure you are at he beginning of each animation by sliding the bar and the bottom all the way to the left and be sure all frames are selected by going to Edit/Select All or CTRL + A.  Carefully drag Lovey's Animation over the top of your animation...use my image as a reference for placement.  Check your animation...View/Animation...if you're happy with it resize to fit your preferences and save as a .gif and you're done.

Thank you for trying my tutorial.  I hope you enjoyed it and maybe even learned something to hone your PSP skills.  Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns about any of my tutorials....most of all have fun..

Blessings,

Trese