PSP Swingy Tutorial

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PSP 7 & Animation Shop
Swingy Tutorial
By: ~Pink~

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No part of this tutorial may be taken from this site.
You are welcome to post the address to this tutorial for others to try a swingy.
http://www.pinkgrafx.com/PSPtutes/swingyPSP/index.html

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Used in this Tutorial:
Paint Shop Pro 7
Jasc Animation Shop
A small image to swing
You may want to use a tub or find a gif, but it needs a transparent background.
You should do any editing to your small image before starting this tutorial
and have it handy in a PSP file.

I am using this one.

You are welcome to use it also.

You may also look through my Swings-N-Things pages. There are hundreds of mini gifs as well as pre-made swingys to choose from.

Please familiarize yourself with these PSP tools.

Brush. Draw. Move. Deform. Zoom.

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Open PSP 7.
Open a new transparent image 400x400.

Rename Layer 1 to CENTER.

Using the brush tool, and any color BUT what your line or string color will be, make a dot near the top center.

Make a new raster layer. Name it 1.
Make another. Name it 2
And another. 3.
And one more. 4.

Make sure you have layer #1 active!
Using the draw tool, draw a straight line down from your dot.

Enlarge your view. Zoom.
Use the mover tool to center your string.

Now open the small image you want to swing.

Copy, Ctrl C
Paste onto layer 1. Ctrl E
Position it at the end of your line.
Deselect. Ctrl D

Copy layer 1. Ctrl C
Paste as new image. Ctrl V
Save as psp file and set aside. We will be using this 3 more times.
I will call it the "swing image"

~~ SWING STEP ~~

On your layer palette, actvate layer #2. {click on it}

Paste the swing image onto layer 2. Ctrl E
DO NOT DESELECT!

Enlarge your view as big as you can.
Make sure you can see the top of your string and part of your image.

Now select the deformer tool.
Click on and "hold" the node sticking out from the center as indicated by the red arrow in the example below. {that little square is called a "node"}
Pull gently downwards and the image will twist.
You only need to twist it a little bit!

Still on layer 2
Now grab the very middle node and move the image until the tip top of your string is centered, as exactly as you can, on the dot with the string you can see there on layer 1.
This may take several tiny movements. See example below.

Select any tool to get out of the deform function.
Leave the image selected!
Deforming makes the image blurry.
We can fix that a bit.
Select, Effects... Sharpen.
Now you can deselect. Ctrl D

~~ End Swing Step ~~

Copy your string image again. Ctrl C
Paste onto layer 3. Ctrl E
Center it exactly with Layer 1.
Deselect. Ctrl D

Activate layer 4.
Paste the string image onto layer 4. Ctrl E

Repeat everything from ~~ Swing Step ~~ EXCEPT,
push UP on that node sticking out from the center
. You want to twist to swing the other way. See below.

Select the crop tool.
Use the crop tool to pull a box around just your swingy images.
Double click inside the selected area to crop.

Delete layer CENTER

Save this as is as a PSP file. Do NOT merge layers!

Open Animation Shop.
Open the swingy image we just made.
Those layers are now the separate frames of the animation.
You may need to zoom out 1 to see them all.

Set aside for now.

Open a new image in Animation shop.
400x400. Transparent.

Now here, you can use the text tool in AS or you can go to another program to make something fancy and bring it back here to paste onto this new image.
For ease, I'm just using the simple text tool in animation shop.

OK, I put my name near the top center of the 400x400 image.

Copy. Ctrl C
Paste as new LAYER 3 times.
Ctrl L
Ctrl L
Ctrl L

You should have 4 frames with your name like below.
You may need to zoom out 1 or 2 to see them all.

On the name image...
Edit... Select All. Ctrl A
Edit... Propagate Paste.

Get the swingy image.
Edit... select all. Ctrl A
Edit... Copy. Ctrl C

Now activate the name image.
Zoom in on frame 1. {see below}
Now Ctrl E.
Move the top of the string until it's where you like it.

Now zoom back out.
LOOKY!!

Now with all still selected, lets adjust the timing of those swings.

Click the little View Animation icon from the top of Animation Shop.
oooohhh! It works!!!
Yay!

If you are happy with that preview, close it.
if not go work on it some more.
I think you got the idea.

Now save as a .gif
When the "gif wizard" opens... click the [Customize] button.
Select the tab marked "partial transparency". "What color background will I be using this swingy thing on?"
Click Yes, Blend with this color and choose something close.
But I want it 100% transparent!
Sorry. Can't.
The deform makes the edges blurry. Blurry is partially transparent.
On a gif, a pixel can either be 100% transparent or 100% solid. So,
you have to decide what color you want stuck in those partials.
Click Yes, Blend with this color and choose something close.

Click ok, ok, ok and there ya are!

If you make something by following this tutorial, that image is yours. Enjoy!
The example images from this tutorial are not yours. They may not be taken and used anywhere for any reason. Only the site address to this page may be posted or shared.
~Pink~

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Tutorial Index

Swingys & Mini Gif Index

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