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 180°  SPIN animation

with Text & Background

Tutorial by Hooty© aka Doyle Allen 1/14/04

 Approved by the HootyTutTestersGroup!

 

Skill Level: Intermediate with PSP and AS

 

 

 

 

1. Open a Tube and Image/Resize it

to no more than 300 pixels wide.

 Probably no less than 150 would be best.

…the height  should be no more than 490 pixels.

Remember the Bigger the animation the bigger

the file size will end up being! So smaller is

better.

 

2.  Activate your Magic Wand Tool

Settings:

Mode = Replace,

Match Mode = RGB Value, Tolerance = 10,

Sample Merged = Checked,

Feather = Zero and Anti-alias = Checked

 

3.  Ctrl + A   or Selections/Select All

 

4.  Left Click on your Tube…

  The marching ants selection should move

from the border edges over to surround your

 Tube.

 

5.  Effects/3D Effects/Inner Bevel

Settings: 

 These are mine .. you may have to

adjust for the characteristics of your

chosen tube.

Bevel #2, Width = 8, Smoothness = 0,

Depth = 4,

Ambience = -30, Shininess = 40,

Color = White

Angle = 315, Intensity = 40,

Elevation = 50

OK!

   That will give more of a 3D appearance

to your tube.

 

6.  Shift + R or Image/Crop to selection

This should stop the marching ants

selection…that’s ok!

 

7.  Ctrl + A or Edit/Copy

************************************************

1.  File/Jasc Software Products/Animation Shop

 

2.  Ctrl + V or “Right Click” on the work area

and select “Paste as New Animation”.

 

3.   Effects/Insert Image Transition

Settings:

Animation Frame = Checked,

Canvas Color = Checked

Effect = Spin

Transition Length = 1.5 secs, 

Frames per Second = 7 fps

Show Preview Checked

OK!

 

4. Now you should have 11 frames in total

 .. frames 7-11 are just transparent frames

and you should delete the empty transparent

frames by left clicking on them and pressing

delete on your keyboard.

  Now you should have 6 frames with all of them

showing the different stages of your animation.

 

5.  Ctrl + A or Edit/Select All

 

6.  Ctrl + C or Edit/Copy

 

7.  Ctrl + V or “Right Click” on the work area

and select “Paste as New Animation”.

 

8.  Ctrl + A or Edit/Select All

 

9.  Shift + R or Animation/Reverse Frames

 

10.  Ctrl + M or Animation/Mirror

 

11.  Ctrl + C or Edit/Copy

 

12.  Click back on your other original

animation frames

 

13.  Click on Frame 6

 

14.  Shift + Ctrl + L or Edit/Paste/After Current Frame

 

15.  Ctrl + A or Edit/Select All

 

16.  Animation/Animation Properties/

Transparent Checked! … OK

 

17.  Animation / Frame Properties = 10 OK

 

18.  Left Click on Frame 1,

Animation/Frame Properties = 120  OK

 

19.  Left Click on Frame 12,

Animation/Frame Properties = 120  OK

 

20.  View/Animation … How does it look?!

 

21.  File/Save As  Name it and save it as a .gif if

you would like here.

 

22.  View/Animation again to stop the

animation from running.

 

23. Edit/undo

   This step is just to undo the optimization

that has been done to the frames left…

We will need them un-optimized when we

add them to the background.

 

 

Close out the pasted set of 6 frames that

you used. We are done with them now.

***********************************************

MAKING THE BACKGROUND & ADDING TEXT

Note:

During testing Maria Rosa had this tip which you

might find beneficial as did some of the others.

I am including this in this section to help you

too.. Thanks Maria!

 

I just wish to let you know what I did with the
background image, to make sure to position the text
and watermark right. Remember the tube we open in
PSP at the very beginning of the tut, to which we add
the inner bevel etc. and then paste into AS? Well, I
did not close this tube in PSP, and when I made the
background image, I copied and pasted it as a new
layer, and moved it exactly where my animation was
to be positioned, Then I added the text and
watermark as per the tut, and when I was finished
with that, deleted the tube layer and went on with
merging, copying and pasting the image into AS etc.

______________________________________________

 

1.  Minimize your Animation Shop and

maximize your PSP.

 

2. If you are making a stat for a screen

with 800x600 resolution then open a new

transparent image of 800 x 500 pixels.

If you are making a stat for a screen with

1200x 800 resolution then open a new

transparent image of 1024 x 665 pixels.

 

Note: Because of the nature of making

animations we want to keep the load size

down…this means that we are going to

choose one solid color to make the

background… no frills such as texture

or patterns.

You can select a basic black , white or

color from your graphic if you like with

the Dropper Tool.

 

3.  Flood Fill Tool: Flood your transparent

image with your chosen color.

 

4.  T or Text Tool:

Settings:

Create as = Vector, Font = one of your choosing,

Size = up to you,  Stroke Width = Zero (0) OR 1 ,

Anti-alias = Checked!, 

Aligned = I am going to use Centered.

 

5.  Select a color that you want your text to be

in the Background box in your material or color

palette.

 

6.  Think of something Witty…(pun intended)

and type in the text ….. OK

 This will make your text on a separate layer

which is what we want . This happens because

we have chosen to make a Vector text.

 

7.  Your text should not be any wider than

1/3 of the width of the background…

 so hit enter to continue a  long sentence

on the next line.

 

  You can adjust the size of your text now

by clicking and dragging the handles or little

squares around.

Intermediate skill right?!

  You can make one end taller or shorter by

clicking on a handle at either end and holding

down the shift key… but you knew that?!

Kewl! It gives it a more professional look

as long as you can still read it easily.

 

8.  Layers/Convert to Raster Layer.

 

9.  Effects/3D effects/Inner Bevel

Settings: Use the same settings as you’ll find

already set from using it on the tube before.

 

I would suggest not using drop shadow since in

animations it usually looks terrible.

 

10.  Mover Tool: Left click on the text that is

on the left side edge and look at the bottom

right of your screen to get the coordinates as

you move it left or right..

 If your tube was 300 pixels wide then you have

to have that edge at least 300 to the right and

all the way to the top leaving about 10 pixels

between the top of your text and the top of your

image block.

 

11.  With this done move your mover tool all the

way to the right edge and look at its

coordinates… if it is more than 600 then you

have made your text too wide and you need to

delete and redo your text smaller or using

more lines.

 

12.  Layers/Merge Visible

 

13.  Add your water mark now if you’d like.

  Add a New Raster Layer…

  Place  your watermark underneath  where

your animation will end by noting the height

of your tube and placing your watermark a little

below that on the bottom.

 

 

14. Layers/Merge Visible

 

15.  Edit/Copy

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Adding the Animation Frames to the Text Background

 

1.  Minimize PSP and Maximize Animation Shop.

 

2.  Ctrl + V or “Right Click” on the work area

and select “Paste as New Animation”.

 

3.  Click on the (-) minus sign to make your

frame smaller and easier to work with on the

right side of your keypad on your keyboard.

 

   If your keyboard shortcuts are not on then

this shortcut will not work ... in that case try

View/ Zoom out by 5 or another option that

shows there.

 

4.  Ctrl + Shift + L = 11 times.

Just hold Ctrl + Shift down and tap the L 11 times.

 This will make 12 frames in total.

  Use the slider to verify this by sliding it all the

way to the last frame…at the bottom it should

have a 12 on it.. 

  We are making 12 frames to match how many

frames we have in our tube animation.

 

5.  Ctrl + A or Edit/Select All

 

6.  Click back on your tube frames

 

7.  Ctrl + A or Edit/Select All

 

8.  Ctrl + C or Edit/Copy

 

9.  Click back on your Background-Text frames

 

10.  Ctrl + A or Edit/Select All

 

11.  Move your slider all the way to the left so

you can see frame 1… leave them all selected!

 

12.  Edit Propagate Paste

 

13. Move the frame block to the upper left corner of

your work area.

  Press the + key on your keyboard so one

frame can be seen easily.. you need it big to see

what you are doing on the next steps as you

place the animation frames unto the

background!

 

14.  Edit/Paste Into Selection 

 

15.  Move the image attached to your cursor to

the top and left leaving about 5-10 pixels from

the top free and all the way to the left. In other

words do not place your tube on the very edges,

leave just a wee space from the corner.

 Left click to set it in place.

 

16.  Now each frame should have the same text

and background with a different tube frame

showing on each one.

 

17.  Animation / Frame Properties = 10 OK

 

18.  Left Click on Frame 1,

Animation/Frame Properties = 120  OK

 

19.  Left Click on Frame 12,

Animation/Frame Properties = 120  OK

 

 

20.  View/Animation … How does it look?!

 

21.  File/Save As  Name it and save it as a .gif

if you would like here.

 

22.  View/Animation again to stop the animation from

running.  Close it all out if you are finished.

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Letter Creator tips: Place this image on the Background

Page … do not tile, click on the eye dropper at the top

and left click on the background color.

  For your Margin settings you need to know how far

over your Tube Image is to set the Left Margin.

Use your Tube Width plus about 10.

  For the Top Margin you need to know how far down

you need to go from the bottom of the text you added.

  Click on your Mover Tool and place it under the text

on the background Text layer that is still there to get

the number that you need to set the Top Margin at.

  Text color might easily be selected by using the text

dropper tool and left clicking on a color from your

tube.

 

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

After Thoughts:

I know this tutorial looks really involved to those that

aren’t used to doing animations… but like most things

it is only hard until you learn how to do it and then it

is just the same ol’ thing when it is learned thoroughly.

Hope you enjoyed this tut and make some really kewl

stuff to show off you incredible skills! I’d love to

see what you created with this tutorial..

Hooty

hootytuts@bellsouth.net
 Remember to Watermark your creations!
****************************************

 

 

****************************************

Approved by the HootyTutTestersGroup!

Thanks to all the great testers that help me to

make these tutorials as good as they are!

The testers are always a vital part of the end

results of what you end up using.

Special thanks to all the testers:

Here are the testers that helped to make this

tutorial as good as it it!

Maria, Everam, Pat, Sue, Laurie,  omi, Paula,

Michelle, Adrienne & KMRA! 

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