Seasons Change

In this PSP tutorial I am using the artwork of Amber

sold at VM Artists.  The tube is called Autumn Fairy

You must have a license to use their artwork.

FTU Tagger kit called ''Gather Here" by Kathy's PSP Designs

♥ Thank you Kathy! Always love your kits ♥

Two masks: DD_FallMask_7 by Dee Here (Mask set 2)

& a standard circle mask Here

Plugins: Mura's Meister Copies

Font Caramel Crunch

Drop shadow of choice

Sharpen any resized or rotated elements using unsharp mask

1, 55, 1, luminance checked.

Let's get started...

1. Open new Image 800 x 800 px transparent (we will resize later)

Flood fill white

Open Elem 91, C/P resize 75%

Plugin Mura's Meister Copies ~ Encircle ~ change # to 9

change Shift X = 60

change Shift Y = 60

all other settings stay the same

Layers ~ Load/Save Mask from Disk 

Find 20/20 Mask & apply. Merge group.

Adjust Blur ~ Gaussian Blur ~ 1

2.  Open elem 57, C/P

Open elem 67, duplicate, mirror & flip, merge together.

C/P on working image, resize 75%, move up & to left, duplicate, mirror

duplicate, flip, duplicate, mirror. You should have 4 clusters

in a square shape, relatively placed within the circle.

No need to be precise.

Merge the 4 clusters together using merge down.

Effects ~ distortion ~  Twirl: 180 deg

Open elem 100 ~ 90% C/P

Place in center but towards top

duplicate, move to bottom left, duplicate & mirror

These three sheaves of wheat should form a triangle.

3.  open elem 49, C/P placing on lower part of circle but above the words

Using Mura's Meister copies ~ setting ~ line rotate

default settings except change number to 8, apply.

Layers ~ Load/Save Mask from Disk

Find DD_FallMask_7 & apply to leaf layer. Merge group.

Resize this layer 85%

4. Open close-up of tube, C/P

below elem 49 but above the wheat sheaves

resize tube if needed. If tube extends beyond circle,

use magic wand, tolerance 10, select outside of the circle area on 'circle frame layer'

to make a selection

back to tube layer & erase undesired portion of tube. Deselect.

In my example above, I kept the hair bon extending upward

but erased the green leaf on the left side of the tube.

Duplicate tube layer, Change mode to soft light.

Effects blur ~ gaussian blur ~ radius 3.

5. Add elements of choice. 

Elem 72 50%

Elem 76 50%

These doodles were placed above the daisy masked layer

but below the twirled layer. I duplicated these doodles twice

for a total of 3 and rotated with pick tool to peer out edges.

*see reference tag.

6, Select the circle frame layer (elem 57)

Note the words are not touching the circle itself.

Using a point to point selection, draw an area around

the Words "As The Seasons Change"

press shift on keyboard and draw another selection

around the bottom words "So Do We"

Promote this selection to a New layer on your Layer palette.

Rename this layer 'wording'

Add a new raster layer above it, flood fill #fef83e

revert back to Wording layer, select all, float, defloat, modify selection, expand by 2 px

invert, back to yellow layer and press delete. Deselect.

Move yellow layer beneath original circle frame layer

7. Select original circle frame layer (elem 57)

& move Wording layer above it (if not already)

and merge down together.

Rename this layer 'animation"

duplicate this layer & change blend mode to overlay

Using crop tool, crop all layers using Merged opaque

then resize all layers bicubic to 675 px x 675 px approx.

8. Add copyright, URL, license, watermark

Delete white background layer.

To animate:

1.  Open Animation shop

in PSP, select 'animation layer' Copy Merged (all layers)

Paste in A/S as a new animation

Back to PSP

still on animation layer,

find the Lighten/Darken tool (left column toolbar)

select round, size 35

press and hold tool over the left circle part of frame  (below word 'AS')

move the tool along the circle counter clockwise

stopping at bottom wordart. Repeat this.

Copy Merged All Layers

Paste in A/S after current frame.

2.  Back to PSP

undo the lighten tool twice

Lighten the bottom Words only by tracing tool across

moving left to right across center, repeat lighten

Copy Merged

Paste in A/S after current frame

3. Back to PSP

undo, undo

Lighten right side of circle frame

by moving tool upward counter clockwise

stopping Top Wordart

Repeat lighten

Copy Merged

Paste in A/S after current frame

4. Back to PSP

undo, undo

Lighten Top word art only

moving right to left through center of words

following the counter clockwise flow

repeat Lighten

Copy Merged 

Paste in A/S after current frame.

You should have 4 frames in A/S

Edit ~ Select All ~ change frame properties to 17 

Edit ~ Propagate Paste

If you want a white background,

select Animation properties, 

change to Opaque White or #ffffff

Back to PSP,

Add Name in White with D/S

copy & paste in A/S as new animation

duplicate to equal 4 frames.

Edit ~ select all.

Edit ~ Copy

With both animations side by side, drag the first frame of the Name 

over top onto first frame of working image & release.

Check animation by selecting View

If error seen, simply undo animation. retry.

Using Optimization Wizard, optimize

to your specs.

* * * * *

I prefer to optimize transparent

with no background (if my tag has no heavy dropshadows)

Use settings below:

Colors tab: 255 colors

optimized octree

error diffusion

Optimizations tab:

there are 5 options, check 1 & 4

Partial Transparency Tab:

convert pixels to less than 90

select Yes blend with colour white

(or color the forum uses for post background).

Press ok, next, next, next, finish.

Run animation. Save As.

It's a very subtle animation for a very delicate tag. :+)

Voila! You did it

and I'd love to see your results!

xo