Treehouse Treasures

This tut was written using PSP 8 and Animation Shop 3.10,
but you can do it with other versions of Paint shop.

We will be using Glitter Font.

Open the font and minimize it to your tray.

Open a New Transparent image in PSP.
Make it large enough to accommodate your name with room to spare.
Mine is 400 x 400.
We will crop it later.

On your Materials palette, set the background fill to black.

Click on your text tool and select Glitter Font with these settings:

Make sure you set it for floating!

Only the uppercase letters of this font are "starry" ones so you can turn on the CAPS LOCK to type your name.

Type your name in the center of your background.
It doesn't have to be exactly centered.

You will see the marching ants around your name.
DO NOT deselect yet.

Go to Selections>Defloat.

Go to your Layer palette and click to duplicate this layer three times.
You should have a total of 4 layers.

On your Layer palette, click on the bottom layer to select it.

Go to Selections>Modify>Expand by 2.

Now go to your Materials palette and change the background fill to gradient.

Find Rainbow pastel and select it.
I believe this gradient comes with PSP8.
If you need it, let me know.

Use these settings:
Angle 0
Repeats 4
Radial Style

On your Layer palette, make sure the bottom layer is selected.

Select your bucket fill tool and right click in your name to fill
with the Rainbow gradient.

Now, select the third layer.
Go to your Materials palette and change the repeats to 6.
Again, right click to fill your name on the third layer with this gradient.

Select the second layer.
Change the repeats to 8 on your Materials palette and fill the second layer with this gradient.

Now go to Selections>Select None.

On your Layer palette click on the top layer to select it and apply this drop shadow.

Select the second layer on your Layer palette and apply this drop shadow. For the color I used #8C48BE but, you can use black or any color from your gradient fill.

Apply the same drop shadow to the third and bottom layers also.

With the bottom layer selected, click on your crop tool and click on the button to crop the layer opaque. Then click on the check mark on your toolbar to crop it.

On your Layer palette, hide the bottom two layers and keep the top two layers visible.
Click on the top layer to select it.

Now it's time to open your Animation Shop.

In PSP go to Edit>Copy Merged, and in Animation Shop go to Edit>Paste>As New Animation.

Go back to PSP and hide layer 2 and unhide layer 3.

Repeat Copy Merged in PSP and back in AS click Edit>Paste>After Current Frame.

Back in PSP, hide the third layer and unhide the bottom layer.
Repeat Copy Merged and in AS go to Edit>Paste>After Current Frame.

You should now have three layers in AS.

In Animation Shop go to Edit>Select All.
Then select Animation>Frame Properties and set the display time to 30.
Click OK.

Go to Animation>Animation Properties.
Put a "tick" in Opaque and click on the black color.
Select white as the background color.
Click OK.

Click View>Animation and if you like it, then save with these optimization settings:
Create palette by Optimized Median Cut
Reduce colors by Nearest Color

Variations

In place of the gradient fill, you can also use a pattern fill.
Instead of changing the repeats, like you do for the gradient,
you can change the angle of your pattern fill.

For this example I used Galactose Font and this pattern fill. I've had this pattern for a long time and I'm not sure where I got it. If it's yours and you'd like me to remove it, then please contact me.

For the angles of the pattern fills, I used 0, 18, and 28.

For this example I used Stars Font and a gradient called Cyan-Magenta-Yellow.

I hope you have enjoyed this tut, and I'd love to see your results!
You can post them with the other member results
HERE

This tut was written March 9, 2012 by justjam. Any similarities to other tuts is
coincidental. Please feel free to copy or print this tut for your own use
but, do not redistribute in any manner or claim as your own.