Studs PSP Shed

Beginners and Intermediate tutorials for PSP

Falling Star

This tutorial is my own creation, any similarity is purely coincidental!
 
This tutorial was written May 22nd 2007. Please feel free to LINK to this tutorial and/or print it out for your personal use, but please do not copy it in anyway to put online, pass out or re-write without my permission.
 
This tutorial is written for the more advanced beginner and intermediate. I have tried to write it so that everyone could follow it though!

Supplies
PSP
Silver Star tube
silver chain tube
tube(s) of choice
font of choice
scrap elements
gradient of choice
Toadies Plugin HERE
Lokas Plugin HERE

Included in supplies: scrap elements, gradient, silver chain, Olga Levchenko tubes, font & various metallic shapes HERE

1. Open a new, blank image 600 x 600 pixels transparent image (16 million color depth). File > New > set size & set color depth.

2. Effects > plugins > Toadies > Cyborg with the settings: reflection #1~ 39, reflection #2 ~ 229, shine #1~ 160, shine #2 ~ 255, mesh size ~ 35, mapping factor ~ 26, color ~ 28.  Reduce the opacity to 63 *change the color setting to your own choice if using a colored gradient and not a greyscale type one!*

3. Open the silver shape of choice,  copy and paste the shapes as new layers and position as desired. *You may need to resize the shapes by 85%.  Open the silver chain and position behind the shapes in a position of your choice. Duplicate this layer and position on the other side of the shape.  Hide all the other layers, merge > merge visible and rename "chains"
 
4. Select the wand tool and click inside the large shape.  Selections > modify > expand by 2.  Highlight the layer below, open your tube and copy as new layer, resize/position as desired so it shows through the center of the star.  Selections > invert hit delete on your keyboard.  Selections > invert & keep selected. *If your tube doesn't quiet fill the shape, highlight the layer below your tube add a new raster layer and flood fill with the gradient you used for the background [see Charlie's alternative at the bottom of the page!]* When you have the shape filled, hide all the other layers (so you only have the shape, tube (and if used, the flood fill) ), merge > merge visible, and rename the layer "Large". Keep selected

5. Effects > plugins > Lokas > Aqua with default settings and make sure that color overlay is UNchecked. Deselect. Unhide all the layers.

6. Highlight the medium shape, remembering to highlight the layer below to repaste your tube and repeat layers 4 & 5, when filled rename "medium"

7. Repeat steps 4 & 5 again for the small shape and rename the layer "small"

8. Make sure the "small" layer is highlighted, Image > rotate > left > freehand by 20. Reduce the length of the chains slightly using the eraser on horizontal selection, the size is up to you but I used size ~ 40, hardness ~ 100, opacity ~ 100, step ~ 25, density ~ 100 and build up checked.You will need to move the shape slightly so it hangs properly from one chain. 

9. Open the elements and select a staple, copy and paste as new layer, position as desired, so you've stapled the large shape to the background!  Duplicate it, image > mirror and again position as desired. 

If the tube you're going to use is a lot smaller than the canvas size of 600 pixels, resize slightly: Image > resize to 500 pixels and make sure resize all layers is checked. Make sure you use one to hold the shape to the chain!  Add any other accents you like on the shapes.  When you're happy with everything, hide the bottom layer then merge > merge visible, all the other layers.


10. Open your other tube or reopen the same one if you wish to reuse it.  Copy and paste the tube on the opposite side.  Resize if necessary.  Rename layer "tube"  Duplicate the tube twice. So you now have layer 1, the merged shapes layer and 3 tubes layers.

11. Highlight the original tube layer, Effects > plugins > Toadies > Motion Trail with settings: X-offset ~ 155, Y-offset ~ 134, Trail opacity ~ 146 (this changes depending on your tube and the position so play about til ya like it!)

12. Highlight the 1st tube copy and repeat the motion trail effect in step 11, changing the X-offset to 97 *depending on your tube this will probably change so play!*

13. Highlight the 2nd tube copy, effects > 3D effects > drop shadow with settings: vertical and horizontal both ~ 2, opacity ~ 100, blur ~ 5, color ~ black.  Then repeat the drop shadow with vertical and horizontal to ~ -2.

14. Open your font and with create as vector and antialias both checked add your tag name, resize and position as desired and then convert to raster layer. Add an inner bevel of choice and the same drop shadow as the tube. I also used Lokas Aqua with the same settings as before!

15. Resize as desired and save as jpeg

alternatives