Sinedots Animation Tag

Filters and programs used in this tutorial :-
Paint Shop Pro
Dragonfly's Sinedots II

Materials :-
My sg-anim-tut.cfg Here
(Unzip .cgf file into the folder you have made for Sinedots II)
OPTIONAL:-
My sg_frayed-edge mask Here
unzip into your masks folder
This mask is in PspMask format, if you would prefer it as a jpg click Here

A font of your choice. The font that I used is called
Walrod and is available from DaFont.com

This tutorial has lots of possibilities for variation, using
different presets, colours etc. I hope you will experiment.
I'd love to see some of your results

Step 1.
Go to File...New...Open a new image
width=400 height=250
Raster Background
Colour=black

*That is the size I used for this tutorial, but
you can use different proportions to make the
sinedots images taller, wider, narrower etc.*

Step 2.
Go to Layers...New Raster Layer...
Repeat this seven times, so that you have eight
raster layers, plus the black background layer

Make Raster 1 the active layer
Go to Effects...Plugins...Dragonfly...Sinedots II...
At the very bottom of the sinedots settings you will see
3 buttons marked save, delete and open. Click the 'open'
button (arrowed 1. in the following screenshot).

A navigation box will appear. Use this to go to the folder
that you unzipped the sg_anim-tut.cfg into and open the file.

Just above the 3 buttons is a narrow window (arrowed 2.
in the previous screenshot), click on this to get a dropdown
list of the presets that are in the .cfg you just opened.
For this tutorial I chose the jackpot setting.

* I have included several other presets in the .cfg which
you can also use, or you could use a preset of your own,
images with nice clean lines work better than fuzzy ones.*

You can change the colour of your sinedots image by
clicking the colour box and choosing a new colour
from the colour dialog box

*I have made the animation at the beginning of this tutorial
in a single colour, but as a possible variation you could change
the colour each time a sinedots image is added.
See the multicolour example at the end of the tutorial*

When you have chosen a preset and colour, click OK

Hide the layer containing the sinedots image (Raster 1), by
clicking the eye for that layer on the layers palette.

(my screenshot doesn't show the other layers)

Make Raster 2 the active layer

Step 3
Go to Effects...Plugins...Dragonfly...Sinedots II...
We are going to make a slight adjustment to the settings.

At the left of centre on the settings box, in the section called
Offsets, we are going to add 45.00 to the X1 setting (which is
currently 0.00) you can move the dial, or highlight the figure
and type in the new figure (which in this case is 45.00)

*Although I am just changing the X1 Offset in this tutorial, you
can make the same changes to any of the other Offsets instead.
You can get an idea of what the animation will look like, by dragging
the pointers around the Offset dials, while watching the preview screen
(when you have finished, you can get the original setting back by
opening the dropdown list and choosing the preset again).

I kept to a regular addition of 45.00 to the setting for each sinedots
image, because when I animated the tag, it gave a fairly smooth transition
from one image to the next but kept the number of frames fairly small.
You don't have to stick to the 45.00 changes that I used though, experiment
with the size of the changes and the offsets that are changed.

All sinedots presets will not have a round figure like 0.00 to start
with. This isn't a problem though, you just have to add 45.00 to the
figure that's there, for example 124.82 would change to 169.82 the
tricky part is that when the figure gets to 360.00 it reverts to 0.00
for example if you want to add 45.00 to 350.00 it will only take 10.00
to bring you to the maximum number of 360.00 so the count starts again
at 0.00 making the next figure 35.00*

When you've made the changes to the settings click OK
The sinedots image on this layer will be similar to,
but not quite the same as the first one.

Make Raster 3 the active layer.

Step 4
Apply sinedots to the rest of the layers in the same way as
step 3, adding 45.00 to the previous figure of the Offset X1
setting. Hide each layer after applying the sinedots plugin
to it. I have listed the settings that I used on this preset :-
On Raster 3 Apply Sinedots changing the Offset X1 to 90.00
On Raster 4 Apply Sinedots changing the Offset X1 to 135.00
On Raster 5 Apply Sinedots changing the Offset X1 to 180.00
On Raster 6 Apply Sinedots changing the Offset X1 to 225.00
On Raster 7 Apply Sinedots changing the Offset X1 to 270.00
On Raster 8 Apply Sinedots changing the Offset X1 to 315.00

We need to be able to see one of the sinedots images, so click
on the eye of one of raster layers in the layers palette so that
the last image is visible. It's not really important which sinedots
image you can see, it's just a guide so you can see where to place
your text, I'd suggest either raster 1, or raster 8.

Step 5
We need some space below the sinedots image to add the text and
above so that the sinedots are not touching the top of the image.
Go to Image...Canvas Size...
The size your canvas needs to be, will depend on the text you
use and the length of your name, if necessary make your canvas
larger, you can always crop it later if necessary.

To give you a rough guideline, these were the settings I used
width=500 height=380
Lock aspect Ratio=unticked, Background=black
Placement Top=30, Bottom=100, Left=50, Right=50

Step 6
Activate the Text Tool
Make the Background and Fill Properties of the materials palette
a colour, gradient or pattern that will go well with your image,
make the Foreground and Stroke properties transparent.
Make the background of your image the active layer, we will place
the text layer just above this. As we are using Vector text it will
be created on it's own vector layer.

Use a font of your choice, the size will depend on the
font you have chosen and the length of your name.
These are the settings that I used (these settings are
for PSPX, if you are using a different version of psp
create as vector in a size to suit you).
font=Walrod Regular
Size=72
units=pixels
Alignment=center
Direction=Text Flow
Antia-lias=Smooth
Create as Vector

Click on your image just below the sinedots and type in your
text you can reposition it using the centre handle of the
vector box and to centre it horizontally go to
Objects...Align...Horiz. Centre in Canvas.
When you are happy with the position of your text
go to Layers...Convert to Raster Layer.

If you want to you can apply an inner bevel, texture,
SBP preset, or Eye Candy Glass preset to your text.

I applied an inner bevel using these settings
Bevel=2
Width=10
Smoothness=25
Depth=8
Ambience=-20 (minus 20)
Shininess=25
Colour=white
Angle=315
Intensity=35
Elevation=60

If you made your canvas larger than necessary you can use
the crop tool to surround the area that you want to keep
leave some space around the edge to allow for the frame,
or edge mask, then double click on the image to crop it.
It's advisable to make all of your sinedots layers visible before
you crop, just to be sure you don't cut off part of the images.

Step 7
For the tag at the beginning of the tutorial I left the
background black and just added a plain coloured frame
in the same colour as the text, like this:-

Example 1.
Go to Layers...New Raster Layer...name this layer 'frame'
Go to Selections...Select All...
Selections...Modify...Select Selection Borders...
Inside, Border Width=5, Anti-alias=unticked
Flood fill the selected edge with the colour used for the
text and apply the same Inner Bevel.

For the tag at the end of the tutorial I used a masked background

Example 2.
Make the Background layer active and flood fill it with white
Go to Layers...New Raster Layer...
Flood fill with a colour or gradient of your choice, you can
also apply a texture to it if you want to.

Go to Layers...Load/Save mask...Load mask from Disk...
Choose the sg_frayed-edge mask (or an edge mask of your choice.
Use these settings

Go to Layers...Merge...Merge Group...
Then to merge the mask layer with the Background layer
Go to Layers...Merge...Merge Down...

Step 8.
I Applied a drop shadow to every sinedots layer to make
the images stand out better, it depends how dark the background
is and the sindots setting used, you can try it on the the
sinedots image that is currently visible to see if you like
the effect, if you don't like it you can always use Undo.

You can either make the layers visible one at a time, then apply
the shadow to each one, that way you can see what you are doing,
or you can do what I did (it's quicker, but much easier to make
mistakes)if you are not used to it. Starting at Raster 8 and
working downwards, or at Raster 1 and working upwards, make
the layer active (you don't have to make it visible)
go to Effects...3D Effects...Drop Shadow...
use these settings:-

Horizontal and Vertical Offsets=2
opacity=75
Blur=4
colour=black
** Activate the next layer, then go to
Edit...Repeat Drop Shadow (Ctrl+y) ***
repeat from ** to *** until all of the layers with sinedots
on have had a drop shadow applied.
Apply the same drop shadow to your text layer.

Step 9.
Before going on the the animation of the tag, let's set up the
layers palette so that the correct layers are visible.

The Background and text layers should be visible.
The frame (if you have one) should also be visible.
The sinedots layer Raster 1 should be visible, but all
of the other layers containing sinedots (Raster 2 to 8)
should be hidden.

Step 10.
We'll be jumping back and forth from PSP to animation shop,
so keep PSP open, but open Animation Shop as well

In PSP go to Edit...Copy Merged...(Ctrl+Shift+C)
In Animation Shop
go to Edit...Paste...As New Animation (Ctrl+V)

In PSP hide Raster 1 and make Raster 2 visible
Go to Edit...Copy Merged...(Ctrl+Shift+C)
In Animation Shop
go to Edit...Paste...After Current Frame (Ctrl+Shift+L)

Continue in the same manner, in PSP hiding the previous Raster
layer, making the next one visible and using Copy Merged, then
in Animation Shop pasting after the current frame, until you
have done all of the raster layers containing the sinedots images
You should have eight frames to the animation in Animation Shop.

Go to View...Animation...to see your animation in action

Step 11.
You can resize your animation in Animation shop
go to Animation...Resize Animation...(Ctrl+S)

I left the speed of my animation at the default display
time of 10, but if you want to change it go to
Edit...Select All...(Ctrl+A)
then Animation...Frame Properties...(Alt+Enter)
If you raise the number your animation will slow down,
if you lower the number it will speed up

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial
Here is another example using a different colour
sinedots image for each layer and a masked background.

If you wish to contact me you can find an email address to use included on my Site Map
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