Colour Animated
Sinedots Tutorial

PSP 7

*NOTE*
Sometimes the links for filters change, it's difficult (and a lot of work) to
keep changing them on individual pages, so I have created a page with
links to filters and programs that I have used in my tutorials.
That way it is easier for me, because when there are changes I will
only have one page to update and hopefully better for you, because I'm
less likely to miss a page out when doing the updates :)

You will find links to filters/programs used in this tutorial Here
the link will open in a new window

Filters and programs used in this tutorial :-
Paint Shop Pro
Dragonfly's Sinedots II
Silver...from Flaming Pear's sextet(optional)

Materials :-
There is a text file included in the zip, if you don't know where to place the items.
My sg_buckles.cfg a zip file is Here

some images have been made smaller to shorten file size

Step 1.
Open a new Image 200 x 300 transparent and flood fill
with a dark colour, the colour isn't important as it can
be changed before animating if you want to do so.
Add a new layer

Go to Effects...Plugins...Dragonfly...Sinedots...
Open the sg_buckles.cfg and choose the buckle3 preset
If you are new to sinedots and don't know how to open
the .cfg file click HERE for more information

Some presets use different 'blend' settings and it is
important for this tutorial to make sure that the blend
in the sinedots setting is set to 'screen' like this:-

Step 2.
Go to Effects...Geometric Effects...
Perspective Vertical...difference = minus 100

Go to Image...Rotate...
Tick the 'all layers' box and rotate 90° right
Your whole image will be turned sideways

Step 3.
Go to Image...Canvas Size...
Tick the centre image horizontally and vertically boxes
and change the canvas size to 400 x 400
Make your background layer active and flood fill
with the dark colour that you are using then make
the sinedots layer active again.

Step 4.
Go to Effects...Reflection Effects...Rotating Mirror...
Horizontal offset=0
Vertical Offset=0
Rotation Angle=233
Your image should look like this

Step 5.
Go to Image...Resize...
Make sure that the 'all layers' box in NOT ticked
and resize the layer to 80% then go to
Effects...Sharpen...and Sharpen...

The sinedots image needs to be moved to the lower
left with the point at the centre of the image.
To make it easy to pinpoint the centre I turned
on the grid and changed the grid and guide properies
to 100 horizontal and vertical and colour to red
(these are listed under 'View')
Use the mover tool to reposition the image.
The grid can then be turned off.

Step 6.
Go to Layers...Duplicate...
Image...Flip...then Image...Mirror...

Step 7.
Turn off the visibility of the background layer
by opening the layers palette and clicking the glasses
Go to Layers...Merge...Merge Visible...

Duplicate the merged layer (layers, duplicate)
Go to Image...Rotate...
Make sure that the 'all layers' box is NOT ticked
(we ticked it for the last rotation
so you will have to untick it)
and rotate by 90 ° any direction.
Merge visible again, then turn the visibility of
the background layer back on.

Step 8.
Duplicate the merged layer, then go to
Image...Rotate...this time change the rotation to
45° any direction. This layer will need
sharpening after the rotation so go to
Effects...Sharpen...and Sharpen...
No merging this time.

Step 9.
I resized my image at this point, before making the
frames for the animation. It's up to you whether you do
this, it depends how large you want the animation to be.

Image...Resize...Tick the 'all layers' box.
Resize the image to 300 x 300
Both of the sinedots layers will need sharpening, so
Go to Effects...Sharpen...and Sharpen, then repeat
the sharpening on the other sinedots layer.

Step 10.
If you want to change your background colour,
make that layer active and flood fill with your choice.
I added my border before making the animation frames
so that it would be exactly alike on each one. If you
don't want a border around your animation
you can omit the rest of this step.

Make the background layer active.
Go to Selections...Select All...then
Selections...Modify...Contract...
contract by 10 pixels.
Go to Selections...Invert...

I applied Flaming Pear's 'Silver'
(effects, plugins, Flaming Pear, Silver)
I just hit the random dice a few times,
until I found s setting that I liked.

If you prefer you can use another program
like Eye Candy or SuperBladePro, or just
flood fill with a colour and add an inner bevel

Step 11.
Hold down the shift key and hit D 3 times.
You now have 4 identical images, each with a
background layer and two sinedots layers.

Each of the sinedots layers needs to be coloured
seperately, so make one of the sinedots layers active.
My current favourite colouring method
for sinedots, is to lock the transparency of the
layer by clicking off the red X of the padlock, as
shown in the following screenshot, then flood filling
with the chosen colour, or gradient. Any transparent
areas in the layer are protected from the flood fill.

Repeat this for each sinedots layer

The choice of colours is up to you.
You can use plain colours, gradients, patterns,
or a mixture and you can either stick to a colour
scheme (eg reds and yellows) or a variety.

Do some experimenting to find combinations that appeal
to you. We will save them in psp format, so that the
colours can be changed if you don't like the result
when we try the animation out in Animation Shop, or
if you want to make another one in different colours.

Step 12.
When you are ready save your images in psp format
naming them something like 'frames 1, 2, 3 and 4
These were my frames

Step 13.
Open up Animation shop
For this animation the layers need to be
merged into single frames, so look under
File...Preferences...General Program preferences...
On the 'Layered Files' tab use these settings

You can change back to your usual
preference when you finish this tutorial.

Click on the animation wizard in the top left corner

These are the options to select on the windows that follow
'same size as the first frame', click next
'transparent', click next
'centred in the frame', and 'canvas colour', click next.
Yes to repeat indefinitely and 40 in the time box,
(if you want the changes in colour to be faster or slower
you can adjust the number lower to make the animation
faster and higher to make it slower). Click next.
Click on add image and navigate to where you put your
four images. Select each one, or hold down the Ctrl key
and select them all, but click them in reverse order if
you do it this way. click next. Click 'finish'
To see the animation working go to
View...Animation

Step 14.
If you like your result save it using the default settings.
If you want to change the colours you can open your 4
images again and try some different variations.

You can get lots of variations try with a
different sinedots preset, or change the
settings on the rotating mirror.

For the following example I used the 'buckle2' preset
(which is included in the .cfg), in step 2 I rotated
the image to the 'left' instead of 'right' and used
plain and gradient flood fills in red, white and blue.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
Thankyou to my great testers
To see my other tutorials click Here

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