I cannot get over the tremendous response to the Sinedot filter and I know Phillip must be delighted! I have made several tags using the Sinedot filter and due to the fact that there are several good tag tutorials out there I never considered doing this one, but I have had several requests to do a Sinedot Tags tutorial so I thought maybe I should. I will also show you how I did the animated one that you see on the top.

This tutorial is written in and for PSP Version 7 and assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP at an intermediate level. I am sure this can easily be done in Version 6 with a few adjustments in paths but I have only used Version 7 so I can't make promises *S*

You will need:

JASC's PSP (30 day free trial)- You can get it HERE
DragonFly's Sinedot Filter - You can get it HERE
** Unzip into your plug-ins folder
A tube of your choice ~~ When I make something from a tut I always tube it (see my PSP Tips and Tricks)

Step 1:
Open a new image 200 x 200, 16 million colors, transparent background. Set your foreground color to black and flood fill your layer.

Step 2:
Add a new layer. Choose the color of your choice (I used #D88E8D) and flood fill this layer.

Step 3:
Go to Effects-->Plugins-->Dragonfly-->Sinedot. You can play around with the settings or you can use the one that I have here. We will be duplicating and mirroring and flipping and the effects will change somewhat. This is what I used. 1st Dimension from left to right is 6.92, -6.36, 4.41, 6.5 2nd Dimension from left to right is -5.29, -3.85, 3.99, -5.09. Balance X = 0.36; Balance Y = 0.12; Density = 0.56. Inverse NOT checked

Step 3:
Set your layer opacity to 41 and blend mode to screen. Don't freak out when it looks really dark! As we duplicate layers it will change. This is what it will probably look like at first.

Step 4:
Go to layers-->duplicate or right click on your layer pallet and duplicate layer. Now go to Images-->Mirror and you will see that it starts to brighten up considerably.

Step 5:
Now duplicate this layer and go to Images-->Flip. **Note, if you use the same settings I did in Sinedot, the flipping and mirroring don't really appear to be making much of a change but let's do it one more time and see what happens.

Step 6:
Make layer 2 active and duplicate this layer and Flip this one. You should now have something that looks like this ~~

I like the way it kind of gives a ceiling and floor effect with kind of a waterfall down the middle **smiles** You will also notice that with each duplicated layer it stayed on the same 41 opacity and blend mode of screen.

Step 7:
Add a new layer and get your favorite tube and apply it in your image. Where you place it is up to you ~~ depending on what you want your tag to say.

Step 8:
Add a new layer and this will be for your text. Choose your font and your colors and add your text. If you are going to be putting text above your image and below your image you may want to have 2 text layers. Your layer pallet should look similar to this when you are done:

Step 9:
If you are going to animate STOP here and go to the animation section below. When you are happy with the way it looks go to Layers->Merge->Merge Flatten and save as a jpg. You might want to use the optimizer for this to reduce the file size when you are sending the tag in email.

Now we will have instructions on how to animate a boot or shoe. I chose a shoe that I did a while back and thought it would make a cute tag and give you a quick lesson in animation.

Step 1:
Follow Steps 1 thru 8 and do not merge your layers just yet. The first thing you want to do is make copies of your existing image (Shift + D) How many depends on how much animation you want. I wanted to do 3 "kicks" on my shoe but of course you can do more. I made 3 copies of my shoe image. We want to start with the shoe flat so go to Layers->Merge->Merge Visible and save this in psp format.

Step 2:
Activate one of your copied images and activate the shoe layer. Go to Image->Rotate and rotate to the right by 10 degrees.

Merge all layers visible and save in psp format.

Step 3:
Activate your next copy and do the same as above except CHANGE the rotation to 20. Do this for each copy and add 10 degrees rotation for each animation. Remember to merge visible all layers after rotation and save in psp format. I don't know how many times I have not merged visible and after bringing it into animation I have to go back to PSP and merge and start the animation over **giggle**

Step 4:
After you have all of your copies rotate, merged and saved bring up your Animation Shop and start the Animation Wizard. I will have step by step Illustrations from here on.

Where the arrow is pointed is where you start the animation Wizard.
This is the first screen you will see. Check the same size as the first image frame and press next.
Check Trasparent and then Next.
Check with Upper left corner of the frame and With the canvas color and go to next.
Check Yes, repeat the animation indefinitely and how fast you would like it to go. I chose the number 25 but you can make your kicks go faster or slower if you would like, just change the number. **The faster you want it the lower the number.
Here is where we add your images. You can add them one at a time if you would like starting with Image 1, then add image again and enter Image 2 etc., but here is a quick and easy way to get them all at the same time. Click on add image and find the file where you saved your 4 image frames in. Hold down the control key on your keyboard and select image4, image3, image2, and image1 (if you select them in reverse, they will show up in the correct order in your animation window). Click on "Open" and the images will be showing in the frame box in the correct order as shown in the above illustration. Click Next.
Now click finish and it will bring up your images in animation. To see what your image will look like click on the filmstrip as shown in the illustration below.

Now you can go to file->save as and give your animated tag a file name. It will automatically save as a gif. Do not change the file extension as we can only animate a gif file.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I can't wait to see some of the tags you come up with. If you have any comments, problems, or questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

I would also like to thank my testers Elkay and Anneli for sending me their tags and giving me permission to upload them for all of you to see.

If you would like to be notified when there are updates to Moon's Designs (including new graphics, websets and tutorials) please sign up for my mailing list below.

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