Comments | psp7_beginners: Tutorial: Adding Text or Frames/Borders to an Animation -- Using PSP and AS3

charliemc in psp7_beginners

Tutorial: Adding Text or Frames/Borders to an Animation -- Using PSP and AS3

Jan 03, 2007 13:11

Have you ever wondered how people add text, frames or other 'static' elements to their animations? It's actually very simple to do!

First you need an animation to work with, like this one:

( Read more... )

adding a frame/border to an animation, adding text to animation, animation, as3, tutorial, text

Comments 18

florentinescot January 3 2007, 22:17:02 UTC

9. Return to Selections. Go to Modify > Contract. For 'Number of pixels' enter 2 and click OK.

10. Go to your keyboard and hit the Delete key to remove the center/selected area.

*blink* you mean that's how you automagically make a 2 pixel wide border?

*wow*

Is there a way to "make a selection box thats 487x653" pixels?

Hm... charliemc January 3 2007, 22:26:08 UTC

I struggle with this aspect constantly -- and have yet to reason it out. (grin) I'd like a selection made with the actual Selection Tool to be like making a crop with the Crop Tool -- where you can go to the Tool Options Palette and tell it the size you want! But that's a no-go, as far as I can tell...

(sigh)

Sorry!

==CharlieMC, assistant moderator

Re: Hm... florentinescot January 3 2007, 22:54:39 UTC

Did *not* know that about the crop tool!

Would this work ... it's not exactly a "selection box" but ...

have a blank image, crop to the desired size (like I just learned how to do)
paste that as a New Layer on top of another "fake" image (of a different color) -- move so that it's centered if it's not, merge the two (now you got a frame around the "proper size" image) -- so you select that and cut it out leaving you a frame with the proper sized hole in the middle. Then you can "paste as layer" on top of the image that you want to select a piece that's 382x453 move it till it's right, merge, and then select the center and crop to selection?

Kinda convoluted. Based on my limited (and brand-spanking new) I *think* that would give me what I want ...

Duh, Charlie! (smile) charliemc January 3 2007, 23:02:17 UTC

Of course -- that's the exact answer! Whenever I want to make a selection that's a certain size, I do exactly that -- make a new layer to use for the selection.

Then you can use the Magic Wand (selection) Tool, set to 'All Opaque' and click on the 'box' (or whatever) to select it. Next you go to your Layer Palette and select/highlight whatever layer you want to apply this to -- and there you go!

By the way, making selections is a great way to add things like Drop Shadows to an image...

I'm thrilled by how well you grasp all this, by the way. Go you!

==CharlieMC, assistant moderator

Thread 5

question #2 florentinescot January 3 2007, 22:18:30 UTC

what's the difference in "flatten merge" and "merge visible" (but not flatten)?

Well... charliemc January 3 2007, 22:31:31 UTC

When you Merge All (Flatten), you flatten all layers -- including the background. This means you lose the transparency, in the case of this tutorial! That would be a 'bad thing.' (smile)

But you have the option to only merge given layers. You can toggle off the visibility of any layers (one or more) -- and then Merge Visible. That combines whichever layers you've left showing/visible. It's very handy, believe me!

Interestingly enough, in later versions of PSP I could simply toggle off the frame layer that I've copied from AS3 -- and then Merge Visible. But this doesn't work in version 7! So you have to entirely delete it (or promote it to a layer)... I have to admit that I don't use PSP7 very often anymore, so I tend to forget. (grin)

Does that make sense to you?

==CharlieMC, assistant moderator

Re: Well... florentinescot January 3 2007, 22:47:57 UTC

yeah, it does.

And it I have 2 different images that i want to combine -- and see both (aka A Composite), I want 50% opacitiy in each, yes?

Not necessarily! charliemc January 3 2007, 22:54:36 UTC

At our PSP communities, we call such 'composites' blends (as in blending together two or more images).

You can see various tutorials on how this is done here. (Be sure to check out both our community MEMORIES and TAGS for a variety of helpful tutorials!)

It's rare that you'd reduce both images to 50%, really...

Let me know if you have additional questions -- I'm delighted to help!

==CharlieMC, assistant moderator

Thread 7

One More Question ..... florentinescot January 4 2007, 02:36:24 UTC

I have an animated gif that I want to turn into an icon.

Can I resize "the gif" or do I need to resize each of the individual pieces parts (frames) and then reassemble the whole thing as a *new* animated gif

Yes. charliemc January 10 2007, 22:58:35 UTC

Yes, you can use Animation Shop 3 (AS3) to resize.

First, Save and Open the animation you want to resize in AS3.

Now you have two choices here...

Simply resize the icon down to 100 x 100 pixels. (Go to Animation > Resize Animation. The Resize window will open. Select Pixel Size and make it 100 x 100. If the image isn't square to begin with, be sure to deselect 'Maintain aspect ratio...' at the bottom first.If the image is large -- and you only want to use a portion of it -- then you can use the Crop Tool in AS3 to crop out a chunk before you resize ( ... )

Re: Yes. florentinescot January 11 2007, 01:35:16 UTC

Thanks! I wasn't sure if it could resize the whole thing -- I obviously hadn't tried to do it yet .....

tabbiecat January 5 2007, 03:28:55 UTC

Thank you so much for posting this! I think i almost have it but I have 2 questions -

1, the animated image I was working with had 26 frames, and I couldn't duplicate the text layer to 26 - it went from 17 to 33. I picked 17 which gave it a blinking look that I kind of liked. but I'd still like to do it right!

2, Even though I saved it as a 100x100 image, lj wouldn't let me upload it as a userpic. I tried making it 95x95 just in case, but it still didn't work.

Any suggestions? Thanks so much!

tabbiecat January 7 2007, 06:34:31 UTC

Never mind, I got it yay! This community is awesome:)

Good! charliemc January 10 2007, 23:00:26 UTC

I'm glad you worked it out. (smile)

And I'm delighted you like the community. We're all pretty proud of it, too. (grin) Good members and a good moderation staff, I think. (Of course, I might be a bit biased...)

==CharlieMC, assistant moderator