Tutorial: An Animated Pumpkin (jack-o'-lantern) for Halloween! (long)

[charliemc]

Simple to do, with little fuss and muss! Let's give it a try, shall we?

LONGER VERSION TUTORIAL

We'll end up with something this:



(And, yes, you can make a larger, non-icon jack-o'-lantern, if you wish!)

This tutorial requires BOTH PSP8 and AS3.

1. Open Animation Shop 3 (AS3).
   
   
2. Open PSP8.
   
   Start out by opening your image. You can use one of these six, or find one of your own to work with!
   
   To use the small, icon-sized image, hover over then RIGHT-CLICK and Save. But DON'T click on the image! (smile)
   
   To go to the LARGER-sized image, simply click on the small version. The large image will come up in a new window. Again, right-click to Save.
   
   
      
      
   
   
   
      
      
   
   
   NOTE: To make things QUICKER, you can simply RIGHT-CLICK and COPY -- then go to PSP and again RIGHT-CLICK, then Paste as New Image. You can either Save the image or not, depending on your preference!
   
   I started with THIS image:
   
   
   
   
3. Now that you have your image to work with, let's get started!
   
   First, right-click and Copy your image. Then go to AS3 and again right-click and Paste as New Animation. This will be the first FRAME of your animation!
   
   
4. Go back to PSP. Go to your Tool palette and select the Zoom Tool. Click this on your image to Zoom in so you can see things really easily!
   
   
5. Go back to your Tool palette and click on the Freehand Selection Tool. (It's bundled with the Magic Wand and Selection Tool. By default, it's the fifth button from the top of the Tool palette. The tool resembles a lasso.) [Use these settings]
   Selection type: Point to point - Mode: Replace
   Feather: 0 - Smoothing: 0 - Antialias: checked/on
   
   Now click your tool on the edge of 'mouth' of your image and start to slowly trace around. Work around a little bit at a time and you'll find this step easier to do! By the way, it doesn't need to be perfect. But if you feel like you'd like to start over, just right-click to select, then right-click again (in a new spot) to deselect!
   
   Once you've traced all the way around, RIGHT-CLICK. That will 'select' the area you've traced, making it ACTIVE.
   
   
   
   
6. Of course, now you need to ALSO trace the eyes, nose and other 'cut out' areas (if any). You're going to use the same Freehand Selection Tool, only you'll need to HOLD DOWN the Shift key (on your keyboard) in order to 'add' to your current selection. Start by pressing and holding the shift key. Then use your tool to trace another area (like an eye).
   
   NOTE: From here on out if you deselect, you'll end up deselecting ALL your work! So let's hope you got used to the tool starting with the mouth. (smile) Of course, you can also SUBTRACT from your selection, by pressing and holding down the Ctrl key (on your keyboard), if necessary... But, again, this doesn't have to be PERFECT. It going to work fine even if a few of your edges aren't exact.
   
   
   
   
7. With all of the facial features selected (you'll see the marquee moving to show that these are active), go to Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Brightness/Contrast. The Brightness/Contrast window will open. [Use the settings] Brightness: 20 - Contrast: 6
   
   Click the OK button.
   
   
8. Right-click to deselect. (If you skip this step you'll only copy the face, so don't forget!)
   
   
9. Right-click on the image and Copy.
   
   
10. Go back to Animation Shop 3 (AS3).
    
    
11. Right-click on the current image/animation frame. Go to Paste > After Current Frame.
    
    Believe it or not, you're almost done!
    
    NOTE: Yes, you could change the animation speed, but the default works well for giving you a 'flickering' candle effect, so it's not really necessary.
    
    
12. However, if you like you can go back to PSP and create a top layer to ADD to your animation. Just create a new Image that's the SAME SIZE as your original one, with a transparent background. Then apply some brushes to this. (Don't forget to LOWER THE OPACITY of your brush layer, so it won't obscure your animation when you add it.)
    
    To add, Right-click and Copy > then go to AS3 and Right-click > Paste as New animation. Then DUPLICATE this so you have two frames.
    
    Make sure BOTH frames are selected. Right-click on the first frame and Copy. Drag it to the FIRST FRAME of your jack-o'-lantern animation and then release the mouse button to drop.
    
    
    
    Finally, let's Save your animation!
    
    
13. I always hit F12 (short-cut key) for saving, personally. Name the animation and away you go! The Animation Quality Versus Output Size window will then open...
    
    
14. Now click the Customize button. [The settings I like to use follow] [Colors TAB] Number of Colors: 255 -
    Create palette by: Optimized Octree - Reduce colors by: Error Diffusion [Optimizations TAB] I select the middle three (but not the top and bottom ones)
    
    Click OK. Then Click Next > Next (you'll see what you'll be getting). Finally click Next again.
    
    
15. BEFORE you click Finish, you should ALWAYS note the size of your optimized file (top, center). Why? Because if you're using this as an icon at LiveJournal, you'll need it to be under 40k bytes. It's just a good habit. I can tell you right now that if you're making an icon-sized animation (100 x 100 pixels, or less), then your two-frame animation will be around 11 or 12k bytes! The larger images end up around 66k bytes.

Wasn't that fun???

And this same method can be applied to any image to make a 'glowing' effect!

Happy Halloween, everyone! I hope you get lots of Treats, and no Tricks... (grin)

==CharlieMC, assistant moderator