Creating Animated Edge Effects Using Alien Skin Xenofex Constellation Plugin.

This tutorial was wrote for Paint Shop Pro X, but I have tested it in
PSP 7, any resemblance to any other tut on the web is purely coincidental.

There are many Silhouette images available, or you can try making your own
from photos etc, if you wish you can use any of these that I have zipped. here

After working through this tutorial you should end up with this type of result,

STEP (1)

Download and open the Silhouette Template. here

You will note that the Head Silhouette layer has a white
background rather then a transparent background, the reason
for this is that you will get no ragged edges when the
Copy/Paste into selection step is carried out, this is
worth remembering when working with other Silhouette images

( REMEMBER TO SAVE REGULARLY)

STEP (2)

With the Background layer selected, create a new Rasher layer.

STEP (3)

Select the Head Silhouette Layer, and go to the Tool Palette
then select the Magic Wand Tool, and make these settings

STEP (4)

Still on the Head Silhouette Layer, with your Magic Wand Tool
make a selection (marching ants) around the Head Silhouette

STEP (5)

Select the Background Layer then go to
Edit, and in its drop-down menu click copy

STEP (6)

Select the Rasher 1 layer, then go to Edit and in its drop-down
menu click Paste Into Selection, next on your Key-Board hold
down the ctrl key and press the D, key this will deselect the
marching ants, your Layer Palette should now look like this

STEP (7)

We no longer require the Head Silhouette (black)
Layer so delete it from your Layer Palette.

STEP (8)

With the Rasher 1 Layer still selected go to Adjust and
in its drop-down menu click on Blur/Gaussian Blur, when
its pop-up box appears set the Gaussian Blur radius to 1,

STEP (9)

Right click on Rasher I layer and click duplicate,
again select Rasher 1 layer and then go to Adjust
and in its drop-down menu click Brightness/Contrast
when the pop-up box appears make these settings.

STEP (10)

Now arrange your Layer Palette like this,
(note the visibility icon is off for the Background Layer)

Right click on Copy of Rasher 1 Layer (top layer),
then click on Merge/Merge Visible, then click on
the Background Layer icon to make it visible,
Your Layer Palette should now look like this,

STEP (11)

Select the Merged Layer, then go to Adjust and
in its drop-down menu click on Sharpness/sharpen,
Your Document should now look like this.

STEP (12)

With the Merged Layer selected, duplicate it four times, in order
not to get confused, lets rename the 5 head layers, so in turn
right click on each layer, and rename them, Head Layer 1,
Head Layer 2, Head Layer 3, Head Layer 4, and Head Layer 5,
your Layer Palette should now look like this.

STEP (13)

We are now at the step where we need to use the Alien Skin
Xenofex Constellation Plugin filter, if you have not got
it, you can download a fully functional 30 day trial from here

Select Head Layer 1, then go to Effects/Plugins/ Alien skin Xenofex2/
Constellation, when the pop-up box appears make these settings, click ok.

Now select Head Layer 2, again go to the Constellation filter
when its pop-up box appears you should still have the same settings, so all
you need to do is to click on the Random Seed button, and then click ok,
Carry out this procedure for Head Layer 3 and Head Layer 4.

STEP (14)

Select Head Layer 1, then go to Adjust and its drop-down menu
click on Blur/Gaussian Blur, when the pop-up box appears set the
Gaussian Blur Radius to 1, also apply Gaussian Blur radius 1,
to Head Layer 2, Head Layer 3, and Head Layer 4,

Note:- the Constellation and Gaussian Blur filters are not applied to Head Layer 5

STEP (15)

Now we need to arrange our layer palette so that we can create our
animation frames, these are the 4 layer palette arrangements we require,

starting off arrange your layer palette as per Fig 1,
Next
Right click on Head layer 5 and click Merge/Merge (all flatten)
Next
Go to File/Save As/Animation Shop (psp) and name it Frame 1
Next
Go to Edit and click on Undo Merge all
Next
In turn arrange your Layer Palette as per Fig 2, 3, and 4,
and carry out the same Merging saving procedure, naming
them Frame 2, Frame 3, and Frame 4, that's it we are done,
all you need to do now is animate your 4 frames.

More of my Tutorials can be seen here