This tutorial was wrote for Paint Shop Pro X, but I have tested it in
PSP 8, any resemblance to any other tut on the web is purely coincidental.

The purpose of this tutorial is to show how quick and easy it is to
create a 6 frame animation using brush tips and grid lines, I have
tried to make the various steps easy to follow, so hopefully some of our
members who are fairly new to PSP will be encouraged to try out this tutorial.

After working through this tutorial you should finish up with this
type of effect, please add a tube and background of your choice.

OK here we go.

REMEMBER TO SAVE REGULARLY

STEP (1)

Download the Brush tips file here there are no restrictions on my
brush tips, but if you share my files would you kindly keep my file name intact.

STEP (2)

Right click on the file and open it with your version
of PSP, arrange your Layer Palette like this.

STEP (3)

On the overhead bar go to File and in its drop-down menu, click on
Export/Custom/Brush, the Create Brush Tip Box will,
appear, name your Brush Tip, Heart 1, and click ok.

Following the Layer Palette settings shown below, create and export the other
5 Brush Tips naming them Heart 2, Heart 3, and Heart 4, Heart 5, and Heart 6,

STEP (4)

Go to the Toolbar and select the Paint Brush Tool.

Now go to the Brush Tip drop-down list, your
6 Heart Brush tips should now be showing like this.

We have finished with this Document, so we can now close it.

STEP (5)

Create a new 400 x 400 pixel transparent Document, and name it Background, using
the flood fill tool, fill the Document with a color, gradient or pattern, of your choice.

STEP (6)

On the overhead bar go to View and in its
drop-down menu, tick Grids and Snap to Grid.

STEP (7)

Again go to View and in its drop-down menu, click on Change Grid, Guide & Snap Properties,
when the pop-up box appears make these settings, (the Grid color is optional).

The Grid Lines on your Document should now look like this.

STEP (8)

Go to your Layer Palette and create 7 Rasher
Layers, and name the Layers like this.

STEP (9)

Go to your Material Palette and set the Foreground color to #870b09

STEP (10)

Go to the Toolbar and select your Paint Brush Tool,
then on the overhead bar make these settings

STEP (11)

Select the Heart Orb Backing Disc Layer, and then go
to your Document, and where the Grid lines cross,
click your little Paint Brush icon (once only), your painted
Backing Disc will accurately snap into position.

STEP (12)

Right click on the Rolled gold Image and save it to
your Patterns Folder, usually found in My Documents

Rolled Gold Image

STEP (13)

Select Heart 1, Layer

STEP (14)

Go to your Material Palette, and double click on the Foreground Color,
this will bring up your Material Properties Box, click Pattern, in its
drop-down box select the Rolled Gold pattern as shown here, then click OK

STEP (15)

With your Paint Brush Tool still selected go to the
Brush Tip drop-down list,( as shown in Step 4) and select
Heart 1, click OK, then on the overhead bar make these settings

STEP (16)

Again go to your Document, and where the Grid lines cross,
click your little Paint Brush icon (once only), your
Heart brush tip will accurately snap into position.

Your Document and Layer Palette should now look like this

Repeat these steps for Heart Layers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, which are :-

Select Heart Layer 2, and Heart Brush Tip 2, size it to 270, go to your Document
and where the Grid lines cross, click your little Paint Brush icon (once only)

Select Heart Layer 3, and Heart Brush Tip 3, size it to 270, go to your Document
and where the Grid lines cross, click your little Paint Brush icon (once only)

Select Heart Layer 4, and Heart Brush Tip 4, size it to 270, go to your Document
and where the Grid lines cross, click your little Paint Brush icon (once only)

Select Heart Layer 5, and Heart Brush Tip 5, size it to 270, go to your Document
and where the Grid lines cross, click your little Paint Brush icon (once only)

Select Heart Layer 6, and Heart Brush Tip 6, size it to 270, go to your Document
and where the Grid lines cross, click your little Paint Brush icon (once only)

With all the Layer Eye Icons on, your Document and Layer Palette should look like this

STEP (17)

Now we need to arrange our Layer Palette so that we can create our
animation frames, these are the 6 Layer Palette arrangements we require,

Starting off arrange your Layer Palette as per Fig 1, then
right click on Heart Layer 6, and click Merge/Merge (all flatten)

Next

On the overhead bar go to File and in its drop-down menu,
click on Save As/Animation Shop (psp) and name it Frame 1,

Next

On the overhead bar go to Edit and in its drop-down menu, click on Undo Merge all.

Next

In turn arrange your Layer Palette as per Fig 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, and carry out the same
merging saving procedure, naming them Frame 2, Frame 3, Frame 4, Frame 5 and frame 6,

That's it we are done, all you need to do now is animate your 6 frames.

If you need some help Animating your Layers, check out my Tutorials:-

Animating your PSP work with Jasc Animation Shop (Method 1) here

Animating your PSP work with Jasc Animation Shop (Method 2) here

Animating your PSP work with Ulead GIF Animator (Free Trial) here

_____________________________________________________

If you enjoyed this tutorial, you may like to play around with more of my Orb Brush Tips,
remember we are working with Brush Tips, so you can select a color and size of your choice

here

here

More of my Tutorials can be seen here

Hooteye February 2008