Hooteye, October 2007

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

The Animations in this Tutorial were created by using Brush Tips and Grid Lines
as far as I know I am the originator for making animations using this concept.

This Tutorial will show you how to achieve the Blinkie effect shown in the below tag

( REMEMBER TO SAVE REGULARLY)

STEP (1)

Create a new Document 420 x 420 pixels with a white Background

Go to your the Layer Palette, and create 4 Rasher Layers, and
name them Blinkie 1, Blinkie 2, Blinkie 3, and Blinkie 4,

STEP (2)

On the overhead bar go to View and in its drop-down menu, click Grid and
Snap to Grid, they will go to light blue, which indicates they are both active

STEP (3)

Again go to View and 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).

STEP (4)

Go to your Layer Palette, and arrange it like this.

STEP (5)

Go to the Toolbar and select the Paint Brush Tool.

Make these settings for your Paint Brush Tool.

STEP (6)

On the overhead bar go to View, and in its drop-down menu, click zoom-in until
your Document is 150% this will make painting the Grid lines a little easier.

STEP (7)

Go to your Material Palette and make the Foreground Black (Ctrl+Shift+F6)

Go to your Document, then starting on the top left, paint every forth
grid-line all around your Document, you will see how accurately the
painting snaps to the Grid lines, your Document should look like this.

STEP (8)

Go to your Layer Palette, and select Blinkie 2 layer, starting 1 grid line
further to the right, again paint every forth grid-line around your Document.

Carry out this painting step for Blinkie 3 layer, and Blinkie 4,layer
(remembering to start 1 grid line further to the right for each layer)

With all your Layer Eye Icons on, your Document should now look like this.

STEP (9)

Go to your Layer Palette, and arrange it like this.

STEP (10)

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, Blinkie 1, and click ok.

Following the Layer settings shown below, create and export the
other 3 Brush Tips naming them Blinkie 2, Blinkie 3, and Blinkie 4,

STEP (11)

Check to see your Paint Brush Tool is still selected,
then go to the Brush Tip drop-down list, your 4 Blinkie
Brush Tips should now be showing like this.

We have now finished with our 420 x 420 pixel Document, so we can now close it.

STEP (12)

Create a new 400 x 400 pixels Document, with a background of
your choice, you can download and use this one if you wish here

STEP (13)

With your Grid Lines still on, again go to View and 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 (14)

Go to your Layer Palette, and create 4 Rasher
layers, then arrange your Layer Palette like this.

STEP (15)

Go to the Toolbar and select your Paint Brush Tool,
then in the Brush Tip drop-down list (as shown in Step 11)
select Blinkie 1 Brush Tip, then make these settings

Go to your Material Palette and select a color
for your Blinkie Brush Tip, I used White.

Go to your Document, and where the Grid lines cross,
click your little Paint Brush icon (once only), the
Blinkie Brush Tip should accurately snap into position.

NOTE:- you do not need to click the exact centre of the grid
lines, as the influence of the "Snap To Grid" will automatically
align your Blinkie Brush Tip 100% to the Grid Line Centre

If the Snap to Grid is not on your Animation will result in being jumpy

With Rasher Layer 1 still selected, set the rotation
of the Blinkie Brush Tip to 10, (highlighted in pink)

Again click-paint where the Grid lines cross (once only),
again your Blinkie Brush Tip will snap into position.

Still on Rasher Layer 1, continue to click paint your Document
using these rotation settings 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80,

Your Document should now look like this.

Repeat these steps for Rasher Layers 2, 3, and 4, which are :-

Select Rasher Layer 2, and Blinkie Brush Tip 2, size 280,
rotation positions, 0, 10. 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80,

Select Rasher Layer 3, and Blinkie Brush Tip 3, size 280,
rotation positions, 0, 10. 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80,

Select Rasher Layer 4, and Blinkie Brush Tip 4, size 280,
rotation positions, 0, 10. 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80,

That's it we are done, all you need to do now is add a tube etc, and
take it into Animation Shop, set the display times for all frames to 1

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

Animating your PSP work with Jasc Animation Shop here

Animating your PSP work with Ulead GIF Animator here

NOTE:- With the 4 Blinkie Brush Tips installed, we now have the
advantage of being able to select a color, rotate, and size our
Blinkie, which in turn will give lots of design possibilities.

Experiment with various Grid line settings, for example
setting the Grid lines to 100, the Brush Tip to 150 and
the rotation to 45, you can achieve this kind of result.