HOW TO MAKE ANIMATED ORB BRUSH TIPS
Hooteye March 2008

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 to create animated Orb Brush Tips,
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 a set of six Brush Tips, which when exported to your
Brushes, will enable you to achieve these type of results

(both these examples were made in PSP 8)

OK here we go.

REMEMBER TO SAVE REGULARLY

STEP (1)

Right click on the Star image or Shamrock image and save it to
your Patterns Folder, usually found in My Documents/My PSP files

The dimensions of the Star image and Shamrock image are 24 x 24 pixels, if you
wish to design and work with different size images, it is worth remembering that
the amount of Layer Brush tips you intend to create must divide equally into the
image dimensions, Example:- we are going to work with a 24 x 24 pixel image and
create 6 Brush Tips, therefore 24 divided by 6 will give us a 4 pixel equal space
between the 6 Layers which in turn will give us a very smooth animated result

STEP (2)

Open up your version of PSP, and create a new 600 x 600 pixel
transparent Document, right click on its Layer and name it Star 1,

STEP (3)

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 Star pattern as shown here, make sure the
angle is set to 0 and the scale is set to 100 then click OK.

STEP (4)

Go to your Toolbar and select the Food Fill Tool

Click on your Document, your Document should now be filled with stars and look like this.

STEP (5)

Right click on the Star 1 Layer, and click Duplicate, then
right click on this Duplicated Layer and name it Star 2,

STEP (6)

With Star 2 Layer selected, go to your ToolBar and select the Pick Tool

(In PSP 8 you will need to select the Deform tool to be able to make the following settings)

On the Overhead Bar change the settings for Position X: and Position Y: to 4
(highlighted in pink), these are the only settings we will be adjusting for
each Layer we create, some settings will adjust them selves automatically

with Star 2, Layer still selected you will see your Document
has moved 4 pixels to the right and 4 pixels down

STEP (7)

Right click on the Star 2, Layer, and click Duplicate, and
then right click on this Duplicated Layer and name it Star 3,

With Star 3, Layer and the Pick Tool selected, again go to your Overhead Bar
and increase the Position X: and the Position Y: settings to 8, again you
will see your Document move another 4 pixels to the right and 4 pixels down

Step (8)

We need to follow this procedure 3 more times, which is:-

Right click on the Star 3, Layer, and click Duplicate, and
then right click on this Duplicated Layer and name it Star 4,

With Star 4, Layer and the Pick Tool selected, again go to your Overhead Bar
and increase the Position X: and the Position Y: settings to 12, again you
will see your Document move another 4 pixels to the right and 4 pixels down

Right click on the Star 4, Layer, and click Duplicate,and
then right click on this Duplicated Layer and name it Star 5,

With Star 5, Layer and the Pick Tool selected, again go to your Overhead Bar
and increase the Position X: and the Position Y: settings to 16, again you
will see your Document move another 4 pixels to the right and 4 pixels down

Right click on the Star 5, Layer, and click Duplicate, and
then right click on this Duplicated Layer and name it Star 6,

With Star 6, Layer and the Pick Tool selected, again go to your Overhead Bar
and increase the Position X: and the Position Y: settings to 20, again you
will see your Document move another 4 pixels to the right and 4 pixels down

STEP (9)

On the Overhead Bar go to Image and in its drop-down menu, click Canvas Size
when its pop-up box appears change the Width and Height settings to 420, click Ok

Your Document should now look like this

STEP (10)

On the Overhead Bar go to Selections and in its drop-down menu, click Select All

On the Overhead Bar again go to Selections and in its drop-down menu, click
Clip to Canvas, this will make a Selection (Marching Ants) around your Document

On the Overhead Bar go to Image and in its drop-down menu, click Crop to Selection

STEP (11)

Arrange your Layer Palette like this.

On the Overhead Bar go to Effects and in its drop-down menu,
click Geometric Effects/Spherize, when its pop-up box appears
set the strength to 100, click ok, repeat this step again

Your Document should now look like this

STEP (12)

Carry out these similar steps:-

Select Star 2 Layer, click its eye icon to make it visible, apply the Spherize effect twice

Select Star 3 Layer, click its eye icon to make it visible, apply the Spherize effect twice

Select Star 4 Layer, click its eye icon to make it visible, apply the Spherize effect twice

Select Star 5 Layer, click its eye icon to make it visible, apply the Spherize effect twice

Select Star 6 Layer, click its eye icon to make it visible, apply the Spherize effect twice

STEP (13)

Go to your Layer Palette and make Star 6,layer, your active
layer, now go here and Download the Orb finishing ring

STEP (14)

On the Overhead Bar go to File and in its drop-down menu, click Open, when the
pop-up box appears find and open the Orb Finishing ring, make sure this is your
active Document, on your Overhead Bar go to Edit and in its drop-down menu, click Copy

STEP (15)

Click your Brush Tips Document to make it your active Document
on the Overhead Bar go to Edit and in its drop-down menu, click
Paste As New Layer, right click on it and name it Finishing Ring,
your Layer Palette should now look like this

STEP (16)

Go to your Toolbar and select the Magic Wand

Make these settings for the Magic Wand

STEP (17)

With the Finishing Ring Layer selected, Click your Document inside the
Finishing Ring this will make a selection (marching ants) around it

On your Overhead Bar go to Selections and in its drop-down menu, click
Modify/Expand when its pop-up box appears set the number of pixels to 2

On your Overhead Bar go to Selections and in its drop-down menu, click Invert

Select Star 1, Layer and tap your Delete Key, apply this Delete
step to Star 2, Star 3, Star 4, Star 5, and Star 6, Layers

Hold down your Ctrl Key and tap your D key to Deselect (stop the marching ants)

STEP (18)

On the Overhead Bar go to Image and in its drop-down menu, click Canvas Size
when its pop-up box appears change the Width and Height settings to 400, click OK

STEP (19)

All we have to do now is convert our 6 Star Layers into Brush Tips
So starting off, arrange your Layer Palette as per Fig 1,

Your Document should now look like this.

(NEXT)

On your 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, Star 1, and click ok

In turn following these Layer arrangements, Export Star Layers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6

STEP (20)

Go to your Toolbar and select the Paint Brush Tool, then go to the Brush Tip
drop-down list, your 6 Star Brush Tips should now be showing like this

That's it we are done, if you are unsure how to animate with the Brush Tips
you have created see my Gold Heart Orb tutorial (starting at step 5) here