Animated Background Floatie
This tutorial was created by Shezzy© exclusively for SisterzPSPTreasures. (Any similarities to any other tutorials are purely coincidental and unintentional). You may save or print the tutorial for your personal use only. It is not to be sent through email nor printed for any groups/forums/websites. This tutorial may not be downloaded on to a CD. You may not sell this tutorial. and it may NOT be displayed ANYWHERE except in SisterzPSPTreasures Forum site . The image you create by following this tutorial belongs to you and you may do whatever you want with it. Please give credit on your tags/groups/forums/websites of SPSPT. All SisterzPSPTreasures TOU's apply.
Thank you & Have fun!
For this tutorial you will need to have basic knowledge of Paint Shop Pro. (My illustrations and instructions are written using version 7, but you should be able to comprehend with any version).
SAVE YOUR WORK OFTEN!
Open a 100X100 Transparent Canvas.
Starting on the left hand side of your canvas and halfway down from the top, draw a sky blue line across to the right hand side of your canvas. Make sure there are no gaps in that line.
Activate your magic wand. Click inside the top half of your canvas and floodfill with the sky blue color. It will look similar to this:
Deselect (Selections, Select None)
Click 'Layers'. Add New Raster Layer and name it clouds. With your paint brush set at size 1, color white, Squiggle in some clouds in the center area of the canvas:
Click Effects, Blur, Gaussian Blur, set at Radius 1.50
Merge. Merge Visible.
Click 'Layers'., New Raster Layer.
Select a Medium Green color on your color chart.
With your paint brush set at size 1, place a green pixel on the far left side of the graphic a little above the sky line. (For this tutorial, I have clicked on the 47th, pixel row down from the top):
You will notice the coordinates in the lower left hand corner of your PSP Screen. (The First number is the number count of how many columns over from the edge and the second number is the number count of how many rows down from the top)
Move your cursor to the far right side of the canvas and
With your paint brush set at size 1, place a green pixel on the far left side of the graphic a little above the sky line. The second number in that coordinate should be exactly the same as the number in the first coordinate:
Starting there, draw a rolling hill, ending on the first pixel you placed on the left hand side:
Make SURE you don't have any gaps in the contour line!
Activate your magic wand. Click inside the bottom area of the canvas. Flood fill with a lighter green. DO NOT DESELECT. Click Effects, Noise, Add 10% Uniform.
NOW Deselect. (Selections, Select None).
Merge. Merge Visible.
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NOW you have a nice little background that we'll turn into an animated floatie!
Click Edit, then Click Copy.
Open up your Animation Shop.
Click Edit, then Click Paste (as new animation).
Ok! We still have the original graphic in PSP AND we have a copy of it in Animation Shop. In Animation Shop, click Effects, Then select "Insert Image Transition":
The following screen with appear. Use the illustrations for your settings:
If your "Wipe" is not going the direction of: From left to right, click on the "Customize" button and use these settings:
Click Ok, Ok.
Now you have a background that has a bit of transparent edge showing. Your frames will mostly by a speed of 25, but the first one will be speed of 10. Click Edit, then click 'Select All'. Then Click "Animation", then click on
Frame Properties:
Change the Frame speed to 10. Ok.
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NOW......There are a couple of ways to fill in the transparent areas of your frames. The first way will be instructed all in Animation Shop. The second way will be to export your frames to Paint Shop Pro and do all the filling in there and then updating the frames back to Animation Shop. (This would be for those that aren't comfortable enough with frames, but only with layers)
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Instruction in Animation Shop:
Click on the First frame (which would be your whole frame without any transparency around it). You will notice that there is now a red bar up above and below that frame and also you will notice that the frame around it is blue. That means it is 'highlighted' or Activated:
Now Click "Edit", Then click "Copy":
Next, click on your second frame to activate that. Make SURE the red bars are showing on that frame.
Now, on your keyboard, press your Ctrl key AND your 'E' key together at the same time. (This will paste the first frame into the activated frame (frame 2)). DO NOT click your mouse until you have your copied frame butting up against frame to inside the transparency area:
Do not overlap the picture... Just butt it up against it. Once you have it where you want it, click your mouse to paste it in place. Now you have a complete picture in frame 2:
Now click on Frame 3 to activate that. Then press your Ctrl and E keys together and place the graphic up against the left edge of graphic in frame 3. Click your mouse to paste it in place. Now you have a complete picture in frame 3. Repeat these steps until you have completed frame 8
This is what it will look like when you have completed the above steps:
Now you have your Animated Background Floatie! Click on your "View Animation" icon

to see if it's fast or slow enough for you.
Then save as a gif!
OR....You can do it in Paint Shop Pro like this:
Instruction in Paint Shop Pro:
With your frames in Animation Shop, Click on Edit, then click "Select all".
Now right click on any one of your frames and then click on "Export frames to Paint Shop Pro"
Now all 8 of these frames have been exported to PSP and they now look like layers.
Hide (put the red X on the eyeglasses) EVERY layer EXCEPT Frame 2 layer. Now click on your original background you've had in PSP all this time. Click Edit, then click Copy.
Now activate the layered background (making sure your Frame 2 layer is highlighted). Click Edit, then Paste....as new layer.
With your mover tool, move the layer (you just pasted in there) over to where both edges of both layers butt up against each other to make a whole picture with no transparency showing.
Merge, Merge visible.
Now hide that Merge layer (Put Red X on eyeglasses) and unhide Frame 3 layer. Make sure that layer is active (highlighted). Repeat above steps making sure you butt the pasted layer up against the Frame layer to make a whole picture. Merge, Merge Visible. Continue to do this to each of the different Frame layers. (You will have to do this a total of 8 different times).
The last layer to be butted up against the frame layer would be on the far right side:
UNHIDE all your Merged layers now. You should have 8 layers.....the bottom layer will still be named Frame 1 and the rest would be named Merged.
Close out of that screen. A little box will come up and ask you if you wish to update Animation Shop Frame before closing....You answer YES!
Now you have your Animated Background Floatie! Click on your "View Animation" icon

to see if it's fast or slow enough for you.
Then save as a gif!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
~Tutorial created 09/15/06~