Masked Warbird tag

This tutorial was created June 18, 2004 and updated on April 28, 2005 for Version 9.
©Copyright Ginny Hopping/Bunny's Attic.

* Terms of Use *

This tutorial was written for PSP9 and my husband, Pat! I have included lots of instructions
and screen shots with the hope that anyone can do this tutorial. I have most of my favorite effects on a tool bar but have included the path to each effect so it will be easy to find
them if you are new to PSP. If you are more advanced, just move along at your own pace.
If you have a question or comment you can write me here ...
ginny_hopping at yahoo dot com. ~ You will need ~

Paint Shop Pro 9, a 30 day trial program can be downloaded here.
the "clouds" tube zip here
Extract the tube to your My Documents/My PSP Files/Picture tubes.
The mask and royalty free image zip here.
Put the "BlueDream_masker_slats" mask in your My Documents/My PSP Files/Masks folder.
Open the "warbirds.jpg" image in PSP.
The font I used is called Licorice by Rob Leuschke. It is a pay font so I cannot offer it with
the tutorial. You can visit his website here .. He has the most gorgeous fonts!
**The "BlueDream" mask is courtesy of Martine. She has a lovely tutorial site here.
Thank you Martine for graciously allowing me to use your mask for this tutorial! **

Let's get started!
1. Open a new image , 480 x 370 with a background color of #618DBE.

2. Open "warbird.jpg" and go to Edit/ Copy. Minimize it and go back to your blue image.
Go to Edit/Paste as New layer. This will "paste" your image right in the middle of the canvas,

3. Go to your Layer palette, right click on Raster 1 and choose "Duplicate".

4. Turn off "Copy of Raster 1" and click on Raster 1.

5. Layers/New Raster Layer. Name this layer "airbrushing".

Using your airbrush tool , with #73A8D4 as your foreground color and these settings....

Spray over the plane only. Your image will look like this..

Go to Adjust/Blur/Gaussian Blur with a radius of 4.
Turn off your background layer ("Copy of Raster 1" should still be turned off) and
go to Layers/Merge Visible.
You can turn on Copy of Raster 1 and your background layer again.
You should have 3 layers, Background, Merged and Copy of Raster 1.Still in your Layer palette, click on Copy of Raster 1 and go to
Layers/ Load/Save Mask /Load Mask from Disk.
When the "Load Mask From Disk" window opens, find "BlueDream_masker_slats"
Check "fit to layer", "source luminance", "invert transparency" and "show all mask".

You won't see much of a change yet.

Right click on "Group-Copy of Raster Layer 1" and go to Merge/Merge Group.
Right click on your layer again and choose duplicate.

Turn off your "Merged" and "Background" layer and go to Layers/Merge/Merge Visible.

Right click on this layer and rename it mask.
You can turn all your layers back on now.

Let's add a drop shadow to your mask layer to make it stand out.
Go to Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow with settings of
Vertical and Horizontal 1, Opacity 100, Blur 1 and Shadow color #000000.

Click on your "merged" layer and lower the opacity of that layer to 30.
While still on your Merged layer and go to Layers/ New Raster Layer. Name this layer "clouds".

Click on your Picture Tube tool , and find the "Clouds" tube using settings of Scale 50, (the size will depend on your own tastes, so feel free to experiment with that setting) Step 350, Placement AND Selection mode "Random". Add a few clouds so they are extending beyond the image, but not beyond the blue, like below. You want some of them below the image but not too close to the bottom or outside the canvas. Hit the undo button until you get a cloud you like. You can also add new raster layers for each cloud, giving you the option of moving them where you like without moving the whole bunch.

Let's add a drop shadow to the clouds now. If you added individual layers for your clouds, turn off your mask, merged and background layers and merge the cloud layers first, then turn your layers back on again. Then go to Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow.
Vertical 3, Horizontal 1, Opacity 100, Blur 4 and color #335684. Click OK.

In your Layer palette, click on your Background layer and go to Layers/New Vector Layer.
Name this layer "border".
Click on your Preset Shapes tool , with these settings..

Set your Foreground color to #335684 and the background to null.
Using the "Merged" layer as a guide, draw out a rectangle making a dotted border for the image.
Since we drew it as a vector, you can make adjustments as needed.
When you are happy with it, right click on the Border layer and Convert to Raster.

In your Layer palette, click on your mask layer, right click and duplicate it again.
I thought it needed to be stronger, but that is a matter of personal taste.

Go to Layers/New Vector Layer, name this layer Text.
Go to your Material palette, your Foreground color should still be
#335684 and change your Background color to #618DBE.
Using your Text tool click on your canvas. With these settings, the size will depend on the font you use and the length of your name.

Click on Apply
Move your text to the lower right hand side of the image so it is
extending below and beside the dotted border.
Right click on your Text layer in your layer palette and Convert to Raster.
Using your Selection tool , with these settings....

Drawing from left to right, make a selection around your text. Click on the text to select it.
Go to Selections/Modify/Contract and contract your selection 2 pixels.
Go to Effects/3D Effects/Inner Bevel and use these settings ...Bevel #1, Width 1, Smoothness 32, Depth 1, Ambience 0, Shininess 56,
Angle 315, Intensity 39, Elevation 36. Click OK.

Go to Selections/ Select none. Still on your text layer, go to
Effects/3D Effects/Drop shadow settings of....
Vertical and Horizontal 2, Opacity 75, Blur 5 and Color #000000.
Click ok.
Before you merge your image, you may want to keep a copy in .psp format. You can change the text or maybe change your background color at a later time if you have an unmerged copy.
Go to Layers/Merge/Merge All (Flatten) .

That's it except to add your watermark!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and you can use it as a guide
to try different images, tubes and masks!
I would be delighted if you would sign my guest book or guest map before you leave!

~ my guestbook ~ ~ back to tutorial index