This tutorial is long, but not hard to do!

These instructions are writtten for PSP 9.
It will work in PSP 8.

These pages will be slow to load as they are
graphic intensive. They are written for
those with only a basic knowledge of PSP.

Materials you will need.

Paint Shop Pro
Get the trial version here

Animation Shop, buy it here

My zip file which you can get here here.

Remember to save your work often!

Drag this arrow to keep track of where you are.



Save all the stuff in the zip file to a folder of your
choice where you know you will be able to find it.

Open the font file and minimize it for use later.
Open PSP 9 and browse to find both tubes that
came in the zip file. Open them, duplicate them,
and then close the originals for use another day.

*Remember to save your work often!*

Ok, lets get started and have some fun!

1) Open a new image 700 x 700. Yes it is large, but
it makes it easier to work with and we will
resize it later when we are finished the tag.
Be sure the new image is transparent.
2) Highlight the deer skin tube, go to Edit/Copy
then highlight the new image and go to
Edit/Paste new layer. You should now have
the deer skin tube on your new canvas as a
new layer.Name it deer skin tube. Now do
the same with Berby's cat in denim.
Name it Berby's cat in denim.
(Be sure to turn off the layer with her
name on it first or her name will be on
your end result.) Take your mover tool
and move the cougar to where you want it.

You should have something that looks like this.
I cropped it to save space. It should have more
checker board around it for the rest of the work.



3) Now with the cat layer highlighted in your
layer palette, go to:
Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow
& these settings.

Drop Shadow:
Vertical: 4
Horizontal: 4
Opacity: 75
Blur: 5
Colour: black
Shadow on new layer: unchecked



4) You will notice that the deer skin tube has a drop
shadow on it already, so we will leave it alone.

5) Okay, go to your layer palette and make sure that
the cougar is highlighted and add a new layer.

6) Click on the text tool. In the tool options box,
find the font that you had opened and minimized.
It is called Aachen Vertical.
Make sure that in the tools options box, you
have the stroke width set at 2.0. I used a darker
forground colour and a lighter background colour.
You can use any color you want.
I used #2d355c for the forground colour
and #6f7eb7 for the background colour .
Select your text tool from the tool bar.

Choose these settings:

Create as: vector
Font: Aachen Vertical
Size: 48
Stroke width: 2
Anti-alias: sharp

Type your text and click apply.



7) Find the little curved arrows and turn your text so it
is standing straight up. Then use your mover tool to
move it to where you want it next to your tag.
Go to layers/convert to raster.

8) Now go to Effects/3D Effexts/Inner Bevel and
use these settings, or any that you like better.



9) Go to Effects/3D Effexts/Drop Shadow
and use the same settings as before.

Drop Shadow:
Vertical: 4
Horizontal: 4
Opacity: 75
Blur: 5
Colour: black
Shadow on new layer: unchecked

Like below.



You should now have something that looks like this.
It should have more checkered space though.



10) Turn off the name layer in your layer palette.
Merge visible the rest of the layes.

11) High light your merged layer and then duplicate it.
Now go to your duplicated layer & drag it under the
original layer. Go to Image/Resize and resize your
duplicate layer to 125 % of the merged layer.
Make sure that resize all layes is unchecked.
Your second merged layer should be bigger
than your original one. Drag it under the
merged layer and make sure it is high lighted.

12) Make sure that your second layer is high lighted.
Go to Effect/Distortion Effects/Twirl.
Use these settings.

Twirl:

Degrees: 360



13) Now turn on the name layer in the layer palette.
Merge visible. It should look like this.



This is a long tutorial, but we are almost there!

You are doing well. Remember to save often!

14) Now we are going to go File/Copy/Paste New Image.
Now our image is merged, and it is on a canvas
that is the right size for it.

15) The first thing we should do is save it as a psp file.
You might want to use it at a later date.

16) Our image is still quite large, so we should make it
smaller. I resized mine to 60% of the original.
Then I went to Ajust/Sharpness/Sharpen

17) If you want to use your tag on a white background,
go to Layers/Merge/Merge All (flatten). If you
would like your tag on a patterned background, like
mine at the top of the page, add a new layer. Drag
it to the bottom of the layer palette and flood fill
it with the pattern of your choice, I used my page
pattern, and then go to Layers/Merge/Visible.

What I want to do now is to get the eyes blinking!
Believe it or not, that is very easy to do!
Are you ready?

18) Duplicate your image and we will get on with the blinking!

19) Go to your clone brush



Use these settings found in the tool options palette.



20) Zoom in on your duplicate image 200% to 300%.
Choose an area above one eye that you are going
to clone shut, that you feel will blend with the
fur when you clone the eye closed and right click
with your mouse to set the spot that you start
cloning with. Very carefully clone in the eye leaving
the black line around the bottom of the eye.
Now do the same with the other eye.
Now you have a cat with both eyes closed.
Like shown below.
Remember to hold down your left mouse button
while you are cloning



Now it it time for us to do the animation!

1) Activate your eyes open image, go to Edit/copy.

2) Open animations shop.

3) Right click in the grey work area,
"Paste As New Image" shows up.

4) Left click on it.

5) You will see this.



6) Go back to PSP and copy the eyes closed
image as you did with the eyes open one.

7) Go back to animation shop.

8) Go to Edit/Paste/After Current Frame.

9) Go to View/Normal Viewing.
10) Now you have both frames for your
animation open in Animation Shop!

11) Now we will set up the time for each frame
of your new animation. Right click in the
first frame and a menu will pop up. Look for
Frame Properties in that menu.



Click on it and it will open up with this.



For the first frame, I put in 55.

Repeat for the second frame, but enter 110.

12) Go to View Animation at the end of the
top tool bar and play your animation.

13) When you are happy with the way your cat
blinks her eyes, go to File/Save As and
name your animation and save it in
the place of your choice.

14) In the window that comes up choose:
"Better Image Quality".

15) Then click on the "Cutsomize" tab as
you see in the picture below.



16) This is the next dialogue box you will see.
The Colors Tab.



Use these settings on the "Colors Tab".
It will be the tab that is open.

1) Number of Colors: 255 Colors
2) Create Palette By: Optimized Median Cut
3) Reduce Colors By: Error Difusion

17) Now click on the "Optimizations Tab".

This is the window that you will see.



Use these setting.

Put a checkmark in:
1) Write Minimal Frames
2) Collapse Identical Frames.
3) Map Identical Pixels to Transparent.

18) Click okay and you will come back to the
main screen and click "Next".

19) This is the next screen that you will see.



Click "Next"

20) This is the next screen that you will see.



Click "Next"

21) This is the next screen that you will see.



Click "Finish"

That is it, you are done!

Hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and had fun.

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