How are these background effects created?

[jamesmc]

You will need this pitiful jester image to complete this tutorial or you can use one of your own (results will be different.)

The results of the tutorial should look like the green rectangle shown here or something similar.

[jamesmc]

Okay, here are the instructions. Take your time as they might be new concepts to you, but worth learning.

The graphics you see on web pages are done a myriad of ways, but as you can see, this way has great potential and can be used to achieve remarkable graphic images if you take your time. I'm kind of on a squeezed schedule right now, so didn't have much time to devote.

download the jester file unless you want to use anothe graphic. The pale jesters (left and right) will be the one's showing up in the displacement map we will be doing.

The center jester will be for just a clipart type add on.

1. open up a new image 640X480 with a white texture.

2. With a Vector rectangle and the gradient color of your choice, draw a

rectangle the size of the entire new image. Don't worry if you can't

get it all, we will be cropping it out later.


3. Open up the jester file or the file of your choice. (or you can

simply make a new image with some squiggly lines on it to see how

displacement works.


4. Choose the Effects>Distortion>Displacement Map.

5. You will get a message about converting to a raster layer, click ok.

6. On the displacement map dialog box, click on the image box and find

the jester graphic (or your graphic.)


7. Now put these settings in
Click "Tile map to cover image."
Click "3D surface."
Click "Transparent"
Set Intensity to 30.00
Set Rotation to 0
Set Size to 54
Set Blur to 19
Double check and click okay.

8. You should have 4 sets of two jesters aligned just like in the

jester file but with a 3D look. We will picking the best looking pair of

the displacement map jesters.


9. Click on rectangle vector box. On the Materials box, for the

foreground color choose black (this will be the outline of the

rectangle.) on the background color choose your gradient color that you

made from the first tutorial or the gradient of your choice. Make sure

it is the same gradient as what the jester displacement map are now on.

10. Click on Layers>New Vector layer, name your layer what you like.

11. Draw your gradient filled rectangle with rounded corners (like in

the other tutorial) around the best pair of jesters where they are

centered on the rectangle Refer to the image supplied to see

approximately where they go.

12. On the new layers pallet, set your vector rectangle image

transparency slider bar to 20 percent. It's the bar right by the eye

icon.

13. Select the crop tool. Choose an area just outside of the rectangle

you just drew and click on the check mark on the toolbar to crop.

14. You should now have a new image, cropped and with a width of

somewhat less than 600 pixels and the height will be variable, but

somewhere between 120 to 180 depending on the size of the graphic you

used.

15. Use the rectangle selection tool and select the center jester in the

graphic and select EDIT>COPY MERGED.

16. Paste the graphic as a new image. We need to clean it up a bit.

17. Select the magic wand tool, use on the toolbar line these values:
REPLACE RGB VALUE TOLERANCE=19 CONTIGUOUS FEATHER=6

ANTI-ALIAS(CHECKED) OUTSIDE

18. cLICK ON THE WHITE AREA OUTSIDE OF THE JESTER IMAGE. When you see

the marquis shimmering, hold Control X to get rid of that portion.

Notice all the white is gone around the jester. If not, just select the

white color and control x again.

19. Copy this cleaned up jester and paste it as a new layer on your

rectangle you just made and cropped. I centered mine, but you can put

yours anywhere.

20 Okay, set the transparency level in the layers pallet to 40.

21. Select your text tool, choose any font you wish and use the same

fill as the rectangle box. Black foreground, gradient fill.

21. Choose Layers>New Raster Layer for a place to put your text on.

Title it text or anything you wish. I would set the stroke width of

the outline text to 0.5 pixels. Actually you can make the background

black as well if you want more defintion in the text. I placed my text

in the lower left corner. I made my text black in foreground and

background for clarity.


The purpose of this was not to give a wildly fabulous graphic, but to

introduce you to concepts in case you haven't done them before as in:

-Displacement mapping
-Layering
-Selection Tool Use (Rectangle and Magic Wand)
-Gradient fills
-Layer pallet transparency levels
-And just maybe some great ideas on how to proceed to make your own
graphics that people will puzzle about how you made them.

By the way, displacement maps can be very powerful. Ever wonder how
they get the waves in a flag using PSP? Just make a new image about the same size where the map will go, for instance a flag image. Draw some dark lines with the paintbrush on a diagonal slant and a few curves. Use a 2D setting instead of 3D. You will have the substance of folds in a flag.

[jamesmc]

And of course what you are looking for is a final product which is here.

Yes it can be done in Paint Shop Pro. The art work (computer/box) was done separately and given perspective. Text was added. A little transparent background to some images and Voila! you have your banner. It all starts with the steps I gave before on gradients, displacement maps, magic wand and etc.

[RickDawson]

The only thing is... I only have version 7 which does not have the 'distortions' menu under effects in it.
I either need another method, or perhaps I should upgrade...

[jamesmc]

You can still do basically the same thing by using layers and reducing the transparency.

For instance, this sort of flag looking image, was made using a red rectangle, the warp brush, a few lines, using layers and reducing the transparency level and then softening up the lines. The last thing to do would be to erase the excess dark lines and you have a wavey flag.

[jamesmc]

BTW, if you are thinking of upgrading, if it were me I would buy Xara Xtreme.

The reason? You can do all of those steps I outlined in about 1/3 of the steps and it will be much sharper because Xara Xtreme is a vector graphics program.

I use Paint Shop Pro now for about 2 percent of my work. The rest is done in Xara Xtreme. Yes, it is that good.

And, it's cheaper than the upgrade I believe, although I haven't looked recently.

[eirebadboy]

Wooow!! Nice tut. a lot of handy advice in there.