Jasc Paint Shop Pro

**David43** · 04-06-2004, 09:34 AM

Hi, my first post of many here I hope.

I've looked around for a forum to discuss PSP and graphics in general and I seem to have found the perfect place.

OK on to my question. Could you guys help me identify how this background was created on the below graphic and what effect has been used on the text.

Another effect, I would like to know how to do is the graphic where the picture is inside the circle. I've had a few attempts at trying to get this effect but I've had no real luck.

**OtterBob** · 04-07-2004, 08:10 AM

Without playing with anything, the background looks like a flood fill with a cloud texture applied. The text looks like an outer bevel effect.

As a quick, untried something to try for the second pic, make your background the grey color. Add a layer and fill it with the yellow color. Then do a circular slection and delete the section so it becomes transparant. put a new layer between the grey and yellow layers and put your person there. Finally, create a fourth layer and clone the top of the person to this new layer. It should work. However, it's 7:10 AM as I type this, so my instructions may not be clear. I'd be happy to go into more depth when I'm more awake.

**David43** · 04-07-2004, 10:59 AM

Sure that'd be great. The picture with the circle looks quite effective, so I'd like to know how to create that kind of effect.

I was kind of thinking the same thing about the first picture. There has been some kind of texture used for the background although I'm not quite sure how it was acomplished. I've had a fiddle about with the Effects>Texture Effects>Texture a few times to try get the setting right but it hasnt really worked. I thought maybe he's used an Eye Candy filter. Thats just a guess mind.

**OtterBob** · 04-07-2004, 02:12 PM

Yeah, there are hundreds of cloud patterns out there. It's tough to say which one exactly is being used.

I tried doing the second picture and it works pretty well. Create a new image. Then flood fill the background with the grey color. Add a new layer (either Layers>New Raster Layer, or click the new layer icon on the Layers pallet) named Foreground and flood fill it with the yellow color. On your Foreground layer, click the Selection tool and choose the circular selection type. Draw your circle selection and press the Del key. You should now have a yellow box with a grey circle.

Make a new layer named Person and in the Layers pallet move it so it's between the Background and Foreground layers. Open the image of the person you want to put into the circle. To get the best results, you should select the person and not the whole image. (Cut them out, kind of.) Copy the selected person and change to the main image. With the Person layer selected, choose Paste As Selection. You should be able to move the person around as you like. Some of the person will be hidden but the next step will put that bit back in.

In your main image, create a new layer and name it Person Copied. This should be the top layer; drag it to the top (in the Layers pallet) if it isn't. Press Shift+D to duplicate the image. On your duplicate image, you can make the Foreground and Person Copied layers invisible (click the eye in the Layers pallet). Choose the clone brush and make sure aligned (and continuous?) is checked. In the duplicate image, right-click a point on the person to set the source point. In your original image on the Person Copied layer, left-click the same point and draw in the parts at the top that were hidden.

Obviously you'll have to play with this a little, but that's the general idea. If you don't want to use the clone brush you should be able to do a selection (rectangular, circular, whatever) of the person, copy it, select the Person Copied layer and paste as a new selection. Doing it this way you wouldn't have to duplicate the entire Image1.pspimage image to do your copying.

**David43** · 08:50 AM

Quote:

Choose the clone brush and make sure aligned (and continuous?) is checked. In the duplicate image, right-click a point on the person to set the source point. In your original image on the Person Copied layer, left-click the same point and draw in the parts at the top that were hidden.

I followed the instructions perfectly but got a bit stuck on this part. I can't seem to get the cutout picture to appear out of the circle. I had a fiddle and managed to get a rough looking version where I copied the layer with the circle cutout and, floated the image but it wasnt quite the same.

**OtterBob** · 04-09-2004, 09:09 PM

OK, how about this? This is actually a bit easier.

Do your Background, make your Foreground layer, cut out the circle, make your Person layer and paste him there.

Now, forget the cloning. Make a new layer called Foreground Copy. Figure out how much of the bottom of the Foreground layer you want to cover the bottom of the person. Make a rectangular selection of that bit, including some of the part below the bottom of the circle for completeness. Promote that selection to a layer and move that layer to the top (or at least above the person). That seems to work well.

**David43** · 04-10-2004, 08:15 AM

Thank you very much OtterBob. You're a genius.

I had a fiddle around and I've managed to pull the effect off. I copied the foreground outline and pasted that over the image on a new layer and it seems to have worked.

Below is a graphic I prodcued to try out the effect.

http://www.boavid.com/images/flateric-wallpaper.jpg

**OtterBob** · 04-12-2004, 08:24 AM

Glad it worked out for you. Nice pic.

**David43** · 04-12-2004, 09:03 AM

Thanks. Just something I threw together using a few old cutouts to test out the effect. Cheers for the help, you were very helpful

**David43** · 04-20-2004, 04:09 PM

Hey guys thought I'd save thread space by sticking my request in here. I know we're all PSP users in here, so I'd be thankfull and appreciative of your comments.

I thought I could ask for your thoughts on the web graphics I've set up for the new template of my site. I'd like your suggestions and comments on the good and bad points of the graphics and what you think could be improved. I want them to look as clean and professional as possible, maybe add some curves to the top of the navs.

Here's the link - Site

**Giselle** · 04-20-2004, 09:51 PM

Hello David43,

Your web page looks great, very professional, with the graphics crisp and clear. The only thing I would change is the white line around the picture in the right hand corner. I think I would use a nice glow around the graphic. Otherwise the page looks very nice!

Best Wishes,
Giselle

**David43** · 04-21-2004, 12:22 PM

Thanks for the comments. I like your idea of a glow, I'll have a play with the feather selection and see what I can come up with.

**Giselle** · 04-21-2004, 01:34 PM

Eye Candy (plugin) has a nice glow effect. This plugin came free with PSP 7 Anniversary Edition, but one also can download a lot of free plugins which are compatible with Adobe Photoshop or PSP. Some plugins aren't free which I have purchased also. These plugins are great helpers, they can give a graphic a whole different perspective.....

**David43** · 04-21-2004, 04:13 PM

I have eye candy 4.0. I've not had chance to have a look for many others, I've been recommended another add-on which includes some handy drop shadow settings.

I agree with you about the plugins, they can be really handy.

**Giselle** · 04-21-2004, 07:03 PM

The plugins are wonderful and handy is some cases, depends on what kind of an effect you want. For some reason I could picture a glow around your graphic. One could use a drop shadow, fur, flames, ect., one could really go wild here! Most of these plugins are real easy and fun to use, also easy to install right into your paint shop.

**David43** · 04-22-2004, 01:43 PM

I see what you mean about the glow, it has been commented on before. I actually use a glow on the current graphics set at the moment. I've provided links below if you'd like to have a look at them.

http://boavid.com/pics/banners/banner.gif
http://boavid.com/pics/banners/boavid300x100.gif

**Giselle** · 04-22-2004, 11:04 PM

Very nice pictures! How about a neon glow? I see you are using the same glow as the text color, very subtle, perhaps this is the effect you are going for. But they are very very nice.

**David43** · 04-23-2004, 04:32 PM

Thanks, I could use the neon glow like you said, I'll have to play about and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for the praise about the pictures, they're from the current design of my site, the ones I asked you to review are for the new site.

I'm thinking of making the graphics similar but to match the new colour scheme.

Could you suggest any neon filters, perhaps in eyecandy? The built in neon-glow on PSP7 isn't really that effective.

**Giselle** · 04-24-2004, 12:04 AM

Well I had some fun playing with the neon glow, the first picture was done on a transparent background, used black letter, but one could use any text color. Now I went into Eye Candy 3.1 version and used the different glows they offer, but also changed the opacity, colors, also changed the from fat to thin glow, ext. Now I pasted this onto a black background. The second picture I really went wild, this plugin tool is called Neology Filter Pack. This was a free filter, I couldn't find it in my downloaded files but will look again for it or the url address. If you are interested in this filter. On your Eye Candy 4 do they offer this glow filter? Really they should, if not, it seems to me that they were offering Eye Candy 3.1 for free on the internet which would have this glow. Plus there was a lot of other nice filters in this package that I use also.

**Giselle** · 04-24-2004, 12:08 AM

Uh-oh, the first picture with the glows didn't come up, will have to see why....oh dear it exceeds the quota, have to see if I can maybe change it to a gif or something...