First, get the idea of what you want your blinkie to do. Then, get the idea of the picture you want (if you want one). Then, what kind of blinkie button and what kind of blink.
Sense this is just a tutorial, I want you to fire up your Paint Shop Pro now and copy this image:
Paste it into PSP.
Then, press Ctrl+N to bring up the Create A New Image box. Or, just go to File>New.
Set the settings to this:
Pixels
Width: 150
Height: 100
Resolution: 72.000 Pixels / inch Background color: Transparent
Image Type: 16.7 Million Colors (24 Bit)
You should now have a new image. Next, click back over to the Nova Pop and select the Magic Wand tool from the tool's (8th one down). Click on the white part of the image (where nothing is). Everything should now be selected. Next, click Selections, and click Invert. Now, only the image itself should be selected. So copy the image, by going to Edit>Copy. and click back over to your new file.
Go to Edit>Paste>Paste As New Selection. Move the image where you want, I'm putting it on the far left side.
Okay, once that's done, select the Paint Tool (11th one down) and, right click on it, and click Tool Options. A small box should come up. Set your Brush settings to match these:
Shape: Square
Size: 1
Hardness: 100
Opacity: 100
Step: 25
Density: 100
Check the 'Build Up Brush' box.
If your Nova Pop is still selected on the new file, click Selections>Select None.
Now, we are going to make our buttons. This is the fun part, there are many different styles of buttons, Glassy, Flat, Pushed Out, and Pushed In. We're going to do Glassy.
Zoom into your image 4 times. With the Paint Tool, I want you to make a square. We're going to make it 9x9. So, click the Paint Brush 9 times downwards so that you have a small line. Then go to the top of that line and up one, over one, so and click 9 more times so you have a line across the top. Repeat this for the other side and the bottom. It should look like this when you're finished:
Now, fill in the inside of the sqare so it's all black (or whatever color you're using).
Now, change your brush to a lighter color. Sense my button is black, I'm using grey. If you are using something like light pink/blue/purple, I'd suggest white.
Now go to the very top left corner of your button and make 3 strokes down. Then at the top of that new line, make 2 stokes the right right. Do the same thing at the bottom right corner. It should look like this now:
We have our blinkie button now..so, click the selection tool (6th one down) and select the button. Copy it. Then, paste it as a new selection. I'm going to make my blinkie say Nova, so I'll need 4 buttons, so I'll need to paste it 3 times. Line them up. If the last button has a sort of faded edge, just click the Paint Tool and go over it again.
Now, we're going to add our text. You will need a blinkie font. I'd suggest using Redensek. If you don't have it, download it at fontalicious.com/super/redensek.html. Select the text tool (19th one down). Set the settings to:
Name: Redensek
Size: 10
Script: Western
Stoke: None
Fill: Red (or whatever color you want)
Check the Floating box
Check the Antialias box
Then, type your first letter. Mine will be N. Then click ok. You should have the option to move the letter where ever, so move it into the middle of your first blinkie box. Repeat this step until you have all the letters on the blinkie. It should look like this now (sorry for poor quality):
Now we have the basic blinkie frame. We're going to make the rest of the frames now. So with your finished blinkie selected, hit Shift+D and the same image should be in a new box. We're going to make this blinkie blink one letter at a time to the right. So, zoom in 4 times on the newly opened image, and select a color you want it to blink. I'm going to use white. Select the Paint Brush tool and the change the color of the first letter. It should look like this now (sorry for poor quality):
Then click back over to the original image and hit Shift+D again. A new one should come up. Do the same thing you did before, but this time only change the second letter, leaving the first one the original color. Repeat this step until you have a frame for every color change.
Now, click back to the original image and copy it. Then, fire up Animation Shop and paste the image. Then go back to Paint Shop Pro and copy the second image, the one with the first letter changed and copy it. Go back over to Animation Shop, and paste it. (Edit>Paste>Paste AFTER Current Frame). Repeat this until you've put all the frames in Animation Shop.
After they're all pasted right click on one of the images and click Veiw Animation. If you think it's blinking too fast, click back over to the frames, click Edit>Select All. The right click on one of the images and click Frame Properties. Try changing it to 15, if it's still to fast, move up to 20, etc. mess around till you are happy.
Once you are happy, you're done! It should look like this now:
Now just save the image and go to photobucket.com and upload it and to put the blinkie on a petpage use the code that's in the middle out of the 3 under your newly added image.
I hoped this tutorial helped you, if you have any questions please feel free to e-mail or neomail me =)