Making tubes can be relaxing for some, frustrating
for others! LOL And everyone makes them in their
own way, using different techniques and shortcuts.
I have learned alot since making my first tutorial on
making tubes and now I am updating it with many
tips I have discovered.
It may seem strange that this tutorial is for PSP5 but it's what
I began making tubes with way back when and I'm a creature
of old habits LOL I use other versions of PSP for special
effects and things but prefer to make tubes in PSP5.
The other versions of PSP are very simliar though and
shouldn't be too difficult to adapt.
I hope you learn some things from it
and have lots of fun hours playing in PSP.
PLEASE take your time reading each step and have fun!

First I will show you the tools I use in PSP:

Also when you click on:

you will get this:

Depending on which TOOL you have clicked on at the moment,
the screen shot above will show different options.

One of the best features in PSP is UNDO!!! LOL
If you make a mistake, just undo it. There is also UNDO HISTORY
which will undo many more things you have already done.
This is where you find the UNDO option:

First I open the graphic and begin cleaning it up.
(Note: If you would like to save your original graphic,
just copy and paste as a new image.)

Using the FLOOD FILL can and white, I begin filling the
background in. If the background of your graphic is mostly another
color, sometimes flood filling and cleaning up in that
color works better. The higher you can go on the tolerance of the flood
filling, the quicker you can get it filled in but you also have to be
careful that you don't over do it, then you will fill in things you don't want to
fill in. The third picture up showing the CONTROLS is where you will
see TOLERANCE. You can adjust that lower and higher as needed.
I had it set for 50 but depending on the picture, you may need to lower that.
Ok, now let's begin flood filling the graphic so we can
clean it up for tubing.
Using the settings shown above on the CONTROL options, I clicked
inside and this is how it appears now:

Flood fill in all the areas around the flower.
At this point, I find it easier to ZOOM in on the picture.
Go up to VIEW and ZOOM in, usually I do it at 2:1 ratio.

Now that you have zoomed in, you can also see other things
that need to be cleaned up.
At this point, I usually use the AIRBRUSH tool to clean it up.
Click on that and the CONTROL panel will change to this:

These are the settings I normally use for smaller areas.
If they are hard to get into, I also use the LINE tool, like to
get into the area shown below:

Now just clean up with the FLOOD FILL tool,
AIRBRUSH and/or LINE tools.
To get rid of all the checkers around it,
I used the SELECTION tool, having white as my
background color, and just pulled it out of the picture.

Anytime you need to add to certain areas, just pick up the same color
using the EYEDROP tool, click on that area and it will show up in
FOREGROUND color box:

I clicked on the leaf with the EYEDROP tool to get
the same green you see in the box.

Now that you have the picture all cleaned up, I use the FREEHAND
tool and draw around it as shown below:

Then click on COPY and then PASTE AS A NEW IMAGE:

You will then have what you see below:

Now using the MAGIC WAND

click on the white area and the whole area should be blinking.
On your CONTROL PALETTE you should have your
settings as shown below, the 45 is optional,
its usually what I go with but 45 can be too high,
look closely at it, even ZOOM if you'd like
to make sure it won't cut out parts of the tube.
If it does, you need to lower the TOLERANCE.
Have the FEATHER setting on 0 for now.

Now click on the SCISSORS tool on your top toolbar and it will cut all that area out.
Use the MAGIC WAND and SCISSORS in all areas to be cut out.
TIP: Now I click on the transparent area with the
MAGIC WAND to check for things I may have missed.
On the next picture below,you will see what I mean.
By zooming in on it, you will see things that may have gotten missed.
Now I use the FREEHAND, or some call it the ROPE tool
and go around them and just pull them out of the picture.

Make sure all areas are cut out before moving on to the next step.
The next step is to smooth out the edges.
To do this, you use the FEATHER tool.
Have the MAGIC WAND clicked on and go to the CONTROL PALETTE
and up the FEATHER to number 1.

Now click in all areas again with the MAGIC WAND,
cutting each area out with the SCISSORS.
Unfortunately, this example I used has only one area to cut.
Then move the FEATHER up to 2 and so on.
I generally do this up to 3 on all areas.
Normally after cutting at 2, I like to test it and see if it needs to be feathered at 3.
To do this, I copy and paste the tube to a new image
and drop shadow so I can see anything I may have missed
and also to see if I need to feather it one more time to smooth out the edges.
NOTE: Be sure to set the FEATHER back
to 0 before going on to other projects.

Once I am satisfied with how it turned out, I do something that saves space.
I go up to COPY and PASTE again and it makes a new
image of the tube, and if all the edges are clean, it will cut the tube
down to a size that ONLY the tube itself fits into.
Then there won't be alot of extra transparent
space there that only makes the tube bigger,
therefore taking up more space on your hard drive.

Now go up to FILE and SAVE AS and save as shown below.

After naming the tub, I type in .tub then click SAVE.
I personally do not export my tubes.
I prefer to save them in a separate folders somewhere on my
hard drive and then just copy and paste them when using them.
If you need to make them smaller when you are using them,
just go up to IMAGE and RESIZE.
I do not use SHARPEN on them after resizing though,
it takes away some of the clarity.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and found it easy to understand.
Happy PSP'ing!!!

IMPORTANT NOTE: I spent alot of time making this tutorial,
PLEASE DO NOT copy and paste it to an email, just send the link to
your friends if you'd like to share it. Thank you.

The daisy used in my tutorial is a copyright of Debbie Mumm.

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Due to a server crashing, much of the site is gone, sorry.

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