Created June 2003 © §harang© - Sharang's Place

Please do not place or copy this tutorial without my permission,
you are more than welcome to link to it with a text link.

This tutorial is written for PSP7 and AS and assumes you have
a good working knowledge of the PSP tools.

Any resemblence to any other tutorial is purely coincidental.


Supplies Needed

Paint Shop Pro & Animation Shop
The Font I Used - Here - Acadian
My Supplies - Here - This includes the star tube, pattern fill and psp file.
I have no knowledge as to the origin of the fairy I used for this tutorial.
If it belongs to you please let me know so I can give you full credit for it.


1. Open all the supplies in PSP and minimise the tube and pattern fill for now.
Your psp file contains 2 layers, Fairy 1 and Fairy 2.

2. Click on Fairy 2 layer to make it active.
Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow using these settings :
Vertical and Horizontal = 2. Opacity = 60. Blur = 7. Colour = #808080.
Click on Fairy 1. Apply the same drop shadow. Turn off the visibility on Fairy 2.

3. Set your foreground colour to #736C93 and your background colour to #B4A9D2.
Using your text tool add your name using Acadian and the following settings:
Size 100. Bold, Vector and Antialias all checked.
Position your text so that your fairy appears to be standing on it.
Re-name this layer Text 1. Duplicate it 3 times.
Re-name the copies Text 2, Text 3 and Text 4.
Turn the visibility off on all of the copies.

4. Right-click on Text 1 and Layers > Convert To Raster Layer.
Effects > 3D Effects > Inner Bevel.
Use the Frame preset but change the depth to 1.
Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow using the same settings as before.
Turn off the visibility on Text 1. Click on Text 2 to make it active.

5. Click on the + sign at the side of Text 2.
Double click on your name to bring up your text entry box.
Set your Styles Fill to Pattern and look for the Swirl pattern fill you minimised earlier.
Scale = 100. Angle = 0. Click on OK.

6. Right-click on Text 2 and convert to raster layer.
Effects > 3D Effects > Inner Bevel using the same settings as before.
Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow using the same settings as before.
Turn off the visibility on Text 2 and click on Text 3 to make it active.

7. Click on the + sign at the side of Text 3.
Double click on your name to bring up your text entry box.
Set your Styles Fill to Pattern and look for the Swirl pattern fill again.
Scale = 100. Angle = 120. Click on OK.

8. Right-click on Text 3 and convert to raster layer.
Effects > 3D Effects > Inner Bevel using the same settings as before.
Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow using the same settings as before.
Turn off the visibility on Text 3 and click on Text 4 to make it active.

9. Click on the + sign at the side of Text 4.
Double click on your name to bring up your text entry box.
Set your Styles Fill to Pattern and look for the Swirl pattern fill again.
Scale = 100. Angle = 240. Click on OK.

10. Right-click on Text 4 and convert to raster layer.
Effects > 3D Effects > Inner Bevel using the same settings as before.
Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow using the same settings as before.

11. Add a new raster layer and name it Bckg. Floodfill with white.
Layers > Arrange > Send to bottom.

12. Add a new raster layer and name it Star 1.
Layers > Arrange > Bring to top.
Click on your Star tube and Edit > Copy.
Click back on your image and Edit > Paste > As new selection.
Place it slightly to the left and below the wand. Selections > Select None.
Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow using the same settings as before.

13. Right-click on Star 1 and duplicate, re-name this Star 2.
Place it slightly to the left again and in line with the wand.

14. Right-click on Star 2 and duplicate, re-name this Star 3.
Place it slightly to the left and above the wand.

15. Right-click on Star 3 and duplicate, re-name this Star 4.
Place it slightly to the left and below the wand.

16. Right-click on Star 4 and duplicate, re-name this Star 5.
Place it slightly to the left and above the wand.

17. Right-click on Star 5 and duplicate, re-name this Star 6.
Place it touching the first letter of your name.

18. Now is a good time to crop your image and add some sparkle.
Turn on the visibility on all layers and using your crop tool, crop any excess.
Click on Text 2 and add your sparkles, I used my paintbrush tool and set it to
custom brush no. 31, size 50 and applied white sparkles.
Repeat this step with Text 3 and Text 4 layers.

Now all the groundwork's done it's time to put it all together...ready?...lol.

19. Turn off the visibility on all your Star layers, Fairy 2 and Text 2, 3 & 4.
You should have Bckg, Text 1 and Fairy 1 visible.
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible. Save as 1psp and also save as 3psp.
Edit > Undo Merge Layers.

20. Turn off the visibility on Fairy 1 and click on Fairy 2 to make it active.
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible. Save as 2psp.
Edit > Undo Merge Layers.

21. Turn the visibility off on Fairy 2 and click on Fairy 1.
Click on Star 1 to make it active.
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible. Save as 4psp. Edit > Undo Merge Layers.

22. Turn the visibility off on Star 1 and click on Star 2 to make it active.
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible. Save as 5psp. Edit > Undo Merge Layers.

23. Turn the visibility off on Star 2 and click on Star 3 to make it active.
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible. Save as 6psp. Edit > Undo Merge Layers.

24. Turn the visibility off on Star 3 and click on Star 4 to make it active.
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible. Save as 7psp. Edit > Undo Merge Layers.

25. Turn the visibility off on Star 4 and click on Star 5 to make it active.
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible. Save as 8psp. Edit > Undo Merge Layers.

26. Turn the visibility off on Star 5 and click on Star 6 to make it active.
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible. Save as 9psp. Edit > Undo Merge Layers.

27. Turn the visibility off on Star 6 and Text 1. Click on Text 2 to make it active.
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible.
Save as 10psp. Save as 13psp. Save as 16psp.
Edit > Undo Merge Layers.

28. Turn the visibility off on Text 2 and click on Text 3 to make it active.
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible.
Save as 11psp. Save as 14psp. Save as 17psp.
Edit > Undo Merge Layers.

29. Turn the visibility off on Text 3 and click on Text 4 to make it active.
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible.
Save as 12psp. Save as 15psp. Save as 18psp.
Edit > Undo Merge Layers.

30. Launch Animation Shop and run the Animation Wizard at default settings.
1st window - Same size as the first image frame checked.
2nd window - Transparent checked.
3rd window - Centred in the frame and With the canvas colour both checked.
4th window - Yes checked. Put in 25 in the frame length.
5th window - Add your images 1psp to 18psp.
Click on finish.

31. Run your animation and save as a GIF and you're done.

I hope you enjoyed doing this tutorial and like your new sig.





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