Making a Prism

Now we're going to start making the light effects on the prism.

In your layer palette, make layer 3 active (single left click on it so that it's highlighted)

Now you need to go to the Effects menu and choose "Illumination effects" and then across to "lights"

At first glance, the Lights dialogue box probably looks a bit complicated and daunting.  Don't worry, most of the stuff you don't need to worry about 'cos it will adjust itself!  :o)

On the left hand side there's an option called "Presets" with a drop-down box underneath it.  In that dropdown box you need to choose "RGB Light"

In the left-hand preview pane, you can adjust the various bits to get the lighting just the way you want it to be.  You'll notice that there is a little asterisk that is linked to 2 crosses and also to a circle with a cross in the middle of it.  These are the things you need to adjust to get the lighting right.  

The asterisk shows you where the light source will be on your image - where the most intense part of the colour will start

The 2 crosses let you adjust the angle of the beam 

The circle with the cross in it lets you adjust how far you want the colours to go.

Underneath the Preset options drop down list there's a setting for "Darkness".  Make sure that's set to 85

Underneath the Darkness setting there are 5 numbered buttons.  These hold the settings for the different colours.  For this tutorial we will only use the first 3 buttons - one for red, one for green and one for blue.  Make sure that the first button is selected.

On the right hand side of the Preset options drop-down list there is a box holding all the settings.  The first setting is to say whether you want the light source on or off.  We want it on, so make sure the little box is checked.

Next to that is a colour box that lets you choose the colour of the light.  Make sure this box is bright red.  

Underneath the colour box is a setting for Intensity.  Change your intensity so that it says 100

You don't need to worry about any of the other settings in the box... these are the only ones we are going to use :o)

At this point, I find it easier to work if I zoom in on my image (there's a little magnifying glass with a "+" and a "-" in between the 2 preview panes... use these to zoom in and out.

Depending on where your octagon is on your image, your settings will be slightly different to mine. 

Click and drag on the asterisk and place it as close to the middle of the first straight line (on the right hand side of the octagon) as you can:

Now we need to tell PSP which direction we want the beam to go in, so click and drag on the circle with the cross in so that it's pointing almost diagonally out to the right hand corner of the image and move it right out so that it's touching the edge of the image... the 2 crosses will move with it:

Now that PSP knows roughly where you want the source to start and it knows which direction it's going in, it needs to know how big a beam you want on that colour.

You only need to click and drag one of the crosses 'cos they both move at the same time, so click and drag on one of the crosses and line up the beam so that the top and bottom of the beam slightly overlap the top and bottom of the diagonal line.  

Now we've got to do the same for the other 2 colours, so click on button number 2.  

Change the colour in the box on this one to bright blue and follow the same steps as you did above but position the asterisk on the bottom diagonal this time:

Now it's time to do the final colour.

Click on button number 3 and change it to bright green.

Follow the same steps as you did for the red and the blue but line up the green in the centre of the last line on the right hand side of the octagon.  This time you will notice that where the colours overlap they merge and change to make a new colour.  Impressive huh?  :o)

Now you need to adjust the "darkness" setting to 50 and click on "OK"

We need another new image (file, new) at the same settings as this image but with a white background:

Width: 300 pixels
Height: 300 pixels
Resolution: 72.000 pixels per inch
Background:  White
16.7 million colours (24 bit)

Now we need to give this image the same effect as we have just given to the octagon, but don't worry, you don't need to go through all those steps again - there's a nice easy way to do it :o)

Go to the "Effects" menu, down to "Illumination Effects" and across to "lights"

The settings that you've just used on the octagon should come up automatically - if you look in the Presets option drop-down list it should now say "last used".  

Adjust the "darkness" to 85 but leave everything else the same

Hit "OK" and you should have something similar to this:

Save your work

Now might be a good time to take a break and have a bit of a breather... we're almost there now!