Here are your SUPPLIES for this tutorial.

Its easy to get confused with this tutorial.. even myself . Takes concentration dealing with all the layers you will be working with and moving.. This tutorial is more for intermediate+ level of PSP user.

Drag this arrow around to help you keep up with where you are in the tutorial.

Said it once.. said it MILLION times.. in PSP there are several ways to do the same thing. All my tutorials reflect the way I DO IT... and what is easiest for me.. NOW if you can figure out a better way.. hey go for it.. and let me in on it please hehe. I'm for learning all I can to do with PSP.

First off.. go to FILE/NEW and create a new image 500 x 500. Big I know but can always crop down later. Copy and paste the Maple Leaves tube that is in the zip file of supplies up above. Place your tube EXACTLY where you want it.. once you go through these steps you cant move it unless you undo lots of steps.. and you cant move layers once this is started either.. So position them where you want.. then go to Selections/select all/ Float then back to selections/Load/Save Selection/Save Selection to Alpha Channel. Your commited now unless you undo..

Save the selection as Maple Leaves or whatever you will recognize. UNSELECT, you can now CUT or delete the real leaves tube out of your image.. NOT the layer but highlight the layer and cut the leaves.. will still have that layer there on palette. On the layer palette.. you should have the bottom layer name it bkg and the leaf layer which you just cut the leaves out of.. Fill this second layer with WHITE or whatever color you want.. I chose white.. 

Then go to Selections./ load selection from Alpha channel.. and find your Oak Leaves or maple.. whichever they are lol..

You will see the shape of the leaves on the white.. click your CUT or DELETE.. cutting out that shape.. go to SELECTIONS/ INVERT and add a 3D shadow on there. Use the settings below

Not shown.. but on the BKG layer FILL with a color or pattern.. so it will be UNDER the leaf cutout.  I chose an orange stripe bkg tile I had made. Now merge the bottom bkg layer you filled with the color.. and the WHITE cut out leaf layer together.. Highlight the white leaf layer  on the layer palette.. Merge DOWN... that will merge only the selected layer and the layer right underneath it.. no matter how many layers you got going.. remember this.. Merge DOWN comes in handy..

Now open your PSP's Animation Shop and open one of the falling dot animations.. I put in the zip of supplies for you.. I included several colors.. in A.S go to edit/select ALL and Edit again and EXPORT to PSP or on the keyboard which I use.. hit Ctrl + A to select all... then Shift + X to Export all the frames to PSP.  It will immediately take you back to PSP.  Now this is tricky here.. have to pay attention.. if you click on the animation.. you will see on the layer palette.. that there is 8 frames to the animation.. we have to copy and paste as new image EACH frame.. and line them up in the correct order on the workspace.. start with FRAME 1 and have it selected.. COPY then PASTE as NEW IMAGE. Put it on top left of workspace as shown.. then highlight or select FRAME 2 on layer palette and COPY and PASTE AS NEW IMAGE.. put it right under the first one that you copied and pasted.. When your done.. on the layer palette you will have the 8 different lil dot windows.. all in order. top is frame 1 and on down to frame 8.

See the sample below on the placement of these lil windows of the dot frames...

It depends on what you have opened on your workspace  in PSP as to what the name of the images of the lil dot windows...  mine started with Image 9  yours might be different.. just know that the FIRST ONE is the first one on the materials list that you will use for fill.. I started with image 9 that was FRAME 1 for me.. it goes image 9-16 or Frame 1-8 in other words.. Have I lost you.. yikes hope not this is where you have to keep what frame is what...

ok on the layer palette... highlight the bottom bkg layer.. that's the white with leaf cut out with the colored bkg . On the materials palette choose pattern for the foreground.. and double click on the pattern window.. it expands down like it shows below.. choose your FIRST dot image that was frame 1.

on your canvas ADD a new layer.. go to Selections/load-save selection/load from alpha channel.. and choose the leaf shape. back to your image.. on that new layer use your FILL tool and fill that with that first dot pattern.. ADD A NEW layer click on the foreground window in materials palette and choose the next image.. the numbers are consecutive.. you keep adding a layer.. filling it with the next dot image.. until you do that 8 times.. when your done you will have the bottom bkg layer on the layer palette and raster 1, raster 2, - raster 8  9 layers in all..

Below is BEFORE I merged/merge DOWN the orange filled bkg and the white cut out leaves bkg.. but you can see.. the raster 1-8 there that's the dot layers...

Now open whatever tube your going to use.. and click on the TOP Raster 8 layer on the layer palette.. and COPY and PASTE the new tube on there.. and name the layer please..

Your layer palette should look like this..

If your not already as confused as you can be.. then be ready to get MORE confused lol.. you need to duplicate the bottom bkg layer 7 times.. and then duplicate the top tube layer 7 times.. so you will have 8 layers of each... on my sample below.. I accidently  duplicated them one too many times.. and took the screen capture then straightened it up later.. and didn't take a capture.. over look the extra layer of the bkg and the basket of cats that's there. Below you can tell how the layer palette should look.. with all the duplicated layers.. bkgs on bottom.. tube on top and the Raster 1-8 in middle that's the dot filled layers..

You can work this any way you would like. but the way I did it.. I drug a Raster 1 layer and a Cat basket layer on top of a Bkg layer and merged those 3... Your suppose to end up with 8 merged layers when done... a BKG, A RASTER and A TUBE layer all get merged together.. need to be precise in dragging the Rasters down.. if they're not keep in the order of 1, 2 ,3 ,4 ,5  etc.. the animation wont look right.. So How I did it all was HID or X'd out all the layers.. drug Raster 1 layer down on top of BKG layer then drug a cat basket layer on top of the Raster 1 then merged visible just 3 layers together.. all the other layers are protected or hid.. then those 3 layers are called merged layer. .I HID it.. then un hid the next copy of BKG layer.. drug Raster 2 layer on top of this.. and then copy of basket of cats on top of that.. un hiding just the 3 layers and merge/merge visible.. every thing else is X'd. I do this till all layers are merged and I end up with only 8 merged layers..

This below shows how I'm merging all the layers.

Got one done here and merging the next 3 layers..

 time to crop if you want.. I use selection tool and crop to selection..

Here I added a frame.. I had 8 merged layers.. I added a new layer.. and filled with my first color... went to selections/select all/modify/ contract 7 pixels.. CUT... then filled with next color.. selections/modify/contract 3 pixels/ CUT then INVERTED then put an inner bevel on it and a 3D drop shadow.. I duplicated this frame layer.. after naming it on the layer palette.. and merging each new frame layer with a merged layer.. just like I merged all the other ones above.. in other words drug a frame layer on top of a merged layer and merged /merged down... so on and so on.. ending up again with 8 merged layers..

When you end up with your 8 merged layers.. your done!!

 SAVE AS.. animation shop (*.psp) type file.. then open it in PSP's animation shop and save as GIF file. Hope this wasn't too confusing..

TOODLES till next time..

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