Super Blade Pro (SBP) is a very good plugin for applying texture effects to TEXT in PSP.

I will explain what the control buttons on the SBP workspace do..

You can find many sites online to get Super Blade Pro presets.. Beautiful ones. Try doing a search online for Super Blade Pro Presets. When you download them, extract ALL of the files in those zips.. into your docs/mypspfiles/plugins/super blade pro/environments folder.

You can use SBP on buttons and such but for the most part... you use it on TEXT.. and  99% of the time its best to apply it over WHITE text.. once in a while.. like in my header on this page.. I filled the text with a pattern  *checks* and applied a clear SBP preset over that.

When you first get into the plugin... it looks like this below...You have to browse to your presets.. so click the button where the red arrow indicates. The 'Open a settings file' window will pop up... use the drop down list. where it says Look In and browse to your environment folder inside the SBP folder in your plugins folder. In the sample below.. I've highlighted the M_aquaglitter.q5q file... usually most presets come with samples of that they look like in the lil preview window there on the right. Click OPEN.

You should have it in your files folders where you can see file extensions... this is important sometimes.. to know what TYPE of file something is... that option is in any file folder.. up at Tools/ Folder Options...on the VIEW tab.. you UNCHECK the hide file type extensions.

The settings window will close and below is what you will see.. you can click the plus sign to the right under the preview window.. so you can see the preview good. When you choose a preset all the settings have been saved by the preset maker.. nothing to do but click OK

If you want to learn to make your own presets then I will explain each button and what it does.. I have numbered each one and will go though them all.

#1. Shape... this is the shape of the bevel on the letters, clicking it drops it down so you can see the choices.. you can try different ones on a preset that you have picked.. to see how it changes it..

#2. is the bmp textures, clicking it.. drops it down where you see the choices.

#3. Each preset that you download from the internet comes with its own graphic thats used to make that preset...its usually a .bmp or jpg type file.. here you can use your own.. if your making your own presets... each texture graphic will make the letters look very different.. experiment.

#4. Same thing on this one.. as #3.

#5. is the Blend mode.. the sideways S above it, scrolls through all the blend mode choices.

#6. Resets all the settings to Plain settings.

#7. This is the browse button, where you go look in your environment folder inside the Super Blade Pro folder.

#8. SAVE your preset you have created with this button.

#9. Random effects.

#10. Go back a setting, one you had chosen before.

#11. Random Seed, This keeps most of the settings the same... only changing them a tiny bit.. will keep same color.. try and see what I mean.

#12. All of these slider bars.. affect different looks to the preset...that your using or creating.. most of these are self explanatory.

#13. Adjusts the dominant lighting on the project.

#14. Adjusts the sub shadow lighting on the project.

#15. These are the Textures of the project, there are colors to these also.

#16. These are also Textures of the project and you can assign what ever color you want this texture to be..

There are millions of combinations on how you want your Text, project to look like.. best way in my book is to roll your sleeves up and jump right in and try all the combinations you can... you will be surprised at the beautiful effects you can come up with yourself.

I hope this has helped you to understand Super Blade Pro a little better.. Till next tutorial..

TOODLES..

HOME