Ellie's Treasures Photoshop/Photoshop Elements Tutorials - Blinkie Calendar
Blinkie Calendar: http://www.ellies-treasures.com/psptuts/blinckcalps/blinckcalps.html
This tutorial will print out on standard 8½" X 11" paper
This is a very long tutorial so will take a few pages.
   
For this tutorial you will need:
Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Photoshop

If you have Photoshop CS2 or Photoshop Elements 4, the animation can be done right in the program.
I checked Photoshop CS and this option wasn't in there, and I no longer have Photoshop Elements 3 to check it.
If it's not in your version, you will also need Adobe ImageReady,
the Adobe animation program, which comes with Photoshop and has for a long time.
You may also use any other animation program you have.

This may seem like a lot of steps and there's lots to do to complete the calendar, but it's not hard.
And once done, you can save as a template to reuse many times over.

Of all of the programs I used to make my blinkie calendars, I liked Photoshop Elements the best
and it will be the easiest to use in the future as the grid template can be greatly edited all at once at a later time.


Filters and materials needed
No filters needed
You'll need a psd file, or other transparent graphic file, such as a png file.

I am assuming you know the basics of Photoshop/Photoshop Elements and where the tools can be located.

Let's Get Started! Here are the steps.
 Setting up the grid
Adding the numbers and text
Deciding size and layout of calendar
Adding the grid to a larger canvas
Adding the blinkie lines
Make 1 or 2 more frames (2 more is the best)
Animation
MAKING THE CALENDAR GRID
Setting up the grid

1. Open a new white canvas, you can change this color later.
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2. Decide what size you want your grid to be.
Make allowances for the fact that you'll be adding a border,
possibly a tube at the side or top outside the grid so don't make it too large.
A good size is 140 wide and 120 tall if you are not adding the month to the grid.
140X140 if you are adding the month inside the grid.
You will use multiples of 7 across and 6 down and adjust the grid accordingly
Normal month will be 4 1/2  weeks, and 7 days, of course LOL, Your grid will always be 7 across.
add one row for the DOW initials that makes it (usually) 6 rows by 7 columns
If you want to have the month enclosed in a box right at the top that will be 7 rows tall instead of 6.
(you can add the month and year outside of the grid at the top of the canvas you will be switching to later)
If your month is spread across 6 weeks you will need to make it one row taller,
7 for grid without month, 8 if you need a box for the month at the top.
(see April calendar at the top to see what I mean)
to make any other size, just use multiples of 7 across and 6 down and make the grid that size
I made mine 140X120 (7 rows down, 6 across, 20X20 each, no row for the month)
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3 Go to Edit>Preferences>General>Guidelines and Grid.
Change the unit from mm, where it is by default, to pixels,
set the "Gridline every" to 20 and the subdivisions to 10
Turn on the grid by going to View>Show>Guides, Grids and Slices
Go to View>Snap to and make sure "Grids" is checked
Zoom in.
You will be doing most of the work zoomed in for better control.
Picking the colors

4. Pick 2 colors, 1 for background, one contrasting for grid, text and numbers
Fill the canvas with the color you want for the calendar background or leave it white.
6 Drawing the grid lines
a: Create a new layer
Create a new layer (in the layer palette, there is an icon second from the right,
next to the garbage pail, click on this to make a new layer.
Photoshop
 

Photoshop Elements


If you put your lines all on the background layer, you can't change your background color later on.
I put my horizontal lines in 1 layer, my vertical lines in another layer and my border lines in another layer.
If you save as a psd file, the layers will be intact to edit them.
Save often as you go along in psd format to preserve your layers.
No matter what program I work in, I save often and not over top of one another.
I make a series of work in progress saves so I can easily go back and undo it by picking an earlier save.
You can undo with the program you say? Have you ever crashed? Enough said. LOL
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b: Toolbar Options
Photoshop
Pick the line tool, it's just above the eyedropper tool,
it may be in behind so hold the tiny arrow down on it and you'll see it.
It's part of the shapes tools. Go to the tool options and make sure you have the Fill Pixels tool picked.
This is the 3rd icon over from the left side icon showing a line (see screenshot).


I had a heck of a time drawing the lines, my husband opened his PS and found he had
the anti-alias option and I didn't and I knew I had to turn it off as it was drawing a double line, 1 dark and 1 light.
I finally accidentally clicked on the fill pixel icon and that was the ticket. That's when my anti-alias box showed up.
So heads up. PS is a difficult program if you are used to PSP or PI.
And why do the help files always tell you how to use a tool but not where to find it or the options for it??? LOL
On with the show.

Set the line tool as shown in the screenshot above. Weight 1 px, mode normal, opacity 100%, anti-alias unchecked.

Photoshop Elements
In PSE, you will use the pencil instead of the line tool, and set the toolbar as shown below.

Everything is set at default, size is 2 pix
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C: Drawing the lines
The lines will snap to the grid so you won't have a problem.
Just draw them across and down, keep it somewhat straight and it will snap to the grid.
Snapping occurs at 8 program pixels or less, so if you're far off, it won't correct itself.
Another trick, if you are having a problem, is to hold the shift key down as you draw and it will keep the line straight.
This works in any graphics program, at least all I have tried.
Draw all of the lines down and all of the lines across, except for the line right under the first row,
where the days names will be and except for the borders. We'll be doing them at 2 pixels instead.

If you know where the days of the week fall for that month, you can keep the unused squares
without lines in the so you can add your name, watermark or a tube there.
Don't draw the column lines first or you will have to go back too far if you realize
at the last minute you wanted to do that. Like I just did. LOL
For instance March this year starts on a Wednesday so the first three squares will have nothing in them,
leave those squares blank if you like. I wanted those lines gone and I had done them first so my solution?
Make your background color in the palette the same color as your canvas background,
using the select tool, draw a rectangle around the two lines you want to delete and hit the delete key.
Lines gone!

You grid is done.

If you had added a box for the month, it would look like this

Save it in layers as a psd file so you can use it as a template to edit for another calendar.
 

ADDING THE NUMBERS AND TEXT
Click on your text tool, just above the line tool in the toolbar.
Have the color you want the text to be as the foreground color (for Photoshop)
In Photoshop Elements, you can pick the color in the text toolbar.

Pick your font.
For both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements I went into Edit>Preferences>Type and changed the font preview
from med to large to view the font more clearly when choosing.

Set the type tool to bold, the size I used for this particular font was 18 as it's rather a large font.
Put the aa, which is the anti-alias, at sharp. If you choose none,
the anti-alias will be turned off and your text will be jagged.
In Photoshop Elements, just click the aa button, that will turn on the anti-aliasing.

Photoshop Text Toolbar


Photoshop Elements Text Toolbar

Pick a font that is easy to read at small sizes. You can use a simple font, such as Arial.
You can use a fancy font as well. Experiment to see if it is readable at the 100% size of the calendar.
This will be at the true size of the calendar and you will see very easily if it's readable at that size.

Keep in mind that with the calendar zoomed up to work on it, the text will look funny,
blurry and out of focus. Reduce to actual pixels to see how they will look at the right size.
You may have to try out a few before you find what you like.

I chose KampFriendship, font size 18, for the calendar (the March Leprechaun one) after
checking the grid at it's true size to make sure it was readable at that size and it was what I wanted.
As I said before, it doesn't really matter because you can change it later.
You may have to go bigger or smaller depending on the font used. Some are very large and some are tiny.
I check out some text and some of the larger numbers, like 39, 27, etc
to see how the font will work in the squares and at what size.
Also, keep the numbers fairly small, don't fill up the whole square or it will look too crowded.
Use your judgment here.

There's no rule that you have to use the same font or font size for the letters and numbers either.
It's up to you!

Now type! You can use just the initial letter, such as S for Saturday and Sunday,
M for Monday, etc. or abbreviations, such as Sun, Mon, etc
Place your cursor about where you want the text to be.
After each letter and number click on the move tool and move it into position.
This will also make it create a new layer for each letter and number,
allowing you to position one or the other without moving them all.
Even just a fast click on the move tool without moving the text will be enough to make it create a new layer for each.
This is a bonus because if you save it in layers as a psd when it's all done, it can be a template.
You can reopen it later and change all the colors, fonts, etc.
And you don't have to change them one at a time either, just highlight all of the
layers you want to change, click on your text tool and make the changes all at once.
     
When working in such close quarters, you may need to turn off the snap to line
as the small text and numbers will tend to snap to top or bottom and hard to place.
Just click on View and uncheck the Snap command.
In placing the type, turning on the grid lines again, set it at 10X10.
It will help place the type and also zooming up close will help.

Open your layer palette as you work, you will see that each letter you type
goes on a separate layer with that letter for the layer name
Click on the move tool and click on the layer you want to move and just use your
arrow keys to position the letters, rather than trying to drag them around.
Just clicking on the letters or numbers themselves will not pick the layer,
you need to go to the layer palette to pick the layer.

Once the numbers and text are in place, you are ready for the next step.

Make sure you save it as a psd file before going on to preserve your template layers.
Once that's done, go to Layer>flatten image.
Back to top

CREATING THE REST OF THE CALENDAR

Deciding the size and layout of your calendar
You are now going to open a new blank white canvas the size you want this part of your calendar to be.
This includes the grid and rectangle around which the blinkie lines will be flashing.
But first you have to decide the layout of the finished calendar and the size.

The size will vary whether you enclose the whole calendar within the blinkie borders,
adding tubes to the top and/or sides or adding tubes to the canvas outside of the blinking lines.
You do need to add an area at the top to place the month and year,
if you haven't added them to the grid as explained above. 
If you have added the extra row to the grid for your month and year,
you can even stop here and just go to the section for type 3
where you add the border, and don't continue on to put it on a larger canvas (click here)
I imagine you will probably want to add more though!
 
Type 1
You can have the blinkie lines going around the calendar with no border
Like this one
This may not be the best example, it's the first one I made. LOL
This is the simplest one
This is on a 180X220 canvas		 Type 2
You can add tubes here and keep it all inside the blinkie,
just like above but you will add a border for the blinkie lines.
This is just like type 1 but has a dark border for the blinkie lines
This is on a 150X190 canvas


 
Type 3
The animated lines are around the original grid
and the grid is placed in an expanded canvas
Like this - with a final thin border going
around it to finish it off.
The final result is on a 200X210 canvas.		 Also Type 3
You can put it on a transparent canvas.
The same as the type at the left, except that the canvas
is transparent and you do not add the thin border
around the outside of the final canvas.
The final result is on a 240X210 canvas

Add grid to larger canvas

General instructions
 To copy the grid, go to Select>All; Edit>Copy;
to paste it into the new canvas click on that canvas and go to Edit>Paste.
It will paste as a new layer. When you paste, it will be in the exact center of the canvas
so when moving it up or down, use your arrow keys and it will stay centered horizontally.
Don't forget to click on your move tool first.

Type 1
Your grid is probably 140X120,unless you added the row for the month and year,
in that case it will be 140X140. My final example, after pasting to a larger canvas, was 180X220,
so create your new, larger canvas in that size or adjust accordingly.
Use the same color as your calendar background.


If you look at the final calendar in the section above, you will see that it's wider than this one shows.
I realized there was no room for the dashes so I made a bigger canvas and copied-pasted the grid into it.
Place the grid where you want it. Click on the background layer and flood fill with your chosen color.

You now add the month, year and any transparent pictures (psd files, png files) you want, each on separate layers.
Place them where you want them, making sure they are not too close to the edges.


If you are adding a dark blinkie border continue on to the type 2 section below.

If you are not adding a darker border but just the blinkies around the edges,
Now go to the next section on adding blinkie lines.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Type 2
Follow the steps as for Type 1 above.
The canvas can be a bit narrower as you are adding the dark border to put the blinkie lines in.

After saving as a layered psd file, go to Layer>Flatten image
Add a 5 or 6 pixel border in the color you used for the gridlines and text.
Go to Image>Canvas Size (in PSE it's Image>Resize>Canvas size) and expand the canvas by 5 pixels
all the way around in your darker color - leave the anchors where they are.
 
This will make your grid 10-12 pixels wider and taller.

Go to Layer>Flatten image
Now go to the next section on adding blinkie lines.
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Type 3
     
Working with your grid canvas and not the expanded canvas as the first two types,
add a 5 or 6 pixel border in the color you used for the gridlines and text.
Go to Image>Canvas Size (in PSE it's Image>Resize>Canvas size) and expand the canvas by 5 pixels
all the way around in your darker color - leave the anchors where they are.

This will make your grid 10-12 pixels wider and taller.
  
Go to Layer>Flatten image

Note: if you've come directly here from making the grid and don't want
to add anything else, go to the Adding Blinkie Lines section below.
Otherwise, just continue on with this section.

Make the larger sized canvas you want to use the same background color as your grid or make it transparent.
I made the March doll one 200X210 and flood filled it with the same gradient I used in the grid,
and the April bunny one 250X200 on a transparent background but this will vary
depending on where you want to place the psd or png files and how big they are.
If you have used a solid or gradient background instead of transparent,
put a thin border, about 2 pixels, around the outer edges of the canvas,
in the same dark color you used for the borders, text and grid lines, to finish it off.

Back to your grid canvas, Select>All; Edit>Copy and Edit>Paste the grid into your final canvas.
Place the grid where you want it. It will paste into the exact centre of the canvas,
so if you want to keep it centered, use the arrow keys to move it.
You will be copying the grid onto the larger canvas without
adding the blinkie lines first. That's done last.

Paste in the transparent psd's or png's, they'll each go in on their own layers,
and arrange them and the grid into the final layout.
Just picking the psd or png will not pick the layer. You have to go
into the layer palette and pick the layer you want to move.
Also put on your watermark if you are using one, or use the text tool to type your name
in a suitable spot such as I have in the April bunny calendar and the March bear girl one.
The April bunny one has two nice sized blank squares at the top and the bottom to add text to,
since April starts on a Saturday and ends on a Sunday.

Don't merge the background, tubes and grid together.
You will want the dash lines to be under the tubes that overlap the grid.

You're now ready to add the blinkie lines

Adding the blinkie lines

Photoshop
Setting the pencil tool
Pick the pencil tool, it's behind the brush tool. Just hold the little arrow at the
bottom right of the tool and the other tools will be in the dropdown menu.

In the Brush toolbar, press the little arrow on the right of the brush size and shape.
In the dropdown window, click on the little arrow on the upper right
This will give you more options. Go down to the bottom of the menu and pick square brushes.

In the next window, make sure you click on append or you won't see your round brushes any more
(although you can always get them back by clicking on default brushes in the same menu).
 If you append, you will add the square brushes to the bottom of the palette under the round brushes.


In the Brush Palette, make sure you pick Brush Tip Shape and not Brush presets,
or you won't get the needed options, as shown in the screenshot below.
In the square brush tips, pick the number 5 or 6 brush tip.
Change the spacing to 180%-200%, the angle to 90 degrees for the vertical line
or left at 0 for the horizontal line, roundness changed to 0.


In this case, the size of the brush tip makes the line longer and not thicker.
So if you want a longer or a shorter line, change the size of the brush tip.
If you don't change the roundness, you will get squares instead of dashes.

Make sure the color you want to use is the foreground color in your palette.
Use a contrasting color (either light on dark or dark on light)
or you can color every other dash a different color, such as I did with the April bunny.
I just used one color for the dashes and after I was done I used the magic wand
to pick every other dash and flood filled them.  It doesn't take long.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Photoshop Elements
Setting the Brush Tool
Click on your brush tool, click on the drop down arrow in the Brushes section and pick Square Brushes.



Pick the Hard Square 7 or 8 pix brush.

Make sure the color you want to use is the foreground color in your palette.
Use a contrasting color (either light on dark or dark on light)
or you can color every other dash a different color, such as I did with the April bunny.
I just used one color for the dashes and after I was done I used the magic wand
to pick every other dash and flood filled them.  It doesn't take long.

Now go to the right end of the toolbar and pick more options and change the spacing to 200% and the roundness to 20.
For the vertical lines (left and right), change the angle to 90, for the horizontal lines (tip and bottom) leave it at 0.


(If you don't change the roundness, you will end up with squares.
If you go back to the options and append the assorted brushes,
there's a diamond shape in there and a tiny star shape that would work well also. )
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Drawing the lines for Frame 1
For both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements

Zoom the canvas till you can see the border clearly
(about 150% usually, unless the blinkie is very small).

Make a new layer for each line (you'll be moving them later).

Now draw the line. Hold the shift key down while drawing to keep it straight.
Start with your cursor at the top left, right in the middle of the border.
Click down with the pencil in Photoshop (or the brush in Photoshop Elements) in the corner
and then hold down the shift key and draw across (or down) to the other corner.
You don't want the line to go all the way from corner to corner or you won't
be able to move it later to make the running light effect. If you have a line starting at the edge,
make sure the end does not go right to the opposite edge, as shown here.
When you are done it should look like the following examples.

For type 1, the calendar with no dark border around the canvas,
your lines need to be right at the edges for this method.
 

For the other two types, put the dashes right about the middle of the border.
 

If your lines aren't ending up in the right spot lengthwise, just a little off,
change the pencil size to 1 pix, roundness back to 100% and
just click as many times as you need with your border color
inside the dash to shorten ore remove one at either end.
If the line is not right in the middle of the dark border, just move it with your arrow key.

I recommend you name all of the layers, right, left, top, bottom
so you can select them easily when it's time to move them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Final Edit
Once you have all of your transparent pictures (psd's or png's) and lines the way you want them,
you will need to bring your transparent pictures to the front so the lines will be underneath of them.
Click on that layer to select it then go to the menu toolbar
and click on Layers>Arrange>Bring to front.
If you want to sharpen or use the unsharp mask, do it now as well.
If you do it on each frame separately they will never turn out the same twice
(I know, I tried-the animation went from sharp to fuzzy to sharp to fuzzy
even though I used the same setting on both frames LOL)
At this point you should save this in layers as a psd file.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Duplicate layers and then merge frame 1
Now you will right click and duplicate each of the layers.
You can highlight all of them and do them all at once.
When you are done, for each layer you will also have one named "copy".
Turn the visibility off each of the duplicate layers (click on the eye in the layer) and merge visible.

Rename this layer frame 1.

Turn off your merged frame 1 layer, and turn the duplicate layers back on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Making frame 2
You will now be moving the blinkie lines with the arrow keys on your keyboard,
not with your mouse, for greater precision.
Make sure you do not move anything else, like the graphics, or they will bounce in the animation.
Click on the left line layer (in the layer palette, just picking that
line in the canvas will not select it), and move it with the arrow keys so it ends near the opposite edge.
For instance, if it started near the top edge before, move it so it's near the bottom edge.
You are putting each of those lines in the opposite position than they were in before.
Look carefully at the lines in these screenshots.
Frame 1                  Frame 2  
 

Right click and merge visible.  Name this Frame 2. Turn layer one (the merged one) back on.
You will now have two layers, identical except for the lines being moved.

On further experimentation, I found that 3 frames makes the flow smoother than 2 frames.
If you want to make 3 frames, just make another one the same way as frame 2, but in
frame 2 don't move the lines as much and then in frame 3 move them to their final position.
You're now done the creation - on to the animation! Very easy
Back to top

ANIMATION
Photoshop CS2
(for previous versions, go to ImageReady Instructions below)

Go to the palette and click on the animation tab.

If you don't see it, go to your menu bar and
click on Window, click on Animation and the Animation Palette will appear.



Click on the little arrow to the right of the palette, for the options. Click on make frames from layers.

You will see both frames now in the animation palette.


Click on the play button and look at your image, it will be animated!
The animation palette is only in version CS2,

Creating the animation with ImageReady
What to do if you have a previous version that doesn't have the animation tab?
Go to your toolbar, at the bottom will be an option to edit in Image Ready (this comes with Photoshop).
You can also get to this from the menu bar in the file menu.

When you click on that, ImageReady will open
with your layered frames open as two frames at the bottom.


Just go to the file menu, click on preview in and pick your browser.

A browser window will open with your animation playing.
If not happy yet, you can click on File>Edit in Photoshop or click on the icon at the bottom
of the toolbar, and Photoshop will come to the foreground with the frames open.

If you want to change the delay between frames, go to the bottom where you have your two frames.
Next to the 0 sec there is a tiny arrow, click on that and pick a different time.

Saving in Photoshop
If you created the animation without ImageReady
If you have created the animation in Photoshop without ImageReady,
to save it go to File>Save for web, in the next large window that opens, make sure it's set as shown.

Leave all at default, making sure that transparency is checked and gif is named as the type.
Click on save, browse to where you want to save it, name it and click on save.

If you get a window up saying it's truncating the file name and you know you will not be working on a Mac,
click cancel and in this same window, click on a tiny arrow at the extreme right, next to the Preset window.
In the menu that pops out, click on Edit Output Settings.


In the next window click on the scroll down arrow in the field that says HTML and pick Saving files.
In the next window, under filename compatibility, uncheck Mac and Unix,
click OK and you shouldn't have any more problems like that.


 If you created the animation with ImageReady
If you like it, go to File>"Save optimized as" and name and save your new blinkie calendar as a gif.

I've made my mistakes as I went along but I learned a lot from figuring out how to fix them.
Don't be afraid to make mistakes, that's how you learn.

Photoshop Elements 4
(if you have a previous version and don't have the animation option, follow the
instructions just above, in the Photoshop section, on how to use ImageReady to animate.
I'm not sure if this feature is in previous versions.

My preferred methd: If you have PSE 4 you can animate right here. Just go to File>Save for Web.
In the next window that opens, you will see your frames.
At the top right, make sure that GIF is selected, and just under
the transparency box, which should also be checked, click on the box to select Animate.


Now if you look at the bottom of that panel, you will see the animation player.
You can click back and forward with the arrow keys to see your frames.
Check the box Loop to make the animation keep "looping" or running. Change the frame delay to 0.


Now see the box right at the bottom just beside this panel, called Preview in?

That will allow you to preview in your browser. Mine didn't have a browser in there
so I clicked on Edit List, then browsed to C:/Program Files/Internet Explorer
and picked iexplore.exe. Now it will be available for you. Just pick the IE icon in the Preview in
and a browser window will open in which you will see your blinking calendar.
If it's running too fast, you can change the time delay back in the panel
where you changed it to 0. You can change it to 0.1 or 0.2 (which is where it is by default)
but I found the lines running too slow, I liked it best at 0 but you can do what you want, it's your creation!

Now click on OK in the save window to save this as a gif to wherever you want it.

That's it, you're now done your first blinkie calendar.
And if you saved in layers as I showed you, you will be able to use them as a template to make another one.
Of all the programs, I like Photoshop Elements the best to make calendars as it's the only program that allows you
to highlight all of the text layers and make changes to the font, the font color and the font attributes all at once.
So I just made the first template and reuse it every month, I just delete the pictures and replace with new ones,
and I change the font, font color and font size to all of the layers at once. Great program. So easy!

Here are a few more examples of my calendars. As you can see, I prefer the ones on a transparent canvas.
   
  

l hope you had fun!

If you have any questions or suggestions, email me at this page
http://www.ellies-treasures.com/email/email.html 
Have a wonderful day!

These tutorials are all my own creations.
Any resemblance to any other tutorial is purely coincidental and unintentional.
Feel free to share any of my tutorials on this site by a link back to my site,
but do not copy and send the entire tutorial to anyone or any group.
©2006 Ellie's Treasures