For information about which fonts, programs, etc I used to construct my pages and my headers, click here.
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For this tutorial you will need: ULead PhotoImpact - available for trial or purchase here or Adobe Photoshop - available for trial or purchase here or Adobe Photoshop Elements - available for trial or purchase here or Corel Paint Shop Pro (or Jasc PSP pre version X)- available for trial or purchase here ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This tutorial will work in any of these programs and will also work in most graphic programs that support layers and filters. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Filters and Materials needed Fantastic Machines Paint Engine - available free here My fmachine.ini file to put the same settings into your Paint Engine (just unzip and put it into C:\Windows) Click here to download it. (optional, you can make a different background or add the settings yourself) Tube, object, png or psd file ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I use a little program called the The Image Tiler to preview my tiles to see if they're seamless. Not necessary in PI but useful in the other programs. It's license says it's free to be redistributed and all of the links I found for it are dead, so I've uploaded it. Click here to download it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My plugin windows may look different from yours as I use Filters Unlimited 2 to manage my plugins - available for purchase here. I am assuming you know the basics of your graphics program and where the tools can be located. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Some abbreviations I use: PSP is Paint Shop Pro, PI is PhotoImpact, PS is Photoshop, and PSE is Photoshop Elements. |
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Let's get started!
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1. Open your tube, object, psd or png file 2. Open a new canvas, 1280 X height of tube, plus 30-40 pixels, white |
2.
Paste tube into it, move it to the left side. Duplicate tube, in the layer manager, turn the opacity down to about 50-60 (PI), 35 (PSP, PS and PSE) Arrange>Send to back (PI) or drag the layer down below the first tube layer (PSP, PS and PSE)  Pull this duplicate image to the lower right of the top tube and mostly under the original tube, duplicate this nearly transparent tube and pull it to the lower left, aligned with the right one.  |
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Make sure you are on
the background layer, that none of the tube layers are selected. Fill the canvas with color of choice. Go to Effects (Filter)>Fantastic Machines Paint Engine, the zap preset.  Make sure "Wrap Edges" is checked Your presets for FM Paint Engine is in C:\Windows as an ini file called fmachine.ini. You can add this line to the file (open it with Notepad), by just hitting enter to get to the next line and pasting it in. Setting02=zap;1,1,0,0,1,0,114,180,38,0,100,171,87,20,7,-10,0,5,0,0 Your ini file will look like this, but it should have many more entries in it.  Or you can download my entire fmachine.ini file. Just unzip the file and copy the file into C:\Windows. Click here to download it. It has about 105 settings in it. You may already have an fmachine.ini file, you probably do if you have Paint Engine installed. It's just a text file, so copy what's in my file, open your ini file and paste the new presets in.  Anytime you play with the filter and find another setting you like, just save it and the preset will go into this file. Another favorite preset of mine is Pastel Sponge. Setting01=pastel sponge;1,1,0,0,0,1,233,324,9,2,100,118,108,14,9,-1,0,0,2,1 I use this preset all of the time if I don't have time to play with filters to get a new background. You'll find a lot of my stationery with the Pastel Sponge background. Here's one done with the FM Paint Engine preset Deb's Too.   This is the line to paste into your fmachine.ini file: Setting68=DebsToo;1,1,0,0,0,1,4294967279,4294967216,21,2,128,364,121,14,-10,8,0,6,4294967152,4294967161 It's also in my file that I have available for upload above. The next step is optional Make sure the tube layer is active and go to Filter (Effect)> FM Tile Tools and apply Blend Emboss at the default settings. Merge all (or flatten), watermark and done. Save as a jpg and don't forget to optimize. Optimizing PhotoImpact: I normally optimize the jpg at anywhere from 60-80, just check the preview window and see how it looks. I use 60 the most but sometimes you need it optimized less for a good graphic. Paint Shop Pro: I normally optimize at about 10-12 Photoshop/Photoshop Elements: I normally save at medium. |
| Merge all, watermark and save. |
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Some more examples.
I used a plain black background for the stationery "Ritual"  I used a tile from my Wire Tile Stationery tutorial for "Wicked Angel"  |
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If
you have any questions or suggestions, click on the email button
below to contact me. |
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These tutorials are all my own creations. |
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