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For this tutorial you will need: ULead PhotoImpact - available for purchase here or Adobe Photoshop - available for purchase here or Adobe Photoshop Elements - available for purchase here or Jasc Paint Shop Pro - available for purchase here This tutorial will work in any of these programs. Filters and Materials needed Simple filters - Quick Tile - available free here Almathera filters - available free here (entire set) Tube, PI Object or Adobe PSD file (a psd file can be opened in any of the programs, in layers) 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 used: 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 canvas
1280X300 2. Pick 2 colors from tube, fill canvas with foreground color; the lightning effect color will be what you picked for the background color Colors I used  |
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3. Go to Effects>>Almathera>A
Lightning Maker - Typical preset settings: 70, 27, 45  It should look like this now  |
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4. Repeat Lightning
Maker but this time choose Wild preset settings: 95, 55, 150  It should look like this now  |
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5. PSP, PS, PSE:
go to the layer palette, right click, duplicate (or duplicate
layer) PI: Edit>Copy; Edit>Paste as object |
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6 PSP: Image>Mirror PI: click on transform tool, click on icon to flip horizontally PS: Go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. PSE: Go to Image>Rotate>Flip Layer Horizontal It will look like the whole thing flipped but don't worry, it didn't |
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7 PSP, PS and PSE:
In layer palette, lower opacity of this layer to 40 PSP  PS, PSE  PI: In layer palette, lower opacity to about 60  after duplicate, mirror and lower opacity  8. Merge all or flatten image |
9. Go to Effects (or
Filters)>Simple>Quick Tile |
10. Go to Effects>Almathera>A
Warper>Pinch preset, default settings of -40, 0, 0 It should look like this now  11. Repeat pinch effect, same settings It should look like this now  |
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12 There will be a
small black half circle at the middle bottom (see screenshot
just above) Use the eyedropper and pick the color right around it Using the airbrush tool or paintbrush and the color you just picked, brush that spot out. In PSP I used the Airbrush, and in PI, PS and PSE I used the paint brush. The airbrush in PI made the spot a darker shade of the color, which I didn't want. I want it to blend in. PSP Airbrush Settings (but you can use PaintBrush as well   PI Brush Settings  PS, PSE Brush Settings  It should look like this now  |
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15. Check if it's
seamless PSP: create new canvas 1280X800, pick pattern in the material palette, then find the strip you just made. Flood fill new canvas with this strip and you can see if it's seamless or not. If not, Select all>Modify selection, contract by 2 pixels and crop. Check it in the larger canvas again till you get it seamless. PI: Go to File>Preview in Browser>As Tiled Background. It will open a new browser window where you can see if it's seamless. If not, go to Selection>All, Selection>Expand/Shrink, shrink by 2 pixels, box shape, click on the selection tool and in the toolbar, click on crop. Now check it again and repeat if necessary. PS and PSE: with your strip selected, go to Edit>Define Pattern, and give it a name. Open new canvas 1280X800. Go to Edit>Fill>Pattern and pick your strip pattern. You can now see if it's seamless. If it's not, select with the selection tool about 2 pixels inside the borders top and bottom and crop out. Now check again.  (You can get rid of all of the extra patterns in PS-PSE when you're done by going to Edit>Fill>Pattern and right clicking on the patterns you don't want and clicking on delete pattern). |
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14 Copy tube, object
or psd file. PSP: paste as new layer, lower opacity of that layer to 60 (or play with it till you see what you like)  PI: you paste as object, lower opacity of this layer to 50  PS-PSE: go to tube, Select>All, Edit>Copy; go to stationery canvas, Edit>Paste. Lower the opacity of this layer to 60  You just want to see a little bit of the background through it, look at the screenshot  |
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15. Basic step:
duplicate layer, mirror if you want to, move to right,
change blend mode and lower opacity PSP: Layer Palette>Duplicate layer, Image>Mirror if you want the right image mirrored, if you mirror, the image will be in the right spot, otherwise just move it to the right. Change blend mode of the new layer to Luminance, change opacity to about 40. The only thing you can align in PSP are Vector Objects so you will need to eyeball it to make sure the two borders are level.  PI: in layer palette, with the tube layer selected, right click and duplicate. Move this tube to the far right side. If you want it mirrored, click on the transform tool, and click on the flip horizontal icon. Change blend mode in layer palette, Luminosity Only, lower opacity of this layer to about 60. Select both image layers and right click, click on align and click on Center Vertically.  PS: Go to the layer palette, right click and duplicate layer. Move the image to the far right. If you want it mirrored, go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. Change blend mode of the new layer to Luminance, change opacity to about 40. In the layer palette, select both tube layers and go to Layers>Align>Vertical Centers. PSE: Go to the layer palette>Duplicate layer. Move the image to the far right. If you want it mirrored, go to Image>Rotate>Flip Layer Horizontal. Change blend mode of the new layer to Luminance, change opacity to about 40. There is no align command in PSE that I could find, so you need to eyeball it to make sure both images are level. PS/PSE  It should look like this now (done in PSP)  16 Merge all or flatten image, and watermark. You're done. |
Done in PhotoImpact |
Done in Photoshop
Elements
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Done in Photoshop |
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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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