Tips and Tutorials for PSP 8

Creating a Background Image with Paint Shop Pro 8

This tutorial is NOT to be scripted or made into a "Quick Guide" unless it is for your own personal use.

To do this tutorial you will need a working knowledge of PSP. If you are new to PSP, or have a problem doing this tutorial, you can find me at Raven's PSP Forum, be happy to help you out.

You'll need these 2 gradients.

Morning Speck

Download and extract them to your PSP 8 gradients folder.

You also need Flaming Pear's Flood Plug-in. There is a free demo available.

Note: Almathera's Puddle Filter can be used in place of the Flood Filter. It's a free filter and your results will be a little different.

Help to install plugins

This is an easy tutorial. I often see the question "How do you make a background?". This is just one one example of how. It will show how easy it is to create something out of nothing..:)

Step 1

Open an image 500 X 500, transparent background.

Step 2

Click on your foreground fill to open your Materials Palette.
Click on Gradient and find the gradient "mqc Speck".

Flood Fill your canvas.

Step 3

Go to Effects>Texture Effects>Weave.
Find the preset Squaresville, or set it like this if you don't have that preset.
The weave color is #808080, the Gap color is #C0C0C0.

Step 4

Now set your foreground color to white.
Go to Effects>Artistic Effects>Hot Wax Coating.

Step 5

Go to Effects>Artistic Effects>Chrome.
Use these settings.

Step 6

Go to Layers>Duplicate.
Go to Image>Mirror.

Open your Layer Palette.
Click the small arrow next to Normal on Copy of Raster 1.
Set the Layer Blend Mode to Multiply.

Go Layers>Merge>Merge Down

Step 7

Go to Adjust>Hue and Saturation>Colorize.

Step 8

Go to Effects>Distortion Effects>Polar Coordinates.

At this point the image started looking interesting, I duplicated the image (Shift + D) and saved it before I made any more changes. I have a lot "interesting" images saved that I use for different things.

Step 9

Go to Effects>Illumination Effects>Sunburst.
I just clicked on the image with the color picker to find a color.
The color is #7C879A.

Step 10

Go to Effects>Plugins>Flaming Pear>Flood.
Flood comes with some presets but I usually just set the Horizon and then click the dice until I see something I like, or close to it. For more changes try clicking on the wave effect in the preview screen. You can set it like this or experiment until you find something something else you like.

Step 11

Go to Layers>New Raster Layer.
Change your foreground to the "mqc Morning" gradient.

Flood fill your new Layer.

Step 12

Open your layer palette.
Set the Layer Blend Mode on Raster 2 to Luminance.

Step 13

Now move the Opacity Slider down until you get a watery look.

You could stop at this point and call it done, or you can add a few more things..:-)

This is also another good place to save the image as a PSP file and continue with a duplicate.

Click here to go on to Page 2

Experiment, and have fun!

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Tips and Tutorials for PSP 8