Corona - A 3-Piece Forum Set Tutorial

To Create this Set you will need:

A Tube

I used the fantastic art of Barbara Jensen

Tubes and License available HERE

Gregs Factory Output 2 - Pool Shadow

Tramages - TeeWee

Alien Skin Eye Candy 5 Nature - Corona

Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop

Any Version of PSP should work for this

A working knowledge of PSP is

Necessary to complete this Tutorial

Ready?

Let's Begin!

Choose two colors from your Tube for your FG/BG

They must be either contrasting colors

Or a light and dark shade of the same color

If the colors are too close together

what comes next may not work

Create a FG/BG Sunburst Gradient on the FG

Angle 90 - Repeats 0

New Image - 600x400

Fill with your Gradient

Greg's- Pool Shadow

Pull the Intensity Slider down to 50

Duplicate this Layer Four Times for a Total of Five Layers

On each of these Layers

Eye Candy 5 Nature - Corona

Click the Corona Offset Tab and set it like this:

Click the Basic Tab and set it like this:

Unless you want to use the default colors, you'll have to Edit the Gradient

I used the Default for the Top Sample

For the Bottom one I changed it to this:

Hit the Random Seed Button once for each Layer

New Layer

Invert your Gradient and Fill the New Layer

Tramages - TeeWee

Input Channel 11 - Mode 212

At this point, depending on the Gradient you used

You may end up with something like This:

We don't want those blank gray areas in the Corners

Get out your Pick tool and Drag out the Corners Like so:

Crop your Tag to Merged Opaque

Magic Wand Tool

Mode Add(Shift) - Match Mode RGB Value - Tolerance 20

Feather 0 - Anti-alias Checked

Click in a light Grey area on the Lower Left

Selections - Modify - Select Color Range

Tolerance and Softness 20

Add Checked

Click in the Color Reference Box

Then click inside your Selected Area

Change your FG from Gradient to Color

Change to Target Brush set like this:

Hold down your Left Mouse Button to Paint in your FG Color

Hold down your Right Mouse Button to Paint in your BG Color

Paint in the Entire Selected Area with one of your Colors

Invert Selection

Delete - Deselect

Adjust - Add Noise

31 - Uniform - Mono Checked

Drop Shadow

1, 1, 60 and 2

Before we go on, let's get what's needed for Forum Tag and Avi

Shift+D to copy your Tag Twice

On the first copy

Crop Tool - Set to 150x150

Move to where you want it and click the green arrow to Apply

This is your Avi

Set aside for now

On the Second Copy

Crop Tool - Set to 600x250

Move to the Center of your Tag and click the green arrow to Apply

This is your Forum Tag

Set aside for now

Let's finish our Tag!

Copy your Tube and Paste as a New Layer

Move into Position

Give it a Suitable Drop Shadow

Crop your Tag to Merged Opaque

New Layer

Fill with a Dark Color from your Tube

Select All - Contract 5 - Delete - Deselect

Drop Shadow - 20, 20, 70 and 100

Drag this Layer under your Tube Layer

Add your Name, CR Info and License#

Animation

In PSP - Edit - Copy Merged

In Animation Shop (AS) - Paste as New Animation

In PSP - Hide the Top BG Layer - Edit - Copy Merged

In Animation Shop (AS) - Paste After Current Frame

In PSP - Hide the Next BG Layer Down- Edit - Copy Merged

In Animation Shop (AS) - Paste After Current Frame

In PSP - Hide the Next BG Layer Down- Edit - Copy Merged

In Animation Shop (AS) - Paste After Current Frame

In PSP - Hide the Next BG Layer Down- Edit - Copy Merged

In Animation Shop (AS) - Paste After Current Frame

Animation - Frame Properties - Change the Number to 50

Save as a GIF

For the Forum Tag

Add the Tube, Border, Name and CR Info

Animate like we did the Tag

Save as a GIF

For the Avi

Add the Border and your Name or Initial

Animate like we did the Tag

Save as a GIF

Second Sample also using art by Barbara Jensen

I pasted the Moon Image as a New Layer just above the Top BG Layer

And changed the Blend Mode to Overlay

If you try any of my Tutorials

I would love to see what you made!

Please leave a link in the comments section on my Fanpage