For this tutorial you will need:

PSP - I used X3, but I am sure this can be done in any version

Animation Shop

A tube and a close-up

I used the wonderful art of Jennifer Janesko

Please do not use her art without a proper license from CILM

MuRa Meister-Copies

DSB Flux- Bright Noise

AAA -Foto Frame

Font of choice-I used Ambience BT

Let's begin!

New Image 600x250

Make a fg/bg gradient using a light and dark color from your tube

Linear-Angle 45-Repeats 3

Selection tool-custom Selection

 

Selections-Modify Feather-5

Fill with your gradient-Gaussian Blur 10

Deselect

MuRa Copies-Wallpaper Rotate-Default Settings

Dulicate layer-mirror and flip it-change the blend mode to Hard Light

(You might want to use Overlay or some other blending option, depending on your tube)

Merge Visible-copy and paste your close-up and move it to the right-change the blend mode to hard light

and lower the opacity to around 50, depending on the tube you used

Merge Visible-Texture Effects -Blinds

2, 14, horizontal and light from top checked and white

AAA - Foto Frame-width 9, opacity 50

Paste your tube and move to the left side - drop shadow 2, 2, 50 and 17 - Merge down

New Layer- Select a thin rectangle going from top to bottom-fill with your dark color

Deselect-Distortion Effects-Warp

You should have a nice curve like this:

Duplicate your curve and mirror- move them into position so they will frame the focal tube

Merge your Parentheses together-Blinds (same settings)-Drop Shadow (2, 2, 50, 2)

Duplicate this layer twice for a total of 3 layers

New Layer-send to top-fill with your dark color-select all-contract 1-delete

Time to add your name and CR info

Your Layer palette should look like this:

Time to fire up Animation Shop!

Select the top curves layer-DSB Flux-Bright Noise-Mix 47

On the middle curves layer-hit mix twice

on the top curves layer-hit mix 3 times

Hide the top 2 curves layers-copy merged and paste as a new animation in Animation Shop

Back in PSP-Unhide the middle curves layer and hide the bottom one

Paste in Ani Shop after current frame

Back in PSP-Hide the middle curves layer and Un-hide the top one

Paste in Ani Shop after current frame

View-Animation - If it looks good, save it as a gif and you're done!

For the Avatar:

Before I merged the close-up into the background layer on the tag

I copied and pasted the background as a new Image-cropped it to size, ran the Blinds and AAA Frames on it

Then I made the curves like in the tag-added the 1 px frame and did the animation like for the tag

 

And that's it!

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial.

I like to see results, so please post a link to them in the comments on my blog.

 

 

Tutorial and Graphics (C)Shirley Franklin

www/shirleyswebworks.com