Paint Shop Pro 7.02 Tutorial
Suncatcher
Page #5
Step-by-Step Animating

Intermediate to Advanced

by Joyce Kohl

Prepare Images
Open a new transparent canvas big enough to hold your suncatcher tube. Add a new layer. Place your tube in the center. My tube was scaled to 50%. You need to get rid of the extra canvas. Do this by cropping with the crop tool as you did previously. You need three copies for this animation, so make two copies [Shift + D]. Line them up like this:

Open Hood's Sparkle Tube, scale to around 45. I always add a new layer to each image, then one sparkle on each image, but in a different area each time. If the sparkle isn't where you want it, it's easy to move it into position with the move tool. For each image, select Layers/Merge/Merge Visible.

Save each image as a transparent GIF using the instructions on Page #4.

If you prefer to use a a color or pattern background for your suncatcher, the merging should be Merge/Merge All, then save each image as a PSP file. If you save images you want to be transparent in PSP format, Animation Shop will, most of the time, darken the edges and make them jagged. I always save images in transparent GIF format when not using a background layer.

Open Animation Shop, then open the Animation Wizard, File/Animation Wizard. Below are the settings I used, screen by screen. Each has been cropped to show only the settings rather than the entire screen.

   

   

Navigate to where you saved your images, then to select all images at once and have them in the proper order, press and hold down the Control key while highlighting the files you want to animate beginning with the last one first, and first one last. They will then be #1, #2, and #3.

   

   

You should see something similar to this after pressing the Finish tab:

Press the icon on the menu bar to view the animation. If it suits you, close the animation, then open the Optimization Wizard. If it doesn't, you can change the timing by selecting Edit/Select All, then Animation/Frame Properties and changing the 30 to a higher or lower number.

   

The following screens are the settings for the Optimization Wizard

View again - and screen you should see.

   

FINISHED!