In The Spotlight

What you will need for this tutorial:-

Paint Shop Pro - (PSP) any version, mine was done in X2

Animation Shop (AS)

Tube of choice - I am using the awesome work of Gennadiy Koufay. This is licensed through CILM and you must purchase the tube from them to be able to use it.

Filters - Mura's Seamless Stripe

Font of Choice - I used Starshine

Let's begin.

Open a new image 600 x 250 pixels at 72dpi and flood fill white.

Add a new raster layer and flood fill with a colour from your tube, I chose #EF7363.

Now go to effects, Distortion Effects/Lens Distortion and apply with these settings:-

Selections, Select All, Float, Defloat and then go to Mura Seamless Stripes and apply as follows:-

You will need to adjust the colour sliders to suit your colour. Selections None.

Then go to effects, texture Effects/Blinds:-

Now for the lighting effect - effects, Illumination Effects, Lights:-

Duplicate this layer twice, to give a total of three layers.

Now on the bottom layer, go to effects, Illumination Effects, Sunburst:-

On the middle layer, apply same effect but change the Rays brightness to 50, and change it to 75 Com the top layer.

Now using a star preset shape, line width 5, foreground colour the one you used for the flood fill, background colour white, draw out a star as a vector layer. when happy with it's size, convert to a raster layer.

Effects, Distortion Effects/ Pixelate:-

Add a fairly sharp drop shadow, I used Vertical & Horizontal -1,1, Opacity 100, Blur 1.0. then swapped the vertical and Horizontal and repeated , now duplicate the star, resize by 75%. repeat this varying the size of the stars and place them around the tag;-

Now copy and paste your tube and position where you feel it suits best. Drop shadow.

Now add your name, the artist copyright, license number if required, and taggers mark if used.

Now make sure you only have the bottom striped layer open, right click into your image and copy merged. In Animation Shop (AS) right click into the workspace and Paste as a New Animation. This becomes Frame 1.

Back in PSP, close off the bottom layer and open the middle layer. Repeat the copy merged, right click into Frame 1 in AS and paste after current frame. Repeat this with the top layer, right clicking into Frame 2.

Change the Frame Properties to 18 and save as a gif.

For the avatar, crop a section of your tag so that is it 250 x250 pixels, then resize to 150 x 150. Sharpen, and add the copyright. Merge Visible and save as a png .

This Tutorial was written in June 2010 by Helen Peachey, and the concept of the tutorial is copyrighted.
Please feel free to LINK to the tutorial and/or print it out for your personal use,
but please do not copy it in any way to put online, pass out or re-write without permission.
The image you create using this tutorial is for you to do what you wish except for monetary gains or for merchandising.
© Peachies Designs and Tutorials. Any Resemblance to another tutorial is purely coincidental.