Flag Animated

Tutorial Written June 8. 2003

This is my creation, any similarity to other tutorials on the Internet is unintentional.
Please do not copy or place this tutorial or any graphics to any other place without written permission directly from me. Thank You, patao.

We will be using only PSP7 and Animation Shop.

If you are using PSP8 and Animation Shop go HERE for help.

My tutorials are only guidelines to help you accomplish a certain creation. Please feel free to be inventive and take whatever liberties you would like. I hope each of you enjoy this tutorial. Your finished creation is yours to do with as you please.

Screen shots are resized and for faster loading. Don't forget to SAVE your work often.

This tutorial is written in and for PSP Version 7.04 and assumes you have a good working knowledge of PSP and Animation Shop. I am sure this can easily be done with other versions, with a few adjustments.

Supplies you will need:

Jasc Paint Shop Pro HERE PSP V8 Demo

Tubes for competition of Tutorial, place in file folder HERE

I have provided a tube of the US Flag. If you care to use the flag of your country I will provide a link for you to find one. You will have to resize it to 275 or less on the longest size, in order to complete the tutorial. HERE

If you prefer to make a flag of your US State, I will also provide a link for you to select from HERE This will also have to be resized to 275 or less on longest side.

If you have all your tubes in a folder, and have your flags resized (if you chose a different one), lets begin.

1. Open the Flag_American, Eagle_Head and Flag_Pole tubes in PSP. Minimize the Eagle_head and Flag_Pole for now.

2. Open a NEW Image 300X300 transparent.

Activate Flag_American/Edit Copy
Activate New Image Window/Edit Paste "As a New Layer". You can close your original tube now.
With Mover tool place the flag at the top of window on the 30 pixel line,see Screen Shot below

3. Rename Layer 2 FLAG. Duplicate FOUR TIMES, and rename them FLAG 1 thru FLAG 4. Now lets do a Save As, so we don't loose all our work. I named mine FLAG ANIMATION, in psp format. See screen shot below:

4. Activate Eagle_Head tube. Edit/Copy, then activate your Flag Animation window and Copy/Paste "As a New Layer"as the top layer on your layer palette. You can close your original tube now.

Image/Resize by 80%, with resize ALL LAYERS, UNCHECKED
Image/Mirror. Effects Sharpen/Sharpen and move the Eagle over the flag area, and lower the opacity to 90% on the layer palette.
Rename Layer 6 to EAGLE

5. Activate Flag_Pole tube, Edit/Copy and Edit Paste as in previous step. Move Flag_pole to the left, just over the left edge of Flag and not covering stars. Make sure Pole is not touching the edges of window on top or left. Rename this layer "Flag Pole" See Screen Shot for what you should have now below:

6. Turn OFF all layers EXCEPT FLAG 1

With Flag 1 active select Effects/Geometric Effects/Wave using the settings in the following Screen Shot.

7. Turn OFF FLAG 1 and activate FLAG 2, and apply the wave again, changing VERTICAL WAVELENGTH TO 84

8. Turn OFF FLAG 2 and activate FLAG 3, and apply the wave again, changing VERTICAL WAVELENGTH TO 88

9. Turn OFF FLAG 3 and activate FLAG 4, and apply the wave again, changing VERTICAL WAVELENGTH TO 100

10. Active top layer of layer palette(Flag Pole) and add a new layer and name it Signature or Watermark and apply your desired mark.

It is very important for you to pay close attention to the next few steps, as they are what gives you the shadow on the flag and perspective to your animation.

11.Activate Flag 1, add a new layer and name it SHADOW 1.

Activate Flag 1 again and with your Magic Wand set to 0 tolerance, select the outside area of Flag 1, putting marching ants around the Flag.

Selection/INVERT

Activate Shadow 1 and with your Paint Brush Tool set as in Screen Shot, apply color in a straight line from top to bottom of flag area. It will not go past your marching ants, so don't worry.

Effects/Blur/Gaussin Blur set to 4.0 and deselect.

You will be repeating this step on each Flag layer. Be careful you are on the shadow layer when applying your brush tool, and that you move the shadow color to the RIGHT, when you move up to the next Flag layer. This is so that the shadow moves with the wave and direction of the animation. Always name you Shadow layer to correspond to the Flag layer you are working on. I have provided a Screen Shot of what you should have when you have completed all your Shadow layers, and are ready to proceed. I have left the shadow layer separate so, if you find you need to correct it when viewing your animation, it will be easier to fix. I had to change mine a couple of times.

12. Now is the time for a decision on your part. If you want a background on your results your will need to Flood Fill LAYER 1, now. I am making mine transparent, so will leave layer 1 turned off. If you choose to use a background flood fill and leave it on for the following step.

13. We will now save for Animation Shop to a folder of your choice.

Layers ON. Flag1, Shadow 1, Eagle, Flag Pole, Signature and Layer 1 if you used a background. If not leave layer 1 OFF.
Layers OFF. Layer 1, Flag 2, Shadow 2, Flag 3, Shadow 3, Flag 4, Shadow 4
I always do a "Save As" Flag Animation BASE, for future use, or corrections NOW.
Repeat your Save As changing the word BASE to number 1

14. Layers ON. Flag 2, Shadow 2, Eagle, Flag Pole, Signature

Layers OFF. Flag 1, Shadow 1, Flag 3, Shadow 3, Flag 4, Shadow 4
Save As Flag Animation 2

15. Layers ON. Flag 3, Shadow 3, Eagle, Flag Pole, Signature

Layers OFF. Flag 1, Shadow 1, Flag 2, Shadow 2, Flag 4, Shadow 4
Save As Flag Animation 3

16. Layers ON. Flag 4, Shadow 4, Eagle, Flag Pole, Signature

Layers OFF. Flag 1, Shadow 1, Flag 2, Shadow 2, Flag 3, Shadow 3
Save As Flag Animation 4
17. Launch Animation Shop: Make sure you have it set up with your preferences as follows in Screen Shot. You'll never have to merge your layers for Animation Shop if you set them up like this.

Select your Animation Wizard, and follow each step as in the Screen Shots Below
Load your frames with your browser as follows:
Select NEXT and your Animation Shop will load your frames.
To View your animation select the View Animation Icon
If you leave the animation this size it will be approximately 370X300, depending on your cropping, and carry approximately 111.8 KBS. This is the size of the animation on the top of this tutorial.
To resize your animation close your View Animation, then go to the Top Menu and Select Animation/Resize. This can be done by pixels, or percentages.
You may need to resize, for group posting. You also may want this as a small tag in your email. I resized by 60% prior to saving and it will then be approximately 180X180 and carry 46.2 KBS. Example below
I also did one using the Arizona State Flag, so I could show you it works with most flags.

 

For my Canadian Friends that would like to make their own flag go HERE

 

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.

 

A special thank you to the Tutorial Tester Team for Dynasty, and those individuals that tested this tutorial for me.


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