Here we go again then lovelies - another Hallowe'en draws near.

So, time to tut :D

Devilishly...easy?  or Devilishly hard? hmmmmm....lol!

This one is v.simple in it's style and finish (I found this

animation of the eyes this morning and just had to

do something with it hehe)

But for this tut, you will need

a reasonable confidence in Animation Shop (working with Frames, dragging etc)

SUPPLIES NEEDED

Large Close Up or Large Tube of Choice

I'm using the delicious work of Ismael Rac which

can be purchased for PSP use via AMI

Eyes Animation - HERE

Which I got from Webweaver

Filters Needed -

Mura Meister Copies

Mura Meister Clouds

Penta.com Jeans

All Freeware and available via the Net - if you haven't got them, then use

your search engine to find the sites xx

Some spooky fonts of choice

Animation Shop

_________________________________

Open a new Image in PSP - 575 pixels x 300 pixels

If you want smaller, then just start smaller with similar dimensions

Add a New layer

Floodfill White

then

add another new layer

Floodfill Black

OK

Open your chosen tube

Copy and Paste

and place just off from the left towards the middle

See my tag for placement

Add any shadow you'll like to use or any effects etc

Crop to Canvas size*

Now

Add a New Layer Above the Tube

Selections All

Selections Modify Contract by 5

Selections Invert

and Floodfill this Layer with White

Selections All

Selections Modify Contract by 2

Selections Invert

Floodfill with Black

Selections None

Now on this layer, apply a dropshadow of 1, 1, 50, 5.00 Black

Now

Image, Canvas Size

and you want to up the Height and Width by 30 pixels each

so change the Canvas Size to 605 x 330

*If you didn't crop the tube layer to the canvas size before, make

sure you go back and do it now

and then enlarge the canvas, or you will see the rest of the tube when you enlarge

OK

Now

Take a colour from your tube or one to compliment

Add a New Layer below the frame layer you just made

Selections All,

Selections, Modify, Contract by 20

Selections Invert

Keep Selected

Floodfill with your Colour

Change one of your colour boxes to Black

then

go to Mura Meister Clouds - and apply on the default settings

Keep Selected

Right click in the Layer Palette and Duplicate the colour frame layer

and on the top copy

Penta.com Jeans - change both sliders to 20

and apply

then

in the Layer Palette, Change the blend mode to Hard Light or Screen or Overlay

(see which looks best for your tag)

Keep Selected

Then

Selections All

Layer, New Raster Layer above this one

and

Selections, Modify, Contract by 2

Selections, Invert

and floodfill this layer with Black

Now finally, Selections None...phew! lol!!

Right, so hopefully, your tag is looking quite a bit like mine?

Good...on we go

Now, choose a font to use

You'll need it on quite a small setting - 36 or smaller

I used 36 with a White fill and no stroke

Type out your chosen word

Then

Mura Meister Copies - on Tiling (Angle)

and change the Tile Gap slider to 2

Apply

Now, on this words layer

Add a dropshadow of

1, 1, 50, 5.00 Black or similar

Move this words layer

below both of the Black Frame layers

but above the Colour frame layers

And then on the Outer Frame Layer

Selections All, Selections Modify Contract by 20 again

Don't invert

and on the word layer - hit Delete

and then change the Blend mode of the words layer to Soft Light/Overlay/Similar

or leave as it is

Now add your artist copyright info etc

and

your Name in a style or font of your choice

Shadow as liked

Right

Now the fun part

Go to your White background layer

and IMPORTANT - floodfill this layer with more White

(it's been enlarged since we made it)

Then

Right Click it and you'll see a menu come up

go to View, Current Only

Unhide the Black Layer above ONLY and then

Edit, Copy Merged

Open Animation Shop

Edit, Paste as a New Animation

(or right click in Animation Shop and chose this)

In Animation Shop, File, Open

and find

Eyes 1-1

Open the Animation

You'll see it has 11 Frames

so on the one we brought over from PSP

Click on it

and then hold down Ctrl and hit L for the amount of

frames you want

(ie. Eleven)

So Now, Animation 1 should have 11 frames

Good!

Right then, click on the one you brought from PSP

Frame 1

and

Edit, Select All

on the Eyes 1-1 animation, click on the First Frame and Edit, Select All

Then

Drag - you do this by left clicking and dragging the first frame over

to the other animation (it'll bring all the other frames 'cos you've selected them all)

Keep hold and don't let go 'til I say :)

Back to the other animation

You'll now see the eyes animation appear in this one

Keep Hold of it - and move into place

(I placed over to the left)

Once you've got it where you want it - let go!

And you'll see it's in all 11 frames :)

Right, back to the Eyes Animation which is now empty?

Click on it to activate

Look for the Undo arrow at the top

and hit it - this will undo Drag

Grab the first frame again (make sure all the frames are blue so

you know they're still selected - if in doubt, just Edit, Select All again)

Drag it over once more

Place in a different part of the tag based animation

(Refer back to your PSP if you need to remember where the tube is placed)

OK

Once you've done the two drags (or more if you'd like), you can Close the Eyes animation

Now then, this is where it might get tricky

Back to PSP

Right Click the Black Layer again and View, All

Then

Hide the White and Black Background layers (we don't need them, we've already got them)

Edit, Copy Merged

Back to PSP

Edit, Paste as a New Animation

Now, I don't know another way of doing this - if you have your

own method, marvellous! But this is how I do this bit.

On the 11 framed animation with the eyes

Click on the First Frame again, and Edit, Select All

Go to the Toolbar in Animation Shop and click on Propagate Paste

Now, on the one you've brought over fresh from PSP

Left Click and hold on it

and Drag it over to the First Frame in the Animation

you may need to jiggle it about to line it up

This why we've got the White Background - so you can

see where to line up - once you can really see it, your placement is going well :)

Once you're happy with placement, let go!

(If you let go and you're not happy, click Undo arrow (Undo Drag)

and it will go back to how it was, so then follow the steps

above to have another go at Dragging it over)

Edit, Select All once more on Frame 1

then

Animation, Frame Properties and change to 20

View, Animation

Save as .GIF

That's it - hope this wasn't a nightmare to follow

and I hope you enjoy your tag

Thanks for visiting xx

With this 2nd example I exported the frames into PSP and Colourized them

then exported them back to Ani Shop and did the tag as above

______________________