Paint Shop Pro - and - Animation Shop - My tutorials - Little Mermaid

Bubbles effect

This tutorial was inspired by another tutorial made a long time ago by Titoune called 'Beauty's Kingdom' and translated in italian by Pinuccia here, yet unfortunately, this specific tutorial is unavailable in english.

That aside, I want to thank Pinuccia for all her translations of Titoune's tutorials and thereby, avoiding that those tutorials disappear into the clouds and become unavailable anymore.

To realize it, I have used a beautiful kit by Linda's site 'My Tagging Addiction'  called 'Tales of the Deep Blue Sea'.  You will also need Simone's animation 'SimoneAni371'.

All her animations are in her site 'Scrappy Bit of Fun' as well as her tutorials for Animation Shop fans!!  You can use any other kit or images that you like, of course.  You will need Animation Shop for either the bubble version or the tropical ocean waves. It is a different animated version of this Little Mermaid as you can see:

Waves effect

I have made this tutorial with PSPX on March 21, 2025, and
tested/corrected it on April 14, 2025.
Thank you to respect my work and the other creators work.
Don’t hesitate to write to me here if you have any trouble with this tutorial and I’ll try to help as best as I can.

Decompress the zipped files, open the files and save them somewhere in your PSP folder where you will find them later on.  Make duplicates of your images to preserve originals. 
Save your work often as pspimage with all your layers just
in case your PSP crashes!!

If you use your own images, some steps, like the offsets, could need different settings.

Materials
Scrapkit from Linda
SimoneAni371.gif 
Background image made by me with Bing's Image Creator

1
Open a new transparent image of 800 x 600 px
Selections - Select all

2
Select one of the images 'background' furnished in the Materials
Back to your work, Paste it into the selection
Layers - Duplicate
(keep the selection active)

On the duplicate (top layer)
Selections - Modify - Contract 50 px
Selections - Invert
Adjust - Blur - Radial blur

3
Effects - User Defined Filter - Emboss 7

4

Selections - Invert
Effects - 3D effects - Chisel with color #1b589c

Keep selected

5

Layers - Duplicate
(now, we have 2 layers of the border)
On this duplicate layer (the 2nd border of 50 px)
Effects - 3D Effects - Cutout with color #6699cc

Selections - Select none

6
We have these layers:

7
Highlight the bottom layer
Layers - Duplicate
On the duplicate, Effects - Geometric effects - Circle

8
On the circle layer, Image - Resize at 80% uncheck 'Resize all layers'
You now have these layers:

9

On the circle layer
Effects - 3D effects 5 / 5 / 50 / 20 with color black

Repeat the drop shaddow effect with the negative settings
Layers - Merge visible

10
Open, Copy/Paste as a new layer 'image 5' (bubbles)
Image - Resize at 80% uncheck 'Resize all layers'
Effects - Image effects - Offset

Open, Copy/Paste as a new layer 'element 21' (anchor)
Image - Resize at 50% uncheck 'Resize all layers'
Effects - Image effects - Offset

Effects - Plugins - Alien Skin Eye Candy Impact 5 - Perspective shadow

11
Open, Copy/Paste as a new layer 'element 4' (mermaid)
Image - Resize at 80% uncheck 'Resize all layers'
Effects - Plugins - Alien Skin Eye Candy Impact 5 - Perspective shadow, same settings

12
Open, Copy/Paste as a new layer 'element 38' (aquatic plant)
Image - Resize at 50% uncheck 'Resize all layers'
Effects - 3D effects - Drop shadow with same settings as before but color #113947

I think there are enough elements in this image; feel free to select whatever elements for the completion of your under the sea image. 

When you are satisfied, you can add text if you like, then sign your image before saving it.

If you want to animate it, like I did, save it as a psp image.
In step 13, you will obtain the image with the Bubbles and
in step 14, you will obtain the image with the Waves effect.

13 - Bubbles effect
Open your Animation Shop
Open your image just saved as a jpg or as a psp image as a new animation
Animation - Resize animation to 80%
Select Frame 1, Copy it and Paste it after current frame
Repeat this in order to obtain a total of 24 identical frames

Open 'SimoneAni371'
Edit - Select all,  Edit - Copy
Back to your image with the mermaid, you should have 24 frames
Highlight Frame 1 - Edit - Select all
Edit - Paste into selected frames and click about where you see the bubble in the red oval in the screenshot below:

Click on the Cinema icon  to see the animation and if you like it, add your watermark in the same way, using the Propagate Paste icon and clicking in the "Paste into selected Frame' icon.  Save your result as a gif.

14 - Waves effect
Open your Animation Shop
Open your image just saved as a jpg or as a psp as a new animation
Animation - Resize animation to 80%
Effects - Insert image effect
Select Animation Frame and in the Effect, select Underwater
In Define effect, enter the following settings:
Effect length at 1.1 secs
Frames per second at 7
Then click on Customize

When you do, the image below will come up; here are the explanations of this image:
1- The Vector area (inside the red square):  here, we make the wave vectors (looks like a star with many rays) we pull a line from the center going outward.
for the wave that I used in this tutorial, there are 12 lines and any line can be deleted by extending it outside of the grey square. Try to be as precise as you can but when you are done, do not pass on the Vector area as it will change your settings; you can play with these vectors, adding or removing them and trying other wave effects.
2- The Effects zone: check 'Apply sunlight dappling' and set 'Sunlight intensity' at 10
3- In Liquid properties, Set 'Water depth' at 30
4- In the Waves zone: set the Wave at 1, X at 30 and Y at 30,
then, hit your Enter key (so that you don't pass over the Vector area)

You obtain an animation with 8 frames but frame 1 has no effect on it so delete frame 1. You can admire your beautiful wave effect by clicking on the Cinema icon. Don't forget to add your watermark in your result and save your result as a gif.

Here is another example with the Underwater effect:

I truly hope that you enjoyed doing this tutorial and that making waves and bubbles will inspire you for other beautiful creations!! Send me your result here and I will be honoured to add them in this page, below.

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Paint Shop Pro - My tutorials - Disappearing Mouse

This is a tutorial inspired by another tutorial from a group on Animation Shop owned by Carin, a wonderful Animation Shop teacher; it was her lesson 31 entitled 'Lazy Tiger'.  You can apply to her group here.  I can assure you that you will not regret it!

This tutorial is basically 2 images worked separately that we unite in Animation Shop.

 

Materials
1 alpha-channel pspimage
1 Brushtip to save in your 'My PSP Files' under the Brushes folder
In case you cannot get the brush from your Brushes after you have imported it, I also enclosed the corner image as a png file in the zip
2 masks
1 jpg image

Plugins
Carolaine & Sensitivity - CSL-Dots
Alien Skin Eye Candy Impact 5 - Pespective shadow

Colors
Foreground color 1 #95440d
Background color 2 #b89953
Additional color 3 #c7a043

Let's begin!

 BACKGROUND IMAGE

1
Open the pspimage image 'alpha-channel-mouse-lc'
Window - Duplicate
Never work on an original, you could need it intact later on

 2
Flood fill with Sunburst gradient with these settings
and Foreground color #95440d and Background color black

3
Open the mask '1250181704_nikita_masques' and minimize it
Back to your image:
Layers - Load/Save mask from Picture

and select '125081704_nikita_masques' from the options

Layers - Merge - Merge group

 4
Layers - New raster layer
Change your colors in your Materials with
Foreground color #95440d and Background color #c7a043

Your gradient changes at the same time; you leave it like that and
Flood fill with this gradient
Layers - Arrange - Send to bottom or Move down

5
Highlight the top layer
Effects - Plugins - Carolaine and Sensitivity - CSL-Dots: 112 - 240 - 18

6
Layers - New raster layer
Using your Paint brush tool, select the leaf motif 'klorn_003'
In your Materials, using the same gradient previously made (at step 4)


Click in the upper left corner
Effects - 3D effects - Drop shadow  -1 / -1 / 100 / 1 with color black
Layers - Duplicate
Image - Flip
Layers - Merge - Merge down
Layers - Duplicate
Image - Mirror
Effects - 3D effects - Drop shadow  1 / 1 / 100 / 1 with color black

 7
Layers - New raster layer
Selections - Save/Load selection from alpha-channel layer
Flood fill the selection with color #c7a043
Effects - Buttonize with these settings 75 / 45 / 61 check Transparent and color black

Still selected,
Effects - Plugins - Alien Skin Eye Candy 5 Impact - Perspective shadow
and enter these settings in Basic:

Note: you could save these settings by clicking in Manage and naming it; it is very efficient and appropriate for many uses.

Selections - Select none
Layers - Merge - Merge all (Flatten)
File - Save as a jpg file and name it 'background-image'
Your background image is done.

We will now work on the animated part of the image that will be placed in the centre of it.  Let's start!!!

ANIMATED MIDDLE IMAGE

1
In your PSP, open image 'black-white-slats' from the Materials
Windows - Duplicate and close the original
Always work on the duplicate - never on the original
Layers - Promote background to layer
In your image and with your Magic wand with Tolerance 25, Feather 0

Click inside the white part (between the black slats); 
zoom in if you need to see better

The whole white part will be selected; delete using your Delete key or the Scissors
Selections - Invert
Now, all the black parts become selected

2
Open your image 'lc-mouse1.jpg'
Copy/Paste into the selection
Effects - Buttonize with same settings as before (which should be in memory)
Selections - Select none
Your image should look like this:

Duplicate this image in order to obtain a total of 9 layers,
one layer for each slat in the image
This is what we want to achieve:

You will notice that the complete image is at the bottom and one by one, as we
go up in the layers, one slat is disappearing. If we would have had a slat template with 14 parts, there would be 14 layers.

We start the animation with the complete image so that when we place it
in the middle of the larger background image, we can see where we put the animation. Then, 'Animation - Reverse frames' in order to have the animation start with the middle square. In other words, here is what we do:

Starting from layer 9, we will delete all the slats except the little square in the middle. To help us, we close the visibility of all layers except the one that we are working on.

Layer 9 (the top layer):
Highlight layer 9.  Zoom into the image to see what you are doing.
Using your Selection tool (Rectangle), select the small square in the middle,
Selections - Invert - Delete with your Delete key
Selections - Select none

We are left with the single square in the middle like this:

Layer 9 done! Close the visibility of layer 9

Note: I have used the Rectangle selection tool for the deleting part in the lower layers but if you are more familiar with the Eraser, please use it. Layer 8 will contain 2 slats, Layer 7 will contain 3 slats, etc..etc.. The bottom layer will stay complete. 

Layer 8
Open the visibility of layer 8 and activate this layer.
Using your Selection tool, Freehand selection - Selection type Point to point 

Start your selection at the right lower angle of the small square and follow the path indicated below going up:

You left-click every time that you change direction, making sure that
you do not include a mouse bit. To close the selection, right-click.
Selections - Invert - Delete
Selections - Select none
Close visibility of layer 8
Layer 8 done!!

Layer 7
Open the visibility of layer 7 and activate it.
Start your selection at the right lower angle of the small square and follow the path indicated below:

Selections - Invert - Delete
Selections - Select none
Close visibility of layer 7
Layer 7 done!!

Layer 6
Open the visibility of layer 6 and activate it.
Start your selection at the right lower angle of the small square and follow the path indicated below:

 Selections - Invert - Delete
Selections - Select none
Layer 6 done!!

Continue like this, including another slat as you go, always following the way to select the slats to be deleted.
Your end result should look as previously shown but here is a reminder:

Before saving it as a psp file, make sure that all the eyes of visibility are opened for all the layers. Now, name this work 'final-mouse-animation' and save it as a psp file.

HOW TO ANIMATE YOUR IMAGE
Open your Animation Shop.
File - Open 'background-image.jpg'
Copy - Paste after the current frame
There are many ways to multiply a frame to
obtain a larger number of the same frame;
 it will be for you to use whatever method that you like.
We need a total of 20 frames of this background image
Here is what you should have in your Animation Shop:

Edit - Select all

 In your background image, select frame 1 and with your SHIFT key, click into your frame 9
Frames 1 to 9 are selected. Leave this work aside.

Now, open your mouse animation:
 File - Open 'final-mouse-animation.psp'
(enlarge in order to see all the frames)

Edit - Select all - Edit - Copy
Go to your 'background-image.psp' and Paste into selected frames,
clicking inside the middle square so that the animated mouse
will correspond with the middle square.
When you are certain of the emplacement, release the click
Animation - Reverse frames

Select your frame 11 and with your SHIFT key,
click into your frame 19
Frames 11 to 19 are selected.
Your selection is still in memory so in your 'background-image.psp',
Paste into selected frames

 Open the image 'text-1'
Edit - Copy
Back to your image, click into your frame 10 and paste it in the selected frame, in the middle

Open the image 'text-2'
Edit - Copy
Back to your image, click into your frame 20 and paste it in the selected frame, in the middle

 If you prefer some other text, in Animation Shop:
With your text tool, colors to your liking, select your font
I used Copperplate Gothic with these settings

Write your text
Place your text in the middle of the square
 Go to frame 20 and write your text
Place it in the middle of the square

Go to your frame 1
Edit - Select all
Frame properties at 35
Select frames 10 and 20 (holding CTRL key)
Frame properties at 125

Your animation is done.
Apply your watermark to it and save it as a gif.
I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial; it is quite long but it is very satisfying!!!  Send me your versions and I will post them below.

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Paint Shop Pro - My tutorials - Illuminated Text

 

This tutorial is my own creation; I made it with PSPX and Animation Shop 3.1.1.  Any resemblance with another one would be only pure coincidence.  It is strictly forbidden to modify my images, to change their name or take off the watermarks in order to present them on your sites or blog, to share them in groups, to make a bank of images, or to use them on lucrative purposes.  You can write to me here if you need.

I made this tutorial for PSPX but you can use any version of PSP; the results might be slightly different.

 

 Materials
1 nice tube
(I made it in Bing Image Creator and you can use it if you want)

You will also need a nice font

Plugins
VM Distortion – any option that you like in the plugin – I selected Broken mirror

THE IMAGE
The image is worked in PSP and for the animation, we alternate from PSP to Animation Shop.

1
Open a png or Pspimage image of your choice in PSP or
select the one I offer you above.

2
Image – Information on image
Look at the size of your image
(the above image is 500 x 500 px)

3
Layers – New raster layer
Flood fill with your darkest color from your Materials
(this layer will serve as a background)
Layers – Arrange – Send to the bottom

4
With the bottom layer highlighted,
Layers – Load/Save mask – from disk
and select a round mask
– or –
Selections – Select the circle option
clicking from the center of your image, create a circle so that the
circle will enclose most of your main image/character
Selections – Invert
Click on your Delete key or the Scissors

5
Effects – Plugins – VM Distortion – Broken Mirror with these settings

Reduce the Opacity of this layer to 70% or lower if you wish
Note:  you can play with your plugins effects to find a suitable background to your liking, I just  want to show you how to work a semi-transparent background for an animated gif.

You should have this now:

6
Highlight your main image raster
Layers – Duplicate 7 or 8 times
Come back to your first main image raster,
Effects – 3D effects – Drop Shadow with these settings

7
Highlight the duplicate layer above it and
Effects – 3D effects – Drop Shadow with the same settings except for the color: select another color from your range of
color that will contrast a bit with the previous drop shadow
either on the darker -and/or- lighter side and even white!
Close the visibility of this layer after you are done

8
Repeat the Drop Shadow from step 7 for all the
duplicate layers changing only the color of the drop shadow
selecting a darker or a lighter tone in order to create a slight change in color closing the visibility of all the duplicate layers up to the last one in the list

9
You should have this in your layers:

All the layers have their visibility off except
– the bottom layer

– your first image above it
– and the text layer at the top

10
Edit – Copy merged

THE ANIMATION
Now, open your Animation Shop
Paste as a new animation

11
Go back to PSP, close the visibility of the top layer
highlight the duplicate image below it
Edit – Copy merged

12
Back to Animation Shop, Paste after the selected frame

Repeat steps 11 and 12 for all your duplicate images,
going back and forth from your PSP to Animation Shop.
When all are done, you should have a total of 12 frames.

Run the animation by clicking in the Cinema icon and if you like it, Save as.. and give it a name. Your Optimization settings should be all settled and if not,  I suggest Katey's site because she explains wonderfully with lots of images

Katey's Place

I hope that you will have a lot of fun making those tags for all occasions and if you have difficulties, write to me here.

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