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*Paintshop
Pro © 1991-2006 Corel Software, Inc. all rights reserved.
All screen shots taken from Corel PSP X (Ver 10.00 using Windows
XP Professional on a 3.2gb system with 1024MB of RAM. PSPX is available as a free download (31Mb) from Corel.com
(60 day trial) retail price is about €150. Check your system
requirements before Downloading. Bailer
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This
is an extreme Beginners Lesson so I am going to "TRACE"
the Image. It will help if the Learner is familiar with the Line and
Fill options in PSP. Aswell as a fairly decent understanding of UCS
or Graphic co-ordinates (Algebra to everyone else) which can help
a lot in accuracy. Even Better if you download the Getting started
Guide.
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Now
if you have PSPX, Open it. I have been using it for nearly 6 years This
lesson is simply what tools to use to draw and a few tips on how to
Edit it to perfection.
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Firstly open an original Image: Scanned, Downloaded
etc. (Stolen???) This used to be on my OG Brassards and I scanned it. |
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First of All, Select "Image > Increase Color Depth > RGB - 16 Bits this will make it full colour.
Resize
this Image to a usable Size (I work usually at 300 Pixels High or
Wide)
Click
on the Menu bar: Image >
Resize
or
Shift and "s" at the same time.
The
Following Dialog Box will appear… |
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Change
the Height to 300.
The "Lock aspect ratio:" box should be ticked and
the height will adjust automatically. Click "OK" |
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Image will Resize automatically. |
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Then
you simply start by using the Pen  tool in PSP.
Select
the Point to Point option  in the Tool Options Dialog Box (or Toolbar)
Then
Change the Type of Line to "Pont to Point Line" and set
the Width to 10.
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Get
the Image and using the Co-ordinates Display go to (10, 10) on the image, For those of you who've never used a
co-ordinate system before the X axis (horizontal) is First and Y axis
(Vertical) is second. The Sample Image is 242, 300 in size.
Then click once on the point 10,10. This creates a "CUSP"
(a corner NODE) at the point 10, 10, move the Pointer to the end of
that line below and add another cusp by clicking once. Then Click
the second cusp (about 10, 150) press shift, this will lock the Line
straight down and moving the Mouse will adjust the height (about 10,
155 in the Sample). Then about halfway around the curve on the crest
click and drag towards the bottom of the Crest this will create a
curve from the 2nd cusp to the third "tangent" node. there
will be an arrow which can be moved and lengthened to adjust the Curve.
Click once on the Point 121, 290 this will create a node at the bottom
of the crest. Now follow the same process untill you get to the top
right corner of the Crest.
Tip:
IF you put the mouse over the First tangent it will show the co-ordinates
in display then click and add the second curve at the same height
on the Z axis this will make the crest more accurate. all the Co-ordiantes
are availible here |
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Then
Right Click on any Cusp and Click: Edit > Close
This
closes the Drawing then right Click again and select Quit Node Editing
the shape will appear. as below.
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Now
you have your crest Drawn its one editable drawing element. There
are some tricks to using this element again and copying it and reusing
it with different properties But first we are going to save it as
a Preset Shape.
Double
Click on the Shape it will bring up the Vector Properties Dialog Box.
Change the name from Drawing to "Crest 2 " you can also change
the Line width and colour as well as change the Fill colour, gradient,
Pattern or none. Click OK.
Now
select File > Export > Shape from the Menu Bar, Enter the File
Name (Whatever you want) It will save Validate etc.
 Select
the Preset Shapes  tool and then the tool options Dropdown Menu, Search the Presets and
you will find the Crest on the List.
As
you can see I have quite a few already which comes in very handy when
constructing a new flash that as elements used in other flashes e.g.
the DFTC badge in the 6 FAR flash.
Saving
them as Pre-Set Shapes puts them away for easy access later. Or you
can Draw an element at the largest scale possible and export it as
a shape. Again when you go to insert this at a certain size smaller
than it was created it will be more accurate. Just remember to adjust
the Line size accordingly.
You
use the "Object Selection"  tool to select a vector object.
You
use the "Group" option in the Tool Options Dialog box.
This means you can group vector elements into
one editable object for easier use, or to stop you mucking one part
of the drawing up. The Object Selector Dialog has a load of great
tools for aligning Distribution. and positioning (Middle , vertical,
horizontal centre's) as well as sizing and Group and Ungroup.
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The
Layers Pallet Comes in Handy in that you can use it to Draw the Crest.
Then Hide that and Draw Components, Then Hide That and Add Text or
Numbers, or indeed organise your Drawing so that you can edit different
parts of it individually by hiding parts you want to keep the way
they are. It makes life a lot simpler.
The Sample on the right shows the Layer Palette for the Construction of
the 1st Tank Sqn. Flash, Naturally the Crest is at the Bottom as its
"Behind" the other "Components" i.e the Tank itself
and the Text of the Flash "Fuíl agus Potóga"
(Blood and Mud What a Motto!!) The Text is in "Gaeilge1"
TTF and is available for Download (just do a Google Search I can't
be bothered uploading the font to this site). I have named all the
Components of this Flash because on resizing different parts need
to be resized and this makes it easier to find them. The Hidden  Image
"text line" is a red curve at the base of the Text which
I used to curve the Text around the tank. I drew the curve as normal
with the Draw tool and hid it after I aligned the text to that line
(I'll cover inserting text later)
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Well
That Covers Lesson 1. Because these pages are very image intensive
and take a while to download (in 56k land i.e. 99.9% of Ireland) I
will be Dividing the Lessons up into Fair sized pages until I find
My Acrobat 5 CD and convert them to Downloadable PDF's. Any Questions E-mail me or PM me on
IMO.
Brgds.
Bailer.
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