Falling Stars

 

    

 

 

Tutorial written by and ©rae.

January 10, 2006

 

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Written for PSP 9

This Tutorial will be more difficult to do in PSP 7 and 8 - since the capability to use the Directional Arrows/keyboard is limited in both - by using the Deformation Tool - it deselects your text..

**this tut uses the 'Hypergurl Stars' at the Here

***if you'd like to use my kat - I've premade an animation for you *here* .. includes a short tutorial for adding him to your tag.

1. Open a new canvas transparent, at least 600 X 500  ..wider if needed

Select the 'Stars2' layer :

 

You're going to click once at the very top - it's easiest to keep your lines of stars straight if you pick a line on the grid.. then, holding Shift ..  move to the very bottom - on the same line and click again to deposit a strand of stars.  You want to keep the strands as straight along the vertical line as possible *not tilting sideways.

I did my first click at approximately the 3rd grid square & down.. then moved over another 2 or 3.. chose the line and placed another strand, etc.  Just give them some space between falling strands. Place enough strands to take up about one third of your canvas : 

 

 

 

2.  Turn ON the black layer *background

Adjust the color of the stars to a hue you like :

I chose :

 

Your palette should look like this :

  

3.  We'll add more stars

Highlight the 'Stars1' layer .. Open your Picture Tube Tool

 

4.  Colorize those stars to your preference :

I chose Yellow

Now..  to make both sets of Stars really pop :

 

5.  Time to add a Text Outline

You'll want to use a fat font .. I'm using the outline version of 'DS Motter Hombre'

 

6.  Selecting out the background and beginning to build your animation frames

7.  Before we go further - I'll have you rename your Stars layers...I wanted to have one layer moving faster than the other and renaming may help you in further steps. 

 

Open your Mover Tool :

At your Directional Arrow Keys at your keyboard :

 

At your Directional Arrow Keys at your keyboard :

8.  Repeat the above steps :

This is how to know when you've made enough Moves and have enough Frames:  It very much depends upon the height of your text.

This is also the best way to avoid having a jump in the final animation - by picking a Beginning and Ending point. 

Like this :

This is my first frame.  I've picked out a star - at the Shift1 layer/the larger stars - to be my Beginning Point.   **You can make a few layers before you choose a star to be your guide - at your new layers, turn off all but the 1st and last frame.. then turn off the last frame and turn it on - and you'll easily find a star to be your falling guide (remember to turn those layers back on before saving)

 

I continued making the movements/deletes/merges until I saw that star about to vanish :

 

In total, I ended with 18 frames - but consider how high my text is.  Yours will probably have fewer frames.

9.  Once you've determined your final frame :

Open Animation Shop .. Browse to and Open that file

 

Play it .. and see how you did! 

.......................................

My Text size is large for tut purposes..  but know that resizing and adding an opaque background will reduce the filesize. 

A quick way to add an opaque background (if you don't wish to create one) is ..

At Animation Shop :

Here is how I chose to Optimize:

Optimization Wizard > Customize

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You are not held to using only stars for this..  I wanted to teach you How to do this sort of animation..

Now you're limited only by your imagination!

Hope you had fun..  Ü

~rae