This tutorial was written by me on April 2, 2021. The results are of my own imagination.  Any resemblance to another tutorial is purely coincidental.  

Please DO NOT claim this tutorial as your own.

This was written assuming you have a working knowledge of PS.

Please keep in mind that I write the tutorial as I am creating it.

Sometimes I may not explain properly where to place things so please see my example if you are ever in doubt :)

Supplies needed

I am using Adobe Photoshop 2021 but this tutorial should work with any version.

You can download the 7 day trial of PS here.

PTU tube: I am using Kiya Designs gorgeous new tube "The Hunter". You can purchase this beauty at Kiya Designs store here.

PTU Kit:  I am using a gorgeous kit called "Slave of Fire" created by Bella Caribena.  This kit is available for purchase at her store here.

Animation:  I am using Kiya Designs awesome tube animations from Fire and Ice packs 1 and 2.  You can purchase them here.

The animation I used is as follows:

Fire and Ice pack 

Volcano Falls

Fire and Ice Pack 2

Tree Fire

Mask:  I am using mask 90 by Vivienne's Paintbox. You can download it from her blog here. 

Thank you for your awesome masks.  I am using the png version for this tutorial.

Please see Rene's Animation How-to for PS here.  

https://tutorials.renekunertart.com/animation/

Font of choice for your name. 

Plug in: None

Drop shadow of choice.

Please read all the Artist's/Designer's TOU.

To open an image, I click on the element or paper in the file folder and drag it into PS.

To transfer an element or paper in PS to my tag, I left click and drag it into my working canvas.  

The other way is to left click and drag the element from the folder right onto your tag. 

Either way you will get the same results :).  I will be using the both method for this tutorial.

For resizing and rotating I use the Ctrl+T command.

To mirror or Flip go to Edit, Transform, Flip Horizontal (mirror) or Flip vertical (Flip).

Remember to save your tag often in case PS crashes.  

Let's get started.

Open a new 800x800 transparent image.  We will resize later.

Go to layers, New fill layer, solid color.  When the pop up window appears type in FFFFFF and click ok.

Drag Vivienne's mask into the tag.  Click the check mark.  

Drag paper 6 into the tag.  Hold down the shift key and pull up and down on the corners until the paper fills the canvas.  Click the check mark.

Standing on the paper layer, right click the layer and create a clipping mask.

Drag paper 12 into the tag.  Hold down the shift key and pull up and down on the corners until the paper fills the canvas.  Click the check mark.

Standing on the paper layer, right click the layer and create a clipping mask.

Drag paper 4 into the tag.  Hold down the shift key and pull up and down on the corners until the paper fills the canvas.  Click the check mark.

Standing on the paper layer, right click the layer and create a clipping mask.

Drag element 121 into the tag. Resize 78% and move to the top left of the mask.

Drag element 63 into the tag. Click the check mark and move to the top left of the mask over the moon.

Open Kiya's Volcano Falls ani in PS.  Select frame layer 12, holding down the shift key, select frame layer 1.  This will select all the layers of the ani.

Hit Ctrl + G on the keyboard.  This will group the layers.  Now using the move tool, drag Group 1 into the tag.  

Resize 40%, mirror and move to the top of the mask just right of the moon.  Rename this group Volcano Ani.   Expand the group and hide all the layers but leave frame layer 1 visible.

Close Kiya's original ani and don't save changes.

Drag element 25 into the tag. Click the check mark and move to the top right of the volcano falls.

Drag element 132 into the tag. Resize 42% and move to the top left of the tree.

Drag element 122 into the tag. Resize 51% and move to the bottom of the tree.

Drag element 26 into the tag. Click the check mark and move to the bottom left of the tree.  Duplicate, mirror and drag this layer under the volcano ani.

Move to the upper left of the lava.

Select the top layer.

Open Kiya's Tree Fire ani in PS.  Select frame layer 16, holding down the shift key, select frame layer 1.  This will select all the layers of the ani.

Hit Ctrl + G on the keyboard.  This will group the layers.  Now using the move tool, drag Group 1 into the tag.  

Resize 20%, mirror and move to the right of the tree and green dragon.  Rename this group Tree fire Ani.   Expand the group.  

Select frame layers 4, 8, 12 amd 16.  Delete these layers.  Renumber the layers starting from the bottom 1 and the top layer is 12. Hide all the layers but leave frame layer 1 visible.

This will help when we do the animation later on in this tutorial.

Close Kiya's original ani and don't save changes.

Drag element 100 into the tag. Resize 37% and move to the right side of the mask.

Drag element 76 into the tag. Resize 61% and move to the bottom left of the red dragon.

Drag element 94 into the tag. Resize 55% and move to the bottom center of the top layer of element 26.

Drag element 107 into the tag. Resize 61% and move to the bottom of the red dragon.

Drag element 35 into the tag. Click the check mark and move to the bottom of the mask.

Drag element 48 into the tag. Click the check mark and move to the bottom of the lava rocks.

Drag element 64 into the tag. Click the check mark and move to the bottom of element 48.

Drag element 61 into the tag. Resize 34% and move to the bottom center of the dust spray.

Drag the tube into the tag.  I am using the one with the wolf.  

Resize 40% and move to the bottom of the grass.  See mine for placement.

Drag element 6 into the tag. Resize 29% and move to the top left of the grass spray.

Drag element 91 into the tag. Resize 29% and move to the bottom left of the tube in front of the lava crystals.

Drag element 129 into the tag. Click the check mark and move to the bottom left of the tube in front of the sword.

Drag element 130 into the tag. Resize 20% and move to the bottom of the rocks on the left.

Drag element 115 into the tag. Resize 25% and move to the bottom of the crystal ball. 

Drag element 114 into the tag. Resize 20% and move to the bottom left of the mushrooms.

Add any other elements you like and make any adjustments to the layers.

Crop away any extra space.  

Image, Image Size and resize 650 on the longest side.  See my settings below.

Oh almost forgot we need to drop shadow all of our elements.

Select the element on the bottom of your tag in the layer pallet and double click it.

A layer style window will pop up.  Click on Drop shadow. and use the following settings.

Now right click on the layer you just applied the drop shadow.  Click copy layer style.

Now click on the layer above and hold down the shift key, click on the top layer.  Right click and paste layer style.    Drop shadow complete :)

Add your copyright and name.

If you do not want to animate.  Hide the white background layer Save your tag and export as png.

Might want to grab a coffee :)

Select the tube layer.  Right click and duplicate.  On the duplicate, right click and clear layer style.  Go to Filter, Blur, Gaussian blur set to 3 and click ok. Change the blend mode to Screen.

Next make sure your Timeline is open on the bottom of PS.  I you do not see a row that has Timeline on the bottom, go to Windows, Timeline.

Next is animating.

Click on the little icon at the right end of the animation screen then select make frames from layers.

When the pop up shows select  Make Frames from Layers.

You are going to see a big mess in the Timeline window but we are going to fix this.

Click on the first frame and click on the trash can in the Timeline window.  Repeat this until you reach the first frame of the animation.  

Now you should be at the first frame of the animation.  Click on frame 13 and hit the trash can.  Repeat for all the remaining frames.  You should be left with 12 frames in the animation window.  This is the amount of frames for our animation.

This next step is very important.  Any changes you do from here you must be on frame 1 in the animation window unless otherwise stated.

Go to the bottom of your tag in the layers pallet.  Make sure you have animation frame 1 selected.

Click on the eyeball beside each layer to make it visible.  For the white base layer you may have to click on it a couple of times to make it visible in all the animation frames.  It's a Photoshop thing.  

Here is where the fun begins and you will need to pay attention to which frames you are selecting as we need to make the second animation appear.  I learned this trick from Rene Kunert.  She has awesome animation tutorials.  

I have the link at the top of this tutorial.

Frame one should be highlighted in the timeline viewer.  Duplicate this frame by clicking on the + beside the trashcan on the bottom left of the viewer.

You should have frame two now highlighted.  Expand the Fire Tree group and click on they eyeball next to frame 1 of the animation.  

Select frame 1 in the Timeline viewer and delete it by clicking on the trash can.  You should now have 12 layers again with frame 1 highlighted.

Below is an the listing of which frame to select and which Fire Tree animation layer to make visible by clicking on the eye.

Select the following:

Frame 2 - Fire Tree layer 2 and animation layer 2.

Frame 3 - Fire Tree layer 3 animation layer 3.

Frame 4 - Fire Tree layer 4 animation layer 4.

Frame 5 - Fire Tree layer 5 animation layer 5.

Frame 6 - Fire Tree layer 6 animation layer 6.

Frame 7 - Fire Tree layer 7 animation layer 7.

Frame 8 - Fire Tree layer 8 animation layer 8.

Frame 9 - Fire Tree layer 9 animation layer 9.

Frame 10 - Fire Tree layer 10 animation layer 10.

Frame 11 - Fire Tree layer 11 animation layer 11.

Frame 12 - Fire Tree layer 12 animation layer 12.

Next, I want to slow down the animation.  With the first frame selected in the animation window, hold down the shift key and click on frame 12.  This will select all the frames.

Next, click on the little black arrow beside the 0 sec as we want to change the speed.  A pop up window will appear.  

I selected 0.2 Sec.  Now click on the play button to view the animation.  Click on it again to stop it.

Click frame 1 again so we don't accidentally make any changes.

Now to save our tag as a gif.

Go to File>Export>Save for Web (Legacy).

A new pop up window will appear.  Please see my screen shot below for the settings. 

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial.  I would love to see your results.