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Thursday, February 1, 2024
Valentine's Sucks
This tutorial was written by me on January 20, 2024. 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 2024 but this tutorial should work with any version.
You can download the 7 day trial of PS here.
PTU Kit: I am using an beautiful kit called "Valentine Sucks" created by Carita Creationz.
The AI tube is included with the kit.
Check out the rest of her store where you can find all her gorgeous kits, AI tubes and CU products here.
PTU Animation: I am using Kiya Design's awesome animation 341 from pack 111.
You can purchase her animation pack at Barbara Jensen's Store here.
Font of choice for your name.
Plug in: None
Drop shadow of choice.
Please read all the Artist's/Designer's TOU.
Let's get started.
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.
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 often.
Let's get started.
Open a new 800x800 transparent image. We will resize later.
Add a new raster layer.
Go to layers, New fill layer, solid color. When the pop up window appears type in FFFFFF and click ok.
Drag element 49 into the tag. Resize 22.37% and move to the left side of the tag. Duplicate and move to the right side but down slightly. Duplicate again Resize 24.13%, rotate 90 degrees and move to the top left of the tag.
Drag element 16 into the tag. Resize 8.53% and move to the lower right of the rotated mask.
Drag element 1 into the tag. Resize 15.62%, rotate 90 degrees and move to the top left of the rotated mask.
Drag element 14 into the tag. Resize 13.63% and move to the left side of the frame about half way down.
Drag element 39 into the tag. Resize 17.89% and move to the top right of the frame.
Drag element 21 into the tag. Resize 11.73% and move to the top left of the frame.
Drag element 47 into the tag. Resize 12.77% and move to the right of element 21. Duplicate and move to the lower left of the tag. Duplicate and move to the lower right of the tag. See my example for placement.
Drag element 41 into the tag. Resize 10.40% and move to the lower left of element 21.
Drag element 27 into the tag. Resize 7.54%, mirror and move to the bottom of the wordart.
Drag element 39 into the tag. Resize 17.89%, mirror and move to the lower right of the right mask.
Drag element 13 into the tag. Resize 10.07% and move to the top right of the frame.
Drag element 2 into the tag. Resize 12.78%, rotate 90 degrees and move to the bottom of element 16.
Drag element 31 into the tag. Resize 4.81% and move to the top right of the wordart.
Drag element 4 into the tag. Resize 12.90% and move to the bottom of the black frame on the right.
Drag element 18 into the tag. Resize 9.55% and move over the blue rose. See my example for placement.
Drag element 41 into the tag. Resize 10.40% and move to the bottom of the stars.
Drag element 10 into the tag. Resize 7.07% and move to the right of the blue rose.
Drag element 30 into the tag. Resize 9.57% and move to the lower right of the leaf.
Drag element 27 into the tag. Resize 7.54% and move over element 30.
Drag element 20 into the tag. Resize 17.18% and move to the center of the tag, slightly to the left. See my example for placement.
Drag paper 5 into the tag. Resize 14.17%. Drag this layer under the frame layer and move into a spot you like best. Select the frame layer, using your magic wand, click inside the frame. Select, modify, expand by 3. Select the paper layer and click on the mask icon on the bottom of the layer pallet.
Standing on the paper layer, drag the tube into the tag. Resize 37.05% and mirror. Move to the left side of the frame. Once happy with placement, hold down your Alt key on the keyboard, select the mask thumbnail on the paper layer and drag it up to the tube layer. You should now have two mask thumbnails. One on the paper and one on the tube. Change the blend mode on the tube to Darker color.
Drag element 48 into the tag. Resize 19.83%, mirror and move to the top right of the frame. Once happy with placement, hold down your Alt key on the keyboard, select the mask thumbnail on the tube layer and drag it up to the curtain layer. You should now have three mask thumbnails. One on the paper, tube and one on the curtain.
Select the top layer.
Drag element 6 into the tag. Resize 9.28% and move to the top right of the frame.
Drag element 12 into the tag. Resize 11.33% and move the bottom center of the frame.
Drag element 26 into the tag. Resize 7.63% and move to the bottom of the black stacked cases.
Drag element 15 into the tag. Resize 16.25% and move bottom left of the frame.
Drag element 35 into the tag. Resize 10.69%, flip and move to the bottom left of element 15.
Drag element 27 into the tag. Resize 6.67% and move to the top right of element 15 by the stacked grey cases.
Drag element 19 into the tag. Resize 6.14% and move to the bottom center of element 15.
Drag element 7 into the tag. Resize 15.18% and move to the bottom of element 19.
Drag element 8 into the tag. Resize 14.43% and move to the left of the book. See my tag for placement.
Drag element Zuzu into the tag. Resize 17.87% and move to the left side of the frame.
Drag element 39 into the tag. Resize 10.69%, flip, mirror and move to the bottom left of the black cases.
Drag element 9 into the tag. Resize 5.14% and move to the bottom right arm of the tube.
Drag element 23 into the tag. Resize 4.32%, rotate 44.45 degrees and move to the right of the bulb.
Drag element 27 into the tag. Resize 4.29% and move to the bottom left of the bulb.
Drag element 30 into the tag. Resize 5.77% and move to the bottom of the bottle on the right.
Drag element 24 into the tag. Resize 6.24% and move over to the bottom right of the 8 tag.
Drag element 11 into the tag. Resize 2.30% and move over to the bottom right of the 8 tag.
Drag element 16 into the tag. Resize 4.24% and move over to the bottom left of the boot.
Drag element 33 into the tag. Resize 6.72% and move over to the bottom center of the tube.
Drag element 5 into the tag. Resize 4.12% and move over to the lower center of element 33.
Drag element 46 into the tag. Resize 4.28% and move over to the bottom left of element 5.
Drag element 31 into the tag. Resize 3.69% and move over to the bottom left of element 46.
Drag element 42 into the tag. Resize 3.26% and move to the bottom between the two flowers.
Drag element 40 into the tag. Resize 11.46% and move to the bottom of the tube.
Drag element 29 into the tag. Resize 6.03% and move between the C and K of the wordart.
Drag element 22 into the tag. Resize 5.78%, rotate 90 degrees and move to the bottom left of element 29.
Drag element 38 into the tag. Resize 4.23% and move over to the lower left of element 29.
Drag element 27 into the tag. Resize 3.25%, mirror and move to the bottom left of element 38.
Crop away any extra space.
Resize the tag to your liking if needed. I usually resize mine by 650 on the width side unless it is already smaller than 650.
Oh almost forgot we need to drop shadow all of our elements. I actually do the drop shadow at the end :)
Select the element on the bottom of your tag in the layer pallet and double click it. I started with element 16.
A layer style window will pop up. Click on Drop shadow. and use the following settings.
Click on image for larger view.
Now right click on the layer you just applied the drop shadow. Click copy layer style.
Now click on element 1 layer, hold down the shift key, select the layer under paper layer. Right click and paste layer styles.
Select element 48 layer, holding down the shift key, select the top layer. Right click and paste layer styles. Drop shadow complete :)
Add your name and copyright.
If you are not going to animate, hide the white background layer and export as png.
If you do not want to animate, hide the white background layer Save your tag and export as png.
Animation:
Might want to grab a coffee :)
Select the tube layer, right click, and duplicate.
Standing on the duplicate layer, right click and clear layer style. Go to Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur, and type in 5. Click ok. Holding down the Ctrl key, click on the original tube layer in the layer's pallet. You will see marching ants. Standing on the duplicate layer, go to Layers, Layer mask, reveal selection. Duplicate the layer. Change to top blurred tube to Screen and lower the opacity to 30%. Select the bottom duplicate blur tube and change the blend mode to soft light and lower the opacity to 50%.
Next....
Open Kiya's animations in PS. I am using 341 psd file.
You will notice there are 25 layers in this animation. Select layer 1, hold down your Ctrl key and select every odd layer 1, 3, 5 etc. All odd layers should be selected. Hit Ctrl + G on your keyboard. This will group all the selected layers. Now this is important. Make sure the Auto-Select is not checked when moving animation into your tag.
Select the heart with wings layer in your tag. Drag the group into the tag. Resize 46% and move to the upper right of the frame. Now expand the group and hide each layer by clicking on the eyeball. Leave layer one visible.
Next make sure your Timeline viewer is open on the bottom of PS. I you do not see a row that has Timeline on the bottom, go to Windows, Timeline.
In the center of the Timeline viewer, you will see a drop-down box. On the drop down select Create Frame Animations.
Now we are ready to animate.
Right now you should have one animation frame in the timeline.
Click on the little icon (four white lines) at the right end of the timeline screen then select make frames from layers.
You are going to see a big mess in the animation window, but we are going to fix this.
Click on the first frame and hold down your shift key and select frame 30 in the animation window. Hit the trashcan on the bottom of the timeline to delete the selected frames. Frame 1 should now be the first animation frame. Select layer 14 and hold down your shift key and select the last frame layer in the timeline. Hit the trashcan on the bottom of the timeline to delete the selected frames.
This will leave you with 13 frames (same amount of frames of your animation).
This next step is particularly important. Any changes you do from here you must be on frame 1 in the Timeline viewer. It will be highlighted in white.
Go to the bottom of your tag in the layer’s pallet. Make sure you have animation frame 1 selected.
in your layer's pallet, click on the eyeball beside each layer to make it visible. Do not touch any of the the group animation layers.
All layers visible? Yes, then on to the next step.
Next, I want to slow down the animation. With the first frame selected, hold down the shift key and click on frame 13. 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 other and change it to 0.15 Sec. Now click on the play button to view the animation. Click on it again to stop it.
Click frame 1 again so we do not 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. Change the settings to my screen shot below. My screen shot will look different, but the settings are the same.
Click on the image to enlarge it.
I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial. I would love to see your results.
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