Utilizing Filters to Create A Background Window
Scene
& Animated Venetian Blinds In
PI 6
To make this animated blind picture you will need the
Unplugged Filters which can be downloaded from Here.
(Unfortunately, the Unplugged Filters are no
longer free as they once were.)
Some of the filter screenshots may look a little different
to what you see because I'm using the plug-in manager Filters
Unlimited, but the settings given are what you need to concern
yourself with the most.
If you should have an problems installing the required
filter to PhotoImpact, then please refer to this
tutorial
We're going to start off with a totally blank canvas
to create our background window image rather than use any pre-made
images so here we go, the fun begins :-)
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Open a new 200 x 200 plain white canvas and fill with a gradient
of orange and blue.
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Open your Easy Pallete and find in the Gallery section Lighting
Gallery/Light Bulb. Right click on the thumbnail Light Bulb 1 and
then on Modify Properties and Apply. Alter the settings to: Range
29; Strength 50; Softness 10; Star Spikes 0, Star Size 0. Everything
else can remain as is, but be sure that you move your newly created
sun up towards the top of your picture before you click on OK. |
 
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Click on Effect/Unplugged/Factorize and alter the colour settings
so that they show Red 127; Green 127; Blue 127. Your picture should
now have a much brighter hue.
Using the Beizier Curve tool click an outline which will represent
the tops of buildings. Don't forget to go down the right side
of your picture, along the bottom and then up the left side until
you get back to your starting point where you need to double click
to end. Click on the selection tool and then fill this new selection
with black. Add a few path tool made windows if you like coloured
yellow.
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Click on Edit Expand canvas. Make sure there is a check in expand
sides equally and then enter 10 pixels. Use the magic wand to select
this new area and then right click and convert to object. Click
on Web/Button Designer and use the settings shown in the diagram
here. |
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Using the Path Drawing tool make two thin 3D bars the same colour
as the frame of your window and place them in position as shown
here and merge all.
Your background window scene is now finished, so let's move on
to making some venetian blinds and animating them.
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Firstly you're going to need to duplicate your background window
scene 3 times. You can duplicate it by pressing Ctrl+D.
Working with the first copy of your background image go to Effects/Unplugged/Jalusi
and enter these settings: Blinds density 10; Opening 0; Red 255;
Green 255; Blue 255; Wire density 129; Wire offset 164; Wire brightness
255. Click on apply and save this image on your desktop as closed.jpg.
On the second copy of your background image use the same filter
and the same settings other than Opening which should be changed
to 3. Save this new image as pic1.jpg
On the third copy of your background image use the same filter
and the same settings other than Opening which should be changed
to 6. Save this new image as pic2.jpg
On the forth copy of your background image use the same filter
and the same settings other than Opening which should be changed
to 9. Save this new image as open.jpg
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Click on Switch/Ulead Gif Animator 4.0 (which is situated in the
uppermost left-hand corner of PI) and then on the Animation Wizard
button. |
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When the next window opens, click on Add Image and add each of
your saved images in the correct order: open.jpg; pic2.jpg;
pic1.jpg; closed.jpg. Then click on Next.
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In the next window select Photo-oriented (Dither), click on Next.
Click on Next again and then on Finish.
In the preview pane highlight the open.jpg image and alter
the delay setting to 100.
Highlight the pic2.jpg image and alter the delay setting to 35.
Highlight the pic1.jpg image and alter the delay setting to 35.
Highlight the closed.jpg image and alter the delay setting to 100.
Click on the Optimize tab and then on the Optimize Now button
with a preset of GIF Optimized 256. Save your finished animation.
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So there you go, this tutorial was much easier than you thought
eh?
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