Basic Tutorial (v7): QUICK: Making an Icon with Animated Falling Leaves

[brn_gamble]

The 'QUICK' Series

Our Moderator (Kevin kevinr) agreed I could do a series of 'QUICK' tutorials here. These are short and simple explanations of how to do something BASIC using Paint Shop Pro.

NOTE: Because these are short, I'll assume you know the BASICS of how to find things in PSP -- and how to use the various tools and palettes. These are designed with the beginner in mind -- or for users who have a little less experience using the software.

But for further help, check out my 'HOW TO' series, via:

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I thought in honor of Autumn we'd try adding a 'falling leaves' animation to an icon. Sound like fun?

We'll start with an icon:


And we'll end up with this:


You'll need to have BOTH Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop 3 to create this. So let's begin!

Start by opening both PSP and AS3.

Next, open any icon. If you don't have one you want to use, then work with this:

You'll need to get the animated falling leaves. Right-click on the animation and Save it to your hard drive.

Note: This isn't the original autumn leaves animation. It's lost! Sorry. But it's similar, so it should work just fine. (I just made a new version, so...)

Or you can use the darker version, found here. Again, right-click on the animation and save it!

Go to AS3 and use Browse to open the animation of falling leaves that you just Saved/Downloaded.

You'll notice that it has a total of seven (7) frames.

Go back to PSP and right-click on your icon. Select Copy.

Return to AS3. Right-click a blank area on your workspace and Paste as new animation.

Right-click your icon animation and Duplicate. Repeat until you have seven (7) frames. (If you end up with more frames than you need, simply click on the frame and hit the Delete key on your keyboard to dump. LOL. It happens!)

Make sure you can see Frame 1 of the icon (Colin) animation! (This is IMPORTANT.)

Click on the top bar of your falling leaves animation to make it active. Go to Edit = Select all. This will select every frame (highlight them) of your animation.

Make sure you're on Frame 1 of this animation! (Very IMPORTANT.)

Grab the leaf in the first frame (click on it and HOLD DOWN) and Drag it into your icon (Colin) animation. (First frame INTO first frame!)

NOTE: Don't let go of the click (mouse button) until you have it positioned properly! The black outline/border should help you to perfectly position.

But if you make a mistake, just hit the Undo button on your toolbar. Then click on the now-empty falling leaves animation and hit the Undo button. Then you can try again until you get it exactly right!

Preview by clicking the View Animation button on your tool bar.

For all intents and purposes, you've got your finished animation! But if you want to 'play' with the speed, go to Edit = Select all. Then right-click the combined animation and 'Frame Properties...'

You can now try increasing the Display time (speed) to 20 or 30 (or more).

Time to Save! Click the F12 key (function key 12 on the top of your keyboard). (Or go to File = Save as.)

Be sure to leave the Slider bar all the way at the top. Click the Next button. Again click the Next button.

You'll see a preview of your finished animation.

NOTE: Sometimes this can be buggy. No big deal. Just ignore it!

Again click Next.

Click Finish.

Congrats -- you're done!

Fun, huh? A nice way to celebrate the fall months...

Brian