Skating Santa
(PSP all versions with AS)
A tutorial by Mar ©2006

You can Drag & Drop the below hand  for a easy use of this tutorial.

What you need:
Corel PSP. Download a 30 day trial here.
Materials: Download here.
Open all images from the ZIP in PSP.
Open the font and minimize.
You'll see it in your text tool now.

This tutorial can only be done if you have Animation Shop (AS).
If you are a new PSP user and you only have PSP X without AS, you
can download AS for free at Jacs:http://FTP.jasc.Com/pub/en/ani311en.exe .

Save often.
Let's get started. Good luck.....

This tutorial is done in PSP 9.

Open a new image 400 X 300 and fill with #191761.

Layers > New raster layers. Fill this layer with white.
In your Layer Palette put the mode to Dissolve and the opacity to 6.

Open the by me created MD-SnowScape.psp and copy.

Edit > Paste > Paste as a new layer.

Move all the way down.

Layers > Merge > Merge all flatten.

Save your image as work-image.psp.

Foreground locked and background to #023406.

Click and look for the opened Chilled font. That's in the ZIP.
Size 48 > Stroke 0,0 > B for Bold > Anti-alias checked or Sharp.

Type your text. Notice.......... All letters typed in Capitals!!
If you don't use capitals your Santa will stumble LOL.
I used "MERRY CHRISTMAS".

As you see the text is much to large.
With tool resize the text until it fits your workspace.
Pull, push and shove as long as needed to get the text to fit.
Also make your text a little bit higher.

Layers > Convert to raster.

Effects > 3D-effects > Inner bevel > Color white.

Layers > Merge > Merge all flatten.

Open the MD-Skate-Santa-1.psp and copy.

Edit > Paste > Paste as a new layer.

Move the Santa on the right side of your text.
In the Layer Palette rename this layer to "santa-1".

Again:
Edit > Paste > Paste as a new layer.
Move the 2nd Santa to the left side on your text.
In the Layer Palette rename this layer to "santa-3".

Open the MD-Skate-Santa-2.psp and copy.

Edit > Paste > Paste as a new layer.

Move  the Santa in the middle of your text.
In the Layer Palette rename this layer to "santa-2".
In the Layer Palette > Move this layer beneath the santa-3 layer.
Your Layer Palette has to look like this.

You can recognize the Santa's by the eyes.
MD-Skate-Santa-2 has the eyes closed.

Select the top layer (=blue).

Your PC still has the "MD-Skate-Santa-2" in it's memory.

Edit > Paste > Paste as a new layer.

Image > Mirror.
Rename the layer to santa-4.

Move  on top of your santa-3.

Edit > Paste > Paste as a new layer.

Move this Santa on top of your first Santa.
In the Layer Palette rename this layer to "santa-6".

Open the MD-Skate-Santa-1.psp and copy.

Edit > Paste > Paste as a new layer.
Image > Mirror.

Move   this Santa in the middle on top of your second Santa.
Rename this layer to "santa-5".

In the Layer Palette > Move this layer beneath the santa-6 layer.

Check if the order of your Santa's is correct.
Do that like this: lock all the Santa layers and open
them again one by one from the bottom  to the top.

Now lock all Santa layers accept the santa-1 layer.
Your background layer is also open. So NOT locked!
Select the santa-1 layer (=blue).

Your Layer Palette has to look like this:

Layers > Merge > Merge all flatten.

Copy this merged layer.

Edit > Paste > Paste as a new image.
Save this image as Skating-Santa.psp.

Go back to your work-image.psp.

Edit > Undo .

Now lock the santa-1 layer and open the santa-2 layer.

Layers > Merge > Merge all flatten.

Copy this merged layer.

Go to your new image Skating-Santa.psp.

Edit > Paste > Paste as a new layer.

Go back to your work-image.psp.

Edit > Undo .

Lock the santa-2 layer and open the santa-3 layer.

Layers > Merge > Merge all flatten.

Copy this merged layer.

Go to your new image Skating-Santa.psp.

Edit > Paste > Paste as a new layer.

Go back to your work-image.psp.

Edit > Undo .

Repeat these steps until the Skating-Santa.psp
has 6 layers with Santa's in 6 different positions.

Click all layers on and off (lock and unlock)
 to see if the Santa's are in the right order.
Santa skates from the right to the left and back.

Lock the top 5 layers for now.
Select the bottom layer (=blue).

Open the MD-MD-Snow.psp and copy.

Back to your Skating-Santa.psp:
Edit > Paste > Paste as a new layer.

Move the snow layer about 1/3 (one third) up.

Layers > Merge > Merge visible layers.

Lock this layer, open and select the layer above (=blue).
Edit > Paste > Paste as a new layer.

Move  this snow layer up but less as the one before.

Layers > Merge > Merge visible layers.

Repeat this steps on all six layers.
Make sure the snow is moving different on each layer.
Play a little with the snow layers (snow must fall down).

Remember to lock each merged layer and
to unlock and select the layer above.
These steps are very important.

If all 6 layers have snow and are merged, unlock all layers.
Now you need to have 6 layers.
The same amount as when you started.

Save your image as skating-santa.psp again.

PSP 7 users can just save as.
PSP 8 - 9 and 10 users......
Because Animation Shop doesn't recognize *.pspimage you have to save as *.psp.
This can be done in 2 different ways:

Use this one for all early 8 and 9 versions.
Animation Shop doesn't recognize *.pspimage from
 PSP 8 and 9 so we save as a PSP 7 or 6 file. Like this:
Save as > Click options and save as a *.PSP 6 or 7 compatible file.

Use this method for the latest versions.
The latest PSP 9 and all PSP X versions have the option to
directly save as PSP for Animation Shop.
Look in the pull down menu and select Animation Shop (*psp).

Open your skating-santa.psp in Animation Shop (AS) .
You have 6 frames. Zoom in and out again. Now you see them.

Click Ctrl-A to select all 6 frames.

Now for the "Finishing Touch".

Animation > Properties for frame > Set your frame time at 80.

When done, click to play your animation.

Save your animation as a Gif.

Your Skating Santa is done.
I hope you like this tutorial and learned some
new things about PSP and Animation Shop.
Thank you for using my tutorials.

I wish you all Happy Holidays!

Since 11-19-2006: