This tutorial was written in March 2003 and  © by Lady Oz.  You may make a copy of this tutorial or print it out for your own personal use ONLY.  If you would like to LINK to my tutorials to share them with others please let me know.  What you create from my tutorials belong to you to do with as you wish....I hold no claim to them other than my tutorial rights.

 


 Making an animated signature...using the Hue Map to vary the colours used.

I was playing around with the Cafe PSP logo, which Auntie Em created...and I ended up making an animated logo for the Cafe's birthday pages.  I changed the colours in the image by using Hue Map and thought that it would make a good and easy mini tutorial for others to try and as a special favour to Auntie Em. *s*  Please feel free to experiment and use this information to make your own creation...this tute is only to give you ideas and directions on how to adjust the colours....but we may as well create something while we are at it *s*
 


What you will need.

  • PSP 7      Download a trial I used version 7...but hope to try it in 8 too.

  • My Gradient   extract into your gradient folder

  • My Inner Bevel  extract into your Preset folder

Please note that most of the screen shots have been reduced to 60-80% for faster loading.  

Also remember to SAVE often!

We can change colours several ways in PSP...one is to 'Colourize'...but in this instance it is not acceptable. The reason being that it would apply the same hue to the whole image and not certain parts of it...which would mean that the chrome gradient in the middle of the text would take on the selected hue...we don't want that....well not in this instance we don't. *s*

Another way is to use  'Colour Replacer'...which is also good, but that can only be used while painting or on flat colour images. 

I chose to use the 'Hue Map' because I can use it on both photos and this type of image...the more chance I get to play around with these things, the more I learn. *s* 

Notes: To use the Hue Map command on a selection, the image must be a 24-bit colour image. To limit the adjustment to a selection, create the selection before choosing the command.  Taken from the Jasc help files.

Step 1.  Open up a transparent image 500 x 600...and save as a psp file.

Set your Foreground to the colour that you want...using the Draw tool...Single line...size  10 ...vector  unchecked.  Draw a line...press down on the Shift Key while drawing to make a perfect straight line. It may help at this stage to turn on your grid lines to space these lines evenly. Copy this first line and paste two or three times.  When you have them correctly spaced, cut and paste so that the are in the exact middle of the image.

Now add an Inner Bevel to them.   Save!

                                                       

Step 2

Now set your colours for your text... I used these for mine, the gradient is one that I made and which you can download if you wish,                                 

Step 3  Open up your text box and choose these settings.  Click on OK to apply.

 

Step 4.  I changed the size on some of my letters...to do this click on the Object selector...Objects....Convert text to curves...then click on the letter you wish to change.  Make sure that the text is in the center of your image when you have finished playing around with it. Change to Raster layer.   

Merge visible this layer and the music bar layer...I called mine 'Image 1'

Now duplicate this layer as we are going to change the colours of the new layer.  In the layer palette, click on the glasses to turn off 'image 1'

 

Step 5. Go to Colours....Adjust... and select 'Hue Map'...

 

 

When you open this window up, you will see two preview panes...the one on the left being the original colour and the one on the right shows what it will look like with the settings as they are now.  Hit the reset button on the bottom right hand corner to set it to its default settings.....both previews will look the same on default. 

Now looking at my windows, I can see straight away which two levers are the ones that I need to move...the aqua and the lighter of the blue.  My image does not contain any of the other colours, so I can move the levers as much as I want and nothing will change....the only two that will alter the colours in the image are the two that I have indicated.  When you do your image, it will depend on which colours you choose as to which levers you move...the screencapture indicates my choices of colour.

Obviously, in an image where it contains more than two colours, more of these levers would apply.

   You can test various colours by sliding the lever up and down.  I have chosen maybe way out contrasts but it is just to give you the idea of how it works.

Also, on the left hand side you can change the depth of the colours in the image by moving the Saturation shift slider backwards and forwards.

The lightness shift will increase or decrease the lightness in the whole image.  You may notice that on this one I made the Lightness Shift a 10.

 

I have found some other interesting things too since playing around with this but will leave that to later and will carry on with this sig tag...otherwise we will never get finished. *g*

 

Step 6.  At this stage you may wish to flood fill layer 1 with  contrast background to be able to see this next part....I chose white.

Click on the glasses to turn off the Copy layer and then click on 'Image 1'.  Add a new Raster Layer.  Now grab your Tube tool and select some 'pretties' to decorate your sig tag.   I chose a blue, a white and a yellow star to my image.  Then took it into 'Hue Map' to change some of the colours around....pretty nifty, huh? 

Turn  off your background layer and merge visible...Image 1 and the decoration layer....rename it 'Image 1' again.  Click on the glasses and turn this layer off.

Now click on the glasses for the copy layer and highlight it...add an Raster Layer and do the same thing again but placing the decoration in different places.   Take it into Hue Map again if you wish to play around with the colours...which is the whole object of this tute. *g*   When you have it as you want it....merge visible the copy layer and the decoration layer and call it 'image 2'  

Step 7  Delete the background on the original image and save.  Make a copy of your image...shift +D.......now make sure that the two remaining layers...Image 1 and Image 2 are both visible. You may want to crop any excess off your image at this stage.  Also if you want to reduce the size then do it now and add 'Unsharp mask' to it....save this as a psp file in your animation folder.

 

Step 8. Open up Animation shop and find your saved psp file.

Change the animation speed to 40...by selecting all...Right click...Frame Properties. If you wish to have a background colour then...Right click again...Animation Properties and choose your colour.  Finished
 

The title image was made with a coloured gradient.  Then using the hue map again to change these colours on the copied layer.

One of the neat things I noticed about Hue Map, is that when you use the 'Saturation Shift' lever...moving it either to the left or right, changes the shade of that gradient in the center of the text...on these tags below.  When I moved it 50 to the right, it changed the colour of the gradient, but different to the border of the text...whilst when I moved it to the left, that gave me the opposite effect...was similar to when you use the  'colourizer'...it changed the hue of the gradient to a shade of the outer border of the text.  Here are two samples to show you the differences in colour....the second one, I have added 5% random noise to each layer.    Not very pretty but you'll get the idea. *g*

 

        

 

Have Fun! and  Email if you have any problems!

 

 

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Tutorial by Mary Newton aka Lady Oz aka Lady Newtonia © 2003