This tutorial is in collaboration with Island Girl. I made the
original background and while testing the background for me, she decided to
animate it. I had tried to do the animation when I first wrote the tutorial but
it never seemed to work right so we have decided to collaborate on this
tutorial. I will teach you to make the background and she will teach you how to
animate it. :) You will need PSP 7 which you can download at Jasc.com, the VM Natural Sparkle
Filter which you can get here, I want to thank Mario Klingemann the creator of the VM
filters for allowing me to offer this for download. I am not including the whole
set of VM filters just the one needed for this tutorial but as Mr. Klingemann
told me you can do a search on the web and find his filters. He no longer
creates filters so he doesn't offer them anymore but they are available on the
net from various sources, (**One great source to get all the VM filters is at
Plugin Party**), and the
final thing you will need for this tutorial is 20/20 which you can download at
byLight Technologies.
1. Open a new transparent image 200x200. Flood fill with Color #00005A
2. Effects: Plugin Filters: VM Natural: Sparkle: Using the following settings
apply the Sparkle effect:
3. Effects: Reflection Effects: Rotating Mirror. So using the following
settings, apply the Rotating Mirror effect:
4. Effects: Artistic Effects: Brush Strokes. So using the following settings,
apply the Brush Strokes effect:
5. Layers: Duplicate.
6. Effects: Illumination Effects: Lights: using the following settings apply
the Lights Effect:
P.S. If you get a big round light in your image turn your light source off
and it will correct it. But only do that if you get the big round circle. :)
7. On your layer pallete change the blend mode to soft light like so:
8. Ok merge all layers and save your image as a jpg and open in 20/20.
9. Image: Seamless Tile. Like so:
10. Save your image.
11. Now on to the animation, as I mentioned in the intro, Island Girl will be
teaching you how to animate this background here.
