Create a spooky picture like this in no time.

For our Witch doctor picture, Witch. create a canvas of 800 x 600 at 300 dpi, apply a blue colour by Right clicking on a dark blue in the colour picker, then press the Delete key to apply the new background colour. A new layer is created for each of the Picture Tubes, this allows you to modify or delete selective elements without having to totally rework the whole picture.

All the tubes used for our project can be found in PSP, a new layer is created for each tube.

The Fire is on three layers, each layer has a different size – with the larger flames at the rear. All the Picture Tubes used in the sample are pre-defined images included with PSP. The Witch doctor can be downloaded by clicking on the above picture, this will need to be cut out. Use the magic wand (no pun intended) with the tolerance set to 10 click on the pink background, then from the Selections menu select Modify > Select Similar. Invert the selection (Shift + Ctrl + I), you may want to Contract the selection by a couple of pixels to remove traces of pink. Go to Modify > Contract and enter 2 pixels and press OK, press Ctrl + C to copy the Witch doctor to the clipboard. Click on the Blue background picture and press Ctrl + L to paste as a new Layer. This layer will need to be resized - double click on the Deformation tool to open the Settings palette and change to X & Y scale to 50%, click OK. Place the Witch doctor layer between the flames and lightning. Have a go at creating your own version.

Project 2.

Create your own custom Tubes, but get your Cells set up right

Here’s how you can create your own themed Picture Tubes. Each picture is contained in a cell - for the Billiard Balls Picture Tube the cells are 175 x 175 pixels, 4 cells wide by 4 cells deep. The canvas will need to be 700 by 700 at 72 dpi. For your own Picture Tube work out the size of each image (minimum size of 100 x 100 pixels).

Setting up your grid

For the screen shots I have created a new image of 750 x 750 which will give me 9 250 x 250cells, using Transparent as a background colour. Set the grid to your cell size, from the menu select View > Change Grid and Guides Properties and set the Horizontal and Vertical spacing to 250. Choose a line colour and click OK. To turn on the grid, use Ctrl + Alt + G.

Now you have to place your images within each cell, open the first image and Promote it to a layer (menu Layers > Promote to Layer), or double click the Background layer title in the Layers palette. Select the surrounding area of the image and then press the Delete key to remove and reveal a Transparent background. Use the eraser tool to remove any traces of the background. Press Ctrl + C to copy and paste as a new Layer (Ctrl + L) on your Grid. Do this with each image until you have filled all the cells. Save the file as a PSP format at this stage so you can go back and make alterations at a later stage if needed. From the menu select Layers > Merge > Merge Visible, don’t select Merge All (Flatten) as this will remove the transparency and give a white background. To give the Picture Tube images a 3D effect add a drop shadow, select Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow and set a shadow to suit your image, click OK.

The last stage is to save your Picture Tubes. From the File menu select Export > Picture Tube. In the Export dialog box enter the number of cells across and down, give the Tubes a name (leave the other settings for the time being as these can be changed in the Options box later), press OK. Create a new blank document and try out your Picture Tube, it will have been saved next to all the other pre-defined Tubes. Below is the image I created with the memory cards.