Make a spring flashing blinky

Spring Blinky

I claim the copyright to this tutorial. You are free to do whatever you please with what you make, but please do not take my tutorial. Do not send the tutorial through email. Only share my link.

This tutorial was created for some friends of mine who wanted to begin learning more about PSP. It is intended for beginners to learn how to make blinkies. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

This tutorial uses selections that I have made. Click on the link to download the zipped file of my selections, then unzip into a folder onto your hard drive. Download Selections

To do this tutorial you will also need Paint Shop Pro. I used Paint Shop Pro 7.04 . You may download a free trial at Jasc.

Remember to save as a psp file often!

Before we begin, you might want to study the PSP tool bars. I have labeled the tools on another page. Click on the link and it will open a new page. You may want to keep this page open while you work on the tutorial, to refer to the names now and then. PSP Tools

Now that you have studied the tools, let's begin!

Before you begin, you will need to pick 1 color for your background of your blocks. This should be a medium to dark color. Also you will need some flower and bird tubes.

1. Click New File in the top menu bar. Enter these settings: width=126, Height=48, Resolution=72.000 pixels/inch, Backround color=transparent, image type=16.7 Million Colors (24 Bits). Click Ok. Click File--Save As and save this file as blinky.psp.

2. In top Menu, click Selections--Load from Disk--square1b.sel

3. Set your foreground color to black. Flood-fill the selected area with black.

4. In top menu, click Selections--Modify--Contract. Set to 1. click ok.

5. Set your background color to a medium green. Flood-fill the selected area with the green.

6. Still on same layer: Repeat steps 2 - 5, in turn loading selections: square1c.sel, square1d.sel, square1e.sel, square1f.sel, and square1g.sel. When you have finished you should have one row of squares that looks like this:

7. In the Layer Palette, Right-click on Layer 1 and choose Duplicate. Select the mover tool from the left menu and drag this row of squares on top of the first row. (See picture below)

8. In the Layer Palette, Right-click on Layer 1 and choose Duplicate. Select the mover tool from the left menu and drag this row of squares on top of the first row. (See picture below). You should now have 3 rows of squares.

9. In Top menu, click Layers--merge--merge visible.

10. In Layer Palette, right-click on merged layer and choose New Raster Layer. Name this layer Text.

11. Set your background/fill color to yellow, and the foreground/stroke color to null.
Still on text layer, Type one letter at a time: Type S, then move it over the first square. I found that a size 14 or 12 font worked best. Then type the next letter--P and move it over the 2nd square. Continue this until you have all of "Spring Has Sprung" spelled out and placed.

12. In layer Palette, right-click and choose Add New Raster Layer. Open up your flower tubes and your bird tubes (or whatever tubes you have chosen. Activate the tube window, then click Edit--Copy. Activate the blinky window, then click Edit--paste as new selection. While the tube is still selected, Click Image--Resize and shrink tube. I found that 10 to 20 % was a good size for most tubes. Choose the mover tool from the left menu and move the tubes where you want them. Some tubes can even go in the blank space on the side of the blinky. Repeat this process on the same layer until you have all your tubes placed.

13. In the Layer Palette, X out the glasses for the bottom (Merged) layer. Right-click on text layer and choose merge--merge visible. Now you have 2 merged layers.

14. In the Layer Palette, click on the bottom merged layer. Right-click and choose New Raster Layer. Call this layer highlight. This layer should be inserted between the two merged layers.

15. Now duplicate the blinky image you have created by holding the Shift + D down at the same time. Save the duplicated image as blinky1.psp. Close blinky1.psp

16. Now duplicate the blinky image again. Working on the duplicated image, click on the Selections--Load from Disk--square3b.sel

17. In the top menu click Selections--modify--contract--1.

18. In the top menu, click Colors--Adjust--Brightness/Contrast.

Set the brightness to 75. Contrast=0. OK Selections--none.

19. In top menu, click Layers--merge--merge visible.

20. Click--File Save as. And save the file as blinky2.psp

21. Now Repeat steps 16 - 20. Load square3c.sel, adjust the colors, then save as blinky3.psp. Load square 3d.sel, adjust the colors, then save as blinky4.psp, and continue that way. You will need to load selections: square 3c.sel, square3d.sel, square3e.sel, square3f.sel, square3g.sel, square2b.sel, square2c.sel, square2d.sel, square2e.sel, square2f.sel, square2g.sel, square1b.sel, square1c.sel, square1d.sel, square1e.sel, square1f.sel, square1g.sel--duplicating the image first before each load, and saving that duplicate each time. You should end up with 19 saved blinky files, bliny.psp & blinky 1-18.

22. Now open up Animation shop.

Click on the animation wizard. Choose same size as first image.

Choose transparent.

Choose yes, repeat the animation indefintely, and set time length to 20.

Choose upper left corner of the frame and with the canvas color

Click Add image and add blinky.psp and blinky 1 - 19.

highlight the file and click move up or move down until the files are in numerical order, with blinky.psp last.

Click Next. And the frames should open. Click on the last frame. Then right click on the last frame and choose frame properties. Change the time length for this frame to 75.

Then save the file!

And there you have it! Here are some variations on this blinky theme.

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