GOLD OVAL FRAME

Created February 8, 2002 © Copyright Moon's Designs
Property of Moon's Designs
This is my own creation, any similarities to any other tutorial on the Internet are unintentional.
Please do not copy or place this tutorial or any graphics to any other place without written permission directly from me. Thank you

 

I love framing graphics and I really enjoy finding new techniques for creating that special frame for that special graphic. I was working on the creation of another frame when I stumbled on this one **giggle** This frame is so easy and quick to do that I wanted to write this tutorial as soon as possible, then I'll get back to finishing up my other creations that are on the drawing board.

This tutorial uses my all time favorite filter from Flaming Pear. It is the Silver Filter that is part of their Sextet Designer Series. We also will be using Fantastic Machines Paint Engine and Alien Skin's Eye Candy 4.

One thing I always do when downloading filters is set up a separate folder in my Plugins Folder and name it what the filter is -- i.e. Sextet; FM; etc. Then I unzip the filter into that folder. It makes it much easier to navigate and helps keep you a bit more organized.

This tutorial is written in and for PSP Version 7.04 and assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP and filters at an intermediate level. I am sure this can easily be done in Version 6 with a few adjustments in paths but I have only used Version 7 so I can't make promises *S*

You will need:

JASC's PSP (30 day free trial)- You can get it HERE
Fantastic Machines PaintEngine Filter - You can get it HERE
**Unzip into your plug-ins folder AND also unzip into your C:/Windows folder to enable the default settings
Eye Candy 4000 ~~ You can purchase it or get the demo version HERE
Flaming Pear's Designer Sextet Series ~~ You can get the trial download HERE
My Silver Preset ~~ You can get it HERE
**unzip into your Silver Presets folder in your Sextet Folder
A graphic ~~ I used a graphic from Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. You can use her graphics as long as the ONLY manipulation is proportional resizing modification. I have resized the graphic by 75%, keeping the ratio intact. Ms. Law has some beautiful work that you can view at Shadow Scapes. Please make sure your read her FAQ's when using her work. If you would like to use the same graphic please right click and save to your hard drive.

© Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

Step 1:
Open a new image 300x400, 16 million colors, transparent background. Set your foreground color to white and flood fill your image.

Step 2:
Go to Selections-->Select All (Ctrl+A). Selections-->Modify-->Contract and enter the number 25, press OK. Go to Edit-->Cut or press your Delete Key on your keyboard. Deselect. You will now have a transparent image with a white rectangle border.

Step 3:
Pick up your selection tool, , set at Ellipse, 0 feather and antialias checked.

Starting at coordinates 150,200 draw an ellipse to about 240,340. You can see the coordinates on the lower left corner of your work area. Flood fill your ellipse, keep selected. Go to Selections-->Modify-->Contract and enter the number 15, press OK. Press Delete, deselect and Save.

Step 4:
Pick up your magic wand, tolerance and feather set at 0. While holding down the shift key, click on the the oval and the outer rectangle border, so they are both selected. Go to Effects-->Plugins-->Flaming Pear-->Silver. To get to the md-goldstrip preset that I made, click on the red arrow and navigate to your Silver Presets Folder and open the md-goldstrip preset.
Press OK. Deselect and Save.

Step 5:
With your magic wand, touch the area between the oval and the rectangle to select it. While the marching ants are around the selections, add a new layer, name if fill. Keep selected. Go to Selections-->Modify-->Expand and enter the number 3, press OK. Flood fill with white. Keep selected. Go to Effects-->Plugins-->Flaming Pear-->Silver and apply the same preset as before. Keep selected and save.

Step 6:
Go to Effects-->3D-->Drop Shadow and apply the following settings:

Keep Selected and Save!

Step 7:
I thought it looked kind of plain like that so I added a Paint Engine preset. Go to Effects-->Plugins-->Fantastic Machines-->Paint Engine and apply the Film Grain preset. (You DID unzip into your C:\Windows folder didn't you?)

There, that dressed it up a bit didn't it? At this point you may wish to make a copy (Shift+D) of your frame. On the copy, merge your layers and save it in your PSP Frames folder with the .pfr extension.

Step 8:
Activate layer1 and add a new layer, name it picture. Go to Layers-->Arrange-->Move to Bottom. Make sure you are on layer1 and with your magic wand click on the transparent area inside the oval. Go to Selections-->Modify-->Expand. 3 should still be entered, click OK. Keep selected and save.

Step 9:
Activate the graphic you would like to use. Make a copy of your graphic (Ctrl+C). Go back to your frame image, activate the picture layer. Go to Edit-->Paste-->Into Selection. Go to Effects-->3D-->Drop Shadow and apply the same drop shadow as before. Keep Selected. Add a new layer, name it glass.

Step 9:
Go to Effects-->Plugins-->EyeCandy4-->Glass and use these settings.

Reduce the opacity of your glass layer to about 81. Merge all of your layers and we are done!