Oil Paint Radial Pox Frame

Created October 22, 2001 © Copyright Moon's Designs
Property of Moon's Designs
Please do not copy or place this tutorial or any graphics to any other place without written permission directly from me. Thank you.

One of the programs that I received when I purchased the Anniversary Edition of JASC's PSP was the Virtual Painter. It came with two usable features and demo's of the others. I liked it so much that I purchased it and have been using it when doing WET's in groups. Although JASC does offer an evaluation demo, it will put a large red Demo on your creation. If you don't have Virtual Painter, you can still do this tutorial for the framing technigque. After using this technique I had several requests for a tutorial and that is how this framing tutorial was born.

I have also been using the Visual Manipulation filters in several of my tutorials and will be using the VM Distortion - Radial Pox in this one today. VM (Visual Manipulation) is authored by Mario Klingemann, it is a free filter and he no longer has it available on his website. I have been given permission to have this as a download for you but it is quite large as it contains ALL of the VM filters. The download is 3.5 megs and I did want you to be aware of that.

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
JASC's Virtual Painter ~~ You can get it HERE
VisMan ~~ You can get it HERE
**unzip into your Plugins Folder
A Graphic ~~ I used Fountain of Youth by Jim Warren. Mr. Warren has graciously given me permission to use all of his works in my tutorials. You can view his other masterpieces at his website HERE. If you want to use this picture, right click on the picture and save to your hard drive.

Step 1:
Open your image in PSP and make a copy of it (Shift + D) We will be working on the copy but minimize the original image as we will be using it later.

Step 2:
Go to Effects-->Plugins-->Virtual Painter-->Oil Painting. Press Preview, where I have click here is where you can change the background material, I chose the Washi setting. Apply the settings I have for size, material, etc., press OK and watch the painter apply his magic.

Step 3:
Set your background color to a complimentary color from your graphic. I used #CD6A84. Go to Image -->add borders Make sure symmetric is checked and enter 10 for the border size. Click OK.

Step 4:
Pick up your magic wand (tolerance and feather set at 0), click on the border to get your marching ants. Go to Selections -->Invert and apply the following cutout (Effects-->3D-->Cutout):

Apply the cutout once again but this time change the vertical and horizontal offsets to minus 5. Deselect and Save.

Step 5:
Remember I told you that we would be utilizing the original graphic? Well, now it's time *S* Change your foreground styles to patterns and choose the original graphic for your pattern, change your background color to white. Add a new border and this time let's make the border size 25. With your magic wand select the border to get your marching ants and flood fill with your pattern. Keep selected.

Step 6:
Go to Effects-->Plugins-->VM Distortion-->Radial Pox and move the sliders to these settings:

Deselect and Save.

Step 7:
Change your background color back to the color you used for your first border. (Tip - If you right click on your background styles you will get a popup of the most recently used colors) Add a border of 8, go to Selections-->Invert and reapply the cutout. Don't forget to apply it twice, once with the negative offsets. And we're done!

If you are using this tutorial as a group lesson to be sent in we might need to have a Step 8 *S* It really depends on the size of your image to begin with. If you used Jim Warrens graphic, as I did, it is way to big to send to your groups especially after adding a frame.

Step 8 if needed:
If you need to resize your final work go to Images --> Resize. Here is something you need to know about resizing. One of the tricks you should use to squeeze the absolute best out of a resized image is to always try to resize to exactly three-quarters (75%), one-half (50%), or one-quarter (25%) the original image size. The mathematical reasons this works the best are beyond what I could explain in this little tip; but trust me--it works. Basically, Paint Shop Pro uses a complex algorithm to figure out which pixels to keep and which ones to throw out. Using a standard resize value lets PSP work at its optimal levels. I also have to add that ANY time you resize in PSP (including tubes!) you must sharpen your image for optimal viewing. Go to Effects --> Sharpen -->Sharpen.

Here's another one that I did.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial as much as I have creating it for you.

If you have any problems, comments or questions please do not hesitate to E-mail me.

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If you would like to use this tutorial for group settings, please contact me. Just click on the above mail slot *S*

Tutorial written and created by Patti Wavinak for Moon's Designs. These Tutorials are copyrighted by law. You may LINK to them only. You may not remove any of the graphics, zip files or html within these pages to reproduce these Tutorials, without the expressed permission of Moon's Designs. These pages may not be removed from this website and sent via e-mail, nor saved, stored or archived in files in YahooGroups or other mailing list sites, nor may they be translated and placed on another site.
Creations made from these tutorials are your creations.

Moon's Designs holds the copyright to all selections, original tubes and original images that I have created and provided for use within my tutorials. Page backgrounds and images are created exclusively for this website and may not be downloaded or used without written permission.
If you would like to use any of my tutorials for group lessons please contact me.