How To Make A Glitter On Paint Shop Pro (All Editions) – GIF Animator Needed

Create a glitter in 20 easy steps:

1. Open the picture you wish to make glitter in Paint Shop Pro (PSP)
I’ll be using this picture of the Brain Tree:


2. Ensure the image is depth is 16 million colours by clicking on the IMAGE menu, scrolling down to INCREASE COLOUR DEPTH (If the option increase to 16 million colours is greyed out, the image is already in this format, and you can skip to step three) If not, click the button, as so:


3. You may want to put your name or © signature on the image at this time, and if so, use the FONT tool in the normal way to do so, this will not affect the glitter.

4. Copy the image, and then paste, twice, as the normal amount of slides for a glitter is THREE, though you can use more if you want:


5. Next, you need to find the MAGIC WAND tool. If you look in the tools menu, normally down the left hand side of the screen, you will see a dashed box :


If you click the small arrow next to it, three options will come up, you need to select magic wand:


Now you need to change the mode to ADD, so you can select more than one part of the image at one time, this is important as it speeds up the process of making the image glitter. The mode button is located at the top of the screen:


You will notice that there is also a TOLERANCE button (to the right of where you just click ADD); this allows you to change how sensitive the MAGIC WAND tool is, or how different a colour it will select at one time (a high tolerance setting will select both a light and dark blue at the same time, while a low tolerance setting will select only the light OR dark blue)

6. When you have adjusted this to your preference, LEFT CLICK to select the area you want to glitter, it will now have a flashing dashed line around it:


7. Next, you need to visit the ADJUST menu, where you need to find the section which says ADD/REMOVE NOISE.
Here you need to choose ADD NOISE, like this:


8. Now you are in the ADD NOISE menu, select GAUSSIAN.
You can also check the MONOCHROME box to have your glitter in the colour of the image, or leave it, which will give you colourful glitter.
Adjust the NOISE PERCENTAGE to the amount you want (the higher the percentage, the more bold the glitter).
Play around with these setting to find out what looks best on your image.
Press OK to complete this stage.



9. Repeat steps 7 to 9, making sure you select the same area on images two and three as you did on the first one. You should now have three images looking fairly pixelated (they will look better soon)

10. Add the finishing touch to your glitter images by adding sparkles, which look like this:


They come in many sizes and colours, and can be found in the PICTURE TUBE menu
(if you don’t have any, simply search Google for ‘PSP picture tube sparkles’ and many pages come up, with simple instructions for installing them.)
REMEMBER TO SAVE YOUR IMAGES IF YOU NEED TO RESTART PSP!

11. When you have the tubes installed, open your three images, and select the sparkle you wish to use.

12. Place the sparkles in different places on the images, so they will appear to ‘dance’ when the image is animated:


13. Now you need to SAVE the three images (with different names). Remember to save them as GIF files.
So go to the FILE menu, click SAVE AS, and name your three images in order (eg. braintree1, braintree2, braintree3).
This helps when you animate the pictures.


14. Open your GIF animator programme (many can be downloaded free from the internet).
I will be using Microsoft Gif Animator, which is probably already installed on most windows computers, but any other gif animator will work the same way.

15. Click the OPEN icon (shown below) and open the first of your slides (in my case braintree1.gif)


16. Next, click the INSERT icon (shown below).


The screen below will appear. You need to select your second image and press open.


17. Repeat step 16, but select your third image instead of your second.
There should now be three slides shown in your gif animator. (You should do this again for any more consecutive images you have made).

18. Next click on the ANIMATION tab, and select the two options, LOOPING and REPEAT FOREVER (shown below)– this will keep the image glittering.


19. Now click on the IMAGE tab:


Hold down the shift button on your keyboard, and click on all three images.
They should now have a darkened box around them, as they do in the picture opposite.
This means any changes you make will be made to all three images, which needs to happen.
You need to change the DURATION (shown in 100ths of a second, meaning 100 in that box will make the image show for 1 second).
I find that a duration of between 12 and 16 works best for glitters, depending on the image.
You should experiment with this, to see which fits your image best.

(You can PREVIEW your glitter once you have put a duration in the box, by clicking the play arrow (right hand corner of the screen next to the question mark):


If you think the glitter is going too fast, then put a higher value in the DURATION box, or if it is too slow, a lower value. 20. Once you are happy with your image, click the SAVE AS icon:


Name your glitter whatever you want, ensure that SAVE AS TYPE is (*.gif), although this should be automatic and click SAVE.

21. Congratulations, you have finished your glitter tutorial, and are ready to use your glitter for whatever you like! I hope this has helped you.

The glitter I made in this tutorial is also on our website in the glitters section, so you can all see how it turned out.

Please remember,
this tutorial was made by Steph at Jhudoras Clouds Graphics and Help,
not by you, so please do not claim it as your own,
misuse will be reported and the offender placed on our wall of shame.

Glitter Tutorial © Steph @ Jhudoras-Clouds Graphics and Help