Supplies:
Scrap kit by Chaos Priestess(unfortunately, retired)
Tube from Enys Guerrero
Mask of choice. I usually use 2 or three in my tags.
Water frames. Do not share these files.
Font: Tramps Trick Americo (download will be sent after purchase)
Pattern of choice. The pattern I used is no longer available.
Please do not use any of the licensed supplies without purchasing them first.
First off, unzip all supplies.
We want to install our patterns. Go to Edit > Presents > Present Manager…
In the popup dialog, click the “Load” button on the right side. Navigate to the patterns you saved and click Open. Then click Done. This will load the patterns into your styles window when we are ready to style the text layer.
Open the mask you would like to use. You don’t have to use the one I have chosen.
Select > All
Edit > Copy
Select > Edit in Quick Mask Mode
Edit > Paste
Select > Edit in Quick Mask Mode (uncheck)
Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection
Layer > Layer Mask > Apply
Layer > Matting > Remove Black Matte
Right click the layer thumbnail in the layers panel
Select Pixels
Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection
Layer > Layer Mask > Apply
Save this as a .psd on your desktop (or wherever you want)
Open a new canvas. I always use 800×800 pixels. Be sure your resolution is 72 Pixels/Inch.
I usually add a color fill layer to the tag so it is easily changed should I use it on a different color website. Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color…
White usually works with most websites.
You can drag and drop items straight from your file browser into the canvas.
Browse to the mask that you just saved in your computer’s file browser. Drag it onto your tag.
Don’t forget to set the Transformation by double clicking the layer on the canvas, or clicking the checkbox at the top of the window.
Next, choose the paper you would like to use on your mask.
Drag the paper onto the canvas above the mask.
In your layers panel, right click on the paper layer and choose Create Clipping Mask.
Now, time for the elements!
Instead of telling you exactly where to put what and what size to use, I am just going to show you a animated image of what I did.
As you can see, it is pretty random. I just place the items where I think they might work.
Now, back to the frame element layer. We need to add a fill to the picture frame.
Highlight the layer UNDER the frame in your layers panel. Now drop the paper you would like to use onto the canvas.
Grab your selection wand from the tools panel. If you can’t find it, check out the basics page for a better understanding of the tools layout.
The wand options should look like this at the top of your window:
Click on the center portion of the frame.
In the upper menu of Photoshop, click on Selection > Modify > Expand…
Expand your selection by 2px.
Now highlight your paper layer. Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.
Now you have a fill to your frame.
We definitely want to add some shadows to our elements. Without shadowing, the tag will just look flat. The secret to a good tag, is a good shadow effect.
Right click a layer (topmost works fine) and choose “Blending Options.”
I add a drop shadow and an outer glow. It enhances the effect a bit.
Now after you have hit OK, right click the layer again and choose “Copy Layer Style.”
Highlight all of your layers (click the top one, then shift + click the bottom one) and right click again. This time, choose “Paste Layer Style.”
It makes a HUGE difference to add shadows:
Now that we have all of that done, time to add the next details. Tube and text. Fun!
Choose where you want your main tube to be placed. I want mine above butterfly, but below the lacing. So I will highlight the butterfly layer.
Now drag and drop your tube onto the canvas. Resize and adjust it to your liking. Always make sure you constrain your proportions while resizing. Hold the Shift key while you drag the corners.
Add the same drop shadow you did before. Don’t forget your copyright text!
Duplicate this layer and make sure it is at 100% size. Right click and “Clear Layer Styles.”
Change the Opacity of this layer to 50%.
Transform > Flip Horizontal. (I flipped the first tube layer, instead of the second.)
In the layers panel, move your duplicate tube layer to just above the paper you placed “inside” the frame.
Layer > Group Layers (this will make only one layer in the group, but we will make more later.)
Make sure your group is highlighted.
In the layer panel, hold the ALT key and drag the Mask thumbnail from the paper layer onto the Group folder layer. This will add the same mask to the group so the tube stays inside the frame.
Expand your group so you can see what’s in it. Click the little arrow beside the folder icon in your layers panel.
Highlight the top layer of the layers panel.
Grab your text tool and add the name you would like. Position it just where you want it and add a layer style. This is mine:
When you get to the part with the pattern, click on the arrow beside the pattern thumbnail and choose one from the patterns that you installed earlier.
That leave us with the non-animated version of the tag! If you wold like to keep the JPG version, you can save here. Simply File > Save As… and choose the jpg option from the drop down box at the bottom of the dialog.
Here’s where it starts getting complicated.
Did you unzip the Water Frames zip that I supplied? You will be needing that now.
Highlight the duplicate tube that you put inside the frame. Right click it and “Rasterize layer.”
Duplicate this layer 24 times. This would make a total of 25 layers of that duplicate tube.
To make things easier, you can rename the layers 1-25. Double click on the name of the layer and just type it in.
From now on, I am going to refer to them as “Layer 1,” “Layer 2,” and so on.
Highlight Layer 1.
Filter > Distort > Displace…
Click ok and navigate to Water-1.psd
Highlight Layer 2.
Filter > Distort > Displace…
Click ok and navigate to Water-2.psd
Highlight Layer 3.
Filter > Distort > Displace…
Click ok and navigate to Water-3.psd
You see where this is going, right? Do this for each of the Layers using the respective water file.
Make sure your Animation Panel is open. Window > Timeline (or Animation, if you are on earlier versios)
You will need to click the “Create Frame Animation” button. If you do not see this button, please refer to THIS page for more information about the timeline.
You will see that your first frame is already there. But… ignore it! We don’t need it.
On the right side of your animation panel, click the 4 horizontal lines. Choose the option that says “Make Frames from Layers.”
Now, this made a mess of things, didn’t it?? LOL! But no, not really. You will see that it created a frame for every layer in your tag. And that’s ok!
Click on the first frame in the animation panel. At the bottom of the window, there is a trashcan icon. That deletes the frame. Delete all of the frames that aren’t part of the animation. You should be left with 25 frames.
You will see that your tag only has one animation layer visible. You want this!
You can collapse the group again now, so you don’t mistakenly unhide layers in there.
In the animations panel, click on the first frame. You MUST BE ON THE FIRST FRAME to do any kind of editing from here on out. ALWAYS make sure you are on the first frame. ALWAYS! I can’t stress that enough.
Are you on the first frame of the animation yet? Good. Now we can continue.
In the Layers panel, unhide the background layer.
Unfortunately, most of the time, that only unhides the last layer for the first animation frame. Just hide it again, and then unhide once more. Photoshop has a strange sense of background layers. It doesn’t play nice. Thankfully, the bottom-most layer is the only one you have to click 3 times. (I sure hope you got all of that. It is hard to explain…)
Now, one by one, unhide all of the layers to your tag. DON’T touch the animation layers, though! Those are already spaced out the way they should be. Leave those alone.
After you have unhidden all of your tag layers, you can click play at the bottom of the animation panel to check out your creation!
Oh, right! Don’t forget to set your frame delay.
Now you will need to save your animation as a gif file.
In your animation dialog, use these settings:
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial!