Daydreamer


Supplies:

Tube: misstigri-15-2
Scrap: scrapgimptastic_forgotten
Font: batter-dinner-script and ale-pro
Mask: 327 and 346 from Package 7

Please do not use any of the licensed supplies without purchasing them first.


First off, unzip all supplies.

Open the mask(s) you would like to use.  You don’t have to use the ones I have chosen.

Select > All
Edit > Copy

This will save a “selection” of the white areas in the mask.

You can now close that mask.

Open a new 800 x 800 pixel canvas. Be sure it is set to 72ppi resolution. You can always resize later.

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.

Place the paper on the canvas that you would like to use. You can either drag and drop it onto the canvas from your file browser, or you can use the File > Place… method. Just browse to the folder with the kit when prompted.

With the paper layer highlighted in the layers panel…

Select > Edit in Quick Mask Mode.
Edit > Paste

This will leave parts of the paper in red. This is good! If it doesn’t, then you will need to open and copy the mask again.

It seems that our mask was too big for the tag. Let’s fix that.

With the red “quick mask” still in effect, go to Edit > Free Transform

Fit the red mask inside your tag.

Select > Uncheck the Edit in Quick Mask Mode.
Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection

Magic, right?? now you don’t have to worry about having an extra clipped layer.

Instead, you have a mask thumbnail attached to your paper layer.

Place another paper on your canvas and repeat the process with any other masks you want to use.

That’s it! How easy is that?

Sometimes, this method will leave a dark line around your tag. You can take a very small round eraser and click in the very corner of the mask. Hold shift, and then click on the next corner. This will erase in a straight line. Repeat this until you have gone all the way around your tag, ending in the corner you started. You will need to do this for all masks. It only takes a couple of minutes, but it makes a big difference. My tag has the line still left intact. I don’t mind the line, but some may find it annoying.

Grab your Ellipse tool from the tools panel (you may have to right click a few tools to find it) and draw out a circle on your canvas. You will probably need to go over the edge, and that is ok!

Now grab your rectangular marquee tool and select the larger upper portion of the circle.

Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection

Place a paper on your canvas and right click it in the Layers panel. Choose “Create Clipping Mask.”

Right click the layer and choose Blending Options. Add this drop shadow.

Hold the CTRL (or CMD) button on your keyboard and click the thumbnail of your shape layer in the Layers panel. This should select your shape.

Select > Modify > Contract… 10

Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color…

Use your rectangle selection tool and select the bottom portion of the circle, like this:

As you can see, the selection goes a bit higher than the circle behind it.

In the layers panel, click on the black and white thumbnail in the layers panel. This will highlight the layer mask.

Check the colors in your tool panel. Foreground should be white, background should be black.

Hit delete on the keyboard.

Note: If you don’t have the mask highlighted in the layers panel, it will give you a warning.

Open the blending options of this layer and give it this styling:

Place another paper on your canvas and create clipping mask.

Grab your rectangle shape tool and draw out a rectangle on your canvas like this:

Open the blending options and give it this styling:

In the layers panel, right click on the black and white thumbnail of the half circle you made just before. Click on “Add Mask to Selection.”

Go back to your rectangle layer you just created.
Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection

Place another paper and create clipping mask.

Using a big chunky font, type out the word DAYDREAMER (or your choice of word).

Add this layer style:

Place another paper and create clipping mask.

Now add a few elements at the bottom of the tag.

You can drag and drop items straight from your file browser into the canvas. This makes it faster to place items.

Give them all this shadowing:

This is what I have so far:

Go back to your half circle layer. Highlight the paper layer that you have clipped to it. Place the tube you would like to use and position it like you want by using the Edit > Free Transform method. Be sure to hold the shift key while resizing to constrain the proportions.

If your tube hangs over the bottom, you can use a mask to remove the parts that you don’t want to see.

Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All
Now use your eraser tool while the mask is active in the layers panel.

Add the same shadowing as you did for the elements.


***** If you have already done a tutorial using these steps, you can skip it and move on to the text part.

Open a new image. File > New 300×300 pixels should be good enough.

Fill the layer with gray. Some version of a middle gray, or you can go to
Edit > Fill… and choose 50% gray from the dropdown.

Filter > Noise > Add Noise

Image > Adjustments > Desaturate

Edit > Define Pattern… Name it whatever you like. We will be using this as the stroke on the text layer.

You can now close the image without saving.

Back to the tag.



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:

Place another paper and create clipping mask.


Resize before adding copyrights!

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. We want to add animation!

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. 

Highlight the text layer you where you added the name. Hopefully, you followed the noise instructions and used it as your stroke for this layer.

In the Animation panel, duplicate your frame by clicking on the little + at the bottom of the panel.

In the Layers panel, right click the text layer and bring up the Blending Options again.

Go to the Stroke option. Don’t change anything, though. Instead, hover over your tag and your cursor will turn into the move too. You can freely move the pattern of your stroke around. Give it a good 2 or 3 swipes and click OK.

In the Animation panel, highlight the first frame again. At the top right of the panel, there are 4 horizontal lines. Click that and choose “Tween…”

You may choose to add more frames than this, but it would be a bit overkill. I think 3 is plenty. This will leave you with 5 animation frames in your animation panel.

You can now click play at the bottom of the animation panel to check out your creation!

Oh, right!  Don’t forget to set your frame delay.

Highlight all of your frames in the animation panel. Highlight the first frame and then hold shift. Click on the last frame. Now all frames are highlighted.

Click on the little arrow beside the time of the last frame. This will bring up a popup for more “delay” options.


Now you will need to save your animation as a gif file.

In your animation dialog, use these settings:


flyinghearts My “Forever List” can find their tags in their Fotki Folders. flyinghearts