Fairly Violet

Supplies:

Tube: rachelanderson-24-2
Scrap: scrapkarma_ib-enamorte-70-3
Font: mishaland
Mask: 169 from Package 4, and 344 from Package 7
Animation: RebelDezignsAnimation-1937 from Package 644

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

First off, unzip all supplies.

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)
Close image.

Repeat this for any masks you are using.

Open a new canvas. I always use 800×800 pixels. Be sure your resolution is 72 Pixels/Inch. This keeps your tag at web viewing standards.

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. This makes it faster to place items.

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. Or you can just hit enter.

Next, choose the paper you would like to use on your mask. Drag the paper onto the canvas above the mask, just like before.

Now you have two layers in your layers panel. (because I totally needed to tell you that)

In your layers panel, right click on the paper layer and choose Create Clipping Mask.

That’s it! How easy is that?

Repeat this for both masks (if you are using the same two I am.)

Select > All Layers
Layer > Group Layers
Name it “Masks” because this is easier to keep up with what you have.
You can expand the group by clicking the little arrow beside the group icon.

Now, time for the elements! This is where the real magic begins.

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. This way, you can create your own version of the tag without doing exactly what I have done.

When placing your elements, you can transform them again by going to Edit > Free Transform. Just be sure you hold the shift key to constrain the proportions.

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. You have a frame, right? If not, you can skip this part. We need to add a fill layer 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 Selection 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. Easy Peasy!

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 (or ctrl+click) a layer and choose “Blending Options.”
I add a drop shadow and an outer glow. The glow enhances the effect a bit.
You can change the light direction of your drop shadow to match the tube.

Now after you have hit OK, right click the layer again and choose “Copy Layer Style.”
Highlight all of your element 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:

To get rid of those pesky shadows hanging over the edge of your tag, it just takes a couple of steps.

Highlight all of your element layers, frame layer, and paper layer that you used inside the frame. DO NOT include the other group that you have your masks in.

Go to Layer > Group Layers.
You can name this group “Elements.”

This adds a group to your layers panel. However, you will need to expand it by clicking on the little arrow beside the group icon.

Now that the group is expanded, let’s continue. Right click the thumbnail of your mask layer and choose “Select Pixels.”

As you can see, the marching ants are all around your layer!

Now right click the next upper mask layer’s thumbnail and choose “Add Transparency Mask.”

You can also use a keyboard shortcut.

Hold Shift and CTRL (cmd on mac) on your keyboard and simply click on the thumbnail of the next element layer. Repeat this for all element layers. DO NOT include the paper layer! This will select the entire canvas. We don’t want that.

After you have included all of your element layers in the selection, go back to the paper layer. Hold Shift and CTRL (cmd for mac) and click on the black and white mask thumbnail of your frame.

This will include the inner portion of the frame in your selection.

This is what you should have now:

Highlight the group in your layers panel that has your elements in it.

Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.

This will chop off all of the unnecessary shadows and leave your tag clean in the background.

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.

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.

NOW is the time to resize your tag, if you want.

Don’t forget your copyright text!

Highlight the top layer of the layers panel.

Grab your text tool and add the name you would like. Be sure to have your foreground color set to a color from your tag. Position it just where you want it and add a layer style. This is mine:

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. But… ignore it! We don’t need it.

Highlight the layer you want your animation to appear ABOVE. I have chosen to add it above the mask group.

File > Open… choose an animation that you’d like to use. I am going to show you how to use the 25 frame animations that I have at CDO. We aren’t going to be cutting down the animation, this time.

You will see that all 25 layers are open and unhidden in the layers panel.

Select > All Layers
Layer > Group Layers
You can name this layer “Animation.”

Now right click on your group in the layers panel and duplicate. BUT DON’T HIT OK, YET!

In the duplicate dialog, choose your tag from the dropdown box. If you haven’t saved by this point, you should see an “Untitled-1” option. (but you definitely should have saved before now. Remember, always save often.)

After you have chosen your tag, hit ok. You can close the animation file without saving.

Back to your tag.

You can resize and rotate the group using the Edit > Free Transform option. Be sure you are resizing the whole group, not just one layer. Don’t forget to hit the check mark at the top of the window to apply the transformation.

On the right side of your animation panel, click the 4 horizontal lines. Choose the option that says “Make Frames from Layers.”

You will see in the animation panel that you can’t really see anything… Photoshop is alittle strange like that. It likes to hide the groups because it reads them as layers. Maybe one day they will fix that.

In the layers panel, unhide all 3 of the groups.

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 that contain only the animation layers. They are really hard to see in that tiny animation panel, but you can see the little hearts on your tag.

You will see that your tag only has one animation layer visible in each frame. You want this!

You can collapse the group again now, so you don’t mistakenly unhide layers in there. Click on the little arrow icon beside the group icon in the layers panel.

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 by clicking the little square box beside the layer thumbnail. An eye should appear…

Unfortunately, if you look in your animation panel, most of the time, that only unhides the background 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… the hearts don’t really match the tag, do they?

Select the FIRST frame in your animation panel. Always be on the first frame when you alter your tag.

Highlight the Animation group in the layers panel. Set the blend mode to Luminosity. There is a dropdown box at the top of the layer panel that contains all of the blend modes.

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.