This Kiss


Supplies:

Tube: https://www.cdoestore.com/product-p/enamorte-96-2.htm
Scrap: https://www.cdoestore.com/product-p/scraphonored_ib-enamorte-96-2.htm
Font: https://www.creativefabrica.com/product/vallery-qylmor
Mask: 400 from Package 8
Animation: https://www.cdoestore.com/product-p/rebeldezignsanimation-722.htm
Filter: Filter Forge with THIS filter.

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


First off, unzip all supplies.

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.

Place the mask you want to use on the canvas. You don’t have to use the one I am using, but for this tutorial, you want a nice solid mask that will keep the majority of your tag exposed.

Hide this layer for now. We will come back to it later.


Create a new layer. You can name this one “Patterned Background” if you like.

Go to Filter > Filter Forge.

Before you do anything, go to THIS page and click the button on the side that says “Open in Filter Forge.” With Filter Forge open, it will automatically add the filter to your library. If your library gets too large, you can always come back and open it this way. It won’t download it twice, it will just open the one you already have.

Back to the filter… These are the settings I have used with this filter:

In the options to add the image, browse to where you saved your tube. Open the JPG file that is included. This way, the background is also in the image.

You should have something that looks like this:

Layer > Group Layer. Name this “Tag Body”.

Unhide your Mask layer. Highlight it in the layers panel.

Select > All
Edit > Copy
Select > Deselect

Highlight your newly created group in the layers panel. Make sure you have the “layer” with the folder icon selected.

Select > Edit in Quick Mask Mode
Edit > Paste
Select > Uncheck Edit in Quick Mask Mode

This will leave a selection of the mask.

With your group still highlighted, go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.

You will see that your group now has a black and white layer mask thumbnail attached in the layers panel. Double click this black and white thumbnail to bring up a refining window.

In the Global Adjustments part, slide over the Shift Edge to 25%

Click the Apply button at the bottom and back to the tag. This will fill in a little more of the masked area. You can now delete the original mask layer, since we won’t be needing it anymore.

Sometimes… this will leave a dark line around your tag. You can very carefully use the eraser tool ON the mask to remove the line. I just leave it there, because it really doesn’t bother me.


Place your main tube on the canvas and position and resize to your liking.

Your tube SHOULD have been placed inside the group, but if it wasn’t you will need to drag it in.

Add a couple of elements of your liking into the group as well. Don’t worry about them moving too far to the edge. The mask will make up for it! So go wild if you want.

But let’s now add a couple of elements outside of the mask. Drop an element onto the canvas and drag it up and out of the group.

Position this element where you want (I chose the top left corner) and duplicate it.

Edit > Transform > Rotate 180 degrees.

Move this one to the bottom right corner.


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.

Now after you have hit OK, right click the layer again and choose “Copy Layer Style.”
Highlight each of your other elements and your tube. Right click again.  This time, choose “Paste Layer Style.”

The shadows don’t make the biggest difference in this particular tag, but it is still a difference.

The shadowing around the outside of the decorative elements are still a bit too much, so let’s fix that.

Select both of the elements outside of the group. Layer > Group Layers. Name this group “Deco Elements”.

This will mean you have TWO groups on your tag.

Right click the mask attached to your “Tag Body” group. Choose Add Mask to Selection.

Right click one of the element layers in your “Deco Elements” group. Choose Add Transparency Mask. Repeat with the other element.

Now you have a selection around your elements and the body of the tag.

Highlight the Deco Elements group. Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.

Viola! Shadows trimmed.

This is what your layers should look like now:


Now that we have all of that done, time to add the text.  Fun!

Resize before adding copyrights!


Collapse your groups in the layers panel by clicking the little arrow beside the folder icons.

Highlight the top group 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:

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 versions)

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.

Expand the “Tag Body” group and highlight the layer of the tag that we used Filter Forge on.

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. 

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

In the menu, choose Select > All Layers.
Layer > Group Layers

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 Destination 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.


Let’s make the animation match the tag better.

Expand the group. Hightlight the topmost layer (Frame 25)

Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. Click on the gradient thumbnail, so we aren’t actually on the mask that is attached. This takes a bit of practice. Even I forget to do that from time to time.

Window > Properties

In the properties panel, change the colors in your gradient by clicking on the gradient itself. Choose colors from your tube. If you hover your tag, you can grab colors directly from the canvas. Remember, if you have the mask of the layer highlighted, it will only choose white… so cancel, deselect the mask, and go to the properties again.

Once you have your colors chosen click ok. Change the blend mode of this adjustment layer to “Color” in the top of the layers panel. Don’t collapse the group yet.

Highlight the Animation group in the layers panel and change the blend mode to Normal, instead of Pass Through. This will ensure that ONLY the animation gets recolored, instead of the whole background.

You can also add a drop shadow to your animation right now. This is totally optional, though. You can use the blending options on the group, just like you can any other layer.

Right click the group in the layers panel and choose Blending Options. Now add the drop shadow of your choice.


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

As you will see, the animation frames are blank… We have to do a little adjusting in the layers panel.

UNhide the 3 groups in your layers panel. And bam! Your frames are now visible again…

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.

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

Highlight the first frame in your animation panel. Go back to your layers panel and unhide the gradient map we created earlier.

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!

If you would like to make your animation smaller, you can highlight all of the odd numbered frames and then click on the little trashcan icon at the bottom. I like to keep mine at full size. It’s just nicer for digital picture dispaly wink

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