Materials Needed:
PSP 8 - get it here - would also work in ver. 7 and probably 6.
Some screen shots have been reduced in size for faster loading, and have subsequently lost quality - yours will look much better.
1. Open a new image, 400 x 300 and flood fill with a colour if desired.
2. With your shapes tool, retain shape unchecked, antialias and create as vector checked, draw a rectangle in the colour of your choice on the left hand side. I am using white. Note: it's a good idea to make the fence as close to the final size you want, because it will lose quality in resizing. For demonstration purposes, I am making this one much bigger than needed.
3. Click on your pen tool and move the cursor over the top line until you see it say "add" as shown:
4. Left click to add a node in the centre of the top. Grab the node and pull up to make a peak as shown:
5. Layers--->Convert to raster layer. Edit--->Copy. Edit--->Paste as new selection and place beside the first one with some space in between. Edit--->paste as new selection again and do this a couple more times till you have a row. (Hint: use your grid for even placement) Deselect. I used four and when I finished, decided I wanted it more centred in the canvas so I just used the mover tool to move it over. Please note that this lost a lot of quality when I resized it, yours will not have the jaggies on the top.
6. Go to your background layer and add a new raster layer. Draw a rectangle across the canvas and behind the fence pieces as shown:
Or, you may prefer to draw it in front of the slats.
7. Edit--->Copy. Edit--->paste as new selection and place a ways down.
8.Turn off your background layer and merge visible the rest. If you are happy with it the way it is, you can tube it for use in your outdoor images. If you want to give it some depth, continue on.
9. Delete your background layer and export the fence piece as a picture tube. File---Export--->Picture Tube.
10. Open a new image 300 x 300 and flood fill if desired. Add a new raster layer and name it "fence 1". Click on the tube tool and select your fence piece. change the Step to 2 and the Scale to whatever size you want for your image. (If you are not going to tube this, you need to set the scale now, resizing after it's done won't work properly)
11. Move your cursor to the co-ordinates 145, 135 - bottom right of your PSP screen (if this isn't on, go to View--->Toolbars and select Status), in PSP 7 it will be on the bottom left. Click once to lay the tube down.
12. Add a new raster layer and name it "fence 2". Move the cursor to about 150, 130. Hold your Shift key down and click to place the tube. You need to do these two steps in quick time for some reason, I have found that if you futz around in between, it doesn't do it right. An easy way is to make and name the layers first, then lay the tube down and switch to the next layer for the second step. Note: you can play around with the exact co-ordinates to get different levels of depth and different directions on it. Thanks to Mahogany for teaching this techniqe.
13. On Fence 2 layer, Adjust--->Brightness and Contrast--->Brightness/Contrast, enter -20 for Brightness, 0 for Contrast. (or whatever setting you prefer) Layers--->Arrange--->Move down. You should have your background layer, then Fence 2, then Fence 1.
Delete your background layer and merge visible the other 2. You now have your
fence piece with depth. Export as a picture tube to use in your images.
Please continue to Page Two for the pillar.
Tutorial and images © Margaret M. aka MsRosie of Rosie's Graphics
2000-2004 and may not be copied or reproduced without express written permission
by the author. Please see my
terms of use page. If you have any problems or questions regarding the tutorial,
please email me.