Selection Tool

The selection tool is very versatile, this is just one of it's many uses.

I wanted to use this frame with the girl tube but the frame was transparent in the middle so I used the selection tool to make a coloured background to the frame so I could add my tube.

I used a tube from Knuddelkids.com

OK, let's make a start

For this tutorial you will need:

PSP 7 although it should work equally well in PSP 8

A Frame and tube of your choice

You can download the frame I used here

Open a new canvas 500x500

It's big because I like to have a lot of room to play with. We'll be cropping it later

Open the frame you want to use and go to Edit > Copy

Click on the new canvas to make it active and go to Edit > Paste As New Layer. Right click on the layer with your frame on and Rename it Frame

Now leave that layer active and go to Layers > New Raster Layer. When the window opens name the layer Background and click OK 

Your layer palette will now look like this

We're going to make the selection now

Click on the Selection Tool  and use the following settings

On your frame you want to make a rectangle selection that covers the centre of the frame

Go to your Stroke Box and load the colour/gradient/pattern of your choice

Click on your Flood fill Tool  

Flood fill your selection

You will now have this

Go to Selections > Select None

Now we need to move the background layer below the frame layer

We can do this in 2 ways

Go to Layers > Arrange > Move Down

OR

Click on the background layer on your layer palette and keep the mouse pressed, now drag the layer down until it is below the frame layer

Time now to get rid of the colour that show's outside of the frame

Click on the Eraser Tool   and use the following settings

Now I always zoom in when I'm erasing to make sure I get rid of all the pixels. Click on your zoom tool and click on your canvas a few times until it is the size you want it

Erase all the colour that is outside of the frame. Don't worry about going on your frame because the background is on it's own layer so the eraser will only erase on that layer

If you turn off the visibility on your frame layer you will see how the eraser has just worked on your background layer (just pointing this out to give you a better understanding of how layers work)

Example.....

Looks messy but you'll never see it like that again once you turn the visibility of the frame layer back on!

Now we can add our tube

With your frame layer active go to Layers > New Raster Layer. Name this layer Tube

Click on your Tube Tool and choose a picture you would like to use. Set the scale so it fits inside the frame and add your tube

Alternatively you can open any picture you have on your computer and resize it to fit the frame by going to Image > Resize. When the options box opens type in a number less than 100 in Percentage Of Original to make your picture smaller.

If it's not the right size the first time just click on the Undo icon

When your happy with the size of your picture go to

Edit > Copy

Click on your frame canvas to make it active and got to Edit > Paste as new layer

When you close your original picture it will ask you if you want to save the changes, click No so you can use the picture again

Use your Mover Tool to place your tube where you want it

Go to Layers > Merge > Merge Visible

Now we have to crop and save the frame. The easiest way I find to do this is to click on the Copy icon in PSP

Now open Animation Shop

Click on the Paste New Animation icon

Now your frame will open in Animation Shop and it will be cropped

Click on the Save icon  and save to a folder of your choice

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it gave you another use for the Selection Tool :o)

Tutorial written by Shell © 2003