Shell's Tutorials

Shells Tutorials
Lipstick Sig

Open a new canvas, 500x500. We need it big for now, we'll crop away the excess later.

Set your background colour to #972d51

Click on your text tool and write your name. I've used Bradley Hand font, size 72. Floating and Anti Alias checked.

It's best to use a simple font for this type of sig, until you're comfortable with making writing sigs. Once you are, you can try more elaborate fonts!

Once you've applied your text to the canvas, move it to the centre then go to Selections > Select None

Save your text as a PSP file

Open your text in Animation Shop.

We now need to duplicate the frames. The number of frames depends upon the amount of letters in your name. A good rule is to duplicate your text 5 times for every letter (if the font you're using is a simple one, if it's elaborate, you may need more frames per letter). My name has 5 letters so needs to be duplicated so it has approx 25 frames. We also need an extra frame for the lips tube so instead of duplicating mine to 25, I duplicated it so it had 33 frames. That way, I knew I'd definitely have enough frames for everything I needed to do.

Click on the Registration Mark tool

use the following settings:

Now click on the first frame to select it and click at the start of your first letter (think about where you would start writing the letter if you had a paper and pen in front of you)

Click once and this will put a cross at the start of your letter.

Click on the eraser tool and use the following settings:

Now erase all the letters in the first frame.

The reason for the cross is so that when we come to add the lipstick tube, we'll know where the start of the letter is.

Now, click on frame 2 and erase part of the first letter and all the other letters. Again, think about how you would write the letter if you were using a pen and paper.

Click on frame 3 to select it and again, erase some more of the first letter and all of the other letters.

Continue erasing part of the first and all of the other letters until you're left with the full first letter.

Repeat this process with each of the other letters, always remembering to erase all the other letters.

1)	2)
3) If you're not sure how much of the letter to erase in each new frame, use the previous frame as a guide so you can see how much more of the letter you need leave.
4)	5)
6)	7)

When you've done all the letters, open the lipstick tube and go to Edit > Copy

Go to your first frame and click in it to select it.

Now go to Edit > Paste into selected frame.

Using your mouse, move the lipstick to the centre of the cross and click once to position it.

Now go to frame 2 and go to Edit > Paste into selected frame.

Again, move the mouse until the lipstick is positioned on the end of the letter and click once to position it.

Repeat this process on every frame...

until you get to the last letter.

You now have 2 options.... you can either delete all remaining frames, crop your sig and save it or you can carry on with the tutorial and add the lips :o)

TO ADD THE LIPS:

When you get to the end of the last letter, go to the next frame and erase all the letters in that frame then delete all remaining frames after the blank one as you don't need them now.

Open your lips tube and go to Edit > Copy

Click in the blank frame and go to Edit > Paste into selected frame.

Click once when you've got the lips in position.

No go to Edit > Select All then Animation > Frame Properties.

Set the frame speed to 15

Now click back on the frame with the text and the last lipstick....the one before the lips frame.

Go to Effects > Insert Image Transition and use the following settings:

Click on the Crop tool and click on the options button

Click on Surround the opaque area then click OK

A box will appear around the lips/text

Click on the Crop button

Click on the last frame which should be the lips, and right click. Go to Frame Properties and set the frame speed to 100.

Save your animation.

Now I'd usually say you were done but with this type of sig you usually have to do some tidying up!

Go to File > Preferences > General Program Preferences

Click on Transparency

The canvas check background default setting is white and grey as you can see from my screenshots, we're going to change the colours to make it easier to see any stray pixels we may have missed.

Now click in each colour window to get the colour palette to open and set both boxes to dark blue.

Now use the zoom tool to zoom in on your sig so it's really big.

Look at each frame and if you see any stray pixels, erase them:

Now go back to your general program preferences and put the transparency colours back by clicking on the drop down box and clicking on Light Grey.

The reason we saved the sig before cleaning up the stray pixels is because the pixels are a lot easier to see once the sig has been optimized ;)

And now you're done!!

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial.