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Adding Sparkle Shapes 

To A Tag

You can use any shape or dingbat for this effect

This tutorial deals with creating the animation and not the background.

 

This tutorial is written for Jasc Animation Shop 3 and Paint Shop Pro (any version)

To complete this tutorial you will need to either download one of my sparkle shapes from HERE or make one of your own using my tutorial Creating Sparkle Shapes.

You will also need a tag or photo to add the sparkle shape to.

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Start up both Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop

In Paint Shop Pro, open your tag or photo.  If you want to add any sort of frame or border to the image then do it now.

 

If necessary, merge the layers of your tag to a single layer.

Edit menu, Copy (or use the copy button on the tool bar, or ctrl C)

Switch to Animation Shop

Edit menu, Paste, As New Animation (ctrl V)

 

File menu, Open - open the .psp file of the sparkle shape you want to add to the tag.

With the sparkle shape file selected, look at the bottom right corner of the Animation Shop window, you should be able to see the number of frames there.

 

Click on the window with the tag in it.

Animation menu, Insert Empty Frames -

Number of Frames = One less than the number of frames in the sparkle shape file.
Insert before frame = 2
Frame Delay Time = 12
Select

"Carry forward contents of preceding frame"

  

Edit menu, Select All

Click on the Sparkle Shape window

Edit menu, Select All

Drag (holding the mouse button down) from the first frame of the sparkle shape animation to the first frame of the tag.

The contents of all the other sparkle shape frames should be copied to each corresponding frame of the tag.

You can check your results by previewing the animation (View menu, Animation).  Close the preview window when you have finished viewing your animation.

If you are not happy with the position of the sparkle shape, you can try again, but you need to "Undo" on both windows first (click the undo button with the tag window selected and then click the title bar of the sparkle shape window and click the Undo button again).  

If your animation is too fast, you can change the amount of time each frame is shown as follows:-

Edit menu, Select All
Animation menu, Frame Properties
Adjust the number to a value between 10 and 20.  The higher the number the slower the animation will be.

Don't forget to close the preview window when you have viewed the animation again.

 

When you are happy with your animation Close the Sparkle Shape Window - DO NOT Save the changes.

Before Saving the tag with the sparkle shape on it, it's best to Optimize it.

File menu, Optimization Wizard

On the first window,

Optimize For = Animated GIF File

When Finished = Replace the current animation with the optimized version.

 

Click Next

Set the Slider to the top (Best Quality) and click the Customize button.

On the Colours Tab:

Number of Colours = 255
Create Pallet By  = Optimized Octree
Reduce Colours By = Error Diffusion

 

Click the Optimizations Tab

Tick the 1st, 3rd and 4th boxes.  Make sure the 2nd and bottom boxes are NOT ticked.

Click OK

Tick the box "Use these settings when saving unoptimized files"

 

 

Click Next (the image will be processed)

Click Next (See a preview of the animation)

Click Next (see the file size and download times)

Click Finish

 

There may be some loss of image quality, but from experience these seem to be the settings that achieve the best results.

Now, save your tag