Making Glitters #2

This tutorial will show you how to glitter an image, quickly and easily. Before we get started, please note that this tutorial was made using Paint Shop Pro 8, but will work just about the same with any paint program. You will need Animation Gallery, however. You can get either of these programs from Corel by clicking here.

Step 1 - Choosing Your Image
Before you start, you need to choose your image to work with. I chose that adorable brown kitty cat you see above you. Make sure the image has a transparent background. If you're not sure how to do that, refer to the tutororial for transparency. Once your image has a transparent background, copy it into paint shop pro and move on to step 2.

Step 2 - Starting The Glitter
On the top menu in paint shop pro, select "adjust", then "add/remove noise", then "add noise". You should get a popup menu, and you want to have the settings like I have mine set in the image below.

You'll notice from the preview picture that the noise effect added a random glitter to the picture. Click 'okay' to confirm the noise pattern, and you'll see it take effect in your image. Now we have a glittered type of image, but it won't actually be an animated glitter with only one frame, right? So we have a few more steps. For now, right click on your picture and select "copy", then move over to Animation Gallery, right click on the work area and select "paste as new animation".

Step 3 - Making The Second Frame
We have one frame of the glitter complete, and waiting for us in Animation Gallery, but now we need to work on the second frame. Click "edit" in the top bar and undo the noise effect to the image. Now it's back to your regular image. Now, add noise again, with the same setting as before. This will add another random placement of noise to your image, giving you another frame. It may look like your last one, but the placement of the noise effect really is different, and will be visible when you animate it. Right click on your image and copy it, and move over to Animation Gallery. Right click on the frame you'd already brought in and select "paste after current animation". Now you should see this in Animation Gallery:

Step 4 - Making The Last Frame
Now that we have two frames, we need to make one more. Follow the same steps as before, first undoing the previous noise effect, until we're back to our original image. Then, add the noise effect again, with the same settings. Again you get a random placement of the noise effect. Right click on the image and copy, then move over to animation gallery. Click on frame 2 of your image, and select "paste after current frame". Now in animation gallery you should have 3 frames.

Step 5 - Animating
All that's left to do now is to animate your image. It technically already is animated, but you'll want to set the frame properties to adjust the speed. Click on frame 1 to make it active, then in the top menu, click "animation", then "frame properties". For this type of image, you want to have the frame properties set to about 10. Do this for each frame of your glitter.

Step 6 - Save
Now all that's left is to save your image! Next time, you'll want to play around with different noise effects and settings to achieve different results. The best way to improve with graphics is to play, practice and perfect. :)