The Paint Shop Pro Tube Tutorial Text Instruction

Tutorial information: This is a large text tutorial, but it is meant truly to help Newbie's who are anxious to learn how to make tubes from images in PSP. We offer this tutorial in two formats. The below image shows you what we will be doing with this tutorial. I will take a photo like the one shown on the left and turn it into a nice clean tube to make the photo shown on the right. Notice how a 1/4 of the flower is missing? I will show you how to fix this!

The Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 tutorial includes detailed step by step directions. You will notice this tutorial is a bit long as we try to cover ever detail. We offer a video for those that prefer video tutorials, and a text tutorial below for those that prefer text tutorials.

This video tutorial requires Corel Paint Shop Pro

Sample of the Paint Shop Pro Tube Tutorial via Text
Graphics made with Paint Shop Pro by Corel Logos, Banners, Buttons, Cards, Scrapbooking, Animations and more!

Tutorial Guide What You Need

The Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 tutorial includes detailed step by step directions. You will learn how to use multiple tools and how how to manipulate PSP Layers. You can use most versions of Paint Shop Pro, but each version might have moved their tools, effects, and options into other areas of the menu bars, but you can still follow along if you improvise.

1. Internet Browser
2. Corel Paint Shop Pro
3. You can use your own image or the one we offer. If you use your own image please try to keep it a bit simple by not having a very busy background. How busy your image background is will depend on your experience with PSP selection tools. If you would like to follow along you can get the same image we used in this tutorial.
4. Just watching this video will help you learn how to use the program. No need to follow along.

The Tutorial Learn how to tube and fix an image

NOTE: It is a good habit to STOP and SAVE your work from time to time while doing a tutorial or project. I recommend you save your work after every major step. To do this go to File, Save As, and choose a place where you want to save your pspimage work. You can set up PSP X2 to automatically save your work every five minutes by visiting the program preferences. I personally do not like this feature, but you may like it.

1. Open the image in PSP. In your layer pallet the image may be named "background" Right click on that layer and choose "convert to raster layer". It is now time to Name your layer. To do this in psp x2 you click on the text that reads "raster layer" in that layer within the layer pallet. The text box should become available so that you can now name your layer. For this tutorial I will simply call this layer flower.

2. The images below will help you with the next steps. We will need to add a new transparent layer to our layer pallet. To do this go to the main PSP menu and choose "Layers, New Raster Layer, and you can name this layer "Transparent", and click OK.

Once you are done you will need to use your mouse or pen to move/drag the transparent layer so that it lays/sits below our main image in the layer pallet. To do this put your mouse on the layer you just named (flower) and move it by dragging it with your mouse in the layer pallet. You will then make your flower layer the active layer by clicking on it one time. Remember you must always make sure you're working on the correct layer. See image set 1 below.

Image Set 1: Making, Naming New Layers, Dragging Layers, and Active Layers. (layer pallet manipulation)

This is how your layer pallet will look after naming your layer

This is how your layer will look after you drag your layer to sit under the flower layer

This is what your layer pallet should look like while the flower (main) layer is active

SAVE POINT

3. It is now time to start making our selections.

STEP NOTE:
You will need to make sure your "tool options" bar is open. To do this go to the main psp menu, click on View, Pallets, and click on Tool Options. You want to have a check next to tool options.

4. On your main toolbar (left side of screen) you will need to click on the "Selections tool". This area houses the magic wand tool. Choose the Magic wand. You will now need to set your magic wand tool settings. The important setting to work with now is the "Tolerance" setting. This setting depends on the image you have chosen for this tutorial. If you are using the image provided you can start off by using a tolerance setting of 55 to see if that works for you. The video screencast may offer a different number, but 55 would be a valid setting for this image. See image below

The Selection Tool and Selection Tool Options Sample

5. Make sure your flower layer is the active layer. Using your "magic wand" click in an area of the image that contains a large part of the background you want to remove. To select more areas simply hold down your "Shift key" on your keyboard while making your magic wand selections. Be sure to zoom in if needed so you can view the smaller areas of the image. Depending on the image you have chosen you may have to play around with the different tolerance settings to get your image right. See image Set 2 for an example

Image Set 2: Magic Wand Sample (selections)

6. When you feel confident you have your selections right. It will be time to remove the dark background so that we are left with just the flower. To do this you will need to make sure you are standing on the flower layer, go to Edit, Cut, and you will end up with the image of the flower with dancing ants (selections) on a transparent background. At this point the transparent background that you made is now showing through.

STEP NOTE: IF your selections did not select as well as planned simply go to Edit, UNDO ... and keep doing the edit, undo until you get to a point where you feel confident. Retry with other tolerance settings. This can be a VERY tricky thing to do, but this is what tubing is all about. See the images below as I did these steps.

My selections - Edit, Cut - My Final Outcome

SAVE POINT

6b. I will need to remove my dancing ants (selections) that are around my flower by going to Selections, Select None. I would like to remove the stem of this image.

Clean Up Time :)

TIP on cleaning up stray pixels: What I like to do is make a new layer by going Layers, New Raster Layer, and name it Cleaner. I then drag the cleaner layer to the very bottom of my layer pallet. You have learned how to do this above so go ahead and do that, and follow the next step.

7. Before erasing we need to flood fill the "cleaner" layer with a contrasting color so that we can see our stray pixels. To do this we need to go to our Materials Pallet and choose a foreground color as shown in the image below.

I will choose the bright color blue for my flood fill. ---- WARNING: Make sure you are standing on the "cleaner" layer before flood filling. Once you have the color choice, and you have the cleaner layer active go ahead and Flood Fill. Simply click within a blank area of the image on the cleaner layer, and it will fill with your color.

What your layer pallet should look like now, and the stem we want to remove

8. Now it is finally time to prepare for our total clean up this image. To do this I will use my Eraser Tool

My eraser tool settings are as follows. I have highlighted the important settings. Please DO NOT start to erase until you see more tips below.

Now I will Zoom in so I can see my image better. I zoomed in to 400% of its actual size. This allows me to see the edges much better.

Make sure the flower layer is the active layer. We will remove the stem with my eraser tool set with the settings above. Choose the "Eraser Tool" in the left toolbar. While we are doing this we will look within the blue areas and to the extreme edge borders of our work area as there may be some stray pixels left over from the background. Take your time with this. Do not worry about the flower edges. If the flower edges look a bit rough as they do in my screen shots above don't worry about that we will make them look fab!

SAVE POINT ALERT

This is what our stem area should now look like. The images are large so you can clearly see them.

You can toggle (open and close) your cleaner layer by clicking on the eyeball icon in that layer. Below is what your image will look like with the cleaner blue layer open, and without the cleaner layer open.

9. We now need to fix our flower. We can see 1/4 of it is cut off. To do this we will need to make a New Image that is a bit wider than the current image. To find out my current image size I will go to "Image, Image Information" and make note of the image width and height in pixels.

My image is 300 wide X 400 height. With this information I can estimate what size my new image should be. I will make my new image 450 wide x 450 height. To do this go to File, New, and the new image properties window will open. Set your settings according to image below.

10. We now need to COPY the flower layer and paste it into our new canvas we just made. To do this go to the image you have been working on. Click on the Flower Layer, and go up to the main PSP menu to EDIT, and choose COPY.

Now go to the "New canvas" you just made and click on its title bar so it becomes the ACTIVE canvas (window) in PSP. Go to the main PSP menu to EDIT, PASTE AS A NEW LAYER.

SAVE POINT ALERT

Your new canvas will have a layer called raster layer. The flower should be in the center of your canvas as shown.

11. Now go up to the main PSP menu and choose EDIT, COPY, then directly go back to EDIT, and this time choose PASTE AS A NEW LAYER. Your may not notice any changes here, but I assure you there are two layers of the flower in your canvas now. Look at your layer pallet. Notice you may have three layers. The bottom layer is a transparent layer, the next is a flower, and the last is also a flower. See the image below.

12. While standing on the second flower layer called Raster 3, go up to the PSP Menu and choose IMAGE, MIRROR.This is what you will see below.

Your canvas and layer pallet should look like the below.

13. Lets name our layers so we do not get confused. Name the first raster 1 layer "Base", Name the second raster 2 layer "Flower 1" and name the raster 3 layer "Flower 2" See my rename layers and pallet below

It is now time to use our move tool to move each flower into place. To make this easier you should toggle layers closed while working. Example while working on flower layer 1, close the flower layer 2 by clicking on the eyeball icon on that layer.

TIP HINT: While your selection tool is active, very carefully click on the layer you want to work on in the canvas just once. Then use your keyboard arrow keys to move left, right, up, or down. The reason you need to click on the item in your canvas is to let PSP know that is the item you want the keyboard to move.

14. We will now go ahead and move the bottom flower over to the right a bit, and the top flower layer must go over to the left a bit. See my screen shot on how I placed my layers in the canvas. Try to match yours up while using the tip listed above.

SAVE POINT ALERT

Now we need to clean up the contrast we see in the image. To do this we will use our Selection tool on the top flower layer. We will select a certain area of the top flower layer, and then Cut it out. Follow the steps below to do this.

On the left PSP toolbar locate the Selection Tool as shown here.

And use these settings for your selection tool

Make sure your top flower 2 layer is active. Using your selection tool select the areas shown below.

When you are done with that selection we will now cut this section out. To do this go to EDIT, CUT. The final cut will be as shown below.

Now you can go up to the main PSP menu, and choose Selections, Select None.

14 b. The next step is by choice. I see a petal that I am not happy with and I would like to remove it. To do this I will use my selection tool, and go to Edit, and choose Cut to cut it out. See the image below as the steps to complete this are just repeats of the above. If you choose to do this then go for it. When you are done with this go to Selections, Select None<.

15. It is now time to blend our flowers together to hide any of the contrasting, harsh edges. While having flower 2 layer active we will use our "Smudge" tool to smudge out those area.

Locate the Smudge tool in the toolbar as shown here.

There is one area I see that I would like to smudge. You may also notice some areas that were chopped out during the cut (see image)

Using my smudge tool I will smudge out that line shown in the image above using these settings for my smudge tool.

Use very short diagonal swoops with your mouse. Remember less is best. If you do not like how it is working out simply go to Edit, Undo, and try different smudge settings.

SAVE POINT ALERT

16. Now I need to fix the missing area of my flower. To do this I will use my selection tool to COPY another petal area that will match the area I need to replace. I will take my selection tool, find an area in the flower that will be the best replacement for that missing area. I will then go to EDIT, COPY, then to EDIT, PASTE AS A NEW LAYER. Go to Selections, Select None.

The images below will show you the selection I have chosen to and how I pasted it as a new layer, then used my Move tool put it in its place. I will then drag that replacement layer so that it sits as the bottom layer in my layer pallet.

I will now stand on my flower layer 2 and use my smudge tool to smudge over the contrast in the fixed area. This is the area after smudge.

Zoom back to 100%.

SAVE POINT ALERT

17. Now it is time to make our tube. Before we can do that we need to merge all of our layers, and then clean up the extra transparent space we do NOT need. To do this go up to the main PSP menu and choose LAYERS, MERGE, MERGE ALL VISIBLE. You will now have one layer (your flower layer).

Now we need to remove the extra transparent space. To do this go to the main PSP menu and choose EDIT, COPY, then go to EDIT, PASTE AS A NEW IMAGE. Make sure you didn't paste it as a new layer. You want to paste it as a new image as instructed.

You will now have a new image of your flower, with less transparent space around it. It is now ready to be tubed. "IF" you notice the image has to much extra transparent space around it that means you may have some stray pixels left over causing the image to not crop properly. To fix this simply go and use your eraser tool again and erase around the inner frame of your work area.

18. Go to your main PSP menu and choose FILE, EXPORT, and choose PICTURE TUBE. In the picture tube properties window follow the settings as shown.

Your have now learned how to clean up a image to grab a specific part of the image, fix it, and tube it. The tube is now available in your PSP program for future use. You can use this tube in several sizes to fit your project needs.

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