Animated Snow Scene through a Bay Window

Animated Snow Scene through a Bay Window

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Needed tools:

The snow tube to make your snow effect in animation shop.

You can get it HERE.

To print this tutorial, click the print button on your browser.

Please open the image that you will be adding your effect to. It MUST be an image that is longer than wide.

Save and save after each step.

Here is a thumbnail of the image that I will be using.

Be sure to make a duplicate of the original and close the original to preserve it.

Make a new layer named "Bay1".

Activate your Preset shapes tool and select Rectangle.

Adjust your settings to the ones shown below.

In your Color Palette, please set your foreground to your Finished wood pattern and background to Null.

Make a rectangle all around the border of your image. Apply Inner Bevel and apply the ROUND preset.

Make a new layer named "Bay2"

With your preset shapes tool still activated, lower the line width to 10.

Make a rectangle that occupies 1/3 of the image on the left. Notice in the screen shot below that the rectangle comes CLOSE but not touching the rectangle in the layer under it.

Once your release the mouse, the two rectangles should fit together without overlapping.

*HINT*

You can use your deformation tool to make small adjustments on the size of your rectangle.

Apply Inner Bevel using the same settings.

Make a new layer named "Bay3"

Activate your draw tool with the settings shown below.

Foreground = Finished Wood pattern.

Background = Null

Hold down your shift key to insure straight lines.

Draw the wood on the inside of the window.

Apply Inner Bevel.

In your layer Palette, move this layer under the bay2 layer.

Turn off your background layer and your bay1 layer so that the ONLY layers that are on are bay2 and bay3. Merge visible layers. Rename your merged layer bay2.

While your bay2 layer is the only one on, activate your deformation tool. Hold your CTRL key and grab the node in the upper right corner and pull down. Release the CTRL key. Grab the node in the center of the right edge and push in. Apply your deformation.

In your layer Palette, duplicate your bay2 layer and Mirror (CTRL + M)

Make a new layer named bay3.

Activate the Preset shapes tool again, The settings are the same as the last time you used it.

Draw a rectangle that connects the two existing windows.

This rectangle can not be can not be wider or taller, just TOUCHING the existing windows.

**HINT**

All of the window frames MUST be touching. You can use your deformation took to make small adjustments.

Apply Inner Bevel.

Turn on all layers. Your image should look like this.

In your layer Palette. turn OFF the bottom layer.

Be sure that one of the layers that is still on is active and merge visible layers. Use your Magic wand tool and select the areas at the top and bottom as shown below.

Make a new layer.

Selections > Modify > Expand > 5

**HINT**

The selection should wind up on top of the wood. If your selection extends past the wood, undo and set the pixels in the expand window to a small number.

Activate your flood fill tool. Flood with your Finished wood pattern.

Click Colors > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast

Set the brightness to -13 and click ok.

In your layer palette, move the top layer under the bay2 layer.

With your background image still off, merge visible layers.

Add any tubes and pretties that you like to your image.

With the background layer still off, merge visible layers.

Your layer palette should look like this...the whole image except the background on one layer and the background on a separate layer.

Save one last time. Open Animation shop.

Click File > Preferences > General Program Preferences.

Click on the Layered Files tab.

Set your preferences as shown below. Click OK.

Click File > Open

Open your image.

You should have 2 frames. Click on the frame that contains your background image.

Right click and select duplicate selected. Repeat.

Now you should have 4 layers. The first three are your duplicate copies of your background and the last one is your window.

Open the snow tube that you downloaded. Copy.

In your animation, click on frame 1. Paste (CTRL + E) your snow. You may have to paste more than once to cover the whole image.

Repeat for the rest of your background frames.

Apply any other animation effects that you like to the background frames

**HINT**

You can have more than 3 background frames if you need them.

Once you have applied the animation effects that you want to, Click on the window frame to select it. CTRL + C to copy.

Click in frame 1. CTRL + E. do NOT move the mouse around, just click the mouse to drop the window in your frame.

Click on frame 2. Paste the window. Repeat for each background frame.

When every frame has a window on it, select the last frame (the one with just the window and no background) and press delete on your keyboard.

CTRL + A to select all. Right click and select Frame Properties. The default number here is 10. Change it to the speed that you like for your animation. Remember the higher the number, the slower the animation.

Save your image.

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial. If you have any comments or questions, email me at:

kim@pixelbit.com