This tutorial was written for Paint Shop Pro 7 and Animation Shop 3 from www.jasc.com. It should not be difficult to follow, but it does require a great deal of concentration as there are many movements involved in the animation.

1. Open up a new image in PSP: 300 x 100 pixels, background transparent, 16 million colours.

2. Choose the text tool and click somewhere on the image. These are the settings that I used:

You don't have to use the same font, size or colour, just use whatever you like.

I make the animation with my own name, that way I can use it afterwards, but to tell the truth it will look even better with a longer text string (more than the six letters of my name).

3. Move the text to the centre of the image. Layers>merge>merge visible. You now have only one layer and it's a raster layer.

4. Now use the magnifier to magnify the image as much as four times, because you need to be very precise on the next few selections.

5. Choose the selection tool and set the options to: type = rectangle, feather = 0, antialias = unchecked.

6. Choose the first letter with the selections tool and click somewhere within the selection to get ants marching around the letter such as this:

7. Selections>promote to layer.

You now have two layers in the layer palette. The easiest thing to do is to rename the layer with the letter. I name it G because it holds only the letter G.

8. Click the merged layer.

9. With the selection tool select the next letter and promote to layer like with the first one. Continue to do this until there is only one letter left on the first/merged layer. Always making sure that when you select something the merged layer is the one active. When all letters have been separated to one layer each rename them in a way that is logical for you and put in order. This is what my layer palette looks like:

10. You can now make the image smaller again so it will be easier to work with.

11. Save your work. I saved mine on the desktop and named it 1.psp. Easy and logical, as it will be the first frame in the animation.

(Note: you might want to merge all visible layers before saving, depending on your settings in Animation Shop. Sometimes AS will keep layers as separate frames when you open the psp image in AS. Try opening the first image in AS. If it opens as several frames you'll need to 'merge visible' every time before you save. If you do this just remember to use the 'undo' option once before going on with the work in PSP, so that the layers are separated again).

12. Now choose two matching colours that you like and that will look good with your basic colour. Set the darker one as your background colour and the lighter one as your foreground colour. I chose bordeaux and pink because I like them and because I think they look good with black, but you can choose any colour really.

13. Make sure the layer with the first letter is active. Image>rotate, settings: right and 90 degrees.

14. Now choose the colour replacer tool Set your foreground colour to the colour of your text. And while holding the right mouse button down move it over the letter that you have rotated. The colour now should change to the darker one of your secondary colours. This is what mine looks like:

15. (Merge visible if necessary). Save as 2.psp. (Undo, if necessary).

16. Again image>rotate. Use the same settings as before.

17. Now set your foreground colour to the lighter one of your secondary colours. While holding left mousebutton down move over the letter so the colour changes to the lighter one of the secondary colours.

18. Save as 3.psp. (Again merging and undoing if necessary).

19. Rotate the same letter again and colour it with the darker secondary colour.

20. Now activate the layer with the second letter. Rotate and colour as with the first one. Remember to save every time you have reached a standstill. This is the part that takes a lot of concentration. Remember, you rotate the first letter twice before the rotation of the next letter begins. Remember to keep all the letters moving in a chain reaction, to change the colours to lighter secondary colour when the letter is upside down and to darker secondary colour when the letter is at 90 degrees and giving it back the original colour when it's back in the original position. And remember to always make sure you're on the right layer and to save each frame!

Continue to do this until all letters have come back to place and the original colour except the last one that is supposed to be at the position just before the original and with the darker secondary colour for the second time. Remember to save this frame as well.

My animation resulted in 14 frames.

21. You can now close down PSP.

22. Open up Animation Shop and choose the animation wizard. Choose the settings 'same size as the first frame', 'transparent', 'upper left corner of the frame', 'yes, repeat the animation indefinitely', and set the display time to 15. 'Add image' and add all the images you saved before in the order from 1 to 14 (in my case, but depending on how many images you have). Next and complete.

23. Right click the first frame, choose 'frame properties', and set the display time to 150.

24. Highlight all frames, choose the crop tool and crop the animation close to the text but being very careful not to cut if off anywhere.

25. You are now ready to save. If the animation looks bad when saving at 3 colour save it at 7 colours.

That's it. Have fun!

(This entire tutorial is © April 15th, 2001 by Guðrun Jacobsen.)