Animated Greeting Card
Page 2

Open a new image 500 x 500, transparent background. This will give you plenty of working space. Save it as "card.psp" and remember to save often.

If you know what the background of the page is going to be that you're going to put this card on, flood fill Layer 1 with that color or pattern. If you don't know, try to figure out what it will be before we animate it. I've flood filled mine with the same background that is on this page.

Add a new layer, name it "bottom." Go to Selections/Load from Disk and load the bottom.sel. Make your bottom.psp file active, Edit/Copy. Make your card.psp file active, making sure you're still on your "bottom" layer, go to Edit/Paste/Into Selection. Selections/Select None.

Still on your "bottom" layer, Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow and apply a drop shadow with the following settings:

Add a new layer and name it "inside 4." Go to Selections/Load from Disk and load the inside.sel. Make your inside.psp file active, Edit/Copy. Make your card.psp file active, making sure you're still on your "inside 4" layer, go to Edit/Paste/Into Selection. Deselect. Still on your "inside 4" layer, add a drop shadow with the same settings.

Your card should be looking something like this (I've reduced it in size and cropped it for quicker loading):

Add a new layer and name it "top 1." Go to Selections/Load from Disk and load the bottom.sel again. Make your top.psp file active, Edit/Copy. Make your card.psp file active, making sure you're still on your "top 1" layer, go to Edit/Paste/Into Selection. Deselect. Apply a drop shadow with the same settings.

Now comes the fun part :-)

With the "top 1" layer active, go to Layers/Duplicate and duplicate the top 1 layer. Rename Copy of top 1 to "top 2."

Click on your deformation tool.

Hold your shift key down and draw down on the bottom right corner of the card on the "top 2" layer. Repeat with the top right corner. Release the shift key, and on the node on the right middle, push it in about 1/4 of the way. Double click in the center of your "deformed card" to release the deformation tool and complete the step. Your card should look something like this:

Duplicate your "top 2" layer and rename it to "top 3." Click on your deformation tool and repeat the last step, but only drawing down a very slight amount, and pushing in on the middle node about 1/3 of the way. Now it should look something like this:

OK, one more time .... duplicate your "top 3" layer and rename it "top 4." Click on your deformation tool and repeat the drill ... but this time pull down just a tiny bit or not at all, and push in on the middle node about 1/2 way. It now looks like this:

Have you saved your work lately?

After you take a little break, get something to drink, and walk around the house three times, we're going to start on the "inside" layers. We will be repeating those same steps, but I won't be giving you as many screen shots. I'll show you what you should have after the last step.