Animated Greeting Card

This tutorial was written entirely by me on December 7, 2003. Any resemblence to any other tutorial is completely coincidental. I was asked to write this tutorial after I made an animated greeting card, so here it is :-) Since I'm writing this so close to Christmas, I made mine a Christmas card.

This tutorial was written using Paint Shop Pro 7.04 and Animation Shop 3, but can be done using other versions as well. It assumes you have a basic working knowledge of Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop.

You will need the selection files that you can download HERE. Unzip them and place them in your selection folder.

You will also need: Paint Shop Pro. You can download a 30 day trial version HERE.

Before we begin, you'll need to assemble the tubes that you're going to want to use for your card. Also be thinking about the kind of background you're going to put it on. If it's going on a web page, what background are you going to have on the web page? We will be using a drop shadow, so a background is needed if we want a nice looking card after it's animated.

Have everything assembled? Let's begin.

Open a new image width 200, height 250, transparent background. This is going to be your card front. Design it the way you want with your background color, tubes, and lettering. Do everything on separate layers so it's easier to change something if you don't like it. We will be reducing the size, so make sure you use lettering that will be big enough to read. It's just easier to design it this size. When you are done, save it as "top.psp" (My tube is from Montage Menagerie.)

Open another new image, width 200, height 250, transparent background. This will be the front inside of your card. You can leave it blank (except for the color of your choice), or you can put something on it. When you are done, save it as "inside.psp"

Open another new image, width 200, height 250, transparent background. This will be the bottom of your card. Put the text and/or tubes of your choice. I chose just to have words. When you are done, save it as "bottom.psp"

When you are happy with all three of your card pieces, Layers/Merge Visible on all three. Then Image/Resize, put a check in "Pixel Size" and resize all three as shown below. Make sure that the "Resize type" is Bicubic resample. Using that, you shouldn't have to sharpen.