:: Paper Bag Laterns ::

Ok... this is my very first Tutorial ever ever ever... lol... My neighbor was making these for halloween so I decided to make some animated ones. These can be made for any holiday or with any design, it does not have to be a halloween bag.

This tutorial is written assuming you have some basic knowledge of PSP 7 and its tools.

What you will need:

A Paper fill... I made this one using Xenoflex crumple and Simple Filters... feel free to use it.

(Click the image to download it)

A Dingbat Font: I used one I found here

The Hoods Fire Tube which I have uploaded here. (The hood is now closed down)

OH.. and PSP and AS

1. Open a new Image 300 x 300 with a transparent background
2. Using you selection tool make a Rectangle in the middle of the image.

3. Flood fill with your paper pattern that you chose.
4. Selections>Select none
5. Select your freehand "Magic Lasso" tool Use these settings:
Selection Type: Point to Point
Feather: 0
Antialias checked
6. using the magic lasso select the top part so that it has pointed edges like this:

7. Once you have it selected like you want... hit delete.
8. Select none
9. Go to layers>duplicate
10. Position the layers so that they are slightly staggered like so:

11. Add a new layer name it Bag Side
12. Using your select tool draw a thin rectangle from the top edge to the bottom edge of your bag front, making it so the side touches or overlaps slightly the bag back.

13. Flood fill with your paper texture
14. choose the deformation tool and holding down the shift key grab the right middle side node and pull up slightly until the bottom is at an angle that matches the front and back of the bag.

15. Click on your mover tool and do any fine tuning you need to do on the position of the bag side.
16. go to layers>duplicate
17. go to Image>Mirror then Image>Flip
18. Go to layers>Arrange>move down
19. Use your mover tool to position the left side of the bag.

20. Turn off visibility on the left side and back of the bag (the bottom two layers. Go to Layers>merge Visible rename "bag front"
21. Turn off visibility on the bag front layer and turn on visibility on the other two layers and go to Layers>Merge Visible rename "Bag back"
22. Select your "Bag Front" layer
23. apply a drop shadow with the following settings:
Vertical:2
Horizontal:2
Shadow Color: black
Opacity: 65
Blur 4.9

24. Using your font tool select a ding bat (I used the ILL October font set at 125 pt with the Bag Texture as the fill) Position your ding in the center of the front of the bag.

25. Go to Selections>De-float
26. Go to Effects>3D Effects>Cutout and use the following settings

Vertical:3
Horizontal:3
Shadow Color: black
Opacity: 50
Blur 45

27. Select none
28 make your "Bag back" layer active and add a new layer naming it "tissue".
29. Using your selection tool draw a rectangle around your cut out ding

30. Flood fill with a color of your choice (I used red)
31. Lower the Opacity on the "Tissue" layer to 50
32. Select none

33. Make your "bag back" layer active
34. Crop out as much extra space around the outside as you would like and hit shift-D 3 times to make 3 more copies of the image
35. Select your tube tool and select your Fire tube that you should have already exported, set the scale at 50 and click once in the middle of your cut out dingbat on each of the 4 images.

36. Merge Visible Layers and save each of the images as Bag1, Bag2, Bag3, Bag4.
37. Open Animation shop.
38. Click on the animation wizard
39. Use these settings

40. Click next and Finish and save you image and you're done! You can add text or whatever to dress it up!

The image you just made is yours to do whatever you want with. No part of this tutorial may be offered for download anywhere else. You may link to it with a text link only. Violators will be hung by toenails.

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