PSP 7 Animated Neon Text Tutorial

Dis Dat Designs - debbieT's Paint Shop Pro Tutorials
PSP 7 Animated Neon Text - Part Two
For PSP Beginners-Layers and Color Palette knowledge is assumed.

The inspiration for this tutorial came from John's Fireworks 4 Neon Tutorial. Thanks John!

If you would like to offer any of my tutorials to your groups or classes, please contact me first. Please list the name of your group or class, and your website if you have one. Thanks so much!

If you like my Paint Shop Pro tutorials, be sure to take a peek at my new tutorials at Debbie T Designs. Learn how to build your own web site with free tutorials for xhtml and css!


1. Let's animate our NEON sign. Since our graphic has two layers now, we will use Animation shop to convert the two layers to two frames. Start ANIMATION Shop. File>Jasc Software Products>LAUNCH ANIMATION SHOP.

Now, click FILE>OPEN and open the neon.psp file.

2. The file opens up as a new animation image. If you enlarge the image window, you will see both frames. Click the View Animation Icon on the Toolbar play or click VIEW>ANIMATION. You will see your animation play.

Note: If you only see one frame, go back into PSP and make sure that both layers are UN-hidden, then save and open in AS again.

3. Your animation will probably be playing quite quickly. Let's slow it down. Click on the first frame (the gray text) to select, then click Animation>FRAME PROPERTIES. The dialog box will open. Change the Display Time to 75. Now select the 2nd frame, and change that Display Time to 150.

4. View the animation again. Better? If not, experiment with the timing. Just remember that computers still display animation at slightly different speeds and the timing is only approximate.

5. Now we have to optimize and save your .gif so you can play your animation on the web. Click File>Optimization Wizard (or Shift+Z.)

On the first dialog box Optimize for ANIMATED GIF and CREATE A NEW ANIMATION. Hit NEXT.
optimize animation 1

6. 2nd Dialog Box lets you customize settings for Quality vs Size of your animation. Click CUSTOMIZE.
optimize 2

7. This is the tricky part. It might take some experimentation. Start off with changing the number of colors to 63. Try Optimized Median Cut and Nearest Color. Click OK and you will be back to the Quality Dialog box. Click NEXT.
optimize 3

8. Click NEXT once more. You can see a mini-preview on the following box. Click NEXT. This will show file size info and approximate download times. Click FINISH. How did your image do at this optimization? If you don't like it, you can UNDO and start again. If you don't want to create a new image every time you optimize, then choose "Replace the current one." Try using more or less colors and try the Optimized Octree setting if needed.

9. Once the animation is optimized, you can save as .gif and you are done. Easy?

Back to Part ONE.

I made this one using the
Paperclip Font and
Eye Candy 4000 filter.
Gradient Glow:
Width 9, Soft 45, Opacity 72.


Learn (x)HTML & CSS ~ Paint Shop Pro Tutorials ~ Contact debbieT ~ Beginners ~ Free Backgrounds ~ Home

Website Design & Graphics created by debbieT and DisDat Designs
© 2000-2006 - all rights reserved.