He was created by Raven Lynn, one of my cyberfriends, and is just one of a series of wonderful creations she has made and shared with us in the annexcafe components newsgroup. The doggie was created in Poser, from a model at daz3d. You can visit their homepage here, or if you want to visit the puppy model directly, you'll find him here. Many thanks to the kind folks at daz3d and to Raven Lynn for permission to use this little guy.
Paint Shop Pro. I used version 7.04 but if you are familiar with PSP, you should be able to convert the tutorial without problems. You can download the latest PSP version demo here. A graphic for your heart. If you wish to use Raven Lynn's doggie, just follow her terms of use which are simple: for personal use only. You can download my selection file and Raven Lynn's dog here.
Step 1. Open a new image 500 x 350, background color black. Step 2. To make the fence, you'll first make a slat and then a divider piece. You'll then copy/paste these to make your fence. First, make a slat. Add a new layer. Name this layer "1." Set your foreground color to whatever you want your fence to be. I chose red, #A50909. Choose your selection tool, rectangle (antialias checked). Draw a rectangle approximately 60 x 325 (watch the numbers in the bottom left of your screen). Flood fill with color. Keep selected. (Note: the picture has been resized to maximize webspace - yours will be larger than this).
Step 5. Move this layer into position on the right side of your slat, similar to mine.
Step 6. Duplicate layer "1." Name this layer "3." Place it on top of layer "1." Step 7. Duplicate layer "2." Name this layer "4." Place it on top of layer "2." Your layer order (from top to bottom), should be: 4, 2, 3, 1.
Step 8. Line this up as you wish, and when you're satisfied, hide your background layer. Merge all visible layers (go to layers>merge visible). Now duplicate this layer. Move it underneath your first layer. Duplicate 3 more times, each time putting the duplicated layer underneath the one before. You should have a total of 4 pieces. When they're arranged, hide the background layer and merge visible layers.
Step 9. Now you'll do the heart cutout for the fence. Make your fence layer active. Load selection 1 from disk (go to selections>load from disk). Hit the "delete" key on your keyboard. Keep selected.
Step 10. Invert the selection (go to selections>invert). Apply an inner bevel as in the screenshot. Apply another inner bevel, same settings except change the angle to 43.
Step 11. Now all you have to do is add whatever graphic you want. If you want to use the dog you downloaded, open him up now. Copy him and paste as a new layer, underneath the fence layer. You'll notice that his feet stick out the bottom, but don't worry about that, we'll take care of that in a minute. I wanted his ears to be on top of the fence, so here's how to do that. Duplicate the dog layer and place it on top of your fence layer. Line the two layers up so they're in exactly the same space. Your layers will be in the following order: dog, fence, dog.
Step 12. Make the top dog layer active. Choose your eraser tool and erase the bits that you don't want. I wanted his ears to hang over the fence so erased the bottom part of his body.
Step 14. Now you can decorate your fence as you wish. I added a new layer and then some text. And that's all there is to it! All done. I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial. Please let me know if you have any problems, and I'd love to see your creations. Happy creating!
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