Paint Shop Pro 7 Tutorial: Making 3D Graphics [PSP7]

Well I've been promising this tutorial for who knows how long. So. You want to know how to make 3D graphics for layouts in Paint Shop Pro? I'll tell you how here. Just keep in mind, PSP isn't really the ideal program to make 3D layouts with. I made this with it a long, long time ago, but that's about as far as it goes. It also included a picture of water for the ripply effects and some touches of my own.

I'm going to show you here how to make very simple 3D graphics - the rest is up to you to experiment around and make it pretty. Be sure you've read my layers tutorial first, and also the introduction to PSP. Some things I say there will be vital to what you learn here.

I figure the best way to teach you how is to have you do it. So open up your PSP. Start out with a 400 x 400 px white template (File > New). All PSP 3D layouts are made using mainly the Freehand tool. It looks like this: and can be found in your Standard Toolbar.

Once you select that, look to your Tool Options Palette, and you'll see a dropdown menu. Select Point to Point on the Tool Options Palette and also make sure antialis is checked.

Now, go to your Layers palette and add a new raster layer. Here's a key thing to remember - always start a new layer before each bit of 3D graphic that you make. You need the space beside the graphic to be transparent and not colored in each time you do the inner bevel (I'm getting ahead of myself, but bare with me) or else the graphic will look major screwy.

So now you have the layers "Background" and "Layer 1." Make sure Layer 1 is selected and look back at your empty palette. On it, using the freehand tool, draw a couple of spikes that looks like the below.

Pick your Flood Fill tool with the selection still selected. (Flood Fill looks like this: ) After you've picked it, go to your Tool Options Palette, make sure sample merged is selected, change your tolerance to 200, and the opacity is better if it's less than 100. Usually around 50 is good. Remember those settings, you'll have to use them again. Now color the selection in with whatever color you choose.

Deselect the selection (right click with the selection tool somewhere outside of the selection, if you don't know how. But you should.) and now, go to Effects > 3D Effects > Inner Bevel. A window pops up. Experiment around with your settings, but for now, change yours to what I have:

And then look, it's made 3d!

Experiment around with the inner bevel, like I said, and it'll look different. I know you're thinking, wow, we went through a lot of hassle just to make that little thing? Well, further your graphic. Make more spikes or such 3D, for example (but remember to add a new layer each time before you do the inner bevel. You can have more than just one selection colored in before you do it though.) Use the point to point tool to make the shape rounder if you like what I made for Ere Serene's 6th layout. Merge images in with your 3D graphic and use the other Effects. color in the background. There's many possibilities to what you can do, and here's a little bit more of what I did - you can hover over the pictures to see text.

I made another layer, made two shapes with the freehand tool, and colored them in. I'm gonna perform inner bevel.

I did the inner bevel and colored in the background. Sorry for the low quality of this image ^_^ Or else it would have taken a while to load.

Then after you're done with all your 3D, go to Layers -> Merge -> Merge All (flatten). Now you can perform various effects on it or add pictures, do whatever you want. The more you do and experiment, the more familiar with it you'll become. Enjoy :)

Tutorials

Design

Quizzes

Interactive

Paint Shop Pro 7 Tutorial: Making 3D Graphics [PSP7]

Forum

Site

Site of the Month

Affiliates