Welcome to the Tracy's Graphics Opal Tutorial. Unfortunately, I cannot take all the credit for this. It has been adapted from one I found on the net ages ago, and can't remember where (sorry). If this is your tutorial, or you know who is the original author, please e-mail me and I will give the appropriate credit. This is the first time I have done anything like this, but I wanted to make it as easy to follow as possible. I have revised this from my original tut, and have added screen shots now (thanx Auntie Em). I hope you enjoy it! :o) Tracy

*Now updated for version 7 of Paint Shop Pro - 22 July 2001.

First of all, you need to decide whether to make a black opal, or a white one - the choice is entirely up to you!

Open up a new image 100x100 with either a black background, or a white background (depending on your choice of opal colour).



Use your selection tool (with the antialias checked) to make an elipse shape that virtually fills the area. Keep it selected.



Go to Effects>Noise>Add>100%. Repeat this process once more.



Go to Effects>Geometric Effects>Pixelate. Set the block height and width to 4. (This is the same as the mosaic feature on 5).



Then go to Colours>Adjust>Hue/Saturation/Lightness. (This is where the fun starts!) Play around with the settings until you get something you are happy with. I used 100% Lightness & Saturation for the black opal, but you will need to reduce the settings slightly for the white version.

Now go to Effects>Blur>Gaussian Blur set the radius at around 2. Now go to Effects>Sharpen>Sharpen. Next we want to make it appear domed like a real opal. Go to Effects>3D Effects>Cutout, and apply these settings Fill Color unchecked, Opacity: 60, Blur: 18, , Both offsets set at: -3. (Again you can adjust these slightly to suit).



Keeping the selection active, create a new layer. Spray a small arc shaped area (using the settings shown below) on the top left edge of the opal.



Then go to Effects>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use the same settings as before. Go to Layers>Properties and take that layer down to around 60% Opacity. This gives a nice shine to the edge.

Go to Layers>Merge>Layers Visible, then Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V. This has copied the selected area and made a new image. You can then export the new image as one of your tubes!

For those of you who are new to PSP (like we all were once upon a time) here is how to export a tube: File>Export>Picture Tube. There is only one opal (unless you want to make a whole batch of them and tube them together) so leave the settings as they are and just type in your tube name "Opal" and click on OK. There ya go, all done! Hope you enjoyed it!

Tracy :o)

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