Title: Make Your Own ANIMATED BACKGROUND TILES Corner to Corner animation explained.   Tutorial by: HOOTY aka Doyle Allen Date: 12/7/03 Skill Level: Intermediate Approved by the HootyTutTestersGroup!   Needed: Paint Shop Pro…any version & AnimationShop, a completed seamless background tile size 250 x 250, a small (selected or cutout) graphic or tube resized to 50 x 50 would be perfect for following this tutorial and learning the basics before you go on to bigger and odder shapes and sizes of tubes and background tiles. This is just to learn the basics ideas and steps.   Tips: Remember that the BACKGROUND Tile and the tube both need to be text compatible.  You need to be able to easily read the text that will be put on it. One solution for this with the tube or selected graphic part is to lower the opacity.     1. Edit/Copy your seamless background tile   2. File/Jasc Software Products/Launch Animation Shop   3. Right Click on the bare workspace and select paste as New Animation.   4. Go back to Paint Shop Pro and Edit/Copy the 50 x 50 Tube or small graphic part that you are going to use in the animation.   5. Minimize Paint Shop Pro ….the rest of this tutorial will be done entirely in Animation Shop..   6. Maximize Animation Shop   7. Right Click on the bare workspace and select paste as New Animation.   NOTE: Below I am showing a black tile and a white round shape which I will use for high example visibility and to keep it simple for you to follow the basics. You of course have a real background tile and tube etc. opened up.  I also have this optimized to keep the KB size down for this tutorial since animations will take up so much memory.   8. Position your Background tile on top as the example below shows. Tip: To resize the active Background Tile, on your keyboard press the + to enlarge or - to make it smaller.     9. Right click on the Background tile to make it active and select Copy   10. Ctrl + Shift + L on your keyboard,  Do this 5 times! This will duplicate the BG Tile so you end up with 6 tile frames in total.   NOTE:   You will want to see all the frames to compare them with each other so make them smaller - to do this, and you will want to zoom in or see them bigger + sometimes to be more accurate with your tube placements in the next steps.     Making the Continuity Frame (An advanced technique explained) NOTE:  What is a Continuity frame and why would we want to have one? It serves a couple purposes. One is instead of your tube just magically appearing as a whole object only part of it is seen to come into view on the left side of your stationery. They also serve to add to the illusion that you are not viewing separate tiles. Visual Example shown below:         They look funny when not animated but when the animation begins the magic happens! WEEeee! Please Read!   If you have the pointer cursor you will have the easiest success. If you have an hourglass cursor keep in mind that the center is the area that you want to use as your point. You can also convert that hourglass to a pointer in AS by: The cursors can be changed easily to windows standard in your control panel under "MOUSE"  then choose pointers, and select the windows standard theme . As you can see from the example above, 1/4 of the  circle that we are using as a tube substitute to make understanding simpler is seen in each corner...and the 4 will visibly make a whole when this is tiled in Letter Creator and all the sides meet. If you do not do this part accurately then you will see an odd shape or double images appear in your animation.  The tube that you paste when you copy and use the Ctrl + E centers the image exactly on the very tip or your cursor.  Just trust me on this ! And so .... with this in mind it is of extreme importance that the very tip of your cursor is in the correct position in each corner before left clicking your mouse to paste...   11. Right Click on your tube and select COPY --------------------------------------------------------------------- 12. Left click on your 1st  Background Frame to make it active. (This is going to be your continuity frame)   13. CTRL + E (on your keyboard) This command will make a copy of your tube appear and stick centered to the end of your cursor until you left click to actually paste it.   14. Put your cursor point dead center of a corner in the frame and then left click to paste! .. (remember + to enlarge the BG Tile)   15. Repeat this operation 3 more times so you have ¼ of your tube in each corner just like my example has shown above! Ctrl + E & left click to paste over & over! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 16.  The next steps I also have streamlined since they are basically repeats of the same procedure.  The example below has numbered circles. The numbers Represent the frame that you would be on and the circle that the number is on shows you the placement in that background tile.  Tip: #4 is dead center of the tile.    Paste each tube in the number frame and place that the number is shown below, then move to the next frame and repeat with the new individual placement until all six are completed…start with Frame #2!   NOTE: You can build your animation to go in any direction diagonally.. the continuity frame will work the same regardless if you do as my example or go the other 3 ways. Such as top left to bottom right, top right to bottom left or the other choice bottom right to top left.   Another Visual Aid.. Separate frames showing tube placements.     17. With that completed we need to set the timing for the frames.    Ctrl + A  (selects all the frames)   18. Right click on one of the frames and choose Frame Properties = 25-40  ( speeds may vary for different sizes and movements).   19. Right Click on one of the frames and choose Animation Properties to set how it will save.      When you have them all completed it is time to see your new animation in action!  Ready?   20. Press the  View Animation Button in the upper right of the screen to see your animation in action.   With your animation still running you can then save it.   21. File/Save As: Give it a name and direct it to the file that you want to save it too. ----------------------------------------------------------------------   1.  Go to Letter Creator and Click the image button on the Background page and find and select your new animation. OK?!   2. Click the Tile button and look at the total effect!   Hope you enjoyed learning this cool animation technique.  I have never seen anyone explain this in another tut but I am sure it is not an original idea. Even so…you needed to know didn’t you? WEEeee! Hugs Hooty  Remember to Watermark your creations! **************************************** Approved by the HootyTutTestersGroup! Thanks to all the great testers that help me to make  these tutorials as good as they are! The testers are always a vital part of the end results of what you end up using. Special thanks to all the testers: Because of the thumbnails the actual ani's can not be shown that the testers made but here are the names that helped make this tut all it could be..thanks all! Thanks: Laurie, Maria, MaryM, KMRA, Adrienne, Michelle,Sue, Pat, Evelyn, Linda D & Paula! I love my testers!