RPS | Advanced Painting Techniques

Layers

Now I'm going to teach you how to use the various tools of Paint Shop Pro to create, edit, and manipulate the various elements we just talked about. For all intents and purposes, this section is just going to teach you some basic graphic design techniques for Paint Shop Pro. These methods and techniques will work for web graphics, logos, you name it. We're going to start with learning how to use Layers.

One last thing before we head out in to the wild blue yonder.. If you're using Paint Shop Pro 6 for this tutorial, there is one minor thing you need to do or you won't be able to follow the tutorial. When creating shapes or text, make sure the 'create as vector' box is UNCHECKED. For text, that option will appear in the Text tool window that pops up. For shapes or objects, you'll have to uncheck that box in the Tool Controls window BEFORE making your shape. As long as those boxes aren't checked, you shouldn't have any problems following the tutorial. ;)

I remember when I first loaded up the PSP5 demo and saw Layers. Man, did they throw me for a loop at first. However, once I grasped the concept and realized how easy and powerful they are, I couldn't live without them. By the time you're done with this section of the tutorial, the same will probably be true for you as well.

You know those transparency projector things teachers use in high school? They project what the teacher writes on to the projector screen at the front of the classroom. You probably know what I'm talking about. Teachers usually had blank sheets that they could write on with those stupid different-colored markers that never worked... Well, each layer is like one of those blank sheets stacked on top of your background image. There's no limit to how many you can have on an image (except how much RAM your computer has) and they are SO powerful a tool that its literally impossible to list all the things they allow you to do.

Let's try an experiment real fast, just to help you get the concept. Even if you've used layers before, you may want to give this a shot, there might be something covered that you didn't know you could do. We're going to make a smiley face and then play around with it a little. ;)

First, let's look at the LAYER OPTIONS WINDOW real quick. If you don't see anything like this in your Paint Shop Pro window, select 'Toolbars..' from the View menu, and put a check next to 'Layer Palette' and 'Control Palette'.

As you can see, I've pointed out the 'create new layer' and 'delete layer' buttons. These are located at the top of the layer options window in Paint Shop Pro 6. The rest of the stuff in the Layer Options Window is virtually the same in PSP6 as it is in PSP5, with a few minor graphical differences.

The tabs show the names of the individual layers. You click on a tab to activate a layer. Now any changes you make will only take place in the active layer (with the exception of changing the number of colors in the image). Double-clicking the tab will let you rename the layer as well as edit the properties. The colorful button next to the tab is the 'Layer Visibility' button. Clicking it will toggle between that layer being visible or invisible. This is handy when you want to see what's hiding in a lower layer without moving the contents of the obstructing layer. I'll talk about the rest further down the page. ;) Let's get on with the fun, shall we?

Create a new image (with a transparent background) about 500x500. Now create two new layers by clicking the 'New Layer' button at the bottom of the Layer Control Window (see above). Click it twice, and you'll see two new tabs called 'Layer 2' and 'Layer 3' show up in the LAYER OPTIONS WINDOW (like you saw in the image above). The numbering isn't too important, it's just the order they're created in. How they're arranged vertically in the window is how they're stacked in your image. ;)

1. Click on the Layer 1 tab to activate it. Now any editing we do will take place in that layer. Let's fill it with white for now, it'll be our background.

2. Activate Layer 2, and use the shape tool to make a big yellow circle in the middle of the image. Make sure to check the Antialias box, and leave yourself some room around the edges.

3. Now activate Layer 3, and make three smaller black circles where the eyes and nose should go. Kind of like the image below. Don't worry about placement for now. Just get them close. ;)

4. Now click on the Text Tool. Select 'Arial' from the font list, and do an open parenthesis '(' at about 150 point. Make sure the antialias box is checked in the font window.

5. Now you'll see the parenthesis show up on the screen. Let's CTRL-R (rotate) it 90 degrees to the left (make sure the all layers box isn't checked).

6. Now move the mouth (formerly a parenthesis) into place.

Well, lookie here, we have a smiley face! Whoopdie-doo. You ain't seen nothing yet. ;)

Activate Layer 1 and fill it with Blue. Now fill it with white again. Notice that it only affects Layer1.
Now click the layer visibility button for Layer 2, and you'll see the yellow circle disappear. But notice that the black eyes still blend in nicely with the white background. This is just one of the beauties of Layers. No matter what's underneath, it will always blend in smoothly. ;) Click the Layer2 visibility button again to make the yellow circle show up again.

Now click on the Layer Move tool (looks like crossed arrows). Click and drag on an eyeball. Notice it moves everything in that layer. This is how you move all the objects in a certain layer without moving the objects in another layer. Put the face back where it belongs now. We're not making a deformed smiley. ;) If your cursor isn't on the eye, it will move the circle instead. When using the layer move tool, PSP looks for the directly object under your cursor and automatically moves the layer that object is in. Just keep that in mind when using that tool.
Now use the selection shape tool (looks like a dotted line box) and draw a rectangle around just the eyes. Now hit CTRL-X (cut) and then CTRL-E (paste as new selection). Now the eyes are showing up as selected. Fill them with blue, we're making a Frank Sinatra smiley. <G> When you have several separate objects on one layer, this is a GREAT way to only edit certain ones. (You also just did the 're-selecting trick', but more on that later)
Now click on the Layer 3 tab in the LAYER OPTIONS WINDOW, and drag it down underneath Layer 2. You'll notice that the eyes, mouth, and nose, disappear. They're not gone, they're just stacked under the yellow circle now. If you make Layer 2 invisible you'll see the eyes again. The object of this lesson& you can move layers up and down in the order. This gets handy at times as well. Drag Layer3 back up where it belongs again. ;)

Now you're probably getting the idea. The yellow circle is on it's own layer (or transparent sheet). The eyes, nose, and mouth are on another, and you can move, edit, swap, adjust, filter, or do whatever to each of them independently. The image to the right is the same smiley image. It's just a little taller and has the Layer Options window super-imposed on top. It shows the layer configuration for this image. Here's what's different:

1) Layer3 was moved below Layer2.
2) Transparency of Layer2 is 51% (See the slider bar??)
3) Layer1 has been made invisible (thus the little checkerboard where the white background should be. Checkers = transparent... remember that.)
4) Layers 2 and 3 are linked (denoted by the 1's in the little boxes on the right.

The concept of using layers in graphics software was taken from how cartoon animators draw cartoons one frame at a time by looking at a transparent version of the previous frame's drawing underneath the one they're working on. It opens up tons of doors for us, and when used in combination with selection areas and selection area tools, allow us to do things like outline numbers and text, or place objects onto a car and have them blend in no matter what the color (or colors) underneath. It also affords us the ability to go back and remove or edit one or more objects after the fact (if we construct our car correctly) without losing everything we've done since the error to a multiple undo.

So, what happens if you have stuff on several layers that you want to smash together into one layer? That's easy. If you want to smash all the layers down into one, right-click on one of the layer tabs, and select 'Merge-Merge All (Flatten)' from the menu. Bam, squash city, baby. <G>

What if you just want to merge some of the layers and not all? Well, use the Layer Visibility buttons to make any layers you DON'T want merged invisible. Once you can see just the layers you want merged, right-click on a layer tab again, and select 'Merge-Merge Visible'. It mashes all the visible layers into one layer called 'Merged'. Just double-click on it to re-name it if you like. Now click the visibility buttons on the other layers again to make them visible again, and voila. You can merge as few or as many layers as you want this way. They don't need to be next to each other or anything.

Yeah, now you're getting it <G>... Pretty cool stuff, huh? Well, don't go careening through the house screaming 'Who's your daddy?!' just yet. The wife will smack you (or the dog will look at you funny, if you're single) for being an idiot, and you still have a lot to learn. <G>

Before we move on, remember those other buttons in the Layer Options Window? Let's take a real quick look at those before we move on.

The first button on the right section of the window (looks like a green padlock)( is the 'Protect Transparency Toggle'. I've never found a use for it. Ignore the stinkin' thing. <G>

The next button over [*] is the linking toggler. It allows you to link one or more layers together without merging them. This is actually kinda slick. In Paint Shop Pro, click the button on Layer2 1 time. Now click the button on Layer3 one time. You should have a little '1' in each box. Now if you try to move one layer, it moves the contents of the linked layer along with it. You can have up to 4 sets of linked layers (just click twice on the buttons for the second set, three times for the third set, and so on.) They're only linked for the purposes of moving, so this feature has limited use, but it's still handy on occasion.

The slider bar adjusts the transparency of the layer. The drop-down box selects the type of merge you want for that layer. The next box toggles the mask on or off. The last button toggles on/off the link mask. I adjust the width of the Layer Options window so that the slider bar is the last object on the left. I don't use the other options hardly ever. Pretty straight-forward deal. These options are more advanced and aren't used very much unless you're doing some really advanced transparency and masking.

Now, you can probably already envision losing track of what's on what layer, particularly when you start working with 10 or more layers. Luckily, you can easily see what's in a layer by moving your cursor over the layer tab and leaving it there. a small window will pop-up that shows you what's in that layer. This is another very cool feature... take a look:

One last note, the Layer Options Window and Tool Controls Window are floating objects. They sit on top of any image in the editing pane. If they're in the way of something, just hit TAB to make them invisible. Then hit TAB to bring them back. These JASC guys think of EVERYTHING! hehe.

Let's move on to selections.