Balloon Tutorial

Jasc has come out with their Paint Shop Pro 10th year Anniversary Edition and they have included some great new shapes for us!! One of them is a balloon - below is a short tutorial on how to change the coloring or to doctor it up to your liking. If you don't have the Anniversary Edition, I am including for use with this tutorial one of the shapes that I created. Please click here to download.

Step 1: Open a new image, transparent background, 200 pixels wide X 400 pixels high

Step 2: Go to Layers, New Vector Layer.

Step 3: Go to your Shapes Tool, select the red balloon shape that you downloaded from above. (Please note - save your .jsl shape to your Paint Shop Pro Shapes folder). Make sure that Retain Style, Create as Vector and Antialias are checked.

Step 4: Lay down the shape on your canvas, using whatever height or width you find to your liking. Mine is appx 100 pixels wide X 150 pixels high. ***Please note: After you have laid down your image on the canvas, all other steps from here on will be done using the Object Selector Tool, located right below the Shapes tool.*** If you want to change the size of the balloon once it's laid down on the canvas, use the right mouse button to move the nodes around the grey box. This will make sure the size is retained. As shown in example 1, these are the nodes that you can move with the right mouse button to retain style while your image is still grouped.

Step 5: Right click on your image, Ungroup. Click anywhere outside the balloon. When you Ungroup, on the layer pallet, where your grouped image was, you will notice that it will now show every shape that is involved with making the balloon. (see example 2). Please note that I did rename the layers in this example so that you could see what each item pertains to.

Step 6: On your layer pallet, while holding down the Shift key, click on both the bottom layers (the ones that I have named in the example as " Red Balloon " and " Balloon Bottom " - both of these items on your layers pallet should now be highlighted). Double click on your image. This will bring up the Vector Property box. From here you can change your fill color to a solid color or a gradient. If using a gradient, Linear Gradient should be selected. Leave the Stroke to null. Now, if you would like, you can also change the location of your Reflection. To do this, you can go to the vector layer that it is on (it should be the one underneath the one I have listed as "Group 12 Reflections" and once the small reflection is enclosed in the light grey node editing box, you can move it by selecting the middle node within the box with your mouse. Make sure that you don't move it past any edges of the balloon though. If you want the reflection to be the opposite direction, with the right mouse button, select the node on the middle right and bring it through itself until you have brought it through the left hand side of the box (see example3).

On the left is before I moved the reflection and on the right is after I changed the direction & moved the reflection.

Once you have changed the fill color to your liking and changed the reflection, you will need to re-group your image. To do this, starting in the upper left corner of your canvas, using the Object Selector tool, entirely enclose your balloon by moving the mouse down to the lower right corner of your canvas. If you have your layers pallet open, and the vector layer you are working on has a "-" sign next to the layer name, you will see that once you have enclosed the balloon all of the shapes will show highlighted. If they aren't, then try it again. Once they are all selected, right click on your image, Group. In the layers pallet, where it says "Group 1" double-click on the name and change it to whatever name you want (I named mine balloon - lol).

If you don't want a string on your balloon, you can either now save your balloon as a .psp image or you can save it as a tube. To save as a tube, right click on your vector layer in the layers pallet, Convert to Raster Layer. Go to Layers, Merge Visible. Since you are not putting a string on the balloon at this point, you should crop your image. Then go to File, Export, Picture Tube.

Optional Step: To put a string on your balloon, select the Draw Tool - Freehand, Antialias & Create as Vector checked, line width=3 (Close Path should be un checked. Making sure that you are still on the same vector layer as your balloon, draw a string for your balloon. You can change the color of your string using the Object Selector tool (double-click on the string to change the stroke color - if you do this though, make sure the Fill box is set to null). Once you have your string exactly like you want, using the object selector tool, right click on the string, Arrange, Send to Bottom.

Using the Object Selector Tool, starting in the upper left corner of the canvas, enclose both the balloon & string, then right click, Group. You can now save as a .psp file or a new Shape. To save as a new Shape, follow these steps: (1) On your layers pallet, double-click on where it says "Group 2". Name it whatever you want. Double-click on where it says "Layer 2" and name it the same name that you gave to "Group 2" (refer to example 5). (2) Resize your image. To do this, make sure that you have the Object Selector Tool selected and using your right mouse button, start at the lower left node and move your cursor up towards the upper right (example 6).

Your grouped shape must be small otherwise you will sooner or later get an "Out of Memory" error message when choosing your Shapes tool. Right click, Export Shape. This brings up a Warning box but it's just a reminder to make sure you have everything selected and grouped before saving. Click "OK". A new box will appear so that you can name your shape. Name it the same as you did on the Group 2 and Layer 2 names.