Ooh...Babelicious Tubing Tutorial

All you need is a graphic you have permission to use/ tube and a version of Paint Shop Pro.
I wrote this for V7 and V9 it should also work for V8, V10 and V11.
You should have a basic knowledge of working with this program.

This is quite a basic tutorial to give you a good start, so you don't use the eraser etc.

I am going to tube Marguerite by AnaRasha.
You need to seek permission before you can use her art!!!

First of all change the look of your cursor icon.
In psp 7 click on your freehand selection tool (lasso),
in the tool options window click on the cursor and tablet options tab and tick use precise cursors.

In Psp 9 go to files/ preferences/ general program preferences, click on the tab Display and Caching, tick use precise cursors.

Next go to file/preferences/ autosave settings, I have mine set to enable autosave and save every minute.
Okay, that's the prelims out of the way.

When getting graphics to tube, try to get them as big as possible and do not resize before you tube. Mine is 900x 1120px.
Open your graphic, layers/ promote to layer (promote background layer), if it won't promote go to colors (in 7),to image (in 8), increase color depth to 16 million colors, then promote.
Check the resolution: Image/resize, change settings as shown in screenshot. Then check resize all layers and ok.

Next we crop, activate your crop tool and click on your pic, hold the mouse button down to drag a rectangle round the part you want to tube.
You can alter the size by pulling at the edges of your square.

The go to image/ canvas size and make your canvas bigger, I usually go up in 40s, so my canvas went from 535x969 to 575x1009, make sure image will be centered. You should have your picture with the transparency grid around it.

Layers/ new rasterlayer, layers /arrange/ send to the bottom, floodfill (bucket) with a contrasting colour that is not present in your image. I chose limegreen, make your image layer active by clicking on layer 1 in the layer palette. Save as 'nameOfArtistNameofPieceYourName', in my case AnaRashaMargueriteOohBabeliciousTube.

Your progress will be autosaved incase psp crashes on you. Now, click on the lasso tool (freehand selection), in tooloptions set it to point to point, I set the feather to 2 (some prefer it set to 1), antialias checked, I have my mode set to add (shift). When you tube thin elements, set the feather to 0.

At last we get to the tubing itself. First I surround the big bits I want to get rid of. Use the method below without zooming.

Then zoom in to about 400% by rolling your mouse wheel, start anywhere on your picture, but have your first 'stickie' in the transparent bit. Every click of your cursor, on the very edge of the imageoutline, will make your line 'stick', the closer the clicks the smoother the line, do small areas and come back on yourself.

If you went wrong, press delete on your keyboard, the line will go back to the previous 'click'. Don't double click, as this will connect you to your starting point, possibly through your picture. I like working from right to left, you have to find out what works best for you. When you have come back on yourself, double click and you'll have marching ants, now click on the scissors on your standard toolbar (in 7), just once for now. Or hit delete on your keyboard.

Selections/ select none, zoom out 1:1, check the edge, if it looks smooth and clean, leave it.
If not, undo once and click on scissors/ hit delete again. This can't be done an infinite number of times, you can only delete so much until you have to reselect. If curves look too angular, select the pointy bits and delete using the scissors/ delete key. If you're anything like me, you will use undo often. :o)

Go around your image until you have cut away all you don't want, remember you're always deleting what is inside of the marching ants. When you're done, go to selections/select all/ float, you should not have any stray pixels, but if you do, try and memorise where they are, selections/select none, select and delete them, check your image again.

Re-check. When you're done click on your floodfilled layer and change the colour of it, check round your tube, is it clean? Fix what needs fixing. Choose your crop tool, make sure you're on the tube layer, crop current layer/ layer opaque.
Resize your tube if necessary, I usually make mine no bigger than 600px on the longest side. Don't do more than 80% at one time. Do a few resizes instead. Then you need to sharpen the tube.
Go to Adjust/ Sharpness/ Unsharp mask, set to Radius:0.68, Strength:115, Clipping:2, Luminance only: unchecked.
You can now delete the bottom layer. Click on your text tool, create as vector, antialias checked, stroke nil (turned off), fill black, use a font that's well legible and write out the copyright info for the artist, make sure you spell it right!
© Name www.name.domain.
© is done by holding Alt and typing in 0169 on your numberpad.
Layers/convert to rasterlayer.

Save as a psp image into a folder. In psp8/9/10/11, in the save window, go to options and activate 'save as a psp7 compatible file'. You're done. Woohoo!! If you feel it is good enough to share, save a copy as a jpg so you have a preview.

This tutorial was created February 23, 2005 (edited March 08, 2007) and is the sole property of ooh...babelicious. Similarity to other tutorials is purely coincidental. Do not copy this or any of my tutorials, or any part of my tutorials, to another site unless you have express permission from me to do so. If you want to share, send the URL, do not direct link or offer on your site. Give credit where credit is due. Do not script this tutorial and offer to others.