Module 3 - "For The Long Haul" (advanced)

• Lesson 2- Inside PSP and Blade Pro Filters, PLUS Extra Goodies!

Note: This is our final Lesson in "Paint Shop Pro with The KROW". It's been great working with the cool folks at coolmaps, and it's The KROW's wish that these tutorials have been both helpful and fun for all!

"Here, There and Everywhere!"

By now you've had plenty of time to get to know Paint Shop Pro and possibly Blade Pro too. Maybe you've even decided to make them a permanent addition to your software library? If so, you've made a great move!

As your experience with Paint Shop Pro increases, so will your opportunities for creating graphics. Today it may be graphics for web, but tomorrow you may be creating camera-ready art for hardcopy printed material! You're only limited by your own imagination.

Equally unlimited are the resources available for Paint Shop Pro and Blade Pro. The best place to start to find more tubes, brushes, or even help is at the JASC web site. More can be found by performing a simple search on the web for "Paint Shop Pro" or "Blade Pro". A great search engine for doing this is Dogpile (all the major engines in one place, with one search)!

"Just Gimme The Goodies!"

Ok! On to the best part. The whole point of The KROW's Lessons has been to help you find ways to open more paths to your creativity. You found a lot of new paths when you learned your Paint Shop Pro and Blade Pro. Now...let's dig down even further.

Remember all the cool filters PSP and Blade Pro have? They're great! But, such an aspiring young mind as yours is sure to find that the pre-loaded filters are just not enough. Surely, you're going to come across that one custom graphic you're making, where no filter in the world is creating just the "right look" you want. So....how do you fix that problem? Make your own! It's simple to do, and can be done right in Paint Shop Pro!

First things first. Download this zip file of some EXTRA Blade Pro Presets created by The KROW! Put the Presets in your Blade Pro Environments and Textures folders, and VOILA....you've got some brand new Presets to use on your graphics now.

COOL KROW CLUE
If you're just now installing Blade Pro into your Paint Shop Pro, don't be alarmed if you don't find a "special" folder for Filters in the PSP directory. With Blade Pro, you don't need it! Simply install your Blade Pro right into your PSP directory and have at it!

"The Nitty Gritty"

Here is where we can really get "into" our Paint Shop Pro and Blade Pro. Believe it or not, you are going to use one filter right on top of another while learning how to make your own Presets!

Open 3 new images, all 200x200 pixels in Paint Shop Pro. In the first "blank" image, click "Image" and then "Effects"  in the PSP Menu. Next, you'll want to apply an effect that will "take" on your blank. You can use Textures, Tiles, Weave or any of the many other different Effects PSP has! The KROW chose "Weave" for this first image. When you've done this, save your image as a ".bmp". It MUST be in .bmp format to work in Blade Pro!

Now, go to the second blank image. Here you're going to create a file with some color....any colors! The KROW used the flood fill tool and filled the sheet in linear with peach and light yellow color.

When you have the coloration you want, save this file also in a .bmp format.

COOL KROW CLUE
While you're saving your files in .bmp format, go ahead and save them right into your Blade Pro Environments and Textures folder. This will save you time searching for them as you do your graphics!

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