Under Glass: Glass Dome
PhotoImpact 6.0
This tutorial assumes you have a beginning
knowledge of Photo Impact, and know how to use the transformer tool, and
make a stationery strip.
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Open a new file by
pressing ctrl n at the same time. Set both the height and width to
300 pixels.
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Click on arrow in
the corner of the bucket fill tool, and click on linear fill tool. |
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In the additional
options that appear when you select the linear fill tool, Make sure Two-color
is selected, and choose a light color and a dark color to make up your
linear gradient. |
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Click in the lower
left corner of the workspace, and while holding down the mouse button,
draw a diagonal line to the top right corner. This will fill the
workspace with your gradient. |
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Click the arrow in
the corner of the path tool, and click on the outline tool.
Make sure the rectangle
is selected, set the color to the darker color in your gradient, and for
mode select 3D Round. Click on the width button, and click on width
4. |
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Now click on the materials
box
and click on the shading
tab. Set the shading to metallic. |
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Now starting at the
top left corner, draw your outline carefully so that it just frames the
outside of your gradient filled square. |
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If you have trouble
getting this just right, click on the pick tool, which looks like an arrow, 
and double click on your outline. Click on the position and Size
tab, and set the position left and top to -2, and your width and height
to 303. Uncheck "keep aspect ratio." |
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Click on the path
tool  and set it
to circle. Set the color to the light color in your gradient, and
the mode to 3d round. Your border should be set to 30 or higher.
You can use the slider to set it, or you can click the material button,
and then on the border/depth
tab to change this. Draw a circle inside your workspace that will
be large enough to contain your object that you will be using.
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Now position your
object that you chose in the center of the circle by dragging it from the
easy palette. Add leaves or other decorative items as you wish. Feel free to download and use this rose and leaves .
You will need to re-size
the rose and leaves with the transformer tool as explained in previous
tutorials. This rose has a little cosmetic flaw which we will fix.
The edges show a little white around the edges. This is partially
due to the soft edge. Right click on the rose, and click on properties.
Remove the check mark from the soft edge box. |
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Now click on your
paintbrush tool, and set the color to a dark maroon color.
Set the size to 2, and the transparency to 0.
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Click on effect, paint on edges. This
will get rid of the white edges. |
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Right click on the
circle rose, and leaves, and add a shadow to each one. You
can arrange one object behind another by selecting it, and then clicking
on object, arrange, send backward. Use the transformer tool 
to rotate the leaves
to a pleasing display. I like to use rotate by degree, and set it
to 15 degrees and try different angles until I find one that looks pleasing
to me. |
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Now click on the circle
underneath your display to select it. Right click and click again
on duplicate. Change the color to the dark color in your gradient.
Leaving your duplicate circle selected, click on the materials box, and
set the bevel to 3D Round, the border/depth to 30, the transparency to
100, and the shading to phong. Click on the shadow tab to remove the shadow.
In the right side of the materials box, you can click in the circle where
you want the light shine to show. This is helpful when the shine
is too far to the middle, thus obscuring an important part of your displayed
object.
Now click ok, and using
the arrow keys, carefully align your glass piece over top of the first
circle.
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Now duplicate the
glass piece, and go back to the materials box, click on the transparency
tab, and unclick the transparency option. Click the bevel tab set
the bevel to 3D pipe. Click the border/depth tab and set the border/depth
to 3, and the shading tab to set it to metallic. This makes
the duplicated circle into a border just the right size to outline your
piece. Again, using the arrow keys, carefully align this border over
top of your circle. |
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You now hopefully
have your piece the way you want it, so click on the pick tool, and while
holding down the ctrl key, click on each piece of the circle, including
the flower pieces, but not the square outline around the outside of your
gradient filled square.
If you are sure your
piece is the way you want it, after you have selected all of the pieces
of the display at once, right click and click again on combine as a single
object. Once you do this, you will not be able to edit anything about your
display. |
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Now, providing you
have installed the trim plugin, you can click on web, trim object and then
click on center both in the pick toolbar at the top.
If you haven't installed
the trim plugin, you will have to center your display as best you can by
eye, and you may well need to adjust it with the arrow keys even with the
trim plugin.
After you have centered
your display piece, right click and merge all. |
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Ctrl C at the same
time will copy your piece allowing you to paste it on your strip.
You now have a piece
ready to make into stationery or display however you wish.
If you are using this
for stationery, remember to allow a little extra room to the left so that
the square is not right against the left side of the strip. Make
your strip at least 15 pixels higher than the square also.
So click ctrl N to
open a new image, set the width to 1152, and the height to 315.
Paste your piece on
the strip, using the arrow keys to slide it away from the left side a little.
After you have pasted
your piece on your strip, it adds a little more interest if you add a drop
shadow to it. Choose a background color to compliment your color scheme. |
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Remember to use the
object optimizer on your completed piece as explained in my previous tutorials. |
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