Vectors 101 for PSP 7

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Tutorial written March 24, 2005.

This tutorial will hopeful walk you through the basic steps of how to vector.

1. Open Paint Shop Pro 7. Open a New transparent canvas 500x450 pixels.

File, Save As. Save your canvas as a psp file.

2.I want you to set your foreground color to Null. Turn it off. Set your background
color to a nice turtle green, I'm using #0EA40E

3. To the left you see a list of tools to choose from. I want you to click on the
one second from the bottom that is called Preset Tools, look at the screenshot below..

In your Tool Options Box I want you to set your Preset Tool to Ellipse, Create as a Vector and
Antialias should both be checked, line width doesn't matter right now but you can go a head and
set it to 2 like I have mine if you want....

4. We are now ready to get started! On your blank canvas left click your mouse button
and hold it. While holding your click, pull over and down until you have a oblong oval. Let go
of the mouse button....

5.  To go into Node Edit mode.... Remember where you clicked the Preset Shapes tool, just below it
is a another tool called the Object Selector, click on it....

Using the left mouse button click and hold on your oval. A window will pop up, go to the
bottom and choose Node Edit...

Your oval should now look like this...

The little square boxes you see on the oval are called Nodes. The 4 nodes that
make up our oval are set as cusp nodes. Click on one of them to make it active. You will
see the square turn black and a arrow will be showing through the square. Each side
of the arrow will move up, down, out or in. This allows you to shape each side differently.
Play with them a little to see what I mean, then use the undo button under "Edit, Undo" to
get your oval back to like it was.
 

NOTE>>> If you are flipping between PSP and this tute you'll notice that when you go back to PSP
the nodes have gone and your colored oval is showing again. I know, that's one of the downfalls of
PSP7. If you leave your PSP window you will have to go back through step 5 to go back into Node
Edit mode each time.

6. Let's learn how to add a new node. While in Node Edit mode, push and hold the CTRL key on
your keyboard, while holding it, run your mouse pointer over the left upper side of the oval outline.
Between the top and left node that is already there. You will see a + add sign. Click once and
a new node will be added where you clicked. You have to first see the +add sign and be
pointing right on the line.

Do this again on the right side so that you have added two new nodes.
This is what you should have....

Click to activate one of the new nodes you added. Play with it like you did above. When you move the
arrow on these nodes both sides move. When you add new nodes they are set to be Symmetric, you can
change this when you need to by clicking to make the node you want to change your active node, then right
click on it and select Node Type.. You can then change the type to Asymmetric, Symmetric or Cusp. There
are other choices too but for now I won't go into those.
Because I activated a node that was one of my original oval nodes it is already set to Cusp, that is why the
Cusp option is not available in my screenshot below...

7. Undo any changes you may have made above to your oval...
I now want you to click the left node you added to make it your active node. Click and hold
the right mouse button. While holding the mouse button pull inward and downward just a
little. You want something like this...

8. Now take the right node you added and do the same thing with it, you will ended up with something that
looks kind of like a space ship...

Go to File Save.

Go back into Node Edit Mode.

9. Click once on the top node, the one that was already there. Pull outward on both sides of the arrow
 handles to widen the head a little....

10. Click on the 3rd node from the top on the right and pull it down and inward just a little to round the
cheeks some...

11. Click to make active the 3rd node from the top on the left side and do the same thing with it...

14. Once you're happy with your shape, Go to Layers, Convert to Raster.

15. Set your foreground color to Black and your background color to White.
Preset Shapes set to Ellipse, same as for the head except this time set the line width to 2 if
you didn't already have it set.
Draw out an oval for the eye...

Go to Layers, Convert to Raster.

16. Switch you foreground color with your background color, turn your foreground color off
(white off), have only the black set to be your background color.
Draw another smaller oval at the bottom of the eye...

 

Go to Layers, Convert to Raster.

Go to File Save!

17. Open your foreground color back up. It should be set to White still.
Click on the Paint Tool . Set to these settings...

18. Click twice to make two small dots in the left top corner of the black area of the eye...

19. Look on your Layer Palette and close Layers 1 and 2 by clicking on the glasses...

Make layer 3 or 4 your active layer. Go to Layers, Merge, Merge Visible. Go to Layer,
View, All. You head layer should be showing again.

Go back up to Layer and click on Duplicate. Go to Image, Mirror. You should now have two
eyes. Move them around until you are happy with their position.

20. Set your foreground color to Black, background color should be off.
Click on the Draw Tool set to these settings...

Make a small horizontal line just above the left eye. Click and hold just center left of the
line and pull upward. Click again on the center right of the line and pull upward to make a nice
arched brow...

Go to Layers, Convert to Raster. Layer, Duplicate. Image Mirror and move into position
above the right eye.

You can use the Deformation Tool to turn your brow a little if you want.

This is what I have now...

21. Now let's make him a mouth. Same Draw Tool settings as we used for the eye brow.
Draw a straight line about where my copyright logo is in the above screenshot. This time
click and hold on the left side of the line and pull downward. Then on the right side, pull it
downward until you have a smiley mouth...

You can also use the Draw Tool with the same settings to give him cheek dimples if you want...

Go to File Save.

You know have a cute turtle face. Think you understand vectors  a little better now? Want
to try giving your turtle a body?? Check out Ninjie Turtle and see if you can vector
the rest of him. If you want to give it a try then don't merge your face. Keep it in layers and
use it to make Ninjie. You can always enlarge your canvas size if your head is too big to make
the rest of his body. If you need to; go to Image, Canvas Size and set the New Width and Height
you think you need. If you don't think you're ready to tackle Ninjie yet then you can hide Layer1
(click on the glasses) and go to Layers, Merge Merge Visible. You can then tube your head or what
ever you'd like.

Until next time... God Bless!
Connie