Closed (sort of)
TEOM as you know it has been closed. I will keep it up for reference but it no longer will receive tutorial updates.
There are plans for a completely new site. If you'd like to be notified once the other site is up, simply subscribe to my mailing list.
Thanks for the support throughout all these years :)
Paint Shop Pro 7
3D Glowing Blocks
Create a new image.
» Settings: 100×100 pixels, 72 dpi, background color = transparent, image type = 16.7 million colors.
Flood Fill the canvas with any color you wish, using a dark shade for it. I’ll be using grey.
Double-click on the Selection tool.
» Settings: left = 0, right = 100, top = 0, bottom = 3, custom size and position checked.
Flood Fill this selection with a lighter shade of your color.
Double-click on the Selection tool again.
» Settings: top = 97 and bottom = 100.
Flood Fill it with the same color as before.
Double-click on the Selection tool again.
» Settings: left = 0, right = 3, top = 3, bottom = 97.
Flood Fill it with an even lighter shade of grey.
Once again double-click on the Selection tool.
» Settings: left = 97 and right = 100.
Flood Fill the selection with the same color as before and deselect.
On the File menu choose Export – Picture Tube. On the export picture tube dialog box, just change the Step Size to 1 and enter your tube’s name.
Note: it is very important that you set the Step to 1, otherwise the effect won’t work properly.
You can now close this image (no need to save).
Create a new image.
» Settings: 400×400 pixels, 72 dpi, background color = transparent, image type = 16.7 million colors.
Click on the Picture Tube tool. Choose the tube you’ve just created and enter the scale size you want.
» My settings: scale = 50.
To create the blocks is quite simple: click on the top area of the canvas (just a single click) then press Shift + click on the bottom area. Of course, you can also go to any other direction you wish.
Now let’s add a glowing effect to the block.
With the Magic Wand, click on an area of the block.
» Settings: Match Mode = RGB value, Tolerance = 0, Feather = 0, Sample Merged = unchecked.
Add a new raster layer and flood fill the selection with white.
Apply a Gaussian Blur with radius set at 10.
Change this layer’s blend mode to Dodge and lower the opacity until you think the glow effect looks good.
Go back to the original block layer and follow the same steps for the other color areas. Note that because the lighting is different for each tone, the layer opacity with be different for each area.
When you finishing adding the glow, merge the visible layers.
Add a new raster layer, send it to bottom and flood fill it with black or any other dark or contrasting color you wish.
Go back to the merged layer.
Go to Selections – Select All / Float / Modify – Feather = 2 / Invert.
Hit delete about 5 times and deselect.
Finally, apply a Drop Shadow.
» Settings: vertical + horizontal = 0, opacity = 100, blur = 75, color = white or any other color you wish for the final glow.
With a few more blocks, this is my final result:
Miscellaneous · Jul 19, 2003 ·