On a final note, this guide does not include coding blogs. It's main purpose is to show you how to make semi-transparent blogs. DO NOT steal my example blog or I shall come hunt you down... Yes, okay, moving on to the guide...
Transparent Blogs
'How do I make a semi-transparent blog?' That is one of the most common questions that I am asked concerning graphics. Hence, I made this guide. Please note that even though I explain how to make blogs here, you can use this technique for Guild layouts as well. Also remember, this is my way, there's many many more ways out there. I just consider it easiest for me. Also, this guide is written strictly for PSP 7 (it works on other PSP versions as well but you will need to do some things differently. I am also going to go out from the idea that you already understand the basics of PSP 7. If you do not have PSP 7/do not know the basics, click here for my tutorial on that.
On a final note, this guide does not include coding blogs. It's main purpose is to show you how to make semi-transparent blogs. DO NOT steal my example blog or I shall come hunt you down... Yes, okay, moving on to the guide...
1. This is basically just the preparation step. We will start nice and simple. First, open up PSP 7. Then prepare it for making a blog. This means you should go to view >> Toolbars and make sure that you have check-marked:
2. Now we will select our image and start with the simple stuff. Firstly, find any image in all of neopets that you like (or, even better yet, create your own). I have selected:
Remember to credit Neopets for the image. Copy this image into a new file on PSP 7 (ctrl V). Now use the crop tool to cut out the part of the image that you would actually like to use. Once you have selected the area that you would like cropped, simply double click on it (make sure you are still on the cropped tool). The canvas will automatically re-size and the rest of your image will be cut away. If you are unhappy with the result, simply press the undo button (ctrl z). My cropped result:
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3. Making the blog. Now that your image has been sized correctly, it's time to move on to the blog. First of all, go to Layer >> New Raster Layer. Title it "blog" (you don't have to, but for the sake of the tutorial, just follow what I say). Next, go to the Present Shape tool and select the square under Tool Options (or whatever shape you want your blog to be in, doesn't matter). Make sure your back color (the one your using if you right click is white) and create the shape were you want your faded blog to be. Mine now looks like this:
4. That's all good and well, but now you have a big ugly white box. This is were the semi-transparent part comes in. Go to your layers Palette, and next to the name "Blog" you will see an opacity option from 1 to 100. Select any opacity that strikes your fancy. The lower the opacity, the more transparent your blog. The higher the opacity, the less transparent it becomes. Make sense? Good. I set mine to 70 and this is my result:
5. Now you can just beautify your blog with text decorations and off you go. This method can be used for ALL graphics (guild layouts, lookups...). Just make sure that you go to Layers >> Merge >> Merge all (flatten) before trying to add any text as they will not work unless you do that. Here's my result:
~ Kathrin