What is an overlay? It's easier to show than
explain. Remember the example on the first page? If we were to use
that image to create a one image lake applet, we would most likely
crop the top half of the image and scrap the bottom half with the
"still" water. Click HERE to see what that
lake applet would look like. Hey, not bad, right? But we want to use
the entire image to show the stream flowing. Sooo, we keep the top
portion handy but fetch up the bottom part that we scrapped. We
bring that image into our graphics program and "cut out" the still
water. Click HERE
to see what that would look like. Now, all we do is take that image
and "overlay" it on top of the lake applet we just looked at. The
gray you see on the overlay image is made transparent so that the
"lake" will show through.
Got the basic idea? This tutorial will show you exactly how to do
all this. Let's start by picking our transparent color and cropping
off the top. Look at the screenshot below....
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Before we do any cropping,
we must choose a color that we want to be transparent when the
overlay is complete. The color must be different from any portion of
the remaining overlay image after completion. Going back to the
overlay image we
just looked at, you'll see we chose gray. White would have been a
lousy choice because of all the white in the image. Click HERE to see an example of
what happens when you choose a color close to what is on the image.
Notice the blotches and some areas where the applet is showing
through.
To choose your color, look at the screenshot above. See the 2
boxes that I am pointing to with the note "select a color.."? The
box in front would be the foreground color and one behind the
background. More on those later but for now, left click on one to
bring up the color palette and click on the color that you decided
on. Do the same with the other box. NOTE: If you are using a gif
image, you'll have to increase the colors from 256 to 16 million.
You'll know right away that you aren't using 16 million because your
palette will show a limited amount of colors. Go to the menu bar,
click on "colors," then "increase color depth" by "16 million
colors." No image should be edited in PSP unless the color depth is
16 million.
Ok, let's crop off the "top" for our applet. Use the screen shot
as a reference. From the tool bar in PSP, click on the "selection
box." I have it circled. You should also see the "control palette."
If you don't you'll need to "toggle" it on. The "toggle control
palette" is the 5th icon on the right from the lower level of tools.
Also, using the TAB key toggles the palette off and on. From the
control palette, choose "rectangle" under selection type and "0"
under feather. Leave the antialias box unchecked. Now, slide your
mouse cursor across the image without clicking. Look at the bottom
left of your screen and you'll see 2 numbers changing as you slide
the mouse. The number on the left is width and the right is height.
Slide your mouse to the top left of your image until you see a 0,0
starting point. Click and hold your left mouse button from that
point and start moving the cursor down and to the right. You'll want
to cover the entire width of the image, but stop lowering when you
get just above the point where the "still" water starts. Release the
mouse button. Notice the dimensions I placed on the "screenshot."
The portion that I am cropping is 160 pixels in height which is
larger than the bottom portion I am leaving behind which is 146. ALL
my overlays are done this way and I have lots of trouble if the
lower portion has a larger height than the upper. Keep that in mind
when choosing your images. To "crop" our selection, either hold down
the "control" key on your keyboard and click on "X" or go to "Edit"
on the menu bar and choose "Cut." See the "gray" you left behind in
the original image? That is dictated by the "background" color we
chose earlier from the color palette. Now, to paste in our new "top"
image, either use "Control" + "V" from the keyboard, or "Edit" and
"Paste as new image" from the menu bar. You should see something
like the screenshot below. Save your cropped "top" image as a jpg. I
saved the example as "sample_top.jpg." Minimize it because we are
done with it for now. |
Ok... that's step 1. Let's
move on to STEP
2. |
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