Software:	PhotoImpact 8.0
Author:	Sheryl Redden
Home Page:	The Baye Window
Tutorials:	PI Tutorials
Title:	Stained Glass Tiles
Skill Level:	Intermediate
Additional Files:	Stained Glass Tiles   Leaded Glass Font
Description:	Create a Stained Glass Name Tag. (This tutorial can be done in any version with a good working knowledge of the tools)
Note:	Thank you to Glenda for her permission to convert this tutorial for use with PhotoImpact from her original PSP tutorial.

Creating your Font Template

After you have downloaded the glass and font the first thing you need to do before opening PhotoImpact is to open the Plautius Leaded Glass (True Type) Font and minimize it to your taskbar. It is not required to load every font into your Windows font folder. Just open the font from you personal folder before opening PhotoImpact and it will be available within your PI text fonts while you do the tutorial. When your finished just close the window to the font.

Open a new image page 600x300. This will give you lots of room to work. Click on the Text Tool and find the Plautius Leaded Glass Font and set your font size to 72.

Click on the Material Option button go to Bevel and set to 3D Custom with middle button selected. Set your Border/Depth to Border 15 Depth 30 and click OK. Then go to your Material Attribute Gallery - Plastic and click on any color you wish, for this tutorial I used the Dark Gray. Type whatever you wish.

Your text pattern will looks like this before the stained glass is added.

Adding The Stained Glass Fill

That was the easy part now comes the fun part. I found it easy to add all the glass colors to my Easy Palette. If you don't know how to add to your Easy Palette or would like to make your own glass you can check out Mary Lou's tutorial. Click Here

Click on your Magic Wand Tool and set Mode and Similarity as shown below, and zoom to around 200 or 300%.

With your Magic Wand click inside a few of the areas in each block of the name you just typed. When finished. Right Click your mouse. Choose Expand/Shrink. Expand 1 pixel and click OK. Right Click again and choose Convert To Object. Click on your Easy Palette where your stained glass presets are and click on the color you want to add to the objects. You should now have a picture similar to this:

Continue these steps until you have all the glass covered as shown on the top of this page. If you prefer you can leave the wording as transparent so the background color of a page can be seen through it. Whichever method you prefer is fine. Select all and Group, Do Not Merge.

Preparing your tag for Animation

Duplicate your tag and move below the first one. Ungroup and click on a set of your color tiles within the tag to activate them. Then click on the adjust brightness plus (+) sign three (3) times. This will lighten the selection of the glass tiles. Deselect and group this tag together again. The easiest way is to right click select all and then click on the top one that should still be grouped to deselect it.

Duplicate your tag two more times and follow the same instructions as above. You may click the brightness more or less times whichever you prefer to get the brightness level you want. You should now have a total of four (4) tags. Once you have all four tags the way you like click on each one and Merge as a Single Object. Right Click Select all - Align - Center Both. Keep your tag selected and click on the Crop Tool on the left tool bar and then click the Crop Image check mark at the top. Save your image as a UFO.

Another way to crop your images is to Select All and just drag them out to a new window. This causes an automatic crop and the text fits exactly in the new window.

Click the Switch button at the top of your page to go into GIF Animator. At the Setup Wizard Click Open an existing image file and go to where you saved your UFO picture. When the program opens you should have five (5) pictures in the Objects window on the right. Click on the last one which should be a plain white background and delete it. Now holding down the Ctrl key select all four pictures and Right Click and choose Distribute To Frames. Now they are all on the bottom of your screen. Holding down your Ctrl Key again click on all of them again, Right Click choose Frame Properties and change Delay to 15 or 20 whichever you like best and press OK. Optimize your image and save as a gif.