Johanna's Photo Swirl Tutorial for PI10

Johanna's Place
Tutorial: Photo Swirl Title: Create a Swirl Effect that can be used on webpages, scrapbooking or whatever! Software: Ulead PhotoImpact 10-11 (view V6 or 8-XP) Skill Level: Beginner/Intermediate Author:Johanna URL: johanna.pircsites.com/tutorials/photo_swirl/pi10/default.htm Additional Files: You'll need some photos to fill in the Swirl Shapes. You can find some here if you'd like.
	Standard Mode vs Basic Mode for PI 10 Users: PhotoImpact 10 has two work modes, Basic and Standard. Basic Mode features a simplified workspace with larger buttons and the most common functions whereas the Standard Mode displays all of the functions. You will be using the Standard Mode in this tutorial. To check your mode, click Workspace on the Menu Bar. If the Standard Mode is greyed out, that means you are already in the Standard Mode. If not, click Standard Mode now. Warning: If you switch from Standard to Basic Mode, and you have custom settings, you will lose all your custom settings.
PhotoImpact 11 has five Modes. You'll see them all listed in the My Workspace menu. For our purposes, please click on "Advanced Mode". Also For PI 11 Users: Most of the buttons are the same as used in PI 10 but many of them don't have the text name in Advanced mode. All you need to do is hover over a button to see what the it is if you're not sure. You may have to click on the downward facing triangle to find it the individual variances in the different tools. PI 10 has those little down-arrows as well - they offer us additional choices.
To Start, Create a New Image - Canvas White, 500 pixels W by 350 pixels H. Click OK.
	Using the Path Tool on the Tool panel, click on the Path Drawing Tool to activate it. We're going to use an off-white, so click on the Color box and enter the RGB values 248, 241, 230 (HEX #F8F1E6). On the Attributes panel, in Mode, make sure it's set at 2D Object.
	On the Attributes panel, click on Shape/Custom Shape and scroll down until you see S47. Select it and click OK. Now we're ready to make the first piece of the Swirl. Once you drag to approx. 2/3 the height of the canvas, let go. Make sure the shape is still selected.
We need to make this piece the correct size so on the Tool panel, click on the Transform Tool button, then select the Resize button. In PI 11: Make sure the little lock is UNLOCKED, then in Width, type in 141 and in the Height, type in 219.
	While this new shape is still active, we need to EDIT it to make it flat on top, so click the Path Drawing Tool again, Edit Path Object button and make sure it's in Free Edit Mode or you won't get the nice points that form the top edges of the swirl. The shape's outline with square red dots (nodes) will appear. We need to ADD two nodes and DELETE the one on the top center to square off the top of the shape.
	Click the Edit Point/Add Point button, then click on the shape on each side of the top point (see the image to the left for reference). You should now have three nodes on the top. Now, click on Edit Point/Delete Point and click on the one in the top middle. Click on Edit Point/Pick Point to deactivate the Delete Point button. You'll now have Two red nodes on the top that you need to pull apart to shape the piece of the swirl. You'll need to push and pull a little to get the shape perfect. Try it and see.
	Once you get the shape looking correctly, click the Toggle button to get out of Edit mode and you should have a shape that looks like the one on the right: The Swirl piece is facing the wrong way, so we need to flip it...
Make sure it's still activated and click on the Transform Tool. Click on the Flip Horizontally button. Now Change the Rotate by Degree to 45 and click Rotate Counter-Clockwise to get the first "swirl".
We need to make some more Swirl pieces, so Right click on the shape and click Duplicate from the menu. Click this new shape and Rotate Clockwise at 45 degrees. While this new shape is still selected, change it's Height to 167. Make sure the lock is locked. Repeat the duplicating, rotating and resizing until you get the number of swirl pieces you want to fill with your photos. You'll need to make each swirl about 25 pixels shorter than the one previous (ex: after the 167 pixel high swirl piece, the next one would be 142 pixels high and so on). Now comes the cool part - filling each of the swirl shapes with different pictures.
Click on the biggest swirl once to select it. Open the Browser Manager and browse to your first photo selection. Double click to open it. Adjust / Resize it so that it's close to the size of your swirl piece, then Right click, select COPY, then close the Photo's window without saving it's changes.
	Your big swirl should still be selected, so on the Menu, go to Edit/Paste/Into Selection. DON'T CLICK DOWN ON YOUR SWIRL SHAPE YET. If you gently hover your mouse around over the shape, the photo inside the swirl shape will move around for you, so you can position the photo the way you like. Once you've got it where you want it, click once to anchor it.
Now that you have the first swirl piece filled, do the same with the rest.. Open a photo from the Browser Manager, size it down, copy it and Edit/Paste/Into Selection till every piece has a photo inside it. Click the Pick Tool.
	We're going to add a drop shadow to each swirl to give it some dimension. Right click on the Big swirl and from the menu, choose Shadow. Be sure Shadow is check-marked ON and choose a medium grey colour for the shadow. X-offset should be 6, Y-offset = 6, Transparency = 50, Shadow Size = 100, Soft Edge = 10. Do this individually to all the swirl pieces until they all have their shadows applied. With the last swirl piece still selected, right click and choose Select All Objects from the menu. Right click again and choose Group from the menu.
Finally, on the Tool panel, click the Crop Tool. Then click the Crop button (it's one one that looks like a Check Mark) to get rid of the excess white areas.
From here you can do all kinds of things to decorate your Photo Swirl. You can even make more swirl pieces so that it forms a complete circle. You can Merge All and Air Brush the ends to blend in with the background. Experiment and HAVE FUN! View another Sample→ TIP - The CORRECT way to name your files: When creating files, use all lower case, no spaces and as little digits as possible. Hyphen may be used in place of a space. EXAMPLE: photo-swirl.jpg or for BW Projects: project-number-yourname.jpg
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