PI Plaid

This tutorial was written in PI 11.

A good working knowledge of PhotoImpact is always helpful

OK, lets get started.

Open a new white image 100w x 100h

Goto Edit/Fill

Click on the Gradient tab and then the Magic Gradient picture.

Click on Mode 10 and change the The repeat number to 5 and then click on the Edit button.

Now the fun begins :-))

OK, now in the  Palette Ramp Editor lets chose gradient 048

Already you can see the start of a plaid pattern

with your mouse click about the middle of the brown at the top and a colour picker box will jump out at you, chose a colour and click OK.

If you don't like the look, right click on one of the little colour boxes and change the colour.

You can also add more colours by doing the same again or you can move the little colour squares to different positions

NOTE: don't forget to click on the add button to add your new colour scheme to the Palette Ramp Editor.

When you are happy with the way it looks, click Ok.

Don't forget to go back and play with the Hue and the Ring options and you will see the endless colour patterns available.

There are some gradients that don't really need anything done to them.

A few samples below.
 

Gradient 010	Gradient 011	Gradient 057	Gradient 081
Gradient 052	Gradient 094	Gradient 092	Gradient 060

When you think about it, if you add colours to some of the more sparse gradients, your plaid combinations are endless.

The plaid below are from playing with the Hue slider on one pattern.

If you would like to make a seamless tile for a webpage, change the repeat number to 4 and grab the little red square on the direction dial and drag it until it is square. Use the +plus and -minus button to make it look straight.

when you are happy with it click Ok

goto: Selection/All

Then Web/Create Seamless Tile.

Always click on the preview button that pops out as it will give you a look at what it will look like on an entire page.

This tutorial was supposed to be purely an instructional one on how to make plaid, but being a Text effect orientated person, I just had to make it move............rofl

If you would like to make your plaid move

Here is How

Open a new image 400 x 150

Type your name

Duplicate and Hide the bottom name.
 

As always don't forget to save often.

Very Important! Highlight the top name, right-click/convert object type/change text/path to image (if you don't do this step then you won't get the magic gradient choice when you go to Edit/Fill)

duplicate this name 7 times so that you have 8 plaid layers

You should also have one layer not converted (this is so you can change it to 3D pipe later)
 

Highlight the 1st plaid name layer

Goto: Edit/Fill Chose the down direction arrow

 
Click on the Magic Gradient window and make your plaid in the Palette Ramp Editor, don't forget to change the Ring to 0 click ok.  always preview how it looks in your name.

When it looks OK or to your liking, click OK.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note: I did not save this as a pattern tile, I used the Edit/Fill options for the 8 layers.
The Reason: So that I could use the Ring control to make it move.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Goto: the next name layer same steps as above, only change Ring to 45

Follow steps above with values in the Ring on the descending layers
90
135
180
225
270
315

Highlight the bottom layer that is not converted to image and Right-Click/Arrange/Bring to Front.
 
Now change it to 3D pipe from the drop down list

This will make it as fat as a sausage, so we need to go to the tool settings on the right or the "Adjust Material Options"

 and change the width to a value of 2 and 30, also change your 3D pipe to a plain colour from your plaid 
This is all done in a one layer stack

Don't forget to crop away the excess from your name.

Highlight a name layer, Right-click/Select All Objects and uncheck the eye so that all layers are hidden. This saves a lot of mucking around in GA5. Save as a UFO file.

Now Take it to GA5 and animate in the same way as this tut Mosaic Shuffle only difference being is that you make 8 frames.

Animating the Plaid

INDEX