*** PREPARATION ***

For this tutorial you will need:

Paint Shop Pro 7, which you can get at the Jasc site and 
Animation Shop, which comes with Paint Shop Pro

A snack would be good as well as your favorite beverage.  Alcohol is NOT recommended - not until you're done with the tutorial, anyway!

Some working knowledge of PSP is helpful, but I try to write all my tutorials with the novice in mind and I offer a lot of screen shots to help you along the way.  

We will be using.....***vectors***.....to create our bear.

Still here?  Good, you didn't close your browser when you saw the *v* word...so you can give yourself a pat on the back to start off.  I'm glad you stuck around.

Before we start, I suggest you customize your toolbar and add icons for the tools we will be using.  If you do not have your Effects Toolbar active, let's activate it first and customize it for your personal use. It will save you lots of keystrokes!  Right click on any of your toolbars and choose "Toolbars" from the fly out menu.  Your toolbars box will open.  Click on the box next to Effects Toolbar, then click on Customize: 

When the Customize Toolbar box opens you can add or remove icons for the effects you use most.  Think of the recent tutorials you've completed and add the icons you remember using most often. This will save you lots of time when creating images.  Here is a screenshot of my Effects Toolbar:

Here are the icons for the tools and effects we will be using for this tutorial. I will be using these icons as shortcuts throughout the tutorial:

PSP Tools:
 Preset Shapes
 Object Selector
 Select All
 Select from Object
 Select None
 Contract Selection
 Invert Selection
 Cut
 Flood Fill
 Inner Bevel
 Add Vector Layer
 Add Raster Layer
 Draw Tool
 Airbrush
  Undo
  Select All
  Float Selection
  Defloat Selection
  Flip Image
  Mirror Image
  Mover
  Crop Selection

The best advice I can give you is to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!!!  There's not much worse than losing all your hard work due to a program or computer lock up or melt down!!!  So...save your work often...I will be putting reminders throughout the tutorial:

Save 

As with any of my tutorials, please feel free to use any colors you like to create you own unique image.

Okay, let's get started... 

PART I 
Creating Your Basic Bear Shape

I will be giving you screen shots throughout the tutorial, but these are only guides.  IT IS NOT NECESSARY FOR YOUR SHAPES TO BE EXACTLY THE SIZE AND SHAPE AS MINE!  Your bear will be unique...and all yours!!!

1. Make your foreground color black and your background color null.

2. Open a new image 250x300 pixels, transparent background, 16 million colors.

3. Save this image as "my_bear.psp" to a folder on your hard drive.  Now you can simply hit the Save icon to save throughout the tutorial.

4. Click on your Preset Shapes tool and choose Ellipse. 

• Retain Style UNCHECKED

• Antialias CHECKED

• Vector CHECKED

• Line Width: 1

• Line Style: solid

5. Draw out an oval shape in the upper section of your canvas for your bear's head.  Use your right mouse button to draw your ellipse from the center out.  This will allow you to place your cursor at the approximate spot where you want your head positioned:

(image cropped to reduce size)

6. When you created a vector shape, PSP automatically created a new, vector layer.  Rename this layer "bear".  Left click on the layer in your Layer Palette and click Rename in the fly-out menu and type in the new name.

7. Click on the + next to your "bear" layer so you can see the vector shape you have created.  Double click on the "Ellipse" and when the Vector Properties box opens type in "head" for the name. 

8. Draw out another oval in the center of your canvas for the body:

(image cropped to reduce size)

Save 

9. Rename this new object "body".

10. Draw out two smaller vector ellipses for your bear's ears and rename them accordingly:

(image cropped to reduce size)

Save 

11. Draw two ovals for the feet and rename them accordingly.

12. Click on your  Object Selector tool and rotate your right foot clockwise slightly:

(image shown at actual size)

Save 

13. Draw an oval for the left leg and rename:

(image shown at actual size)

Save 

14. Draw two ovals for the arms, rotating slightly and renaming your objects accordingly:

(image shown at actual size)

Save 

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