The Forge

This tutorial was written by Fiona Pomfrett on March 19th 2011
Any resemblance to any other tutorial is coincidental. Do not copy and paste this tutorial anywhere on the net.
Scripting and translating of this tutorial is strictly forbidden.

Supplies needed:
PSP – I used X2 but this will work in any version
Tube of your choice
Font of your choice
Mura’s – Copies
Eye Candy 4000 – Gradient Glow
Penta.com – Color Dot
Optional Eye Candy 5:Impact – Perspective Shadow

I used the awesome artwork of Ismael Rac
You can purchase all Ismael’s work at his Store
Please do not use Ismael’s work without purchasing a license

Please Note: For some reason not all links work when using Chrome or Safari, Please use either Firefox or IE

Let’s Start
Open a new canvas 525 x 200 or a size you prefer for forum sets
Copy and paste your tube as a new layer
Effects, Plugins, Muras – Copies
Choose Wallpaper (rotate) using the default settings
Adjust, Blur, Motion Blur

Repeat the motion blur once more
Effects, Edge Effects, Enhance
Rename ‘Background’

Select your selection tool and choose Custom Selection

These are the settings:

Add a new raster layer and flood fill the selected area with white
Selections, None

Effects, Plugins, Muras Copies
Choose the line preset with these settings:

Change the blend mode on your lines to ‘soft light’
Rename this layer ‘lines’

Copy and paste your tube of choice as a new layer
Position on one side of your canvas
Change the blend mode to ‘soft light’ and lower the opacity to about 61
Rename this layer ‘soft tube’
Move this layer below your lines layer on your layer palette

With your tube layer active
Selections, All, Float, Defloat
Selections, Invert
Activate your Background layer
Selections, Promote Selection to Layer
Selections, None

Working on your Promoted Selection Layer
Effects, Plugins, Penta.com – Colour Dot
Use the default settings BUT change the distance to 7

Activate your Background layer again and duplicate it
Hide all layers except your Copy of background and Promoted Selection
Layers, Merge, Merge Visible these two layers
Change the blend mode to ‘screen’

You can now unhide the other layers

Activate your lines layer
Selections, All, Float, Defloat
Activate your Merged layer and press delete
Selections, None

Activate your ‘lines’ layer – which should be your top layer
Copy and paste your tube again as a new layer
Position on the opposite side to your ‘soft tube’
Add a drop shadow of choice – I used Eye Candy 5: Impact – Perspective Shadow

Add a new raster layer and flood fill with black
Selections, All, Modify, Contract by 1 pixel
Press delete on your keyboard

Grab your text tool and choose a font – I used Ain’t Nothing Fancy
Foreground set to null, background to a colour from your image
Create as vector and anti-alias both checked
Add your name
Use the nodes to stretch and/or angle your text (if needed)
Position where you think it looks best
When happy convert to raster
Effects, Plugins, Eye Candy 4000 – Gradient Glow

Set the colour to a dark colour from your image
Change the blend mode to ‘screen’ or one that suits your text

Add your artists copyrights and your own tagged by info
Save as a jpg/png
All Done

To Create A Matching AV

Note: This is the way I make my av’s, do not feel you HAVE to make it the way I do, do whatever you think easiest/best

On your tag, hide the following layers:
Copyrights / Name / Main Tube / Soft Tube
Open a new canvas 150 x 150
Flood fill with white
Copy and paste onto your tag
Lower the opacity down to about 50

Position covering the area you want to use to make your av