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For this tutorial you'll find globe bases and blank globes in the zip file for you to make your own snowglobes once you know the basics.

What You Will Need to Start

1) zip file containing this globe
2) the image
3) a snow tube

Download materials needed for this tutorial  HERE.

Place the 'globesnow.tub' into your Program Files/Jasc Software/Tubes Folder.

You can save this picture by right clicking on it and then "save as".You can obviously use your own so just pick which you prefer :)

When you unzip the materials file, you will find the globe and stand on a transparent background. In order to keep this base for future use, hold down the shift key and press D to make a duplicate copy to work on for this tutorial. Then you can close the original and keep for future use. Before we start, it might be a good idea to go to File, and click on "Save as" and give it a name (i.e. globe.psp). Make sure you save it as a PSP file.

It is also wise to save your work often as we go through these instructions, as there is plenty to learn,lol. Just click "File/Save", since you have already named it.

If you look at your layer palette, you will see that your image has two layers. Remember that the "active" layer or the one which you are working on, will always be the one highlighted in grey. This is simply because these are my chosen preference colours, but your computer might be set to show another color but the principle will be the same :)

Now add a new layer and call it 'image'. There are two ways you can do this, the 'hard way' or the 'easy way' lol! You can go to Layers/Add new layer (raster layer in later versions) or go to your Layer Pallette and double click the little 'papers' icon shown below (image to the right).

Now place the image layer to the bottom because we will need it there for when we place it inside the globe. You can do as the following illustration shows or you can left click on the image layer and 'drag' it down to the bottom ( illustration to the right).

Your layer palette should now look like this:

We are now ready to start building our snowglobe so let's start :)

Ok click on the globe layer to make it the active one (make sure it's hightlighted). Click on the magic wand    and use these settings - RGB value...tolerance 0 feather 0 sample merged unchecked )and then click in an area outside the globe. When the marching ants appear, go to the menu bar to "Selections" and then click on "Invert". Check the two images below.

Our next step is to modify where the ants are marching around the globe as we want them marching around the globe slightly inverted. Go to "Selections/Modify/Contract". A small window will pop up and in the space fill in the number 1. Click OK.

This next step is one I do for safeties sake to make sure I always have this same selection. Go to the menu "Selections", then down to "Save to an alpha channel". Name it globe01 and just click on "OK" in both places to bring you back to the globe image.

Leave the marching ants visible. Do not deselect. Even though we made our globe selection on one layer it can still be used now that we are moving to a different layer. Go to your layer palette and click on the "image" layer to make it 'active'. Make sure it is now the one highlighted. We are now ready for our image now, so put our globe image to one side of the work area and open up the image I provided or your own.

Go to the selection tool     and set it for "circle" by going to your Tool Option Pallette and choosing circle from the drop down menu.

Then on our chosen image draw out a circular shape on the part of the image you would like to be in your globe. DO NOT worry about size because I will show you how to fit it with no problems. You will see the area I selected for this demonstration below. Then you can either go to "Edit - Copy" or hold the control key down and press the letter C.

Now is the time to go back and click on your globe image to make it the active window. Go to the Edit menu, then to "Paste" then across to "Paste into a selection".

Your selected image has now been pasted into the circular area inside the marching ants and fits under your globe with no problems. You can now close and remove the graphic image.

We are now ready to add extra layers for the snow. I always do three. Open your layer palette and you will notice the active one is still the bottom image layer. Go to the menu Layers" and create a new raster layer and call it snow 1. Immediately go back and create another layer and call it snow 2. Create one last layer and call it snow 3. The image below shows the three steps you just took.

Hopefully you have already installed your snow tube, so let's begin to add some weather. You should still have your marching ants in place, but if they have gotten lost, go to "Selections...load from alpha channel..." and click okay when your circular image shows up.
Click on your Tube Tool     then go to your Tool Option pallette and find your globe snow tube. I have never used this snow tube at 100% size. I reduce to the size to 60. Make sure you go now to the layer called 'snow 1' and start adding your snow in a nice random pattern. How much you add is entirely up to you. Because the area has the marching ants around it, any snow you add will stay inside the area and will NOT overflow into the background or outside of the globe. When you are satisfied, go to the layer palette and hide "snow1" by clicking on the glasses ( a small cross will appear to show it's hidden)

Then go to layer 'snow2' and repeat. When you've added snow to this layer, hide 'snow2' layer and go to snow3 and repeat again.

When you are finished, you can hold down the control key and press D to deselect your circle.

Our next step is to add one last new raster layer and call it "background". It will appear just above snow3, so go to the menu "Layers/Arrange/send to the bottom" or as earlier, left click on the background layer and 'drag' it to the bottom of the layers list. Using colour #7E8697, go to the paintbucket     and floodfill this layer with the colour.

One last thing we should do before duplicating our image is to add a drop shadow to the globe. Activate the globe layer and then you must return to "Selections/Load from alpha channel" to get the marching ants back. Go to Image./Effects/Drop Shadow and use the settings below.

When you are finished hold down the control key and press D to "deselect" and remove the ants. You can at this stage unhide all layers by clicking on the little crosses.

If you would like to add a drop shadow to the base as well, now is the time to do that by activating the base layer then adding your drop shadow (same settings as before).

Finally the time has come to duplicate your main image. We are going to make 3 copies and then set aside the original just in case somewhere we "mess up" and I can assure you I've done that loads of times, lol. This way you haven't lost all the work you have put in up to this point. Hold down the shift key and press D to make a duplicate copy with all the layers intact. Repeat that step twice more until you have a total of 3 copies of your original.

What we will do now is add the final touches to each of the images.

On the first duplicate copy, go to the layer palette and keep layer snow1 and delete snow2 and snow3. You do that by clicking on snow2, then clicking on the garbage can, and when the window pops up asking you if you want to delete it, click OK. Then click on snow3 and do the exact same step.

On the second duplicate copy you will keep the snow 2 layer and delete the snow 1 and snow 3 layers.

On the third duplicate copy you will keep snow 3 and delete the snow 1 and snow 2 layers.

We will finish off by adding a simple line border around the edges. It is very important that, during this step, you do the exact same thing to each of the three images. Whether you do a simple technique like this or add a picture frame, they must be all kept identical or they will end up animating along with your globe.

Our borders will be the same grey we used for the background and black. Make sure those are selected in your colour pallette window. The colours again are #7E8697 and #000000.

Make your first duplicate the active window and then go to the menu "Image/Add Borders". Using the black, we are going to add a symmetrical border of 1. A window will pop up saying that before you can add a border you must be working on a single layer, so do you want to merge all the layers? Click OK and the computer will do it for you.

Using the grey next, add a symmetrical border of 3 and then finish off by adding a symmetrical black border of 5. It is your choice whether you add all the borders to one picture at a time or whether you add a border of 1 to each of the 3 images, then add a border of 3 to each of the images, etc. Personally I add the border of 1 to each of the three images to make sure I am keeping everything identical.

The last step is to name each one and save it as a PSP file. For example, I would call these Globe01, Globe02, and Globe03. Just remember the folder you save them in so you can find them quickly once you enter Animation Shop.

We are now ready to complete our wonderful snowglobe creation in Animation Shop.

Page Two - Animation Globe