Scratches - animated forum set tutorial

If you can't see the animation, please click HERE.

This tutorial was written on September 16, 2013. I used Corel X5, but it should work in other versions as well.
Any similarity to any other tutorial is purely coincidental.
Please look at my TOU for more info.

The supplies you need:
An tube of choice. I used a tube by Gaetano DiFalco. You can purchase his art at CDO.
A font of choice. I used a goth font called “Bastarda-K”.
Mask of choice or the mask I made:

(rightclick and save to your computer)
​
Materials used:
Redfiled Plugins: Craquelure 3D
Alien Skin Xenofex 2 – Lightning
Xero – Porcelain
Eye Candy 6 – Perspective Shadow (Optional)
Animation Shop

Make a new image 600x250. Create a gradient with two colours from the tube, with these settings:

Duplicate this layer and add Redfields Craquelure 3D at default settings and change the layer properties to Luminance (L) or another suitable option.

Make a custom selection with these settings:

 and hit Delete on the top layer.
Keep selected and add a closeup of your tube. Place it inside the selection, Expand by 1,  Invert and hit Delete. Deselect and change the layer properties of the closeup to Soft Light.

Go to the layer with Craquelure on it. With your Magic Wand, click inside the rectangle, expand by 1. Go to the bottom layer and Promote the Selection to layer. We’ll get back to this layer soon.

Keep selected and add a new raster above the Craquelure layer. Expand by 2 and floofill with a dark colour from your tube. Contract by 5, hit Delete and Deselect.
Add a drop shadow: 0, 0, 100, 10, Black.

Add a new raster and floofill with the dark colour you used earlier. Add mask from image but remember to inver it in the settings. Merge group.
Now, we don’t want to ruin the closeup with claw marks all over it, so set your Selection too to Rectangle, draw out a rectangle around the claw marks on the right side and hit Delete. Deselect.
Add a drop shadow: 0, 0, 100, 10, Black.

Add a new raster, go to Effects – Alien Skin Xenofex 2 – Lightning and go with these settings:

Repeat this process 2 more times, each on a new raster layer and hit Random Seed each time.
Hide the top 2 layers for now.

Activate the top layer and add your tube. Move it towards the left. Duplicate it. On the bottom tube, add Gaussian Blur at a radius of 3. On the duplicate, add Xero Porcelain at default settings and change the layer properties to Luminance (L). Add a drop shadow to the bottom tube layer or use Eye Candy 6 – Perspective Shadow – Blurry setting.

Crop your creation with Merge Opaque.
Add a new raster and floodfill with the dark colour you used earlier. Select All and Contract by 3. Delete and Deselect.
Add a drop shadow: 0, 0, 100, 10, Black.

Go back to the promoted layer you made earlier and duplicated this twice, for a total of 3 layers.
On the top one, add Poolshadow with these settings:

On the layer below, use the same settings but change the top Diagonal and Center to 60.
On the bottom layer, change the Diagonal and Center to 70.
Hide the top 2 rectangles for now.

Add your name ond proper copyright.

Animation:

Make sure that the top two lightning layers and the top two rectangle layers are hidden and copy merged. Paste as a new animation in AS. Go back to your PSP, hide the bottom rectangle layer and lightning layer, unhide the next rectangle layer and lightning layer and Copy Merged again. Paste it after the first frame in AS.

Repeat this for the last rectangle layer and lightning layer.

Change the frame properties to s suitable speed (approx 20-30) and save as a gif.

Hugs Lithy