How to Make an Animated Self-Portrait in Paint Shop Pro

If you want to make an animated portrait of yourself sitting at the computer typing then use Paint Shop Pro. In order to do this you have to have some knowledge of how to use Paint Shop Pro because drawing the self-portrait can be difficult. Adding the animation is relatively simple. Follow these steps to make an animated self-portrait in Paint Shop Pro.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Draw the Computer

1. Open a new file in Paint Shop Pro. The file should be 150 pixels for the height and width. Make it transparent with 16 million colors. Make sure that "Anti-alias" is unchecked on every layer.

2. Create a layer and title it "Monitor." Your stroke color should be black and your background color should be the color of your monitor which is usually gray. Set your preset shapes tool to rounded rectangle, stroked and filled with the line width 1.

3. Draw your monitor then create a new layer with the preset shape being rectangle but everything else remaining the same and title it "Keyboard." Draw your keyboard then use the deformation tool and the control key to add some perspective to your keyboard. Add 1 pixel black lines on the keyboard to represent the keys.

4. Make another layer titled "Mouse" with your stroke color black and a fill color of your choice. Draw a mouse pad then the mouse on top of it using the brush tool to add detail. Add a new layer titled "Text" to make random marks on the monitor that represent text.

Draw the Chair and Self-Portrait

5. Generate a new layer titled "Chair" and create it the same color and style of your chair. Draw a round rectangle for the back of the chair and another rectangle for the seat then connect them together using more rectangles.

6. Compose a new layer behind the "Chair" layer and title it with your name. Draw an outline of your head, shoulders and hips using a black 1 pixel brush. Draw an outline using the same tool of your arms over the keyboard. Fill in the self-portrait using colors of your choice.

7. Formulate a new layer titled "Self" to make your hair and ears if your hair is short or in a ponytail. Create large hands with the fingers on different keys on the keyboard. This is a separate layer than your name, due to the fact that you may need to edit it a lot.

8. Crop out any extra space using the cropping tool. Save your file with a name of your choice and with a .psp extension.

Add Animation

9. Duplicate the .psp file three times. Do this by clicking "Window" and "Duplicate." Close the original file.

10. Merge the layers on the first duplicate only. Do this by clicking "Layer," "Merge" and "Merge Visible." Save it as "Frame1.psp."

11. Turn off the visibility of the hands and the computer screen on one of the duplicates. This can be found on the layers palette. Merge the visible layers by clicking "Layers," "Merge" and "Merge Visible." Move the merged layer to the bottom and save the file as "Frame2.psp."

12. Select the last duplicate and turn off the visibility for the hands and monitor text layers. Merge the visible layers then turn back on the visibility for the fingers and monitor text. Draw the fingers on different keys and make the monitor text 2 pixels thick. Choose "Layers," "Merge" and "Merge Visible."

13. Go to "File" and "Animation Wizard." Make your setting same size as first image, transparent background, upper left corner and repeat animation indefinitely. Enter 20 where it asks how long you want each frame displayed. Click "Next" then "Finished." To see your animated self-portrait in PSP click "View" then "Animation."