EZ Gel "Pills"
tutorial by Whisper

This tutorial was created and put on this site on July 1, 2003.
It is property of and ©2001-2003 to Whisper's Web Works.
Please do not copy or place this tutorial or any of the graphics on any site,
email or elist without written permission directly from me. If you would like to share the url for this tutorial, you may do so without writing for permission, but I always welcome a "who, where" email.  Thank you.

This tutorial is written for v8 of PSP but you should have no problem using another version.

For this tutorial you will need:
Paint Shop Pro  ~ download a trial version.
Bullet Line ~ download here for v8 and download here for v7, unzip into your PSP Styled Lines folder.

If you would like to use the same colors as I am right-click on the swatch below,
copy, then in PSP paste as a new image:

Open a new image:
200 x 100 pixels
Transparent
Raster background
16.7 Million colors

Set your foreground to solid red and your background to null, I am using #C00000.

Select your pen tool and set at:
Single Line
Width 40
Vector and Anti-alias checked
Style Bullet

Hold down your shift key and draw a line across your image.

Objects > Align > Center in canvas.

Using your object selector tool, right click on the pill and create raster selection.

Selections > Load/Save selection > Save to Alpha channel > Save.

In your Layer Palette right click on the vector layer and convert to raster.

Rename this layer pill.

Add a new raster layer and name it highlight one.

Selections > Modify > Contract > 5 > ok.

Flood fill this layer with a lighter version of the first color, I am using #FF2121.

Add a new raster layer and name it highlight two.

Selections > Modify > Contract > 5 > ok.

Flood fill this layer with a lighter version of the second color, I am using #FF7B7B.

Add a new raster layer and name it highlight three.

Selections > Modify > Contract > 5 > ok.

Flood fill this layer with a lighter version of the third color, I am using #FFEBEB almost a white.

Selections > Select none.

View > Zoom > In by 5 steps.

Using your mover tool you want to move each layer, except the bottom red layer, so that they are more towards the top of the pill.

Selections > Load/Save selection > Load from Alpha channel > Load.

Add a new raster layer and name it shadow.

Flood fill this selection with a darker version of the first color, I am using #8E0000.

Selections > Modify > Contract > 1 > ok.

Hit your delete key.

Selections > Select none.

Selections > Load/Save selection > Load from Alpha channel > Load.

Activate the layer of highlight one.

Adjust > Blur > Gaussian > 3 > ok.

Activate the layer of highlight two - the pink one and repeat the blur.

Activate the layer of highlight three - the hot pink one and repeat the blur.

Activate the layer of shadow - the darker red and repeat the blur.

Selections > Select none.

You may want to move the shadow layer below the highlight layers - try it and see what you think.

Layers > Merge > Merge visible.

Your gel pill is ready for your lettering and background.

Page 2 for examples made by my testers.

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