This tutorial was written by Monti on September 20th 2009. It's concept is copyrighted to Monti. Any creation you make from my ideas are yours. You may print out this tutorial for your own personal use, but please do not copy it in any way to put online, pass out or rewrite without my permission or worse yet attempt to claim as your own.
For this tutorial you will need
Paint Shop Pro
The Following Colour Chart
Save and then open in PSP
Of course you are free to use any colours you want.
Ok we are ready to start.
REMEMBER TO SAVE OFTEN
Step 1:
We will be be making the Zebra shown below.
The outline below have been resized a lot so you can see it clearly.
To make this easier I have numbered all pixels over 1.
Open a new image 200 x 200 transparent.
Flood fill with white so you can see what you are working on. Delete this layer at the end.
Turn the grid on so you can see the single pixels by going to View - Grid - then View - Change Grid, Guide and Snap Properties. Under Current Image Settings change the Horizontal and Vertical grids to 1.
Add a new Raster Layer and name Outline.
Select the brush tool with the following settings.
Size: 1 - Hardness, Opacity and Density: 100
Zoom in to about 800% - 1000%
I find it easier to start the highest point, in this case one of his ears. (You can move the image later using your move tool if you need to).
Set your foreground to colour 3 on the colour chart (#808080) and start drawing the Zebra outline changing colours as you go.
The stripes and face are colour 1 (#000000) on your colour chart and the inner ears are colour 5 (#F5A3A3) on your colour chart.
Step 2:
When all of your outline is complete, click on the outline layer to activate it.
Select your magic wand with the following settings and click inside the main area of the Zebras head.
Add a new raster layer called Fills and move this beneath your outline layer in the layer palette.
Select colour 4 (#FFFFFF) on your Zebra colour chart, click on the Fill layer to activate it and flood fill that selection.
Keep selected.
Selections float, Effects 3D effects, Cutout with the following settings
Vertical: 0
Horizontal: 0
Opacity: 50
Blur: 5
Shadow colour: Use your Zebra outline. Colour 3 (#808080).
Make sure fill interior with colour is UNchecked.
Deselect.
Step 3:
Select your magic wand and making sure you are on the outline layer click inside the body area and hold down your shift key and click in each of the main arm areas too as shown below.
Select colour 4 (#FFFFFF) on your Zebra colour chart, click on the Fill layer to activate it and flood fill that selection.
Keep selected.
Selections float, Effects 3D effects, Cutout with the following settings
Vertical: 0
Horizontal: 0
Opacity: 50
Blur: 6
Shadow colour: Use your Zebra outline. Colour 3 (#808080).
Make sure fill interior with colour is UNchecked.
Deselect.
Step 4:
Select your magic wand and making sure you are on the outline layer click inside the left leg.
Select colour 4 (#FFFFFF) on your Zebra colour chart, click on the Fill layer to activate it and flood fill that selection.
Keep selected.
Selections float, Effects 3D effects, Cutout with the following settings
Vertical: 0
Horizontal: 0
Opacity: 50
Blur: 6
Shadow colour: Use your Zebra outline. Colour 3 (#808080).
Make sure fill interior with colour is UNchecked.
Deselect.
Repeat this for the right leg making sure you fill on the Fill layer.
Step 5:
Select your magic wand and making sure you are on the outline layer click inside the left outer ear.
Select colour 4 (#FFFFFF) on your Zebra colour chart, click on the Fill layer to activate it and flood fill that selection.
Keep selected.
Selections float, Effects 3D effects, Cutout with the following settings
Vertical: 0
Horizontal: 0
Opacity: 50
Blur: 3
Shadow colour: Use your Zebra outline. Colour 3 (#808080).
Make sure fill interior with colour is UNchecked.
Deselect.
Repeat this for the right outer ear making sure you fill on the Fill layer.
Step 6:
Select your magic wand and making sure you are on the outline layer click inside the left inner ear.
Select colour 6 (#FBD5D5) on your Zebra colour chart, click on the Fill layer to activate it and flood fill that selection.
Keep selected.
Selections float, Effects 3D effects, Cutout with the following settings
Vertical: 0
Horizontal: 0
Opacity: 100
Blur: 4
Shadow colour: Use your inner ear outline. Colour 5 (#F5A3A3).
Make sure fill interior with colour is UNchecked.
Deselect.
Repeat this for the right inner ear making sure you fill on the Fill layer.
Step 7:
Select your magic wand and making sure you are on the outline layer click inside the main stripe on the top of the zebra's head. Shown below.
Select colour 2 (#303030) on your Zebra colour chart, click on the Fill layer to activate it and flood fill that selection.
Keep selected.
Selections float, Effects 3D effects, Cutout with the following settings
Vertical: 0
Horizontal: 0
Opacity: 100
Blur: 7
Shadow colour: Use your Zebra stripe outline. Colour 1 (#000000).
Make sure fill interior with colour is UNchecked.
Go to Adjust - Add/Remove Noise - Add Noise - Gaussian: Checked - Noise Amount: 5 - Monochrome: Checked.
Deselect.
Step 8:
Use the following settings for all the other stripes, making sure that when you get to the shoulder stripes you select the stray pixels shown below.
Select colour 2 (#303030) on your Zebra colour chart, click on the Fill layer to activate it and flood fill that selection.
Keep selected.
Selections float, Effects 3D effects, Cutout with the following settings
Vertical: 0
Horizontal: 0
Opacity: 100
Blur: 4
Shadow colour: Use your Zebra stripe outline. Colour 1 (#000000).
Make sure fill interior with colour is UNchecked.
Deselect.
Step 9:
Select your magic wand and making sure you are on the outline layer click inside the left nostril.
Select colour 2 (#303030) on your Zebra colour chart, click on the Fill layer to activate it and flood fill that selection.
Keep selected.
Selections float, Effects 3D effects, Cutout with the following settings
Vertical: 0
Horizontal: 0
Opacity: 100
Blur: 2
Shadow colour: Use your Zebra stripe outline. Colour 1 (#000000).
Make sure fill interior with colour is UNchecked.
Deselect.
Repeat this for the right nostril making sure you fill on the Fill layer.
Step 10:
Set your foreground to a colour of your choice to fill the eyes. I used #441E0A.
Making sure you are on your fill layer paint in the 1 pixel square in the center of the eyes.
Step 11: - Optional
Zebra's have a darker nose area so I have added this step as an option.
The zebra on the left at the top of the page has had this option added and the one on the right hasn't, so you can decide which you prefer.
Activate your paintbrush with the settings shown below.
Set your foreground to colour 2 (#303030) on th ezebra colour chart and add a new raster layer.
With your paintbrush click on the nose area as shown below.
Note: I have lowered the opacity of the fill and outline layers so you can see the paintbrush area more clearly.
Making sure you are on the nose layer go to Adjust - Blur - Gaussian Blur - Radius: 5
Delete the White layer.
Merge all visible and save as a png.
