Tutorial: Sticker Sheet and Preset Creation

[Someonesane]

Sticker Sheet Creator and Sticker Spray Tutorial

Step 1: Begin a new painting and (for the purpose of this tutorial) set the Width to 600 and the Height to 100 and then click on the "Canvas" window box to open the Canvas Panel. On the Canvas panel click the small light bulb tab to turn off the 3d lighting and select the "Cel" preset from the "Special" presets. Now Click "Ok" to close the Canvas panel and again to close the "New Painting" panel (which will open your new canvas so you can begin).





Step 2: Open the stencils panel and put two of the Rulers onto the canvas. Position one of the rulers horizontally across the bottom of your canvas so that the "0" lines up with the edge of the lower right side and extend it so that it measures just beyond the "600" pixel mark (the end of your canvas). Using the second ruler, draw a vertical line to mark off a square every 100 pixels (see image below).





Step 3: Create a new layer to work on (do this by going to: Tools > Layer Options > Add New Layer, or clicking on the "New" tab on the layers panel). With the new layer created, go down to your color panel and left click on the color window (the part that shows you which color you currently have selected) to bring up the color panel menu. Select the "Precise Color Picker" option to open its panel. On the Precise Color Picker panel, change the options to read:

Hue: 0%
Luminance: 50%
Saturation: 100%
Red: 255
Green: 0
Blue: 0

It's important to use the pure red these options provide if you plan to use the sticker in conjunction with the Sticker Spray tool, because pure red is the starting base color for the hue options there. More on this later though... For now, be sure to click "Ok" on the Precise Color Picker panel to accept the color change.





Step 4: Fill in each of the six boxes of the canvas with a number (I wrote the numbers in by hand, you can feel free to use a stencil). Just be sure that each number is centered within each box.





Step 5: Click the menu tab located on the layer you wrote your numbers (or right click on the layer) to bring up the layers menu panel and select "Export Layer". Save the layer as .PNG file (you can give it any name you'd like, but I'm calling the one I'm making here "Tutorial").





*Continued in next post*

[Someonesane]

Step 6: Open the "Stickers Panel" and click on the "New" tab, which will open the sticker sheet creator.





Step 7: Locate the "Color" tab for the "Lower Layer" option and click on it. Locate the image you saved and click "Open" to import it into the creator (you should then see your image appear in the window). Along the bottom of the creator you'll see an option to change the number of Columns (X: Columns). Type "6" into the entry box and hit the "Enter" key on your keyboard to set the number in. You should see the window get divided into equal columns, splitting up your numbered image. Now... We are just making a very basic sticker sheet here. If we were going to create a more elaborate sticker (like one that sparkles and shines), we would need to have created separate images for the other various options here, each with its own unique attributes. For now though, let's just select "Ok" on the creator to save our sticker.





At this point, the sticker sheet is created and you should be able to find it among the sticker sheets in the Sticker Sheets panel. But we're going to use it for the Sticker Spray Tool, so let's set up for testing it out. So...

Step 8: Create a new painting (you probably have the sticker painting open still, so save it if you'd like first). Make sure the new painting canvas is large enough to do some nice testing on (I'd recommend a size of at least 800 by 600).

Step 9: Select the "Sticker Spray" tool and then open the "Settings" panel. I always keep it open myself, but if you don't, just click on the "Setting" tab on the lower left of the screen. Locate the "Spray Variation" tab option and click it to open the "Spray Variation" Panel. This is where you will change how the sticker spray reacts. But first, we want to start from scratch, so make to make sure the option are all cleared out for us, click on the menu button in the upper left corner of the Spray Variation panel (looks like a box with lines in it) and select "clear All Values" from the menu.





Okay... So now (depending on one's idea of "fun") either the fun starts or the confusion, lol. As you can see on the Spray Variation panel, you have a ton of options that can be manipulated. Each option has a dial that can be increased to 100% or decreased down to -100%. In some cases, even the smallest change will have a drastic change on how the sticker spray works. For the most part, the various options are pretty straight forward, but you can always go into the manual to read up on what they all do (I don't want to get into everything here, because I'd be typing all night). For now, I'll just hit the options I commonly use.

Step 10: First things first, we want to be able to see our sticker, lol. So, find the option for "Alpha" (third option up from the bottom, along the side) and change the "Base Value" (first option from the left, along the top) to "100%" (do this by left clicking the corresponding box and dragging the mouse up or down). This means, that when we go to use the sticker spray, the stickers will be 100% visible. Makes sense, right? We also need to make sure the scale is set, otherwise the sticker will be so small you won't see it. So locate the "Scale" option (third option from the top, along the side) and change the "Base Value" for it to 100% as well. Now, we'll have a sticker spray that drops out stickers at full visibility and scale (in relation to the size you set the tool that is). Your "Spray Variation" panel should look like the following screen shot at this point...





By now you must be eager to test this thing already, but before you do you need to make sure you have the right sticker selected for the sticker spray tool.

Step 11: Keep the Sticker Variation panel open for now and just move over to the Settings Panel and click on the top button that begins with the word "Sheet" and then reads the currently selected sticker sheet. Locate the sticker sheet you created from the menu and click on it. The Sheet button should now have your sticker sheet name in it (which may be cut off somewhat depending on the names length). Now, set the "Spray Rate" option on the Settings panel to about 35%. Uncheck the options for "Continuous" and "Shadow" and check the option for "Auto-Flatten".

You can now test your Sticker Spray tool. If everything is going according to plan, you should end up with a line of zeros like I have in my screen shot (it could be a line of one's if you started your numbers at "1").




*Continued in next post*

[Someonesane]

So this is a nice start, but what about the other numbers? So far we only have zero's streaming out. Well, that's easy enough. Since we set our numbers side by side, we can adjust the various "Sheet Column" variables to change the order in which the numbers appear. So let's try it out. Locate the Sheet Column option on the Spray Variation panel (you left it open, right?) and change the value for it's "Sequence" to -100%. Now test your sticker spray again. You should have a string of numbers spill out starting with the first of your numbers. Okay, cool. So are you tired of seeing red yet? Me too. Let's play with the colors. Locate the option for "Hue" along the left side and change the "Random" value for it to 100%. Now if you test your spray, you'll have a string of randomly colored, but sequentially ordered, numbers. If you'd rather have your numbers be drawn out using the color that is selected in the color picker, then go back to the Hue option and change the Random value back to zero. Now change the "Tracing H" (which stands for "Tracing Hue") value for the Hue category to 100%. Go to your color picker and change it's color to whatever color you'd like and test your sticker. The hue should now match that of the color you have selected in the color picker. This doesn't change the luminance or saturation values though, so let's make those match as well. Locate the "Luminance" option along the side and change the value for it's "Tracing L" to 50% (there's a reason for it needing to be 50% and 100%, but I won't get into that right now). Now find the option for "Saturation" along the side and change the "Tracing S" option for it to 100%. If everything is set correctly, when you test your sticker spray now the color, saturation and luminance of your numbered stickers should match that of your color picker. If something isn't right, make sure your "Spray Variation" panel options match that of the screen shot below and try it again.





Everything working thus far? Okay, good (or not good, if I've lost you post your questions and I'll try to help). If you're caught up and good to go, let's play with one more thing before going on to save our Sticker Spray as a "Preset".

Step 12: So let's say you have a pen tablet and want the numbers to change size in relation to the amount of pressure you down on the pen. Find the option for "Scale" again and change the "Base Value" for it back down to 0%. Now find the "Pen Pressure" value for scale and set it to 100%. Now your numbers will be smaller when you draw lightly on your tablet and be bigger when you push down harder. Cool? You know it is...

Okay, so let's save this thing already.

Step 13: Feel free to close the Spray Variation panel now. Since most of use would rather not have to reset all those options each time we want to use the Sticker Spray with that sticker sheet, we given the option to save everything within a preset. To do this, locate the "Presets" tab at the bottom of your canvas (you should still have the Sticker Spray tool selected for this) and click it to open up the "Presets" menu. Because I've been doing some rearranging in my presets, I don't have any of the default ones listed (as you'll notice in my screen shot) so don't be alarmed that your menu has presets listed that mine doesn't. At the top of the Presets panel you'll see two tabs, one of which reads "New Preset...". Click on that tab to open the "New Preset" panel. Where it reads "Preset Name", type in the name you'd like to use for the preset. You could go ahead and click "ok" at this point, but it'd be cooler to create a thumbnail to use for preset (which will make it easier to locate in your menu later on). To do this, click on the tab just to the left of where it says "Preset Name" (it's a tab with a picture of sticker feet). Another small panel will appear. This panel can be moved around the screen and acts as a view box for what will be in the thumbnail. The panel can scaled up or down by holding the "ctrl" key (in windows, I suppose it would be the "command" key for macs) and left clicking and dragging on the menus top tab. Align the box around a bit of the numbers you had sprayed out that best represent how the sticker spray preset works and then click on the check mark button to accept the thumbnail (it will appear where the feet were in the tab of the "New Preset" panel). Now you can click "OK" in the New Preset panel to save the preset, which will then be ready to select from your Preset panel list at any time for immediate use.





And if you think your head hurts after getting through all of that, just imagine what it would be like if you wrote this tutorial, lol. Good luck!

END!

[jacktar51]

Well done SS....Jack

[Juz]

Good on you SoS, I've added this tutorial to the list

[misterpaint]

you are great!

[Lima]

SoS this is really brilliant.

[Someonesane]

Thanks everyone

[shechat]

Than you Someonesane for your brilliant in-depth tutorial. At last I am beginning to understand how to make my own stickers and presets.

[Lee]

Dear SomeoneSane, Thank You so much, it took a long time but managed to make a simple sticker and spray, haven't figured out how to change the color of the sticker but will read your tute over again,,,,,sure hope one day there will be an option to Import Image then just right click and Make a Sticker or Spray From This Image, your tutorial was so helpful, don't know how in the world one could do this without your help! a million thanks xox!!!

update!! thank you again SS!! re-read and change colors!!!