Easy Leaf Tube

Arizona Kate ©2000 All rights reserved.
All tutorials, including images, remain the property of Arizona Kate and
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This tutorial will show you how to make your own original, multiple image, picture tube file (.tub) in Paint Shop Pro. We'll make a set of tiny leaves and use those leaves to create a custom tube file. The leaf tube can be used to make a "folk art" or "toon" style tree, a topiary or wreath, etc. The leaves we'll be making are small and simple for demonstration purposes. Once you learn how to make your own picture tube, you can make another tube with more detailed, realistic leaves. This is an easy, quick tutorial and was written with PSP beginners in mind!

You'll need a landscape photo to pick some colors from or you can select some greens from these colors swatches.
(The greens in these swatches were taken from 2 separate photos using the dropper tool to select the color.)

This tutorial can be followed using any version of Paint Shop Pro that allows you to export your own tubes, however, it was written for Paint Shop Pro version 7. The menu/tool names in other versions of PSP are probably similar, but may not be in exact same location. Use your Help menu if you cannot find a tool.

Making the leaf tube, spring green leaves

Open a image 200x200 px, 16 mil colors, transparent background

If you don't like to work with the transparency checkerboard as a background ...I find it distracting *S* ...you can create a new layer called FILL and temporarily fill with white. When the leaves are done, we will delete the FILL layer and you will again have a transparent background. All picture tube files must have a transparent background.

Now create a new layer for the leaves (name layer LEAF).

Open up a photo or other image of a tree, plant or landscape (any image with lots of shades of green to pick from) or use the green color swatches provided above.

Using the dropper (color picker) tool, pick one of the greens.

On the LEAF layer of your new image use the Preset Shapes tool to create a leaf. In the Tool Options box set the shape to teardrop, solid fill**, anti-alias ON, vector OFF, and draw a simple leaf shape about 10x18 as leaf #1. If you don't have a teardrop Preset Shape, just draw a simple teardrop or oval.

**PSP 7 Styles: Stroke=Null, Fill=Solid, Texture=both Null

**PSP 5 and 6 use "Fill"

With the LEAF layer active, duplicate the layer 5 times. Right click (RC) your Layer Palette and select Duplicate Layer. As you duplicate each layer, the copy of the leaf will be sitting directly on top of the one below it....so, as each layer is duplicated, use the mover tool to move the top leaf over or down some so you can see each leaf.
We want 6 leaves total.

This could be done with all leaves on the same layer, however, If we work with just one leaf on each layer, moving things around will much easier! No need to use Selection Tool when only 1 item is on a layer, just use Mover Tool to grab and move each leaf. Position each leaf anywhere in the image for now ....spread out a little (i.e., 2 rows, 3 leaves each).

Let's add a little variety by changing the color of some of the leaves. There's a couple of different ways we can change colors....one way is simply by selecting and flood filling. Keep your original green color as the fill color and using the dropper tool, select another green for the stroke (foreground) color.

Using the freehand (lasso) selection tool, select one of the leaves in your image by roughly encircling the area with the lasso. Settings for Tool Options: freehand, feather 0, anti alias off
Click once inside the marching ants and the selection will jump to enclose the leaf.

I described using the lasso method above just for practice! You might prefer using the Magic Wand to select the leaf.

Another way to change color is the color replacer tool.
Select the Color Replacer, move to one of the leaf layers and double click the leaf. The original green should change to the new green you selected as stroke color in the step above. For this step, the 'new' green was your foreground color and the 'original' green was your background color.

For the remaining leaves, one by one, replace color with a new green . Use the Color Replacer on each layer until you have 6 leaves, each a slightly different shade of green. Use a yellow-green, a leaf green, a forest green, etc.

Remember, when using the Color Replacer, the current green color of the selected leaf must be the fill/background color and the new color is the stroke/foreground color.

Let's add a little more variety to each leaf by doing some rotating. image > rotate Select one leaf/one layer at a time and rotate each leaf a little bit in each direction so that every one is a little different from the other. Use any angle you want...there's no need to be exact. I used 20, 30 and 45 right, then 20, 30, 45 left. Make sure rotate all layers is UNchecked. Optional: Use image > flip on one or two leaves for a little more variety.

A tube file needs to have each component evenly spaced and this is easist to do using PSP's grid tool. Turn on your grid using view > grid or the grid button.

The size I had my grid set to in the above screenshot is not going to help much in this case....and yours may not be suitable either. So next thing we do is change the size of the grid to 50x50 pixels.

For PSP 7: Select view > change grid & guide properties
You can also (a) double-click the ruler if you have rulers on, or (b) with Arrow tool active, right-click the image and choose Change Grid and Guide Properties from pop-up menu, or (c) go to file > preferences > general program preferences > rulers and units tab.

For other PSP versions, use file > preferences > general program preferences > rulers & units or use PSP HELP with keyword 'grid' to display the options for your version.

Now we can get rid of excess workspace. You'll notice in my image here, there's 6 full squares and some partial squares on the grid....we should get rid of the partial squares. Using the crop tool, set the crop borders to align with the edge of the 6 squares the leaves are in. Click and the resulting image should be 150 wide and 100 tall.

These grid squares each represent one cell in a picture tube file. Each cell in a picture tube may only contain one image and the image in the cell cannot be larger than the cell size. For this leaf image, it contains 6 cells, 3 cells wide and 2 cells high and each cell is 50x50.

When done, turn off the grid. view > grid

To create a .tub file, we must have an image with one layer and a transparent background.
First, delete the white FILL layer if you were using it to cover checkerboard. With FILL the active layer, RC layer palette and select delete.
Next, merge all the remaining layers using layers > merge > merge visible

Export as Picture Tube

Select file > export > picture tube

In the Picture Tube Options dialog box enter the following settings:
Cells across 3, Cells down 2, Total 6, width & height 50
Random placement, Step size 100, Selection mode random
Enter a file name for your new tube. PSP saves the file in the .tub format. By default, PSP saves the file in the tubes folder under the PSP program files and adds it to your Tool Options palette (visible when tube tool is selected).

If you want to test your results: Open a new image, select the Picture Tube tool and select your new tube from the Tool Options palette. Open a new image and paint a few leaves just for a test!

Now you can try making a tree or topiary with your new leaf tube, go back to list of tutorials or click on tree below for Easy Folk Art tree. You could also make another leaf tube ...this time with Autumn colors!

Have fun! ...Kate