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Tutorial: Pixel Froggie - Jumping Don't be silly and save this one. Create your own by following this tutorial.

Whether you're an expert, or you're new to pixeling, this is a fun image to create! This is the second Pixel Froggie tutorial, the first tutorial is located at Pixel Froggie – Sitting. In this tutorial we'll be combining the image created by following the first tutorial with the jumping froggie image created in this tutorial to create an animated Jumping Pixel Frog.

This tutorial was written on a beginning level using Paint Shop Pro (PSP). If you don't have PSP then you can download a free 30 day trial by clicking here.

In the first tutorial we pixel painted the image starting with a new, blank file. This time we'll begin by using an outline of the jumping froggie. To save the outline below, click on the image, a new window will open where the right click option is available. In the new window choose Save As on the short-cut menu, choose a location to save the image, and click on Save.

Left click here to open this image in a new window where you can save or copy it for use according to the site terms.

Now open the jumping froggie outline in Paint Shop Pro (PSP). To preserve your outline you can duplicate the image by holding down the shift key and typing the letter D. Then close the original so you have a blank outline to use in the future.

You'll need to zoom in to about 800% or more so that you can see what you're doing. I use the roller button on my mouse, but you can also use the Overview Palette or the zoom tool.

Open the completed sitting froggie PSP image you created in the first tutorial (not the GIF version). Select all (ctrl + A) and copy all the layers of the image (ctrl + shift + C). Now paste the image as a new layer into your jumping froggie outline (ctrl + L). Since the jumping froggie outline was optimized to a two color GIF file you will be prompted to increase the color depth of your image before being allowed to paste in the new layer. Once the new layer is added, double click on it on the layer palette and name the layer Sitting Frog.

Your new layer is centered above the jumping froggie outline. Before moving it down to the bottom of the image we need to increase the size of the canvas. To do this select the Image menu and choose Canvas Size. Apply the settings below.

Select the Move tool (m) and drag the Sitting Frog layer down to the bottom of the window. Make sure the eyes are aligned with the jumping frog outline, and that there is one pixel between the bottom and sides of the image and the toes.

Hint: I used the guides feature to help me keep the layers aligned. To do this select View, Guides. Then move your mouse over the left ruler (the gray bar on the side of the image), and your mouse pointer will turn into a cross hair (plus shape). Press down and drag a guide to the side of one of the eyes. If you need to adjust the guide move your mouse over the point where the guide intersects with the top ruler and press and drag it to the position in which you'd like it to be. If you want to remove a guide you can drag it to the far left or right click on the guide where it intersects with the ruler and choose Delete on the dialog box that appears. You can drag horizontal guides down from the top ruler and drag vertical guides from the left side ruler.

The image below shows how the two layers will look once the Sitting Frog layer is moved down to the bottom. My Sitting Frog layer has a tan background to help illustrate where the layer begins and ends.

Select the Dropper tool by typing the letter e. Click on the outline of the sitting frog to select that color (#294935) for the foreground. Right click on the outline color of the jumping frog (black #000000) to select that color for the background color. Hide the sitting frog layer by clicking on the eye next to that layer on the layer palette. Double click on the background layer on the layer palette, you will be prompted to promote the layer to a full layer, choose OK, and rename it Jumping Frog, and choose OK again.

Click on the Dropper button on the Tool Palette and the fly out menu will appear. Select the Color Replacer tool.

Adjust the settings on the Options Palette to the following:

Click right between the eyes of the frog outline with the Color Replacer tool to turn the black outline dark green in that spot.

Now enlarge the Color Replacer size to 58 and click right under but not including the pixels you just replaced. This will replace the rest of the frog's body outline color with dark green except for the eyes. Now we need to change the color of the mouth back to black. Reduce the size of the Color Replacer brush to 16 on the options palette, then swap the colors on the materials palette so black is the foreground color and dark green is the background color. (Click on the double arrow indicated below to swap the foreground and background colors.)

Now use the Color Replacer tool (with black as the foreground and dark green as the background) and click on the mouth. Now the mouth will be black again.

Unhide the Sitting Frog layer. Select the Flood Fill tool by typing the letter f, then hold down the Ctrl key to temporarily activate the Dropper tool and click on the body color of the sitting frog (#75EDA2). Now release the control button, hide the Sitting Frog layer again and click on the white area inside the frog's body outline and inside each leg outline.

If you haven't saved your image yet, be sure to do so now.

At this point I turn on my grid by selecting the View menu, and choosing Grid (ctrl + alt + g). I have found that by adjusting the settings to 1 pixel wide it makes counting easier when pixeling. To do this choose Change grid, guide and snap properties, then set the horizontal and vertical grids to 1 pixel on the Current Image Settings.

Create a new layer and name it Details (click on the first button on the Layers palette to create the new layer). Select the Paint Brush tool by typing the letter b. Adjust the settings on the Options palette to the smallest square shape with a size of 1, hardness 100, and opacity 100. Unhide the Sitting Frog layer and hold down the Ctrl button and click on the color right underneath the eyes (#B7F3CE) to select it as your foreground. Make sure the Details layer is active and then use your paint brush tool to color under the eyes of the Jumping Frog just like the Sitting Frog.

Use this same method of selecting the color on the Sitting Frog layer and pixeling the color onto the Details layer to color the cheeks of the Jumping Frog identical to the Sitting Frog.

Now select the color of the toes on the front feet of the Sitting Frog (#D8F8E4), and color the areas indicated below on the Details layer. Remember to use the start to finish method. (Start by clicking on the first pixel in the row, then release the mouse and hold down the shift key while moving over the last pixel in the row and clicking.)

Select the main tummy color from the Sitting Frog layer (#C6F4D7) and color the tummy as indicated below, with white (#FFFFFF) in the very center.

Select the bottom shading color (#4C8A63) on the foot of the Sitting Frog layer by holding Ctrl down to display the Dropper tool and then clicking to make it the foreground color. While still holding down Ctrl right click on the next shading color up (#59A174) and then hide the Sitting Frog layer. Make sure your details layer is active and paint the foot details as indicated below using the swap arrow to switch the colors on the Materials palette while painting or paint the lighter colors by using the right mouse button.

(paint darker color #4C8A63 as shown below)

(add medium colored squares #59A174 above darker color added previously)

Last but not least we'll add the spots. Select the color of the outline of the frog (#294935), and paint the spots indicated below with a fill color the same as the spots on the Sitting Frog layer (#4C8A63). If you're feeling creative you may want to try creating a new layer named spots to paint spots in your own choice of size and shape. Just remember to keep them similar to the spots on your Sitting Frog layer.

If you choose to add your watermark (initials) to this image be sure not to include the copyright symbol before your your initials or name, as the copyright to this image belongs to me.

At this point you'll need to save your image, then duplicate a copy by holding down the Shift key and typing the letter D. Close the original file. On the new duplicated copy merge the Details layer down onto the Jumping Frog layer and merge down the spots layer if you made one. Now there should only be two layers, the Sitting Frog layer and the Jumping Frog layer. (To merge a layer down, right click on it and select Merge from the short-cut menu., then choose Merge Down.)

If you want your animated frog to be transparent you'll need to delete the color around the frogs on both layers. I think the easiest way to do this is to use the magic wand tool.

After selecting the Magic Wand tool adjust the settings on the Options palette to Add (Shift) mode with a tolerance of 0, Sample merged is unchecked, Feather is 0 and don't have anti-alias checked. Then click outside the frog on the Jumping Frog layer everywhere there is color you want removed. Once it's all selected hit the delete key on your keyboard and the layer will be transparent. Select none (ctrl + d) and do the same thing for the Sitting Frog layer.

The last thing I did to make my frogs look more alike was to add some highlights on the front legs of the sitting frog as illustrated below, using the same color as the highlights on the toes (#D8F8E4).

Make sure both the Sitting and Jumping Frog layers are visible, and then save the file. In the Save As dialog box change the Save as type option to Animation Shop. The file extension will still be “.PSP” but the file characteristics are different than a Paint Shop Pro Image.

Open Animation Shop, and open the file you just saved. Notice how each layer is in it's own frame. If the jumping frog is the first frame then you can reverse the order by selecting all the frames (ctrl + a) and choosing Animation, Reverse Frames (shift + R). At this point I decide how long I want to have each frame displayed in the final animation. Select the first frame (the Sitting Frog) and choose Animation, Frame Properties (alt + enter). On the Display Time tab I entered 100. Select the second frame (the Jumping Frog) and set the Frame Properties to 20.

To preview your animation before saving the file click on the View Animation button (the second to last button on the tool bar - it looks like a roll of film). If everything looks as you'd like it then you're ready to save. I usually save my file as a MNG before I save it as a GIF, in this case it's not as necessary because there are no semi transparent pixels so the optimization process won't change the file, and we have a psp file as our back-up of the original frames. Once you're ready to save your GIF file, select File, Save As, and give it a name (be sure not to use any spaces in your file name) and choose the file location. Then when the Animation Quality Versus Output Size (Optimization Settings) dialog box appears, choose Customize. On the Colors tab I chose 15 colors, Optimized Median Cut, Error Diffusion. On the Optimizations tab I unchecked all boxes. On the Partial Transparency tab I chose Convert pixels less than 0% opacity to full, and No, use the existing image color at 100% opacity (because there are no transparent pixels, otherwise I usually choose yes to blend with the color I plan to display the image on). Then choose OK and follow the prompts to finish saving the image.

You can use the frog you created by following this tutorial in sig tags, but please don't make a profit from them (even if you change the color or modify the pixels). Please read the full terms and conditions of use before using your new image.

Thanks for taking the time to do this tutorial and I hope you were able to learn some new things and enjoy yourself while doing it. I'd love to see your work so feel free to me a link to where you have yours posted. If you'd like a free spot to save your images some of my favorites are www.tinypic.com and www.photobucket.com.

If you enjoyed this tutorial please email a friend a link to my site. (http://www.DelightfulDrawings.com)

Happy frogging! Don't be silly and save this one. Create your own by following this tutorial. Ribbit!