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Paint Shop Pro 8
Pixel Stretch Tutorial
A pixel stretch is one of those effects that everyone eventually wants to play with. The old way in earlier versions of paint shop pro required you to make a tube and click and drag the tube. You could end up with all kinds of tubes you don't really need hanging around unless you are really organized and delete it after you are done. Plus it takes a long time to make a tube. Maegg's way is much much better!
Here is a fresh new method that uses the clone tool. You can stretch just about anything without saving it first to a tube. You can pixel stretch on the fly. I knew I could find a way to do an easier pixel stretch if I persisted and so without further adu, here is the pixel stretch in paint shop pro 8.
1. File > New and set options as follows: Width = 450; Height = 200; Resolution = 72 pixels; Raster Background checked; Color Depth = 16 million colors; Transparency checked. Click Ok.
2. Create two new raster layers to work on and to hold your background. Click Layers > New Raster Layer. Click Ok. Flood fill this with white or whatever background you choose. Click Layers > New Raster Layer again. Now click your tube tool and select any tube you want. I chose a Spring Flowers tube that I downloaded a long time ago. Here is one of the best sites for tubes:
It is a subscription site but the cost is only $4.95 and you get tons of tubes. Anyway, choose any tube you like that you want to stretch. Once you know how to do this effect, you can use any image you can make a selection from. I'm only using a tube to make it easy to learn.
3. On the third raster layer, with your tube tool click in the middle on the left hand side to get the image you want to stretch. I've chosen a spring flower.
4. Click your clone brush to make it active or tap 'c' on your keyboard. What we are going to be doing is cloning a vertical 1 pixel wide selection. Choose the vertical line brush that comes with psp 8. Set all of the options as the screenshot shows (large graphic):
Screen Shot of Clone Brush Settings
You may need to change the size of the brush. I like my brush size to be taller than my image so I can get a good pixel source. After all your options are set, place the clone brush where you want to stretch the pixels and do a quick right click. Now move your brush 1 pixel to the right...you have to move off the source for this to work. If you try and clone right where you are, you will find it won't work and this is the biggest pitfall doing this effect. You've got the brush option checked that aligns it so you don't have to move perfectly just over to the right at least one pixel and you can move more if you like. Now click and hold down the left mouse button and drag it to the right. Walaaaaaa, you have stretched your pixels. Didn't I tell you this would be a MUCH easier method than earlier versions of psp8? It's even easier than photoshop if you ask me!
Tip: There is a horizontal brush that you can select instead of the vertical brush and you can make a vertical pixel stretch which is interesting. Who knows what you can do with the 2 diagonal brushes that come with psp 8?
This effect is very addictive and you will find yourself pixel stretching everything just to see what it looks like. Enjoy.
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