Drapes Tutorial





Whoops! The tutorial I learned from is no longer available via the internet so I have revised the tutorial and written the part that was linked to the original (which I thought was better).

Drapes - MyWay

The Jama 3D plugin is a free one to download and these days, it has several extra's included.  You can download it from the Redfield site.

At the time I did the tutorial, 17 inch monitors were just coming out and I couldn't afford one so the size was fine then - Later I opted to start with a 300x300 pixel square.   Please use a solid color for your first attempt.

1.  I make the first Jama 3D drape square, crop away the fluted edges and then duplicate it twice.  I sometimes leave out the 'blur'.
2.  I rotate the one 90 degrees left or right for the side panel using PSP's rotate function.
3.  I use PSP's Geometric Effects Circle on the next one then using PSP's selection tool with antialias checked and set to the 'circle' to start in the center of the circle and drag the circle to just a pixel or two short of the entire shape then invert the selection and delete to make a smooth edge for the swag valance.
4.  Next I remove the check mark from antialias from the selection tool and set it back to the rectangle shape before I start half way down the image to drag a selection of the lower half of the circle for the swag and crop the image.
5. Next, I minimize the swag and get the image I rotated.  I then decide what width of the image I want for the side panel, drag the selection and crop it.  If I am using a patterned fill for the drapes, I find the vertical repeat for a seamless scroll of the panel like I did for this set of drapes.  Once I get the correct height and desired width, I add a layer and move it below the panel.
6.  Next I use the PSP/Image/CanvasSize to enlarge the image area and keep the panel to the left by changing the width to 1025, setting the height to the same as it is, checking the 'center vertical', unchecking the 'center horizontal', setting the 'left' to '0' and allowing the right to default then clicking the OK button.
7.  With the lower layer still active, I select the color or texture or both for the floodfill tool (bucket), then floodfill the bottom layer.
8.  Make the top layer 'active';  make a vertical shadow stick longer than the height of your side panel at these settings

and copy/paste it right up next to the edge of the side panel.
9.  Save the side panel image in the jpg format and then set the image as the fill pattern for the floodfill (bucket) tool.
10. Open a new image 1025 pixels wide and about 300 pixels in height, then flood fill it.  Your image should be of the side panel, background color and shadowed edge.
11. Add a new layer, maximize the swag image and copy it by holding down the 'CTRL' key while you tap the 'C' key, then minimize it again.
12. Starting at the left top, paste the sway at the top left corner and continue pasting more until you have a row of them across the top, de-select the last one and apply a drop shadow using the settings
13. Add a new layer and paste the swag with the middle of the first one to the left edge and up higher, then paste them across the top all the way again;  deselect the last one and apply the shadow again using the same settings.
14. Now get the 3rd duplicate and follow the steps below got the swag hangers or use some kind of tube at each corner.
15. After adding the swag hangers, you can merge all and drag a rectangle selection starting at 0,0 and clear across to 1025 and then down just far enough to make sure you don't cut off any of the drop shadow, crop and save the valance.
 
 

Swag Hanger

Step 1
Using the 3rd copy of the draping.

Step 2
Click on the deformation tool  and use the lower right hand grabber to slide the corner up and left until it is taking up less than a quarter of the area.

Step 3
While holding down the 'Shift' key slide the left top corner to the center and the top right corner to the middle like the image below.

Step 4
Now click back on the selection tool and de-select.

Step 5
Using the freehand selection tool (lasso) set to 'point to point' selection, click an ovaled area at the bottom of the image as in the image below.  Maybe take small step-ups in the crevices to make a more ruffled look.

Step 6
Hit the 'Delete' key.

Step 7
Swag hanger should have a pointed top and a soft flow of folds at the bottom.

Step 8
Add the drop shadow with the same setting used for the valance swags.

Step 9
Use the rectangle selection to select the entire hanger.

Step 10
Click the image once to set the selection; copy to clipboard, then minimize the image.

Now you can paste the image between each swag of the valance and cover the very top of each swag with some kind of small tube just to give it a more realistic look.

When you have your finished set, you will use the side panel for the background tile of your web page or stationery;  the valance will be the background graphic for the cell of a table and the rest of the page is devided into a table with two collumns.  The left column is the side panel area and the right is for the contents of the page.  The 'trick' to getting it to line up right is in adding margin attributes to the 'body' tag.
Example:
<body background="drapes.jpg" TOPMARGIN="0" BOTTOMMARGIN="0" RIGHTMARGIN="0" LEFTMARGIN="0" MARGINWIDTH="0" MARGINHEIGHT="0">
 

Close Window when Finished.