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This week we worked with Paint Shop Pro Tubes, which I adore, and then went on to explore Raster and Vector Shapes.

First of all, the Picture Tubes. These can be set a number of different ways and it was fascinating learning how they actually worked. I used the Plane from the set of tubes Jasc supplied with my version of PSP.

	Here I used Random Placement and Selection. The planes look very untidy and crowded together, crashing into one another. This picture was optimised as a JPG as I didn't like the graininess of the finish in the GIF optimiser.
	This picture shows the contrast between Random and Continuous placement settings. Random is above, continuous is in the two curved lines below. Selection was set to random.
	Here you can see what happens when placement is set to continuous and selection to angular.
	This one shows the placement set to continuous and selection set to incremental. You can see how in the line it selects each of the different planes in order and then starts again from the first colour.
	Here you can see what happens when placement is set to continuous and Selection is set to velocity. Depending on the way in which you move your mouse, Paint Shop Pro selects images from the tube in different ways.

Next I went on to do some Tube Pictures. That was such fun! First as it was Bonfire Night in the United Kingdom, I made a fireworks picture. I then added a border using the Images-Add Border tool, filled it with Navy Blue, then filled it with a texture and bevelled it with Inner Bevel. Tubes used were the Fireworks tubes and Buildings tubes supplied by JASC.

Next I went on to make a couple of pictures using the Picture Frames to finish off.

The first picture was made using one of Harry's Filters to create a corona, then I added a narrow frame. I really do not like the very wide frames for these small pictures as they overwhelm them.

Next I made a picture using a Balloon tube I obtained from Celia Martin's site. She allows you to use her tubes in return for a link back which I'm always very happy to do as hers is so beautiful.

First of all I filled the background with a pale blue gradient, then filled it with the Flood filter from Flaming Pear Essentials to create the sea. I added the balloons with selection and placement set to random as they were just added with single clicks, changing the sizes to give a sense of perspective. The sun was made with a single click of the brush set to circular with medium opacity and hardness, and low density. Finally I added a silver-gold frame to finish it.

Next we went on to consider raster and vector images, an area I've always struggled with. Not here, our instructor made it so clear and easy to understand. Thanks, Rollie!

First of all, playing with Retain Style checked and changing the direction the mouse was moving in to create the images:-

Next, two images with Retain Style unchecked. The one on the left used a dark blue for the foreground and a shaded blue gradient background, the one on the right used a black foreground and candy cane gradient background. Neat effects.

Finally, we played with vector shapes. I used a streamer that came with Paint Shop Pro as a vector shape. I first of all used the mouse together with the Shift and Control keys to drag the shape about and make the ribbon asymmetrical, then I rotated it, added a black background and then while the black background was still selected filled it with the Harry's Filter gradient setting. I like this one!

I then made another fireworks picture just for fun. The frustrating thing is - it was really super - and I can't find it! I think I optimised it and saved it to the wrong folder. So I'm afraid you won't see it!