Christmas Ball Ornament

This tutorial will show you how to make a Christmas ball ornament in Paint Shop Pro.

Supplies:

Balls and Bubbles Preset

1.  Open up a new canvas.  Mine is 600 x 600.

2.  Use the Balls and Bubbles effect to generate the ball.  I have provided a preset as the three different lights are hard to reproduce.  Unzip the preset into your Presets folder (usually, My Documents > My PSP Files > Presets).  Click the preset dropdown menu and select the HGG Christmas Ball preset.  Then, to customize, change the material in the surface tab to whatever color, gradient or pattern you want.

This is what the canvas will look like after Balls and Bubbles.

3.  Increase the height of the canvas (Image > Canvas Size).  I re-sized my canvas to 600 x 800.

4.  Select the Rectangle Tool.

5.  In the Material Palette, set the foreground material to transparent.  Set the background material to a nice metallic gradient.  I chose Metallic gold 02 which comes with PSP.

Angle = 90
Style = Linear

6.  With the Rectangle Tool, draw a rectangle at the top of the ball.  This will be the cap.

7.  Right-click on the rectangle and select Convert to Path.


8.  Go to the Object Selection Tool (or Pick Tool).  Press and hold the Ctrl key.  Hover one of the bottom corners of the rectangle and draw to the outside of the canvas, turning the rectangle into a trapezoid.

9.  Go to the Pen Tool.  Select the node at the bottom left of the trapezoid.  Right-click, select Node Type and then Curve Before.

10.  Pull the handle down to create a curve.

11.  Select the node at the bottom right of the trapezoid.  Right-click, select Node Type and then Curve After.

12.  Pull the handle down to create a curve.

13.  Select None.

14.  Create a new vector layer (Layers > New Vector Layer).  I called mine Interior.

15.  In the materials palette, invert the gradient.

16.  Go to the Ellipse Tool and draw a small ellipse at the top of the trapezoid.

17.  Convert the vector layer into a raster layer (Layers > Convert to Raster Layer).

18.  Darken the ellipse with Brightness/Contrast (Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Brightness/Contrast).

Brightness = -30
Contrast = 10

19.  Go the Materials Palette and swap the Foreground and Background Materials.  Change angle of the foreground gradient from 90 to 0.

20.  Go to the Circle Tool, make sure the line style is +Solid and that the width is 9 or 10.   Draw a circle over the ellipse.  This circle will be the hook for hanging the ornament.

21.  Convert the vector layer to a raster layer.

22.  Apply the inner bevel effect (Effects > 3D Effects > Inner Bevel) to make the ring look three-dimensional.

Bevel = 3
Width = 20
Smoothness = 30
Depth = 19
Ambience = 15
Shininess = 91
Color = White
Angle = 319
Intensity=30
Elevation = 30

23.  In the Layers Palette, select the Interior layer.  Select All (Ctrl + D).

24.  Float the selection either by clicking on it or with the float command (Ctrl + F).

25.  De-float the selection (Ctrl + Shift + F).

26.  In the Layer Palette, select the remaining vector layer.

27.  Convert to the vector layer to a raster layer.

28.  Hit the delete button.

29.  Move the layer to the top.

The Christmas Ball is now complete. I am working on a script, but it needs to be tested.