Adding chains and jewelry make a great addition to your
Valentine's Day layouts, and making them look realistic is very easy to do with
Photo Impact.
The first thing you need to do is find the Outline Tool
that is located on the tool menu at the left of your screen. When you have the
outline tool selected, click on the shape tool in the upper left corner of your
workspace, and you will see the choices that you have to choose from. Good
shapes to use are the circle, rectangle, rounded rectangle and oval. I'm going
to choose the oval.
The color in the color box won't make a difference, as
you'll be changing this later. Check 3D Round in the Mode box and then adjust
the width of your outline by clicking on the Panel Box (this usually opens
automatically when you select the shape). Under the Outline tab choose one of
the options in the selection box. If you'd like a larger width, click on the
More button and it will take you to a screen where you can type in the amount.
I'm just going to go with 9.
Then with your mouse or pen, drag out the shape onto your
layout until you get the size you want.
With the object still selected, go to the far right of your
workspace and find the Easy Palette. When the Easy Palette opens up find the
Material Attribute Gallery and click on Metallic. This give you a bunch of
choices of metal to use for your link, I'm using Copper 5 for this example.
Now your chain link will look like the metal you have
chosen. Next, with the link still selected choose Edit/Copy to make an exact
replica.
Then choose Edit/Paste/Under Pointer, and click on you
layout where you want the next link to fall. Don't worry about being exact;
Photo Impact will put this on a new layer so it will be easy to move.
Now you'll need to change the new link from a path file to
an image file. While the new link is selected, choose Object/Convert Object
Type/From Path to Image.
With the second link still selected, choose your eraser
tool and set the size so that it is smaller than the width of the metal (10
worked for me in this project).
I usually zoom in with the zoom tool for this next part.
Since the light on this Copper Preset is set to hit the upper left of the
object, it will look best with the right side of the lower link to be in the
back, so with the eraser tool, erase the area over the bottom link so that the
bottom link will show through. Get as close to the edges as you can without
going over them.
To keep adding to the chain, Copy/Paste Under Pointer the
bottom link, and place it below, arranging it so that the gap falls in the area
the chain below will be showing through at. Continue to do this until you get
the length you desire.
To Add a Charm:
This isn't much different that what we did above; just use
a sold shape instead of the oval outline in the Path Drawing Tool selection.
Make sure you click on the background first if you've just made the links so
that nothing is selected. I'm going to choose one of the custom shape
selections...a heart.
Using the same choices as I did above for the chain links
(3D round, Copper Preset), drag the heart shape out with your mouse or pen. You
can also make a small ring fastener by choosing the circle outline and changing
the outline width to a smaller size (I used 6 here).
Then, after arranging the parts the way that you want them,
use the same Object/Convert Object Type/Change Path to Image command on the
fastener, and you'll be able to erase the part of it away that falls under the
chain. And here is the completed project.
As you can see there are endless combinations of shapes,
metallic presets, and placement, so just experiment until you find the effect
that you are looking for!
