-- Tutorial #4 -- Dripping Blood

I am going to be making a dripping blood animation. We'll use a picture of Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho, holding a rose. It can be found here.

1.) I took the Selection Tool and selected an area around the rose. I went up to Image>Crop.

2.) Next I duplicated the layer. Then I deleted the first layer.

3.) Now I erased everything around the rose using the Magic Wand Tool and the Eraser Tool. (NOTE: When using the Magic Wand Tool, make sure none of the selection goes onto the main part of your icon. In my case it would be the rose.) 

4.) I went up to Edit>Transform>Numeric. I left all of the other settings alone, the only one I used was the Rotate. I made it so that it went up to about -33.1 Degrees. (You don't have to do this if your image doesn't lay down flat like the rose did.)

5.) Now I duplicated the layer, after making sure everything around the rose was erased, and I set the new layer's Blend Mode to 'Hardlight' at '100%' Opacity.

6.) I went back to our first layer and gave it a Gaussian Blur of about 2.0 pixels. (You can use either 2.0, 3.0, or 1.5 pixels. It depends on what picture yu're using.)

7.) I made another new layer and put it behind the two rose layers. Using the Paint Bucket Tool, I filled the layer up with #EEE0D2.

Result:

8.) Make a new layer. We're going to use a part of a brush I got from Miss M's Brushes. The reason why I only gave you a part of it is because it should go at the bottom right corner. Anyways, use the brush in the color Black (#000000).

Brush:

Result:

9.) Make another new layer.  I took another brush from Miss M's Brushes and I used it in the the color #700000. The Brush should go in the top right corner of the icon.

Brush:

10.) Making sure that the brush layer is selected, I went up to Layer>Effects>Dropshadow. I gave it these settings.

Color: #610707
Mode: Multiply
Opacity: 100%"
Global Angle: 120 Degrees
Distance: 0 Pixels
Blur: 5 Pixels
Intensity: 18%

Result:

11.) Now... We're going to make another new layer. ^_^ We're also going to use another Brush from Miss M's Brushes. Use it in the same color as the brush used before. (The color was #700000) Make sure you use it in the top left corner.

Brush:

12.) For this one I also went up to Layer>Effects>Dropshadow. I used the settings below.

Color: #670606
Mode: Multiply
Opacity: 100%"
Global Angle: 120 Degrees
Distance: 0 Pixels
Blur: 5 Pixels
Intensity: 18%

Result:

13.) Now it's time for text. Take the Text Tool and type in the word 'Bloody' in all capital letters using the settings below.

Font: Georgia
Size: 8 Points
Color: #000000
Anit-Alias: (It's your choice, I used Crisp)
Bold

14.)   Set the text layer's Blend Mode to 'Overlay' at '100%' Opacity. Now I gave the text some Dropshadow settings. The settings are below.

Color: #7B1111
Mode: Multiply
Opacity: 100%"
Global Angle: 120 Degrees
Distance: 0 Pixels
Blur: 5 Pixels
Intensity: 9%

Result:

15.) More text! Now I'm going to use this font called 'One Fell Swoop'. I downloaded it from dafont.com. I typed in the Word 'Rose', and then set the layer's Blend Mode to 'Overlay' at '100%' Opacity. Now if you want to know the settings for the font they're down below.

Font: One Fell Swoop
Size: 30 Points
Color: #000000
Anit-Alias: (It's your choice, I used Crisp)
Faux Bold

16.) I also used the Dropshadow Effect. The settings are below for that one too.

Color: #750000
Mode: Multiply
Opacity: 100%"
Global Angle: 120 Degrees
Distance: 0 Pixels
Blur: 5 Pixels
Intensity: 12%

Result:

17.) I made a new layer. I used a border brush in the color Black (#000000). The brush is below.

Brush:

Result:

18.) Make a new layer. Take a small brush and make a little dot at the end of the brush to the right. An example is down below.

Example:

19.) Now go up to File>Save As and save it as '1'.

20.) Now take the visibility for the dot layer off. (To do that just click the little eye to the left of the layer on the Layer Palette. The eye
should be gone now and the dot shouldn't show on the icon anymore.

21.) Select the layer where the blood is on the top right corner. erase a little part of it and save it as '2'.

22.) Now keep erasing and saving until that little blood line isn't there anymore. An example is down below for when you should be finished erasing.

Example:

I got a total of 5 saved files, not including the first one we saved. (The one with the blood dot.)

23.) Now go to the program that you use for animation. In my case it would be Imageready. Once the animation program is up, open
up the file you saved as '1'. Whatever you do, do not flatten the image!

24.) Now duplicate the frame on the Animation Palette. Now go up File>Place>Choose, and pick the file we saved as '2'. Now hit
okay. It should appear as the second frame on the Animation Palette. Keep doing this until you have placed down all saved files.

25.) Click the arrow on the right of the Animation Palette and click on 'Reverse Frames'. Our first frame will now be our last frame.

26.) Click on the new last frame and duplicate it. now go over to your Layer Palette and select the blood dot layer. Now make sure your
duplicated frame is selected on the Animation Palette. Move the blood dot straight down. Now click the arrow on the right again. Click on
'Tween'. Leave all of the effects, the opacity, everything on. Just make sure that it says 7 or 10 frames. Then click okay.

Result:

If you have any questions or if you have any problems please let me know. ^_^