PI5 Editing Creative Particle Effects

One of my favorite improvements in the PI 5.0 upgrade is the ability to edit Creative Particle effects, right down to being able to change the size or color of an individual bubble.

 

In this tutorial, you'll create a holiday toast from objects in the Image Library. We'll add some custom-edited bubbles from the Particle Gallery, then add some sparkling starbursts for good measure.

From the EasyPalette's Image Library, drag the Wine Glass into the work space, where it will open in its own window.

Right click on the wine glass and choose Properties. When the Object Properties box opens, click on the Position & Size tab. In the Size section, make sure "Keep aspect ratio" is selected, and choose "Percent" from the Unit dropdown list. Resize to 50% and click OK, as shown below. 

We need a little room for the other wine glass. Choose Edit, Expand. When the Expand box opens, enter 0. Then click on the lock to unlock it. Expand 100 pixels Left and Right, Expand color=white. Click OK.

Using the selection tool, Control + drag to create a duplicate of the wine glass. Click on the one on the left to make it active.  Select the Transform tool. In the Attributes toolbar, choose the Freely Transform option. Rotate 15 degrees clockwise. Use the selection tool to move the left wine glass as shown below.

From the EasyPalette's Image Library, drag into the base image the hand object labeled "Good." Right click on it and choose Properties. When the Object Properties box opens, click on the Position & Size tab. As you did for the wineglass, resize the hand to 90% of its original size. Drag it over to the right wine glass. Now drag from the Image Library the hand object labeled "Point." Position it over the left wine glass, as shown below.

While the pointing left side hand is active, choose Edit, Mask Mode. Use the Zoom tool to click in the image until it's at 200%. Select the Paint Brush tool. In the Attributes toolbar, choose a Round Brush, Size 5, Soft Edge=3, paint is black. Use white paint to paint back parts of the mask that you remove in error. Carefully paint out the pointing finger, rounding it so that it appears to be wrapped around the stem of the glass (arrow). When you're finished painting, choose Edit and deselect Mask Mode. 

With the selection tool, click on the right side hand. Choose Edit, Mask Mode. Use the Paint Brush with with same settings (black paint) to paint out the thumb (arrow). Change the brush size to 3 and paint out a small part of the top of the wine glass stem, and a part of the stem bottom (arrow).

Take a critical look at the hands, they should look as though they are holding the wine glasses around their stems. Return to Mask Mode and paint until you are satisfied with they way it looks.

Use the selection tool to click on one of the objects, then hold down on the Shift key while clicking on the others. Both wine glasses and both hands should be selected at the same time. Right click and Combine as Single Object.

While the object is selected, choose Selection, Select Base Image. We're going to fill the background with a gradient. From the EasyPalette's Fill Gallery, choose Gradient. Scroll down and double click on Light 1, shown below.

Use the selection tool to drag the objects slightly downward, so that the green highlight is centered over the top of the wine glasses. Right click and Merge All. Use the selection tool, with the shape set to Rectangle in the Shape dropdown list, to make a selection which includes only the wineglasses and hands, plus half again as much space at the top. Click on the Crop tool to crop the image, or choose Edit, Crop.

Next we'll make an elliptical selection just above the wine glasses, to which we'll apply the Bubble particle effect.  From the Attributes toolbar, choose Ellipse from the selection tool's Shape dropdown list. Make an elongated, rounded selection as shown below.

From the EasyPalette, select the Particle Gallery's Bubbles category. Right click on Bubbles 1 and choose "Modify Properties and Apply." 

When the Particle dialog box opens, you'll see that the bubbles are positioned along the margins of the selection, and that the bubble Body color makes the bubbles look a bit opaque. To edit color, first choose the "Select All" option. Notice that every one of the bubbles is now surrounded by a bounding box. This indicates that all of the bubbles have been selected and that edits will be applied to all of them, rather than to individual bubbles. Click in the Body color box and choose dark blue (RGB=21, 1, 133), as show below. 

Deselect the "Select All" option. Doing so allows you to edit the bubbles individually. Click on the largest bubble to select it (it will be surrounded by a bounding box). It is a big too large, so in the Effect control section, change the bubble's size to 20. Drag it away from the edge of the selection so that it is closer to the center of the area just above the wine glasses.

One by one, drag the other bubbles that are along the selection margin, positioning them directly over the wine glasses, so it looks like they're "fizzing." Yours should look something like the one shown below.

When you're satisfied with the arrangement of the bubbles, right click and Merge All.

The pale orange highlights at the top of the glasses have a hard edge to them. Choose the Smudge Retouch tool, with the defaults of size 20 and Soft edge=50. Lightly Smudge the sharp lines (arrows).

To add a bit of mysterious lighting, choose Effect, Creative, Light. When the Light dialog box opens, select the starburst shape shown below.

Enter the values shown at left to edit the number of star spikes, star size, range and strength. Leave the Light color white.

Drag the starburst up, positioning it over the lower highlight on the largest bubble. Click OK.

To add a little more sparkle, choose the Path Drawing tool. In the Attributes toolbar, select Custom Shape from the Shape dropdown menu. 

When the Shape box opens, select Star 4. Draw a small, 2D white star with the shape. Right click and Duplicate. Position the tiny white stars wherever you want to add a little bit of sparkle.

Here's the finished holiday toast image.  Salud!

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