Hourglass Tutorial page 4

This portion of the tutorial gives detailed instructions on how to delete sections of the sand....to let the glass show through as empty....and, also gives instructions on how to add shadows to portions of the sand, to make it look realistic. The resultant image is stationary....as the image border on the left-hand side of this page.
To proceed to "sand animation", without shadows....go to page 5 of the tutorial, step# 16.
(10) Turn dowel bk and bottom layers back on. Deselect the hourglass shape and using the freehand selection tool and gradually select sections of the sand that you don't want showing, (clear glass to show through). (The image here is 100% for better visibility).

NB: If you have a graphics tablet,....the selection process will be much easier than with a mouse! *smile*

(12) Deselect these areas. To get rid of any sand pixels outside the glass shape reload the glass selection, go to the sand layer and turn other layers off. Use selections/modify/contract by 1 or 2 pixels, invert it and then use edit cut. Turn the glass, dowel bk and bottom layers back on to make sure it is to your satisfaction.

(13) If you would like to put some shading on your sand...go back to just the sand area, select portions of the top and bottom globes with the freehand tool. Then use colors/adjust/brightness-contrast/ with these settings...brightness -70, contrast 40. You can play with these settings until you get the shading you like. *smile*

(14) Deselect and turn all layers back on to see your hourglass! If you like you can add a drop shadow on the bottom sand to reflect on the bottom of the base. Your settings should be mostly vertical and using one of the darker colours in your base.

(15) Now you can resize, colour in your background, frame the picture...even add text or streamers and sparkle picture tubes that you want in the background, if you like! But, I suggest you keep a copy of the unmerged version in psp format before making any changes as the next part of this tutorial will be on animating the sand.