Hot Air Balloon

Hot Air Balloon

A Paint Shop Pro Tutorial

This tutorial was written for PSP version 7 and can be used with version 8. It will guide you through my technique for creating the hot air balloon shown on the left. While there are surely many other methods for making these colorful airships, I like the versatility of this one. The number of steps involved are well worth the effort, because they allow for an endless number of variations. The tutorial would appear to be limited to specific instructions. But once you understand the basic techniques, the sky's the limit :-) for all the variations you can experiment with!

Only PSP is needed for creating effects for this tutorial, but suggestions for other techniques are provided at the end of the tutorial. The balloon pictured on this page had an Eye Candy 3 Glass effect applied; instructions are included.

Some screen shots are shown at reduced size to cut down on bandwidth usage and to speed up your download. This means, unfortunately, that the image quality here is nowhere near as good as what your final rendering will be. Also, the screen shots were made against a white, rather than transparent, background for your ease in viewing.
Following the tutorial will be easiest if you are already familiar with PSP's basic tools and techniques. You will be working with selections, selection modification, copying and pasting selections, the flood fill tool and gradients, the layer palette, the bevel and texture effects, preset shapes and deformation, and image flipping and mirroring.
Download my selections and unzip the file to your Selections folder. (I keep my Selections folder in the same subdirectory as my other PSP resource files.)
Download my gradient and unzip the file to your PSP Gradients file.
You can download a free, 30-day trial version of Jasc Software's Paint Shop Pro 8.
Alien Skin no longer distributes Eye Candy 3, but they offer a demo download of Eye Candy 4000 with functional Glass, Marble, and Shadowlab effects. (Note: the settings in this tutorial for Eye Candy's glass effect apply only to Eye Candy 3.) Eye Candy 3 has also been bundled with some versions of PSP, so you might be pleasantly surprised to find that you already have it on your PSP CD.
Here's a great site for seeing lots of images of the hundreds of beautiful balloons that participate in the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
Contents
Intro Software download links. Selections and gradients downloads.
Page 1 Steps 1-2: Using selections and gradients to paint the balloon's envelope.
Page 2 Steps 3-4: Modifying selections to outline the envelope's sections. Beveling with PSP or using Eye Candy 3's glass effect to "inflate" the balloon.
Page 3 Steps 5-7: Using selections to make the skirt and preset shapes for the struts.
Page 4 Steps 8-9: Using selection tool features to make the burner and flame.
Page 5 Steps 10-11: Using effects to texture and bevel the basket and rim.
Page 6 Step 12: Making and adding people in silhouette. More ideas for effects.

Remember to save often. And have fun!