Additional Files Required: Photo or Graphic : We are going to do 2 examples so you may use the 2 photos here if you wish. Photo 1 for the first exercise Photo 2 for the 2nd exercise. (right click and save to your hard drive) Or you may prefer to use your own
Description: To use the Particle effects located in the Easy Palette to enhance your photos or graphics with special effects such as fire,smoke and bubbles and to add your settings to the Easy Palette for use in other projects
Terms of Use: The graphics used in this exercise are from my personal collection and you may feel free to use them in this exercise. What you create with this tutorial is yours to do with as you please.

We're going to start by setting up a new group in the Easy Palette so that we can save the effect we're about to create. So go to the Easy Palette and right click on My Gallery. Click on New Group and you'll be faced with a box similar to that shown on the right here.

Name your group.(I have called mine Particle effects)
then click OK

Your Easy Palette group is now ready so we can proceed.

The Particle Effect box will open and you will need to adjust the settings to reflect mine.

Density 32
Size 6
Variance87
Reflection 61
Ambience 50
Border 60
Body 79
Spot 100
Direction 147
Elevation 40

If you click the random button you'll get a whole different set of bubbles,but it must be used before you manually move any of the bubbles, which is something I will explain in a moment.As soon as you move a bubble the Random button disappears.

If you wish to move individual bubbles, left click on them each in turn to move them or hold down the Control key whilst clicking on more than one bubble and then move them as a group.

Try altering the settings a little, increase the size of the bubbles or make more bubbles by increasing the density.

Click on the Preview button to see how the bubbles will look on your image and then when you're satisfied that you like the way your image looks, click on the Add button.

The Add to Easy Palette box will pop up and it's here that you will be expected to name your effect and be sure that this effect will be added to My Gallery in the Tab group Particle Effects.

Click on OK.

Back in the Particle Effect Box. Click on OK.

PI 8 users will need to click on Apply current frame effect to image at this point too.

You image is now finished, so be sure to save it as a .jpg and don't forget to compress it slightly!

If you check your Easy Palette, you'll see that the image was added there along with the effect. However, it's just the effect that will be added to any other image that you apply it to.

Try it now. Open an image of your own and double click on the bubble effect thumbnail image you created in the Easy Palette. See how it adds just the bubbles to your image? Quick and easy isn't it?

This exercise is a little different than that of the bubble one because we'll be applying more than one effect. Those effects will be fire and smoke.

Open Photo2 or an image of your own choosing.

In the Particle Effect box adjust the settings as follows:

Size 35
Opacity 53
X scale 0
Y scale 90
Frequency 17
*These settings may have to be adjusted if you are using your own image.

Left click on the fire in the preview pane and hold down on the mouse button as you move it toward the small opening in the trees.

Click on the Add button as you did in the bubble exercise and save this effect to the Easy Palette.

Back in the Particle Effect Box. Click on OK.
PI 8 users will need to click on Apply current frame effect to image at this point too.

This is what your image now looks like with fire added but we're lacking smoke.

Go to the Easy Palette's Particle Gallery again and this time left click on Smoke 6 and then on Modify Properties and Apply.

Again the Particle Effect box will open and you'll need to adjust the settings to reflect mine.
* If you are using a different image you'll need to adjust the settings to best suit your requirements.

Density 54
Size 51
Variance 58
Opacity 86
X Scale 93
Y Scale 37
Frequency 66

Left click and drag any stray smoke particles into position nearer to your fire.

If you wish, you can put a check mark in the "Select All" box and move all particles as a group.

When you are satisfied with the results click on the Add button as before to add this new smoke effect to the Easy Palette.

Back in the Particle Effect Box. Click on OK.
PI 8 users will need to click on Apply current frame effect to image at this point too.

Here is what your finished image will look like. A little more exciting then the original don't you think?. Save your image as a .jpg and don't forget to optimize it.

Finally, open Photo 2 again.

And in the Easy Palette, double click on the fire effect you added and then on the smoke effect. How quick and easy it is to arrive at the finished result now eh?

If you would like to experiment a bit more, try some different effects. With the lightening we could have added a heavy rain to the picture or we could have adjusted the color of the photo and added some clouds or added snow. Most of all be sure to have fun!