Make Your Own Animated Glitter in Paint Shop Pro

You can find glitter graphics to use on Myspace and other social websites all over the internet. But you can also make your own custom glitter graphics using Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop. These steps are adaptable in Paint Shop Pro versions 7 though 9. Paint Shop Pro X and XI do not come with Animation Shop, but users who upgraded from earlier versions should still have it.

Open Paint Shop Pro, and then create three identical new images sized 50 pixels by 50 pixels as a Raster Background in the color of your choice. The size is not necessarily important, but you do want to keep it fairly small.

With the first image active, click on Adjust, go down to Add/Remove Noise, and then click on Add Noise. In the Add Noise menu, make adjustments until you're satisfied, making note of the settings you use. If you placed a check in Monochrome, keep the check in the next two images as well. If you are using a black background, leave the check out of Monochrome or the noise will not show up well.

Follow the same Add Noise step with the other two images, using different settings each time. Save each image with different names such as glitter1, glitter2, glitter3.

Now open Animation Shop by clicking on File, going to Jasc Software Products, and clicking on Launch Animation Shop. Go to File and click on Animation Wizard. Leave the first option as the default Same size as the first image frame and click Next. Set the next option, canvas color, as Opaque using the background color in your image and then click Next. At this option, set the choices as Centered in the frame and With the canvas color and click Next. On the final option, leave the default settings and click Next again. The final step is adding the images. Click the Add Image button and browse to where you saved the three glitter images. The order in which you add them does not matter. Once all three are added, click Next and then click Finish.

Test your animated glitter by clicking on the View Animation button. Set up a different order with the images if you don't like how the animation looks. Once you are satisfied with the result, save the file.

Use your animated glitter with text or on images that you own, have permission to use, or are in the public domain. Follow these steps to make several different colors for many applications.