I'm Flying... (aka "Flappy the Wonder Duck")
[Made with path shapes in Photo Impact 10 and then animated.]

*******Tutorial is written & owned by ChristaFile79. It cannot be copied & posted under ANY circumstances. A link to this tutorial is acceptable & appreciated. *******

Beginner
Knowledge: Familiar with using Path Basic shapes- (ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, 2 shapes from the PI shapes basic B27 and B28 as well as one node edit beezier curve shape for the wing. Line shape for hair.)

We are going to start by reflecting the parts of the bird via screen shot:

1) Open up a new 400 X 400 Pixel workspace, background white.

2) Beginning with the head, draw a 3D ellipse, color=black, size W=156 X H=110

3) Draw a second 3D ellipse, color=black, size W=178 X H=112 and align with a small space directly below the first ellipse (select both ellipses and go to Object > Align >Horizontally).. this will be the body.

4) Adding the beak...Go to Path draw > custom> Shapes >Basic locate the basic shape B27 from the shape gallery. Draw a 3D mode shape size W=81 X H= 83 color=E2841B (or shade of yellow/orange of choice.) Adjust 3D shape to make rounder if you wish by goint to Material Attributes Gallery > bevel B01 right click and modify properties to width 18, depth 30. Place this on top of the two ellipses. Adjust the bottom ellipse by selecting and using the arrows to move up or down to give you a small space between as reflected below:

5) adding nostrils.. Path shape make a small 3D ellipse, color=black, size W=5 X H=15 and duplicate, placing as such on his beak:

6) adding legs: Path shape rounded rectangle, 3D mode, color= E2841B (or shade used for beak) size = W 10 X H 119.. Place to right of beak.

7) adding foot: Path Shape> Custom> Basic B28 3D mode, color E2841B (or shade used for beak and leg) size= W 86 X H 84. Transform and rotate to left 65 degrees. Place on leg at the bottom.

8) Select leg and holding down shift key select foot... go to Object >duplicate , then Object > flip horizontally and place just to the left of the beak as such:

9) Selecting legs and feet, go to Object > arrange order > move to back, so legs and feet are under duck body.

10) Eyes are a white (W 17 X H 17) 3D circle with a black (W 12 X H 12) 3D mode circle placed on top.. make one set and duplicate them... place as such:

11) Whisp of hair is made with a bezier curve line width 2 mode 3D color black and just make a small curved line. When done, duplicate and place them at the top of the head.

12)Wings.. these are the trickiest.. they are done with the bezier curve .. by looking at my example with the nodes you will see how I shaped them.. get something similar to this, color black 3D.. when done, duplicate so you have 2.

13) Place the wings (one will need to be flipped) and place evenly on both sides of the bird as such: (if you need to align wings.. Object>Align>top so they are even)

14) at this point, you can right click on any of the body parts and convert to object if you want to add airbrushed painted cheeks etc. You also may want to add shadows.. if you select in your layer pallette all parts EXCEPT WINGS, merge those parts as one selection. then add your shadow to the body of the bird.. the wings, need to be seperate, as we need to animate them. You can select a wing and add a shadow if you wish, then do the other wing.

15) If you wish to add a background, in your layer pallette, select the white base, and add a background of your choice.. with text place your initial on his foot. After this step, you cannot add anything else as we will be duplicating and we want everything the same except the wings.

16) Go to Edit > duplicate with base image twice so you now have 3 images in your workspace.

17) Select your first one with the wings down... go to Objects >merge all then go to File >save as blackbird1.ufo

18) go to second image.. select the left wing.. go to transform rotate clockwise 20 degrees .. do this to right wing rotate 20 degrees counter clockwise so that they are out stretched horizontally, and then select both wings and go to object> align>top. Now with wings still selected, Go to Object >select all... using the up arrow key, move him up around 16 clicks. Now again Objects >merge all and then File > save as blackbird2.ufo.

19) go to third image.. select the left wing.. go to transform rotate clockwise 40 degrees .. do this to right wing rotate 40 degrees counter clockwise so that they are out stretched horizontally, and then select both wings and go to object> align>top. Now with wings still selected, Go to Object >select all... using the up arrow key, move him up around 34 clicks. Now again Objects >merge all and then File > save as blackbird3.ufo.

On to animation!!!

20) Go to Switch at the top right of your program and select Gif Animator.

21)Click on Animation Wizard.

22)Follow the wizard, size 400 X 400

23) add images blackbirdtut1.ufo, blackbirdtut2.ufo, blackbirdtut3.ufo

24) speed 12

25) Okay

26) select all frames at the bottom so they are higlighted

27) Edit > Resize check percentage box and change to 60%

Here is my result:

*******Tutorial is written & owned by ChristaFile79. It cannot be copied & posted under ANY circumstances. A link to this tutorial is acceptable & appreciated. *******