Using the magic wand selection tool, select the white headband, and open the web button designer, any shape.

The headband is much softer than the metal of the crown, but does not need so high a bevel, and the light elevation is lowered slightly to give a soft shadow under the rim. Click OK to return to the image and use Edit/Selection/Merge All.

With the magic wand tool, select the two larger red parts of the image and once again open the web button designer, any shape.

We want to give the impression of the red velvet material bulging out around the metal parts of the crown, so the bevel and the smoothness are set higher. Because light elevation tends to wash out the colour when the bevel is smooth, and we want to retain the rich red, that is set to 0. Once again, click OK and use Edit/Selection/Merge All.

Now, with the magic wand tool, select the last two strips of red at the top of the crown and return to the web button designer, any shape.

In order to get some shape into such narrow strips as these the bevel has to be set very high, the smoothness lowered a little, and the light elevation raised a little.

When you click OK and use Edit/Selection/Merge All now, the image is finished. Use the Web Smart Saver to save it as a gif, and use Mask Options/Transparent Area and select Pick Colours. Hold down CTRL and in the left hand picture move the colour selection tool to the green background and left click. This will make the green colour transparent and it will be taken out of both pictures. Click OK to save the image.

Even if we resave the original image and make its background transparent too, there is no doubt that we have made this piece of clip art much more attractive and interesting.

     

You can use this technique on quite complex clip art, with multiple colours, provided you select together only the areas which need the same degree of bevel and smoothness. Even different areas of the same colour may need different treatment, as they did in the crown.

© Carol Brooksbank 2003
This tutorial may not be copied to any other website nor distributed in any way. It may be downloaded for personal use only. Links to my tutorials at http://www.caroluk.co.uk/tutindex/ are welcome.

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