«

[Duncan Idaho]

Some of you fellow Abandonia fans requested that I make a userbar tutorial, I just couldn't refuse.
Here I will teach you how to make an Abandonia Reloaded Userbar. Your going to need Macromedia Fireworks 8 to do this. You can get the trial version at http://macromedia.com . Your going to be redirected to the adobe site, adove bought macromedia. Then your going to need the "Visitor" font, it is a requirment of all "Official" userbars. http://www.webpagepublicity.com/free-fonts...TT2%20-BRK-.ttf

1. Fire up Fire works and select "New Document".
2. Set the "Width" to 350 PX, and the "Height" to 19 PX. Select "Transparent" for the Canvas Color. Thats the standard canvas size for a user bar.

*NOTE* Transparent is not select in this picture, make sure you select it.

3. Your work area should now look like this.


4. The next step would be to open all the panels you will be using. For this usebar, you only need two. Those are "Layers" and "Assets". The Assets panel lets you quickly edit an Image by adding things such as gradients and shadows. The program comes with a few pre-made, later on you can learn to make your own.


5. Now you need your Layers. In the "Layers" panel there is a button that looks like a folder with a blue + sign on it. Click that until you have 8 Layers.

6. Now you need some graphics to work with. Here are a few that I like.




7. Now you need a work space to edit your graphics in. Go up to FILE->NEW. Set the canvas Width to 350 PX and the Heigth to 350 PX, set color to transparent. Now you have a nice little area to edit in.

8. Before you add images, you need a background. Select the rectangle tool and drag a rectangle over the canvas. It doesnt have to be a perfect fit. I actualy prefer it to be a few pixels larger. Then you can go to the Assets tab and select a style for your rectangle. Mess around with them for a bit to find one you like. (When I say "Bit", I mean for as long as you like. Not the quantum, indivisable, unit of information, that is the result of a choice between to alternatives in logic or numbers)


9. Now we can add graphics :brain:. Import the Abandonia reloaded graphic into your graphics work space. (The 350 by 350PX area we made earlyer). If it asks you to resample, say yes. I doubt you want a picture in the middle of your userbar that has abunch of white in the middle of it, lets remove that. Select the "Magick Wand" tool or press W.



10. To make the wand do what we want, we have to change its properties. Set "Tolerance" to 32, "Edge" to hard, and check the box next to "Live Marguee". Now select the large white areas on the abandonia graphic and press delete.


*NOTE* CONTINUED IN NEXT POST*