Kaleidoscope Bloom

 

Open a new image 300x300.  Using your ellipse tool draw out a small to medium sized circle.  Got to Objects>Align>Center in Canvas.  Layers>Convert to Raster.

 

 

Go to Effects>Reflection Effects>Kaleidoscope.  Use the following settings.

 

Copy Merged and paste into AS as a new animation.  It is very important that you use copy merge here instead of just copy so that the entire canvas is copied.  This way, when we do the other layers it will keep everything centered.  We can crop the excess space later.

 

Go back to PSP and undo (CTRL+Z).  Now, we are going to apply the kaleidoscope effect again, but this time add 2 or 3 to the angle.  I went with an angle of 17. You can see that this time the flower you end up with is a little smaller than the first. 

 

 

Copy merged and paste into AS after current frame.

 

Go back to PSP and undo.  Apply the kaleidoscope effect again adding 2-3 more to the angle.  Then copy merge and paste into AS.  Keep doing this until your flower completely disappears.  Mine disappeared at angle 40.  I ended up with 10 frames in AS, the last one being blank.

 

 

Now, in AS, select all and copy.  Go to Animation>Reverse Frames. 

 

 

Click on Frame 10 and paste after current frame.  This will put the 10 frames in their original order being the 10 reversed frames.  And, this is what you end up with.

 

 

You can save it as it is, or you can select all, copy and paste into PSP and save it as a pspimage or psp animation shop to use on tags.  It is better to use a pspimage of it on tags than saving it already animated due to the distortions that occur when optimizing.  It'll just give you a clearer image for your tag.  See the difference in the one above which is saved as an animation and the one below on the tag which was saved in psp animation shop format and then placed on the tag.

 

 

Have fun!

Mae