Ok so maybe they aren’t perfect but for the few other paint shop pro owners out there that don't have a nifty
filter > render > clouds option
You can try this...
1. Start with the white to black granite. It can be radial, linear, sunburst or what not.... I used sunburst and off set the center a little.
2. Create another layer. Fill it in completely kind of a darkish blue...
3. Pick a lighter color blue more 'cloud colored' and pick out a texture. Lands worked best for me but plastic 3 and granite look good too. Flood fill this in on top of the darker blue...
4. Set this second layer to 50% opacity.

Tada! I can translate Photoshop to paint shop pro ;)
Also us Paintshop Pro People have the advantage... We can make the backdrop any color we want! Just use a different color than blue...

Loren:

I'm sure the Paint Shop Pro members appreciate this tip. I would have no clue how to translate most Photoshop techniques to Paint Shop Pro.

RE: "Also us Paintshop Pro People have the advantage... We can make the backdrop any color we want! Just use a different color than blue..."

Photoshop's Hue/Saturation adjustment layer set to colorize provides a method to change a clouds backdrop layer (or any layer, actually) to any Hue, Saturation or Lightness imaginable. I find the sliders in the dialog box convenient and easy to use, but that's just me.

Anyway, thanks for sharing the Paint Shop Pro tip.

~DannyR~

I'm sure there aren't that many Paint Shop Pro ppl out there anyways... I was just bored and a little irritated that half the little tips on this section I couldn't use because I can afford the 400$ program on my weekly allowance ;)
(It is 400$ right..? Or somewhere around there at least...)
So I figured out how to get basically the same effect in Paint Shop Pro... I needed something to do so I could continue avoiding my homework...

I just wanted to add a tip too... ~pouts~ Can't you big mean ppl just leave me alone. ~sniff~ Look now you've gone an hurt my feelings....

Ok maybe not.... But... Avoiding homework again. A nice long message is a good reason. ~nods~ I should be translating spanish but.... Well... I'm not... hehe...

Take heart...

I believe Adobe recently lowered full retail of PS7 to $299. Still pretty steep. Other options include:

Get a slightly older version of Photoshop for considerably less than that. Photoshop 5, for example, does almost everything Photoshop 7 does. For example there's a Photoshop 5.0 (educational version) that's going to sell for about $100 on eBay Tuesday morning.

Photoshop Elements 2.0 has a great deal of Photoshop's functionality + some things that Photoshop cannot do (without additional plugins). Elements 2 can be had for about $60-$70 or so. Photoshop Elements 1.0 is less expensive.

As a student you would qualify for "academic versions" of Photoshop = considerable discounts. Here is an example:

http://www.sprysoft.com/shop/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=112&category_id=e30793226ba135b74cd228a204caa069&

With the recent price reduction to $299 for full version, this isn't too big of deal, but every buck counts.

Also: If you live close to a major university, contact the university bookstore. They will sell academic versions of Photoshop.

FYI: Academic version works exactly the same way as the standard version. Exactly.

= = = = = = = = =
If you'd be seriously interested in a back level version of Photoshop through eBay (I buy there all the time), I'll be glad to help you get one. Send me e-mail (not PM). Click here:
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=425

Good work on finding a way with Paint Shop Pro.

Now get back to your homework!

~DannyR~

Loren:

Take a look at this offer: A free copy of Photoshop Elements 1.0 from being offered by David, one of the "really good guys" on this forum.

Seems like a terrific deal to me. Send him Private Mail (PM) via the following post.

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4303

~Danny~

[another] take heart Loren. I've been looking at Paint Shop Pro as an alternative to Photoshop because of the huge price markup down here (It costs the equivalent of $1200, and to get the academic package you have to take 10 boxes to get a price around $800). I've been able to do most things with Paint Shop Pro that I can with Photoshop, just have to change my workflow.

Hey Loren,

you're welcome to my copy of Photoshop Elements if you want it, just send me a PM by clicking the pm button at the bottom of my post, and I'll send you details. Also, if you want to be able to try out the tips that you can't use in Paint Shop Pro, there's a pretty good chance that most of them are in a free program called The GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) (you can download the installer here (http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjsimo/gimp/) )
The gimp is started out when some university students were trying to make a photoshop clone for a school assignment. that turned out to be a much bigger project than they thought it would be so they released it as open source and a lot of people have worked on it, so by now it has most features that photoshop (It's still lacking some big ones like the dust and scratches filter, Liquify etc etc.) It's what I've been using up til now for almost all my work, and it's a very strong program.

- David :)

Wow thanks! You guys are so great!
That’s more information that I can take in this late at night :)
I don't know how much money I can spend right now though; holidays are coming so I gotta buy presents for people... And I was just planning on going on a big shopping spree... ~ponders how much is in her piggy bank~
Of course I _could_ ask my parents ~evil grin~
I think I'll try the free alternative for now. I haven't used PhotoShop that often and it's not like I ever get _paid_ to do anything... I guess I could look into that too... But, I think I have _way_ to much stuff to do right now. (it’s been a very hectic past couple months)
Anyways um… yeah thanks! You guys are so nice to me... ~sniff sniff~ I don’t deserve this kind of... compassion... I was kinda bummed out cuz I had to go to a wake today... But the amount of response here is fabulous!!! Thanks for the tips!! And keep on trucking!
Ok... Now Loren is going to bed before she gets to exclamation point happy :)
Good night!

Thanks for the tip on creating backgrounds in PhotoShop. I couldn't wait to try it out for myself and after a few minutes of playing around, came up with some cool backgrounds that look realistic. Attached is one example.

I really like this site and will be returning often.
Thanks again.

Tyrone