DIA'S DIMENSIONS

BACK YARD GYM SET
For PI 8

 

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Software: Ulead PhotoImpact 8
Author: Claudia Conover A.K.A. Dia
Homepage: Dia's Dimensions
Terms Of Use: Please Read

Title: Children's Gym Set
Skill Level: Beginner-Intermediate

Featured Tools:
Path and Path Edit
Selection Tools
Line & Arrow Tool
Transform Tools
Retouch and Clone

Additional Files:
Gym presets created by myself.

Description: Create a realistic wooden gym or back yard playground
complete with tire swing, rope swing, and slide.

Unzip and Import my Presets to your Easy Pallet.

Gym Railings

Open a New White Image, 600x500px set up like this:

Click on the Path tool, rectangle, 2D any color, and draw a horizontal rectangle 300x20px long. Double click on my 'Lauan no bump' wood preset in your EP (Easy Pallet). Change to 3D Mode and open the Material box above. Change the Border to 4, and click OK to apply. R-click, Align, Center horizontally. Duplicate the board and move it down below a little ways. Press Enter or click on the white background to deselect your board.

Save As a .ufo with Options: JPG compression and give it a name. Remember to save often :)

Draw a vertical rectangle 12x100px along side your boards. The wood is going in the wrong direction for our purposes, so open the Material box again. On the Color tab that comes up click on the File, Options button. Click on 90 degree mark, click OK, and OK to apply.

Move this board over to the beginning of the two horizontal boards and line your Horz. boards so that it looks like this.

R-click Duplicate this Vert. board 11 more times moving them over each time till you get to the end of the horz. boards. Deselect.

Move the last board over like the picture below. Select All Vert. boards, Align, Space Evenly like so:

In the Layer pallet (hold Ctrl key) select the two horizontal boards and Rclick, Arrange, Bring to front.

Create a new Horizontal board 298x8, click on the Lauan no bump preset and open the Material box again. Change the Border to 2. Move the board up to just under the dark line at the bottom of the railing bottom board like so:

Duplicate this board 2 more times. Rclick (hold Ctrl key) select all 3 boards and group.

Duplicate this group and move down under the first set of Vert. boards aligning them so the spacing is even.

Select both groups of boards and Rclick, Arrange, Send to Back. Move into place. Deselect.

Move your front railing up or down so it looks like this and Deselect.

Rclick, Select All, move this near the top of your image. Deselect, Save.

Posts

Create a new board (post) 20x250px. The wood grain is going in the wrong direction so change it in the Material box above to 90 degrees. Change the Border to 8.

Duplicate and move to the left side of the gym like so.

Select these two posts, Group, and Duplicate again.

Select the first group of posts and move up like this.

Select both groups of posts and Arrange, Send to Back.

Select the group of posts for the back of the gym (last group in layer manager) and move 5px to the Left like so. Use your keyboard arrows to move them.

Select the group of posts for the front of the gym (next group up in layer manager) and the front railing and move 10px to the Right like so.

Select all the floor boards and Rclick, Merge as Single Object. With your Transform Tool, Slant, move the front side of the boards to the Right so the edge of the floor boards are equal to the end of the railing like so.

Click on the Clone brush and near the bottom of all 4 Posts, clone the pattern above to duplicate it below to remove the shaded area from the foot of each Post. You will have to Convert Object Type From Text/Path to Image on each post before doing so.

Save with a new Name (add 1 to the file name).

Rope/Wood Swing

Start with the Line & Arrow Tool, Spline, and draw a straight Vertical line 2x140px. Click on the Rope preset to initiate its use. Duplicate, and move it over to the right side.

Draw a X knot at the end of the one rope. And then a short little line, Duplicate both, and put them at the end of each rope.

Pick the Path Tool, Rectangle, draw a board (swing seat) 80x12px. Click on my Wood preset, change Border to 2px. Even it up between the two ropes.

Click on your 2 ropes and bring to top of your Layer Pallet.
Click on the swing seat and move down so the ropes end in the center of the seats.
Select your knots and short rope pieces and move down so the knot just starts to show under the seat edge.

Path Tool, Oval, 2D, Dark brown, create an oval 8x5px. Place under the end of the rope as close to center as you can get. Duplicate it and do the same to the other rope. Save!

Select all the swing pieces, group, Arrange, Send to back. This swing is done! :)

Tire Swing

Choose the Outline Drawing Tool, Draw Oval 66x74px. Click on the Tire preset. Rclick on the tire object and Convert Object Type to From Text/ Path to Image.

Click on the Smudge brush with these settings 15, 30, 25, and softly go around the high point edge of the tire and inside edges smoothing the ridges. Smooth most of the ridge areas out leaving only the outside edge ridges. Try to get the smudge uniformly round around the tire. :) It may take some practice so just undo when you have to.

Click on one of the ropes and Duplicate it. Slide it over to the tire. Shorten it to 2x120px. and center it by eye on the tire like this.

Click on the Line & Arrow tool and draw a short line. Use the Transform tool to make it 2x24px long. Put it on one side of the rope and Duplicate it and put it on the other side of the rope like so. Select all parts for the tire, Group, Arrange, and Send to Back. Save. Your tire swing is finished.

Slide

In the Layer Pallet, Select All, Move to the right so the left space is available for the slide. Deselect all. :)

Expand Image (Format, Image Size) type in 120 in the Left box, OK.

In the Easy Pallet open the Material Attribute Gallery and click on the section named plastic. Click on one of these you wish to color your slide with.

Click on your Line & Arrow Tool and draw a line like a slide. In the Material box change the Border to 12 and the Depth to 15.

Click on the Edit tool on the top Menu and edit the line till you like it's shape.

To get the rounded end at the bottom, in Edit mode, put the red 'handle' directly in the center of the square where the white center is.

To get a straight edge at the top, make the handle go straight out to the left just a bit, but straight. :)

When you are done editing move this to the top part of the gym platform at the edge.
Duplicate and move this one down so it's still covering the edge of the other one, but near the post of the railing on the gym.

Move the front slide piece to the right just a pixel or two to get the right perspective.

With the Path Tool, same color, 2D, find the Triangle (A08) and create a small one to fit between the ends of the slide pieces so it looks like the slide bottom. Use the Transform, Rotate tool to rotate it to match the angle between these pieces.

 

Bracket

Increase the bottom of your Image by 20px (Format, Image Size).

Draw a straight line, Remove Bump from the Material Panel, adjust to 2 or 4px, from the end of the Posts to under the Slide so you can see where the ground level is.

With the Outline Tool, draw an Oval, 3px, Black, 54x95px mostly under the bottom of the swing like this.

Duplicate this oval and use the transform tool to make it narrower. Then move it to the center of the first oval.

Convert Object Type From Text/Path to Image on both ovals.

Use your Lasso Tool and draw a straight black line to follow the straight black line and cut the bottom of the ovals off like this. Activate both ovals, and hit Delete once. Click in the center of your selection and Rclick, None.

 

Click on the black line, Rclick, Delete it.
Click on both Ovals, Group, Arrange, Send to Back. Your slide is finished! Congratulations only one part left to go!

Ladder

Click on the Path tool, Rectangle, 3D Mode, and the Wood Preset.

Create a vertical rectangle 15x270px. Click on the Material box and change your wood direction to 90 (Color, File, Options) and your Border to 4. Mine was already on 4px.

Convert Object Type From Text/Path to Image.

Transform Tool, Rotate so the top of the board is like this.

Duplicate this board and move it over and up just a bit. Arrange, Send Backward or click on it in the Layer Pallet and drag and drop it one layer down.

Draw a little square 14x15 and Click on the Wood preset again to set the grain. Move it up a little ways up the ladder. This is one of your steps.

Convert Object Type From Text/Path to Image, and Rotate so that it's lined up with the same angle as your ladder rails like so. You might want to Zoom in for this to 200.

 

Rclick, Arrange, Send Backward to in between the rails.

Duplicate this 2 more times moving them up the ladder and in between the rails till you have this look.

Select all 5 parts to the ladder, Group, Arrange, Send to Back. Deselect. See how it looks.

Guess what? You are finished creating your gym set! :)))

Make sure everything is the way you want it to be and R-click, Select all, Merge as Single Object.

Click on the Eye at the top of the Layer Manager to hide the background, and Save it as a .psd (PhotoShop file) This is the same type of file as a .tub/psp as it keeps the transparent background. :)

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.
Feel free to contact me if you get stuck and need help!

Now that you have finished this tutorial, feel free to R-click save my award and display it on your webpage. This award is offered on the honor system.

Try my Baby Elephant Stomp Tag

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