Push Pins
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I searched and searched for a realistic push pin tube for a project I was working on and just never found one that satisfied me so I created one of my own. This tutorial should help you understand such concepts as shading an object, how to shape a vector object plus a few other things.
If you don't want to do the tutorial but want the tube? You can download the .pspimage file HERE. I have left it in three layers so that you can colorize the head to your liking. Once you have colorized it you can make your own tube. 
- PSP 8 or 9. If you don't already have a copy you may be able to find one on eBay.
- An inner bevel preset. Download it HERE. Unzip it into your My PSP 8/9 Files Presets folder.
- A silver Blade Pro Preset. You can download the one I have used HERE. Unzip it into your Environment and Textures folder. If you are using Super Blade Pro, change the extention of this preset to .q5q and it will show in your preview.
Let's get started
*Please note: If you install this tutorial as a quick guide you may get a script error when trying to view the images, just click "yes" at the prompt and the images will show properly. Don't know how to install quick guides? then check out the tutorial found HERE.- Open new image 160px x 160px, white raster background, 72 res, 16mil colors.
- Set foreground and background colors to #971610. Get the pen tool
with the following settings:
- Click in the shape as shown below. Once you get to node 8 click on the close contour button
. Hint: zoom in to a comfortable size also lower the opacity a little when you get to node 6 to make it easier to see.
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- Click on node 3 to activate it. Go to objects->node type->curve before, now pull out the handle to shape it. (We will be using the curve before and curve after exclusively. I'll give you the node number and which curve.)
node 6-after
node 8-after
Now convert to raster layer (Layers->Convert to raster). Your image should look similar to this:
- Apply the inner bevel you downloaded.
- Ctrl+A to select it, Ctrl+F to float it, Ctrl+Shift+F to defloat it. Now add a new raster layer.
- Change the forground color to #D74948. Then get the airbrush tool
with the following settings and add some highlights. To draw a straight line, click at the top then hold the shift key and click at the bottom where you want the line to stop.
Your image should look similar to this:
- Apply a gaussian blur radius 2.75 (Adjust->blur->gaussian blur). Then merge this layer down (Layers->merge->merge down. You should have 2 layers. Now Ctrl+D to select none.
- Get the pen tool with same settings as before and click 3 times to form a triangle. Close the contour as before. Yours should look similar to this:
- Click on the bottom node and use the before and after curves to shape the point slightly.
- Convert the layer to a raster layer. Ctrl+A, Ctrl+F to select it and float it. Apply the Blade Pro preset. Ctrl+D to select none. On the layers palette drag this layer below the pin head layer.
And your done! You can save it now, duplicate it and make different colors or just export it as a tube.
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and found it easy to follow. If you have any comments or questions please feel free to .
