These are tubes, to be placed in the /tubes directory in Paint Shop Pro 7. They are .zipped up for web transfer (because every server/client can handle the .zip format). A 'tube', just by the way, is a full color image, with transparency. It is composed of various small images, arranged in a grid. These are painted at random, in order, large or small steps, as set when saving these as 'tubes', or when using them, later. The grid is simply defined by specifying a number for rows and columns - nothing more - and PSP makes the calculation based on the size of the 'tube'. So each image in the 'tube' has to be clear of the virtual rectangle of any image next to it. It's clear in the snapshots, below.

To some extent, it would appear that tubes are best kept as flat as possible, with a nice, fairly light, fuzzy shadow at a consistent angle for all the images in that 'tube'. They are meant to be sprayed on as a texture, basically - little blades of grass, assorted flowers, a bowl of jelly beans (maybe). The flatter the surface, the more convincing are the shadows from other images in the tube when the tube is 'sprayed on'. These below have a little height to them, however. Even so, with the proper care taken to establish the shadows, maybe 'taller' tubes can be just as visually convincing. Could one create a tube of skyscrapers, from the bird's eye down to street level?

Taffy from the local Wal-Mart. Shot with digicam Oly 460Z, and very much photo retouched from that. Shadows were pretty dark from the photo, so these were emphasized, and fuzzed up a little, by applying a fuzzy shadow for each separately. Sort of works. Shadow probably still needs work to make it more convincing as a bowl of candy.

DOWNLOAD TAFFY TUBE [170K]

Multi-colored fortune cookies, perhaps something of a Christmas special from last December. Again, shot with digicam under indoor lighting, with flash. The flash produced nice color balance, detail, and washed out most all existing shadow - making it easy to 'tube' them. Cut very cleanly, and quickly. Took very little time to produce the tube. Some Edge Preserving Smooth, a couple of Histogram Adjustment, but not too much more.

DOWNLOAD FORTUNE COOKIE TUBE [220K]