By doing this tutorial you agree to my terms of use.
Screen shots were taken from PSP7 and Super BladePro and as such have their own copyright.

For this tutorial you will need PSP7, BladePro or Super BladePro and my PSP file which you can download here. The BladePro preset used is Old_Gold and Silver obtained here.
You will also need some gem tubes, I have found 3 very good sites on the web but please respect their terms of use.
 Martins Eclectic Adventures ~ justkissme.com

As the shapes for this image were made using vectors and node editing, describing how to achieve them would be too complicated so I have made a PSP file containing selections saved to the alpha channel.

1. Open the dd_ring.psp file contained in the zip. Shift+D to duplicate, close the original. In the layer palette click layer2 to make it active. Selections/Load from Alpha Channel, choose channel 1.

Flood fill with white. Effects/Plugin filters/Flaming Pear/Super BladePro. Click on the top disc and open the gold_old.q9q. This preset uses a texture, to get rid of this click on the bmp square and hold, choose the top, blank bmp. The other settings stay the same, click OK. Selections/Select none.

2. In the layer palette click layer3 to make active. Selections/Load from Alpha Channel, choose channel 2. Flood fill with white and apply the same BladePro preset. Selections/Select none.

3. Click on layer4 to make active. Selections/Load from Alpha Channel, choose channel 3. Flood fill with white and apply the same BladePro preset, changing the shape and increasing the radius to approx 44. Selections/Select none.

4. Click on layer6 to make active. Selections/Load from Alpha Channel, choose channel 5. Flood fill with white and apply the same BladePro preset this time decreasing the Radius to approx 14. Selections/Select none.

5. Click on layer5 to make active. Selections/Load from alpha Channel, choose channel 4. Flood fill with white and apply the silver preset leaving the settings as they are. Selections/Select none. 

6. From the tubes you downloaded open one of your choice to use for the outer setting, Shift+D to duplicate then close the original. Resize this image to approx 25 pixels, Ctrl+C to copy. Go back to the ring image and click on layer4 to make active, create a new raster layer naming it setting. Now go back to layer5. We are going to be doing a lot of swapping between layer5 and the setting layer, hope you don't get dizzy *s* Get the magic wand, tolerance 50, feather 0 and click inside one of the holes in layer5, Selections/Modify/Expand by 1, now click on the settings layer and Shift+Ctrl+L to paste into selection.

You should end up with the gem pasted into the selection. Go back to layer5, with the magic wand click inside the next hole, Selections/Modify/Expand by 1, go to the setting layer, Shift+Ctrl+L to paste into selection. Repeat this until you have all the holes filled with a gem. Don't forget to paste the gems onto the setting layer, it's so easy to forget and end up with them on the wrong layer. The outer 2 are not complete holes so to fill these, make sure you are working on the setting layer, Ctrl+E to paste as new selection and place them. 

7. Selections/Select none. Staying on the setting layer, Effects/Sharpen/Unsharp mask, radius 1.00, strength 75, clipping 0. Selections/Select all, Selections/float, Effects/3D effects/cutout with these settings -

If after applying the cutout the gems disappear it will be because you did not float the selection, never mind there's always the undo tool *s* Selections/Select none.

8. Last bit, we now need to set the main gem. It will be better to use an image that is not too much smaller than the space needed. Open the gem of your choice, Ctrl+C to copy. Go back to the ring image, click the setting layer to make active, Ctrl+L to paste as new layer, you should have your copied gem pasted as a new layer. With the deformation tool rotate and pull out and push down until the angle and shape looks right, apply the deformation. If you go wrong, undo and try again.

Because the gem has been reshaped it will lose it's focus so go to effects/sharpen/unsharp mask at the previous settings. Merge all layers visible, save as a tube or in PSP format.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, don't be afraid to play with the settings in BladePro or even use a different preset, the one's I used I only gave as a guideline. 

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