Super Blade Pro Tutorial

If the pictures in the tutorial are too small you can click on them
to make them full size.


*DISCLAIMER*  Before I go any further I need to say, that I cannot take full 
credit for all of the information in this tutorial. Some of it comes from my own 
experiences made up of trial and error and some of it I learned from other 
tutorials down through the years.

Plugins are an amazing little tool that lets you take PSP to a new level and most
of us have our favorites, the "go-to" plugins that we use all the time.
For me, it's Super Blade Pro (SBP).

If you don't have Super Blade Pro you can find it HERE

Before you get started, I should tell you that it can be more than a little
confusing when you first try to use  SBP and I have to admit that after
several years of playing with this plugin, I finally found an easier way
to use it.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with SBP there are two folders
to store your goodies.
You have "environments and textures" and "bladepro presets".

When you download new presets they come in folders complete with their
q5q and  .bmp files  
Put ALL of your preset folders in your "environments and textures" folder.

Since writing this tutorial I discovered that the way I organized my collection
of  SBP Presets was wrong and about the only thing I had right was that the
folders were in my environments and textures folder.

I thought I had come up with a brilliant method of organizing when I decided to
separate my presets .q5q  by color.  Each color had it's own folder but all the
.bmp  files were lumped together outside the folders.
I know. I can hear your gasps from here.

Here is a screenshot of my "brilliant" jumbled up mess.
To fix it I would have to start from scratch and download each preset over again
(IF I could even find them) and I just can't psyche myself up for the task. 




I had the right idea but the way I did it was wrong, and I really didn't see the
error of my ways until (January 2020) when I downloaded some new presets and
decided to keep THOSE folders separate from the rest.
It was a life-changing event. :-)

When I did that I  realized that I should have kept everything together from the
get-go, instead of separating the .bmp and .q5q files .
The whole process runs a lot smoother now, so when that little panel pops up and
asks me to find such and such .bmp file,  the .bmp file is right there and if there IS a
problem with a missing .bmp file I don't have to go hunting for it.
I wish I had figured this out a long time ago.

So now, when I download a new collection of presets,  I sort through them and
organize them by colors,  but only for that collection.
Here is a screenshot of my Punkin Haid Blade Pro Studio Presets folder.




Here is a screenshot of the 04 Red Folder



And this is what the Burgundy folder looks like.
The .bmp and .q9q files sitting together all nice and neat just like they
should. Well, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.




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Out of the goodness of their hearts, whenever you install PSP, Jasc (and now Corel)
creates a folder for all of your PSP Goodies, right in your Documents folder.
It's called My PSP Files and I put everything but the kitchen sink in that baby.

You will have to create a Plugins folder. For some reason it's not included.

Once in awhile you come across a persnickety plugin that refuses to work unless
you put it directly in the Jasc or COREL PSP Plugins folder, but this is rare.

Now that you have Super Blade Pro installed you will want to have some fun,
and you will definitely need some Presets.

Here are a few to get you started. 
000 SBP PRESETS

I did NOT create these presets.
I tried to contact the creators but my emails bounced back to me
and Google searches didn't provide any more information.

All you have to do is unzip the folder and then Copy and Paste the folder into
your own Super Blade Pro  "environments and textures" folder.

You might need to RESTART PSP for any Plugin changes to show up.

Are you ready to get started? 

You can use SBP for anything from Picture Frames to Accents to Corners for

your Picture Frames but I decided to use Alpha Letters to show you what SBP can do.

For the Foreground and Background colors I chose White.
Regardless of what colors you start out with, most of the time, SBP will do its own thing.

I am using  A B C here for the example with these settings.

VictorianD font 

 

Go to Effects and Flaming Pear and then scroll down to SuperBladePro

This panel will pop up. 

See the Red Arrow pointing to that middle area?

This is where you choose your Presets.

I want to use a Silver Preset so I am opening my SILVER folder.

I've been wanting to create an alpha with letters that look like 

shiny metal so I'm going to try the POLISHED SILVER Preset 

to see if it gives me that effect. 

If you haven't used this preset before this panel will pop up
asking you to find it. This preset is from my days of separating
the files so I need to go back and find the .bmp file.



And here it is.   !Pgrey.bmp file and

Don't panic or worry that you did something wrong if the
PREVIEW  doesn't look right to you.  

9 times out of 10 it will look nothing like the actual results. 

Here is the Preview for my ABC letters with the
Polished Silver Preset.



AND here is the actual result:



It still doesn't look shiny enough to me so I am going to use the
Inner Bevel Effect.
This is one of the settings that I use quite often for my Alphas.



Here is what my letters look like now, after using the Inner Bevel effect
and then Repeating it.



Maybe you're looking at those letters and thinking,

"Yeah that looks nice, but I want MY letters to shine, baby". LOL!!!

Well, then,  let's try another Preset. This one is chrome.q9q



Yep! These letters are a lot shinier :-)



 And now let's add some Inner Bevel and see what happens!

  

You can always change the Preset settings for different results.
Changing the Shape (upper left hand corner) or even the
Glare or Reflection will change the way your Preset behaves,
(or Mis-behaves) so don't be afraid to experiment and have fun.

Here are more examples:

15 PC POLISHED BLUE

12 MT ROYAL GREEN




PA OLD GOLD




BLACK GLASS

Here are a few websites to help you find more Presets.

Outta My Shell Digital Studios
http://www.omsds.com/bladepro/omssuper01.html

Meadows Studio
http://www.meadowsstudio.com/index.html

Cloudslight SBP Presets
http://www.cloudslight.com/set01.html

Dreamview SBP Presets
http://varian.net/dreamview/dreameffects/samples/vbp01/vbp01.html

Pixel Art by Joyce
http://www.pixelating.com/Treasury/Blade/bladeS.htm

Essex Girl
http://www.essexgirl.uk.com/sbp_presets-index.htm

Elizabeth's SBP Presets

http://sbppresetgallery.tripod.com/gallery.htm

Punkin Haid's SBP Presets

http://bladeprostudio.tripod.com/bp/bldpr1.html

If  you have any questions please holler :-)

psp.alphagirl@gmail.com

Big Hugz, Susan