[Hall of tricks]

We need to add an image that will fit in the locket. You can choose any image that you like. To trim the image so that it has the same proportion as the locket, we'll use the locket itself as the cutting tool.

• If  you want to use an image from the PI Album, click Switch at the top-right of the screen and choose PhotoImpact Album otherwise open your image.
• In the People album, find your image. Right-click on it and choose Open.
• Press Ctrl+Tab to switch to the locket. Hint: Ctrl+Tab is a standard keyboard shortcut many applications use to move to another opened document. This is quicker than finding it through the Window menu.
• Select the locket, copy it by pressing Ctrl+C. Hit Ctrl+Tab to go back to your image then Ctrl+V to paste the locket.

Let's reduce the size of the image so that it's just smaller than the locket. Then we'll cut it using the copy of the locket.

• Right-click the background image and choose All. Right-click the background again and choose Convert to Object.
• Click the Transform Tool then Resize in the toolbar. Resize the image so that it's slightly larger than the locket. To preserve the proportion of your image, hold Shift while you reduce the image with the Resize tool.
• Drag the image in order that the part you want in under the locket. The image below on the left shows what you need to achieve. Here, I used another image than the one on page 1.
• Right-click your image and select Merge.
• Click on Path Drawing Tool and select the locket. In the Mode list, select Selection.
• If required, you can click inside the elliptical selection to move it a little. If you click outside the selection, you'll lose it! (See below on the right.)

• Right-click in the selection and choose Convert to Object.
• Click on Pick Tool and select your elliptical image. Press Ctrl+C, hit Ctrl+Tab to return to the locket the Ctrl+V to paste it there.
• Using the Transform Tool, resize the image so that it fits nicely within the locket. So that the the locket for which we work so hard is still visible, I choose to make the image slightly smaller than the locket.
• Since two ellipses don't fit well inside another, you might want to reduce its width just a little.

Now let's work on the cover. The cover is really a copy of the locket with the 3D Round mode instead of 3D Custom.

• Using the Pick Tool click the locket and while Ctrl is pressed drag a copy beside.
• Click the Path Drawing Tool and change the Mode to 3D Round. Set the Border to a value around 20 and the Depth to 10.
• In the Easy Palette find the Material Gallery then Metallic group. Right-click on Steel 3, choose Modify Properties and Apply.
• In the Bump tab, uncheck Bump map. In the Reflection tab, uncheck Reflection map. Click OK.
• Now the the lighting on the cover. This is a critical part to make the cover look real. You need to cast light only on the right edge of the cover. The left side needs to be darker. Make sure Path Drawing Tool is still selected and click on Material.
• Click the Light tab. In the Lights control, reduce the number of lights to 2. Set both lights to Spot.
• Above the preview, click the first light bulb button. Click and drag the mouse very close to the right edge of the object (at about 3 o'clock) in the preview. Stay inside the circle! Repeat the same thing for the light bulb 2 (at about 4 o'clock). The first light bulb should be slightly higher than the second one so that the light casts from two different directions.
• Set the Ambient slider to a value around 23.
• Click the Shading tab. Each light can have a different setting in this tab. Set both lights to Phong and set Shininess and Strength to values between 90 and 95 for both lights.
• When you're happy with the results, click OK.

Use the Transform Tool to reduce the width of the cover just less than half its width. Too much will not look good and too little will hide your image in the locket. The following image is about what you're looking for.

Move the cover over to the left side of the locket. Make sure that some of the pearl cover is still visible. This will make the locket much more realistic. To add a symbol on the cover use the Text Tool. Add a single character to your image. There are many ideas you can use. For instance you could use your initials or a character from a dingbat font. Make it only one or two characters long. Whatever you choose, you should go through the same steps to make it look as part of the cover.

• Using the Transform Tool - Resize decrease its width.
• In the Transform Tool use the Perspective tool and slightly increase it's right edge. Naturally, you can also choose to decrease its left edge. To do this, zoom on the symbol and while the Perspective handle are visible, drag the upper right handle up a little. This will give a better illusion that the symbol is engraved in the cover.
• Use a nice color for the symbol. I used the Text Tool's color box by right clicking on it, then I selected Eyedropper and I choose a dark color on the cover.
• Position your symbol slightly more to the left of the cover's middle. The image below shows the three steps above (original, stretched then perspective.)

If you followed me up to this point, your image should look like the following:

You can optionally give an old picture look to your image. In PI 5 use the following technique. Using the Pick Tool select your image then choose Format/Hue and Saturation. Decrease the Saturation to a value in the range of -40 to -45.

Believe it or not in PI 6, it works very differently. There's actually many ways to do this in PI 6 . For instance in the Easy Palette, open the Filter Gallery then find the Hue and Saturation group. Double-click on H&S 3. If you want to play with the settings instead, right-click on H&S 3 and choose Modify Properties and Apply. Increase the Lightness to a value around 12. You can also explore the settings of the Two-Color 5 in the Tow-Color group. This would also look nice.

To give an embedded look to your image, let's add a thin dark shadow all around it.

• Right-click the image and choose Shadow.
• Use the 5th button to set the shadow all around. Set the color to a very dark gray (not black.)
• Set Transparency to 45, Shadow Size to 104 or 105 and Soft Edge to 5.
• Click OK.

Let's create a ring at the top of the locket to attach the chain.

• Click Outline Drawing Tool then choose Ellipse in the toolbar.
• Zoom very close at the top of the locket and draw a small ring (about 14 x 12.)
• Set it's Border to 1 and the Mode to 3D Round.
• Use the Easy Palette's Material Gallery to give it  the metallic look you want. I choose Copper 1 in the Metallic group.
• Using the Pick Tool, sent the ring behind everything with Send To Back.

Now for the chain. Instead of repeating the instructions for the chain, click this link (which will open another session of your browser), when your done, close the browser to come back to this tutorial. For this tutorial, I used a capital O with the Franklin Gothic font 14 pts in size.

To attach the chain to the ring, here's a cool trick I learned while making the locket.

• Edit the path for the chain and bring a node on the ring. You can also create a new node if you want (Hold Shift while you click on the path.) 
• In the toolbar, click on Free Edit Mode (the curly button with a red x.) Drag the two handles for that node until you have a V shape. The interesting thing is that PI will completely remove the chain link below the ring. This will make it easier to attach the chain to the ring. Here's what I mean.

• Position the node so that the to links look attached to the ring. It's fine it they look distorted a little, nobody will notice.
• Click the Pick Tool and send the chain behind everything with the Send To Back button.

In part three we'll add the small lock to close the cover and add shadow to the different parts of the locket. If you save your work, make sure you save it as a .ufo file format! 

[ Part 3 ]