On your layer palette window, click on the globe layer to make it the active one. Make sure it is now the one highlighted in blue. Click on the magic wand (RGBvalue...tolerance 0 ...feather 0...sample merged unchecked )and then click in an area outside the globe. When the marching ants appear, then go to the menu bar to "Selections" and then click on "Invert". Check the two images below. I have tried to darken the marching ants to make them easier to see.       My next step is to modify where the ants are marching around the globe and I want that area smaller. Go to the menu bar to "Selections". Go down to "modify" then drag across to "Contract". A small window will pop up and in the space fill in the number 1. This next step is one I do for safety sake to make sure I always have this same selection. Go to the menu "Selections", then down to "Save to an alpha channel". In many graphics you might save more selections to alpha channels and you will need to give them names. In this globe, we are only worried about one, so when the two little windows pop up, don't worry about naming them and just click on "OK" in both areas to bring you back to the globe image. Leave the marching ants visible. Do not deselect. Even though we made our globe selection on one layer it can still be used now that we are moving to a different layer. Go to your layer palette and click on the "image" layer to make it the active one. Make sure it is now the one highlighted in blue. This is all ready for our image now, so put it to one side of the work area and open up my mountain picture. Go to the selection tool and set it for "circle". Then on your mountain picture draw out a circular shape on the part of the image you would like to be in your globe. DO NOT worry about size because I will show you how to fit it with no problems. You will see the area I selected for this demonstration below. Then you can either go to "Edit - copy" or hold the control key down and press the letter C. Now is the time to go back and click on your globe image to make it the active window. Go to the Edit menu, drag down to "paste" then across to "paste into a selection". Your mountain image has now been pasted into the circular area inside the marching ants and fits under your globe with no problems. You can now close and remove the mountain image. Feel free to use it again if you wish in your other work. We are now ready to add extra layers for the snow. I always do three. (However, sometimes when I animate I find I can get away nicely with only using two images.) Open your layer palette and you will notice the active one is still the bottom image layer. Go to the menu "Layers" and create a new raster layer and call it snow 1. Immediately go back and create another layer and call it snow 2. Create one last layer and call it snow 3. The image below shows the three steps you just took. BACK TO PAGE ONE          PAGE THREE MAIN TUTORIAL LIST This tutorial was posted at the site of "P. Ann's Place" Oct.20,2001 and written by P. Sherman. All I ask is that you do not claim it as your own.