Figure 1
I am using Paint Shop Pro 7 to do this tutorial and thus suggest saving files as filename.psp. When you see this, use your program's default file extension.
The first preset we are going to make in this tutorial is the blank preset. Download this zipped file which contains all the bmps and/or other appropriate files. Open a file 300x300 with transparent background. The only reason I suggest transparent is so that you can place your graphic on top of another. With the selection tool, make a rectangle. Now open SBP and place all settings on 0 (radius will only go to 2). For both the texture and environment graphics, select white.bmp. Glue has normal checked. Lights are white as well with the sliders at the top.
One word about loading a preset from BP (.q9q). SBP has apparent defaults for its new controls, but these do not seem to have an affect on your BP preset. Blotch size is 50, Evaporation is 25, Diffusion is 80 and Wander is 25. But for our blank.q5q, we want these 0 as well.
Now we will save this and call it blank, but to differentiate it from other presets, place your initials or call letters in front of it. For instance, I usually do 'jo_blank'. I do this when I develop a new preset so I know its one that I made. SBP extension to the file is 'q5q'. Earlier BP was 'q9q' and SBP reads both. You may never use this preset again, but it comes in handy when you want to start with a clean slate. It saves time and you won't make a mistake by missing a control. Remember the save button is the button with the blue arrow to the left of the little cd. Open is the one that has the blue arrow to the right. Hit ok and exit out of SBP.
Undo the selection because we want to make one that will appear like a big stone from a wall when we are done with this part of the tutorial. Make a rectangle that is about 1/3 as long as it is high (about 1 inch viewing size on your screen). Save this as blocktmp.psp in case you make a mistake and need to reload the exact size. Fill it with white, otherwise, SBP won't do anything to it.
Set all your top controls to match the Figure 1. Make sure your Glue is normal and that you change the Lights controls as well. Once you do this, you should have a simple white button and you can save this as whitebutton preceded by your call letters. This way, if you make a mistake, you just have to load it, and it can also be a great starting place for future experiments.
Figure 1
Next, we more down to the bottom controls. First you need to change some colors. For Rain, change it to #98B8B8, Evaporation #808080, Leakiness and Blotch size to #C0C0C0. Now, set all the controls as shown in Figure 2. But as you set them, notice what each one does. This is much more educational then someone trying to explain. As with the Rain and Evaporation, you can see how it seems to run from the top of the block to the bottom. And with blotches, blotch size controls the color and size (or amount).
Figure 2
You block should resemble Figure 3.
Figure 3
Save this preset as cementblock preceded by your call letters. Now hit Ok and we have our first cement block. Notice I said first? Well we are going to make a bunch of different ones and all we have to do is:
and repeat these steps until we have enough blocks to build our wall. Random seed changes the gravelly effects of the block so that no two blocks are alike. Leave a small space between all the bricks so you can do a mortar later. You will need 8 full size blocks and 2 half blocks. It should resemble Figure 4.
Figure 4
Select the brick wall. Open a new file with the background color #D8D4D4. Copy the wall to that file and then reselect the brick wall and move it back to the transparent background. As in Figure 5a, you should see that the wall now as mortar and it is now ready to place in a graphic. If you make the spaces little larger between the blocks, you can use the magic wand to select the mortar and change its charactor using SBP.
Figure 5a
Figure 5b