A few of you have asked if it was possible to make snowglobes using the free sites as in my other tutorials and yes it is! You will need a white background, an image, a base and some snow which all are included at the bottom of this tutorial. Just right click and save each one to your computer.

Go to http://magick.net4tv.com/MagickStudio/scripts/MagickStudio.cgi and click on "browse" and find your white background that you have saved. Now click "open" and then press the "view" button and wait for your image to appear.

Now click on "draw" and on the next page set your options to this - in the "primitive" box, set that to "circle". In your "coordinate" box, backspace the numbers off and put this in 140+120 50+50

Now for your "fill color" - set it whatever you want your background to be. For this one, I've chosen "black". For the "stroke color", again this should coordinate with something in your image. Mine will have red, so I've chosen to set this to "red". For the "width" option - here again, it's your option. I prefer a smaller number, but you can check to see which you like best. I'm going to set mine for 2.

Now press the "draw" button - not the tab up top.

When your image appears, look underneath to set the next options. Set "paint type" to "matte" and in the "fill color" backspace anything in there and just leave it blank. Now click on your image and then hit your "enter" button on your keyboard.

Go up to your "composite tab" and click it and wait for the next page. Click on "browse" and find your image that you want in the snowglobe. Click on it and then click "open". Your "gravity" option should be set to "center". Leave everything else alone and now "press to composite" button - not the composite tab up top.

Now we want to put on our base. Go to the "composite" tab up top and click it and wait for the next page. When it appears, click on "browse" and find your base, click on it and then click "open". In the "gravity" option it should still be set to "center". Change the location numbers to this +0+110 Now "press to composite" button - not the composite tab up top. Wait again for your image to appear.

Now let's add some snow!! Again click on your "composite tab" up top. On the next page click on "browse" and then find your animated snow, click on it and then click "open". Underneath in your options, set your "gravity" to "northwest" and backspace out the location numbers and reset to +55+30.

When your image appears, click on the "output" tab up top and then on the next page, "press to output" and wait for the image to appear.

Your image will now appear as a large image up top with smaller frames underneath. Left click on the large image to bring it up on a page by itself. Wait for it to fully load and then right click and save to your computer.

When choosing an image for this project, make sure you have a transparent background. If you don't, you can take it to  http://www.gifworks.com/ or http://www.myimager.com/ and set the transparency option there. On my Santa the background is black - but, that worked since I set the whole background to black.

Also, for any image that you might want to use in the globe - make sure it is a "still" image. If you pick an animated one - then it will usually not work correctly with the animated snow. If you have an image that you want to use, but it is animated - you can always take it somewhere like irfanview and stop the animation - resave it and then use it.

If you would like to change the speed of your snow, just use my tutorial - "How to change the speed of animations"!

Here is the white background:

Here is the image:

Here is the base:

Here is the snow:

Here is the finished snowglobe:

I am also including two more snow options, so that you can have a choice. Just right click in the center of the two boxes below and save them to your computer. Also remember that you can change the speed of your snow too! For those instructions, please check my tutorial - "Adjusting the Speed of Animations". If you do want to change the speed, I would suggest that you change the speed first before you apply it! Have fun!