The Idea

We wanted to create the puzzle with the non-standard knobs and embedded objects (in particular that had to be some bones, since it was a "Puppy's dream"! :-) )


The Plan

The plan was the following: creating the suitable shape for knives (It seemed to us that a puppy's muzzle would be a nice idea.), then preparing a good looking layout and then, cutting the puppy's image into the puzzle pieces. And at last, we had to take care of embedding the objects (bones).


The Process

For your convenience, we have prepared the ZIP file with the source image and the Puzzle Pro 3.x settings file. Click here to download it.


Preparing the puzzle pieces:

1. First of all, we have prepared the shape (Path) for the knives. As we have already mentioned that was a puppy's muzzle. Please review the Creating a Custom Shaped Knife tutorial where we describe the process of preparing the custom-shaped Path and as an example has been taken a puppy's muzzle.

2. Open the Puppy.jpg and duplicate the layer with Puppy in order to keep untouched the source image. Then, start Puzzle Pro 3.x. Make the desired layout by specifying the number of rows and columns, level of the knots randomization, etc. (Use the Puppy's Settings.avpd file from the downloaded ZIP file to check the parameters that we've prepared.)
3. Click the Cut button. Puzzle Pro 3.x cuts the image and switches into the Puzzle mode. For our design, we have turned off (hid) some of the pieces, in order to obtain the non-completed look of the puzzle layout. We have also added some bevel to the pieces. (If you use the Puppy's Settings.avpd file, then the appropriate pieces will be hidden and the bevel applied.)
4. Click the Apply button and get the image cut into the puzzle pieces inside your host (see Fig.1). Now you may undo the last action (Ctrl+Z [Win] or Cmd+Z [Mac]), since you will need the puppy's image to complete the design.

Embedding the objects into the puzzle pieces:

1. We will embed the objects into the puzzle pieces using the technique described in the Simple Integration part of the Embedding an Object into the Puzzle Pieces tutorial. So, place the objects, which you want to embed, in the separate layer(s). As for us, the objects that we've used (Bones, Sun and Plant) were taken from Adobe Photoshop's built-in gallery of Shapes and placed in several layers (see Fig.2).
2. We wanted the objects to carry the content of the main image (Puppy.jpg), rather than being just black (as on Fig.2). This is when we needed the Puppy's image. So, we have selected all the objects (except the Sun) at once, and placed them into the new layer using the Photoshop's Layer Via Copy command (Ctrl+J [Win] or Cmd+J [Mac]). The Sun was placed in the separate layer using the same procedure. (We did that specially, because we wanted to adjust the color of the Sun.)
3. Following the Simple Integration part of the Embedding an Object into the Puzzle Pieces tutorial (steps 2 and 3, except the Undo, because we've already done that) we have obtained the objects embedded, but yet without bevel (see Fig.3).
4. By using the steps 4 and 5 of the mentioned above tutorial we've added the bevel effect to the objects. We have followed these steps two times in a row: first time for the layer with all objects, but the Sun (see Fig.4) and then, for the layer with the Sun. Just pay attention to one additional action while we've been operating the layer with the Sun: before clicking the Apply button (from step 5 of that tutorial) we had used the plug-in's Color Overlay built-in effect to specify the desired color of the Sun (see Fig.5). This has completed the design.

The result you can see in the Puppy's Dream (C2) gallery sample.