Animation Tutorial - Photoshop & ImageReady
This tutorial is for both Photoshop and Image Ready
1) Decide on the image and/or text you want to use for the
animation. In this tutorial I am going to focus mainly on the text, but
once you understand how to animate text it should be easier to animate
images etc.
2) In Photoshop, open a new file, or an image. Whichever. On the
background image, type the words you want to animate. It's best to type
one word, click the "tick" at the top, then type the next word wherever
you want it. Continue until all words are on the canvas in the
locations you want them.
Note: It's totally okay if the words overlap (as you see in the below screenshot.
Note: As you notice, each time you click to type a new word, it
goes onto a new layer (see below), which is important when it comes to
animation in Image Ready.
3) Ensure all the layers are visible (the eye next to each layer is shown).
Now we need to move this file, into Image Ready. This can be done by
clicking the icon towards the bottom of the toolbar (shown below), or
by going into
File -> Edit in Image Ready. If you haven't opened the program already, Image Ready will start up, so you'll have both Photoshop and Image Ready running.
4) In Image Ready, you should see an animation panel and the layers. If it's not there, go into
Window and ensure
Animation and
Layers
are both checked. You will see your image, with all the text and the
layers. You now need to duplicate the first layer as many times as
needed. As many frames as you need. In my example, we will want to
duplicate the first frame 5 times. Why? Let's see...
First Frame: Blue Background - "This" text
Second Frame: Blue Background - "is" text
Third Frame: Blue Background - "an" text
Forth Frame: Blue Background - "animation" text
Fifth Frame: Blue Background (End)
On the below screenshot, I have duplicated the first frame 5 times. The
button you need to click is circled. Ensure the first frame in the
Animation panel is highlighted, and click the button circled as many
times as required. Don't worry if you click more than you need, you can
delete unneeded frames later.
5) Now, we need to sort out what goes on what frame. It can be a bit
tricky and a bit confusing, but stick with it. =) Highlight the very
first frame on the animation panel. What do we want on there? Well, as
said earlier, on the first frame on this example I want a blue
background, and "this" text. Ensuring the first frame is highlighted,
click the eye symbol next to all the layers in the layers panel so that
the eye symbol disappears, except "Layer 1", and "This". The first
frame should change slightly, maybe all the frames will.
Now we move onto the second frame. Highlight the second frame. On this
frame we want "Layer 1", and "is" text. Ensure the eye symbol is
visible next to these two layers, but all the other layers are
invisible. Carry on with this for all 5 frames and it should end up
looking like this:
6) Next we tween the frames. It's okay if we don't, we can leave it as
it is but the frames will be a bit choppy and abrupt. If we tween, the
transition between frames is smoother. Highlight the very first frame.
Click the
tween button, which is located next to the duplicate button on the animation panel.
Use these settings:
Tween With: Next Frame
Frames to add: 2 (I used two, but as many as you want. The more
frames, the smoother animation is. However, the more frames, the bigger
the file. So don't make it too huge!)
Layers: All Layers
Parameters: Position, Opacity, Effects.
Click OK. Now, move onto the next
full frame, one of the
"original" ones that hasn't been tweened. Highlight it, and repeat
tween. Then move onto next full frame. Etc. Until all layers have been
tweened. (In this case, 5 frames have been tweened, each added 2
frames, now there's about 13 frames)
7) Ok, one last step!! =) Timing! Look at the bottom of the frames, it
may say "No Delay". This means when the animation is played it will go
faster than a speeding bullet which is not always good. Click below the
frames, select how long to display that frame until next frame is
shown. 0.2 seconds doesn't sound a lot, but it is. Try not to make the
frame last for longer than 1 second unless nessascery; one second is
quite long. Click the play button to review your animation.
When you're happy. Go to file, and save! End animation:
