Photoshop Help

Making Animation with Photoshop

Yes, you can make animations out of Photoshop. Surprised? There are two kinds of animations I'm going to tell you about, and the below steps are the same for both (at the moment anyway).

1. Choose 2 images you want ot animate, preferrably the same size.
2. Open them both in photoshop.
3. Hold down Shift, then drag one of the images onto the other.

4. Click on the Image Ready Icon
5. Select the triangle on the Animation tab, and choose Make Frames from Layers.


Making Smooth Animations

Step Six: Highlight Frame 1, then choose the option on the bottom of the window that look like a ball fading, then choose the options as shown below.


Step Seven: Drag Frame 1 and place it to the right of Frame 3. Highlight (the old, now Frame 2) Frame 3 and do what you did in Step Six.


Step Eight: Drag Frame 6 back to where it had been in Step One (on the left beside Frame 2).

Step Nine: Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S and save your image. You should get this if you did it correctly.


Straight-Forward Animation

(Let's assume you're back on step 5)

Step Six: Select 1 Second for both, do Step Nine in the Smooth Animation part, and you're done!


Step Seven: You should get this if you did it correctly. This may take a while for you to understand, but it'd make perfect sense when you do :)

 

Learn About The Layouts

When working in Photoshop one can get overwhelmed by the multitude of possible options. Options are great since you have to make so many different graphics, but its hard to know what exactly to do and when. Here is a quick overview of the basic options in Photoshop.
 

When you click on the arrow, other options appear that you can try out. A screenshot of this feature is un-available at this time.

This is highlighting the Blend Mode of the selected layer. Altering the Blend Mode can make a huge difference in the way your layer may look.

This shows how opaque a layer is.

This icon allows you to lock the transparency of the layer.

This locks the layer of any brushing use.

This locks the layer of mobility.

This option combines the three previously mentioned locks to lock the selected layer.

This option is difficult to explain as it is similar to the opacity option. It will be explained more in-depth in a separate tutorial.

Clicking this icon will allow you to choose special effects to a layer and change the blending mode.

This adds a layer mask to the selected layer.

Selecting this icon is another method to add an adjustment layer.

This creates a group for you to place your layers in for a more organized feel. More details will be explained in a more detailed tutorial.

This creates a new layer above your selected layer.

 

This deletes your selected layer(s).

The blue highlights mean the layers are selected. You can select multiple layers by pressing 'Ctrl' and clicking on a layer or 'Shift' and clicking on different layers.

The green signals it’s still a text layer.

This layer is a text layer that has not been rasterized, which is basically converting vector to bitmap.

This layer is a regular layer with a layer mask attached.

This is a gradient map, one of the many Adjustment Layers that can be accessed through Layer >  New Adjustment Layer. Why does it have a white glow? That’s the layer mask. If an area is black, it will not show. If it’s grey, it will be semi-transparent. And if a part is white, it is opaque.

Layer 4 is the name of the layer. You can change it by double clicking on the name of the layer.

The eye shows the layer is visible.

 

Credit:
This tutorial has been written exclusively for NeoLodge.com by MemoryBlade.
Table by Joey.