Welcome

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2008 Thakar Mihir www.miheer.deviantart.com

Animation Tutorial

Introduction
About This Tutorial:

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2008 Thakar Mihir www.miheer.deviantart.com

This Tutorial walks you step by step to creating a simple animation using Photoshop and ImageReady. I use Photoshop CS2. However, the options I will be using in this Tutorial are available in Version 7.0 as well. Also I would like to mention that this Tutorial is MY way of doing animation. There could be other or easier ways of doing it. I have tried to Explain the Steps as explanatorily as I could. A person who is new to Photoshop can easily understand this tutorial. I believe that Tutorials are a way of giving back to the community. Hope you appreciate that.

All the formalities said let's move on to the Tutorial.

Getting Started
Things you need to start :
1. A design to work with (included in the pack) 2. Photoshop cs2 or later 3. ImageReady cs2 or later

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2008 Thakar Mihir www.miheer.deviantart.com

And Lots of Patience

Note: Other than the Brushes included in this pack everything can be done in version 7 as well.

I Am The Cool Guy

Step 1
Step 1:

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2008 Thakar Mihir www.miheer.deviantart.com

1. Create a new file with the dimensions 600 x 300. You can select any dimensions. However, there are two types of restrictions. a. deviantArt doesn't allow .gif file(the format you will be converting your animated file to later) bigger than 150 x 150. If you do make a file bigger than 150 x 150 then the viewers have to download the animation to view it. b. The Other restriction is for ImageReady. it doesn't allow big files for animation. However, we are OK with the above mentioned size. 2. Set the background color to Black . a. select Black color and hit Alt + Backspace Alt + Backspace
Setting the resolution higher gives you better quality but takes lot of space. 72 is ideal.
I Am The Cool Guy

Step 2
Step 2:

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Tool Bar

1. Create a new layer by clicking (New Layer) Button on the Layers Pane. If you do not have have Layers Pane hit F7 on your Keyboard. Figure a. 2. Now select the Brush Tool as shown in Figure b. and select Soft Round Brush Select size 10 px. as shown in Figure c. - Select White Color. 3. Place a dot right bellow the center of your Layer 2 that you just created. Click several times, so that the dot is nicely visible.

Brush Tool

Figure a. Figure b.

Create New Layer Icon Figure c.

Step 3
Step 3:

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1. Create a new layer by clicking (New Layer) Button on the Layers Pane. This is Layer No. 3. 2. Now in this new layer with the Brush Tool select the design you want to animate, and click on the center. Size of the brush should be approx 500 px. - so if you use the brush in the pack provided with this tutorial your screen should look like Figure d. Notice the starting point must be placed on the dot of Layer 2. Check Point: 1. Layer 1 should be black background. (or your selected color.) 2. Layer 2 should have a White dot the size of 10 px soft brush 3. Layer 3 should have the design you want to animate.

Note: If you don't know how to Install the Brush provided with the pack, see the Readme file provided in the pack.
Starting Point

CP 3

The Dot of Layer 2

CP 2 CP 1

Figure d.

Step 4
Step 4:

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1. Right Click Layer 3 and click on "Duplicate Layer". This will create a copy of the current Layer with a name 'Layer 3 Copy'. 2. Place this layer under Layer 3. To do that Simply drag 'Layer 3 Copy' bellow Layer 3. 3. Click on the Eye icon of Layer 3 on the Layer's pane, to make the layer invisible. This step is necessary you will see it in the next step.

Layers Pane

Invisible Layer

Eye Icon

As a Cool Guy I am supposed to give to cool tips. The most Coolest Tip is to Save your work frequently. Hit Ctrl + S to Save your work. I Save my work after every step. Or whenever I remember. I had such a bad experience in past that now even after I finish writing something on a notebook I look for the 'Save' button.(sometimes)

I Am The Cool Guy

Figure e.

Step 5
Step 5:

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1. On 'Layer 3 Copy' Select the Eraser Tool from the Tool Bar. { { 2. Set the Eraser size to 5 px. you can use the [ and [ keys on your keyboard to increase and decrease the size of your Eraser or Brush. 3. Now with the Eraser click on the Three End Points of you design, as shown in Figure g. (That is, if you have 3 End Points. The Example I am using DOES have 3 End Points.) - Click only once on each of these points.

Eraser Tool

End Point 3 End Point 2

Figure e.

End Point 1

Figure g.

Step 6
Step 6:

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Layers Pane

1. Right click the current layer 'Layer 3 Copy' and click "Duplicate Layer' 2. Drag the new layer bellow 'Layer 3 Copy' as explained in Step 4. 3. Click On the Eye Icon of the previous layer 'Layer 3 Copy' to make it invisible. 4. On the new Layer you just created click on the three End Points with the Eraser Tool . See Figure h. (Your Layers Pane should look like 'Figure i' right now.) 5. Keep repeating this step until you reach the Start Point. - Erase - Duplicate Layer - Drag it Bellow the current layer - Hit the Eye Icon - Erase

Invisible Invisible

Figure i.

End Point 3 End Point 2

End Point 1 Start Point

You may not notice a big change. But we are erasing 5 px at a time so it's tiny, but detailed.
I am the Cool Guy

Figure h.

Previews
1. 2.

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These are a few examples of the designs on the way to the Start Point.
Notice a new End point, 4th end point starts 3. in this Layer.

5th Layer from the Original Layer Notice a new End point, 5th end point starts 4. in this Layer.

10th Layer from the Original Layer

25th Layer from the Original Layer

5.

6.

Back to 3 End Points

28th Layer from the Original Layer

43rd Layer from the Original Layer

53rd Layer from the Original Layer

7.

2 End Points

8.

Only 1 End Point

9.

Again 3 End Points

58th Layer from the Original Layer

Note: When I say 'from the Original Layer' I mean the Layer that has the main design. In This Example Layer 3 is the Original Layer.

Step 7
Step 7:

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1. Once you reach the Start Point, you should have 152 Layers. 150 Layers for all the designs. (you can have more/less layers given the size of eraser and design) 1 Layer for the White dot. 1 Layer for the Black Background. 2. Save your work. 3. Make all the Layers Invisible except the first 1 layer: Black backround 4. Click on the 'Edit in Imageready' button at the very bottom of your Tool Bar. Figure j. You saved,

right ?

Edit in Imageready

Figure j.

Step 8
Step 8:

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1. Now we will be working in Imageready. Before we get into anything let's make sure we have the required widows visible in the Imageready screen. 1. Animation Window (Figure k.) 2. Layers Window (Figure l.) 3. Tool Bar (Figure m.) - If you do not have any of these windows, go to Windows menu, click on Animation, Layers, Tools commands, respectively, to activate them. 2. Click on the "Duplicate Current Frame" button on the Animation Window. as pointed out in Figure k.
Note: Your Animation Window will have only one frame. I am using figure k for example.
Animation Window

Figure m.

Figure k.

Duplicate Current Frame

Figure l.

Step 9
Step 9:

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1. In the Layers Window Turn on the Eye Icon of 'Layer 2' (layer with the White dot) 2. On the Animation Window click the "Duplicate Current Frame" button. 3. In the Layers Window Turn on the Eye Icon of the layer above 'Layer 2'. This layer should look like Figure n. 4. On the Animation Window click the "Duplicate Current Frame" button. 5. In the Layers Window Turn on the Eye Icon of layer above the previous layer. And this time Turn off the Eye Icon on the previous layer. Figure o. Turning off the Eye Icon is necessary because if you don't do it your lines will go thicker by the layer.

Notice how little of the design is visible. This should be the starting point.

Notice how little of the design is visible. This should be 2nd Frame from the starting point.

Figure n.

Figure o.

Test of your Patience

Test of your Patience

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1. This is the place where your Patience will be tested, because there is nothing more interesting than switching the Eye Icon on and off. 2. There won't be much to say until you reach the End. That will be the layer that has the Full Design. And if you followed this tutorial step by step, it will be 'Layer 3'. 3. So once you reach 'Layer 3' you should have approx. 152 frames. 4. Hit the Play button on the Animation Window just to see how it looks. It will keep playing unless you stop it, so hit Stop once you see how it plays. See Figure p.

Play Button

Figure p.

Step 10
Step 10:

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1. Now once you play your animation, you will notice that it goes too fast. Or there is no pause between the loop. 2. To Change this you will need to play with the timings of the frames. 3. Bellow each frame there is the time there is a drop down menu called "Frame Delay Time". See Figure q. 4. Set the 1st and 2nd frames' timing to 0.2 seconds. 5. Leave all other frames as they are. Default 0 seconds. 6. Scroll to the end of Animation window, to the last frame. Set the timing to 1 or 2 seconds. So that when the animation is over it pauses for 2 seconds before starting again. 7. Hit play button again to see how it looks.

Figure q.

The Final Step

Saving Your Animation:

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2008 Thakar Mihir www.miheer.deviantart.com

1. Once you have played enough with the timings, you can move on to saving your file. 2. Go to File Menu and click on "Save Optimized As." command. Figure r. Why ? Because this option lets you save the animation in a .gif file format. which is what we need. 3. So go ahead and give any name you like and hit "Save."
Note: You might want to go to the place where you saved your .gif file and check it.

deviant Tip:
If you are going to upload your animation to the deviantArt website, I should tell you that deviantArt does not allow .gif animation files bigger than 150x150 px. Our animation is a perfect example. If you try to upload a file bigger than 150x150 px you will be asked to provied a preview image (a still, not-moving picture). So keep a preview image ready when uploading. What exactly happens ? Those who come to view your animation will see the preview image and when they hit the dowload button, they can view the actual animation. I know it sucks, but that's how it is. I would also advise that you mention this fact in your description, so that the viewers don't run away finding no animation.

Figure r.

Review

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2008 Thakar Mihir www.miheer.deviantart.com

That's IT!
You are Done! You have created a cool looking Animation! yippi!
So what did We Learn ? 1. How to Work with different tools in Photoshop: Brush tool, Eraser tool, etc. 2. How to manipulate Layers in Photoshop. 3. How to Edit your work in Imageready. 4. How to Animate your designs in Imageready.

Bonus

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2008 Thakar Mihir www.miheer.deviantart.com

Don't forget!
The set of 7 photoshop cs2 Vector Brushes Included in with this Tutorial

Checkout the Readme file included witht the pack to see how to INSTALL these Brushes.

Thank You

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2008 Thakar Mihir www.miheer.deviantart.com

THIS PDF TUTORIAL IS COPYRIGHT TO MIHIR THAKAR. ALL THE IMAGES AND TEXTS ARE ORIGINALLY CREATED BY MIHIR THAKAR. YOU CANNOT USE THIS PDF FOR ANY COMMERCIAL OR PROFITABLE USE. YOU CANNOT MODIFY OR REDISTRIBUTE THIS PDF WITHOUT PERMISSION.