Basic .Gif animation in PS CS4.

[Legacy Code]

Here is a quick tutorial to show some very basic animation using one image and some imagination.

I opened up a new document and i made it 800x1000 pix. I then filled it in black.
Then i opened up the image i wanted to animate and placed it on a new layer and named it Eggman 1. Then right clicked on the Eggman 1 layer and selected to duplicate the layer and named it Eggman 2

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With the Eggman 2 layer selected i went to EDIT> TRANSFORM> FLIP VERTICAL.

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Still with Eggman 2 , i went to EDIT>TRANSFORM> ROTATE 180.

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Now i have a mirror image of Eggman, so i lined them both up the best i could , trying to match some body parts like the head and torso up.It varies from image to image so experiment and see what works

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Next i went to WINDOW > ANIMATION and opened up the animation palette making sure i had the animation frame palette selected. You have two types of animation palette but i wanted to use the frame animation as it is better for basic animated gifs.If the Timeline palette opens up , just click on the drop down menu icon in the top right hand corner of the palette and select convert to frame animation.

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I turned off the Eggman 2 layer and made sure Eggman 1 was selected in the first frame of the anmation.

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I clicked on NEW FRAME in the animation palette (The small icon next to the rubbish bin in animation palette)And did exactly the same for Eggman 2 making sure i deselected Eggman 1.

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Then i selected the frame rate , or the speed each frame would play at.I selected 0.5 seconds on both frames and made sure FOREVER was selected in the bottom left hand corner.

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Press play and see how it works , If its cool you can maybe crop the image so it all fits nice.Add some text and effects ...its up to you. Once your happy save for web and devices as a .GIF and spam your way over teh interwebz . Just make sure you select the first frame when you edit your animation as it will apply to all frames ( but click through them all to make sure)

I hope this was easy to follow and if you have any questions or i didnt explain anything well enough please feel free to ask what you want either by a PM or here.

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[Mr GRiM]

Nice Tutorial thanks

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[Legacy Code]

Woohoo someone read my tut Its always good to try and help people out in PS.

[Kira-chan]

wow thanks for the tut, i always wanted to know how to make gifs.
i will be using it to make gifs once i get my laptop back. xD

[lostiano]

Nice post and thanks.... can u post a nice tutorial about how to add animated effects to text like this >>

[armani077]

Cant wait to try this. Where can I find images (alien head) like your avatar?

[Species A.I.]

Cant wait to try this. Where can I find images (alien head) like your avatar?

You can either look for alienware renders for photoshop, or find a wallpaper that you like, that has the alien head that suits you, and make your own cutout/render in PS, or find a wall that you like and I would be glad to help you out with your project.

[SinSu]

Thank you very much.