Here's a fast way to create some little animations for your website.
Start by opening all the images you'll want in your animation (I'm using three of the Graffidude images you see around the workshop).
Then create a new blank document the size you want your animation to be. Now arrange these windows on your workspace so you can see all the images. One-by-one, drag the images into the blank document. They'll automatically create their own layers.
Each layer represents a different frame of your animation:
For a simple animation, click File>Save for Web. The familiar dialog window wil pop open. For an animation, choose GIF from the drop menu, and tick ON the Animate box. Down below this area, you'll see a place where you can adjust the animation's speed and looping (repeating), and scroll through the separate frames:
The output will result in a gif animation - "anigif" - like this one -
Kinda cool, but sort of drab. It's just a series of images that pop up and don't seem to relate or interact with each other at all. What if we could make them blend a little better?
Motion blur to the rescue! First, duplicate each layer by dragging it into the New Layer icon at the top (or bottom, depending on your version of PSE) of the Layers palette.
Choose one of the duplicate layers, and apply a Motion Blur filter to it (Filters>Blur>Motion Blur). The settings I used are below:
Once you've applied the blur, choose the next copied layer and press <Ctrl> (<Cmd>) + <F> to apply the same filter with the same settings to it. Repeat this until all the duplicate layers are blurred. Arrange them as shown in my layers palette
PSE animates from the bottom of the stack to the top, so keep this in mind as you arrange your layers.
Click File>Save for Web again, and make your output settings to result in a smoother animation like the one below:
It works well on text animations, too:
Start by opening all the images you'll want in your animation (I'm using three of the Graffidude images you see around the workshop).
Then create a new blank document the size you want your animation to be. Now arrange these windows on your workspace so you can see all the images. One-by-one, drag the images into the blank document. They'll automatically create their own layers.
Each layer represents a different frame of your animation:
For a simple animation, click File>Save for Web. The familiar dialog window wil pop open. For an animation, choose GIF from the drop menu, and tick ON the Animate box. Down below this area, you'll see a place where you can adjust the animation's speed and looping (repeating), and scroll through the separate frames:
The output will result in a gif animation - "anigif" - like this one -
Kinda cool, but sort of drab. It's just a series of images that pop up and don't seem to relate or interact with each other at all. What if we could make them blend a little better?
Motion blur to the rescue! First, duplicate each layer by dragging it into the New Layer icon at the top (or bottom, depending on your version of PSE) of the Layers palette.
Choose one of the duplicate layers, and apply a Motion Blur filter to it (Filters>Blur>Motion Blur). The settings I used are below:
Once you've applied the blur, choose the next copied layer and press <Ctrl> (<Cmd>) + <F> to apply the same filter with the same settings to it. Repeat this until all the duplicate layers are blurred. Arrange them as shown in my layers palette
PSE animates from the bottom of the stack to the top, so keep this in mind as you arrange your layers.
Click File>Save for Web again, and make your output settings to result in a smoother animation like the one below:
It works well on text animations, too: