How to Make a Simple Animation in Photoshop

If you want to make a simple animation on your computer, you could spend a lot of money on animation programs or download shareware programs with limited capabilities. But if you own Photoshop CS3, you already have a small animation studio at your disposal. Here is how to create simple animations in Photoshop.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Photoshop CS3

1. Storyboard your animation. You don't have to draw well, but you should sketch out the most important frames. You can save a lot of time if you plan your sequence before you begin.

2. Open a new document and then open the animation palette. Choose "Animation" from the Window menu. The animation palette shows the individual animation frames and controls.

3. Create your first frame. Use layers to separate stationary objects from moving objects.

4. Click on the "Duplicates Current Frame" icon in the animation palette. A copy of the frame will appear. Repeat for each new frame.

5. Select the frame you want to edit. Make any changes to the new frame in the document window. You can shift layer position, add layers or show and hide layers. You can also drag the frames to rearrange them.

6. Set the frame and movie properties. You can control the individual frame speed, delay times, and even reverse a frame sequence.

7. Export your movie. Choose "Render Video" from the File menu's Export submenu. You can export your file as a QuickTime movie or image sequence.

Tips & Warnings

• You can duplicate multiple frames by selecting a frame sequence before you click the duplicate icon.
• Delete unwanted frames by dragging them to the animation palette trash icon.
• This technique only works with Photoshop CS3. For prior version you must work with Photoshop files in a separate program called Image Ready.
• If you are working with Photoshop Extended, the animation palette must be in "Frame Animation" mode for these directions to work.