How to Create a Simple Animation With Photoshop CS3 Extended

Prior to Photoshop CS3 you had to step outside the application to animate your images. You could jump to its companion program Image Ready or export your images and animate in another application. Image Ready was clunky and other applications cost money. Photoshop CS3 changed that, and CS3 Extended provides even more sophisticated animation features.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Plan your animation. The more you plan ahead the more time you save later. Sketch out a simple storyboard of the key frames in your animation.

2. Create your first frame. Separate the characters onto different layers.

3. Choose "Animation" from the Window menu. The animation palette will open in one of two modes, Frame Animation (which shows the individual animation frames), or Timeline Animation (which shows each layer extended across the length of the movie).

4. Toggle to Timeline Animation. The icon in the bottom right corner of the palette switches between the two animation modes.

5. Adjust the animation and layer lengths. You can drag the end of the timeline, and the beginning and end of each layer to control their length and at what point they occur.

6. Set keyfames. Click on the triangle next to each layer to view the properties you can animate (position, opacity and layer style). Drag the "Time Indicator" above the timeline to the exact point where you want a change to occur and click on the diamond next to the property icon. A diamond will appear in the timeline to indicate a keyframe has been set.

7. Play back your animation. Tweak the layers and keyframes to fine tune. Choose "Render Video…" from the "File" menu's "Export" submenu. Export your file as a QuickTime movie or an image sequence.

Tips & Warnings

• Unlike the standard frame animation of many programs, the Photoshop Extended timeline allows you to work with an interface similar to Premiere and After Effects, their companion products. This allows you to tween (create smooth transitions between keyframes) rather than make changes to every frame.
• Start with a simple animation your first time out. Limit the motion to one or two different layers.
• The key to a successful animation is to work with layers. Each element you want to behave differently should have its own layer.
• When you're finished, toggle back to Frame Animation mode to see the difference between frame-based and timeline-based animation.
• If you paint directly onto any layer those changes will appear in every frame. Use the shape tools, or paint changes on separate layers.