How to Animate an iPod ad in Photoshop CS3

Faking iPod ads with your own photos has become popular with personal web pages. You can also create animated iPod ads. But Apple upped the stakes with their most recent campaigns. The pastel colors and black silhouettes have been replaced with complex gradients. With a little extra effort, you can still make an iPod ad in Photoshop CS3.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Silhouette Your Model

1. Shoot the images of your model dancing. A high-resolution digital camera with fast frame motion capability will give you the best results. Ideally you want to shoot against a light, solid colored wall with as few shadows as possible. Capture at least 24 frames.

2. Create a masking layer with your model for each image. Open the images in Photoshop CS3 and select the background with the magic wand. Modify the selection with the quick selection or quick mask tools until you have the entire background selected. Delete the selected background area. Invert the selection ("Inverse" from the Select menu) and fill the new selection with black.

3. Add a new layer above the masking layer. Click on the "Add Layer Style" icon on the layers palette and add a "Gradient Overlay" style. Choose a "Linear" style with a 90 degree angle. Set each color stop to the colors you want to build your gradient (you can model your gradients on the actual ads or choose your own colors).

4. Apply a clipping mask. Select the top layer and choose "Create Clipping Mask" from the Layers palette options menu. The silhouette layer will mask the gradient style layer.

5. Select both layers and choose "New Group from Layers" from the Layers palette options menu to keep them together. Name the each layer group to represent the sequence of the shots (such as "Dance Step 1") to keep track of them.

6. Choose "Save As" from the file menu. Save your silhouette files with a different file name to keep the original photo file intact. Keep the finished files open so you can move your model into the main ad file.

Create Your Movie

7. Create a new file the same size as your model image files. Make sure your background layer is unlocked and fill with white. Add a "Gradient Overlay" with a "Diamond" style. Use different colors for the tab stops.

8. Move your masked silhouettes from their original files into the movie file. Select each layer group and choose the "Duplicate Layer" command from the Layers palette options menu (you want to keep the mask layers grouped.) Set the movie file as your destination. The duplicate layer option will keep the all your layers aligned when they copy over.

9. Open the Animation palette. You will see a frame with a thumbnail of your image. Hide all of the silhouette layer groups (except for the first dance step) by clicking on the eyeball icon in the Layers palette. You should now see only the first step in the dancer's motion.

10. Choose "New Frame" from the Animation palette options menu. You will see a copy of the image. Hide the first layer group and show the second.

11. Adjust the diamond gradient settings. Double click on the background layer's "Gradient Overlay" sublayer and change the angle and scale slightly. The diamond will look different in the new frame thumbnail.

12. Add a new animation frame showing each dance step and hiding the others. Continue to tweak the diamond gradient settings in each new frame.

13. Render to video. You can choose "Export" from the file menu to control the render settings. You can also use "Save for Web and Devices" to save the file as an animated GIF instead.

Tips & Warnings

• You want to shoot still images rather than video because the resolution quality tends to be better with photographs.
• If you want to capture the full flavor of an iPod ad, put an object in the model's hand. You will then want to copy it to a new layer and fill it with white in each frame of your animation. This will require additional time and patience. You can also tweak the gradient fills in the masked gradient layers and blend pattern overlay layer styles with the background layer.
• If you are working with Photoshop CS3 Extended, you want to make sure the Animation palette is in "Frame" mode.