How to Make Objects Disappear in Photoshop CS3

Photoshop CS3 offers limited animated capabilities, which may be enough for quick animated GIF files or simple video. If you can't afford a more expensive animation program you can often get by with Photoshop for useful, but basic tricks such as making objects or titles disappear.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Open your image in Photoshop. Create the image element you want to fade in its own layer. If you are copying pixels from one image layer, you will need to fill the original pixels in with something else.

2. Load the animation palette. You will see your image in a small slide called "Frame 1" at the left of the timeline. Select Frame 1 and click on the "Duplicates Selected Frames" button at the bottom right of the palette. An exact copy will appear as Frame 2.

3. Select "Frame 2." Find the layer with the object you want to fade in the Layers palette. Set the layer transparency to "0." That layer should no longer be visible in the "Frame 2" preview.

4. Click on the "Tweens Animation Frames" button. Choose "Previous Frame" for the "Tween with" option in the Tween dialogue and set the number of frames to "4." Make sure that "Opacity" is checked in the parameters section. Your timeline will extend to six frames and the layer will become more transparent in each one.

5. Choose "Save for Web and Devices" and save your file in GIF format to save it as an animated GIF. If you want to create a movie, use the "Export" command in the Edit menu.