How to Make a Slicing Jason Vorhees in Adobe Photoshop and After Effects

One of the most iconic horror villains is Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13th series. The hockey mask killer’s trademark weapon is the giant machete that he has used to mutilate victims in movie after movie. You can recreate this "slicing" with the popular editing programs, Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. Once you learn the basic slicing, you can even expand and create more intricate animations with Jason Voorhees and other animated characters.

Instructions

Adobe Photoshop

1. Acquire several Jason Voorhees pictures. Use a clear picture with Jason facing forward or to the side for the best results.

2. Load the pictures into the program by dragging them directly onto the work screen or going to FILE>OPEN.

3. Cut the machete picture by using the pen tool and clicking around it. Once the whole knife is highlighted, right-click and choose the “Make Selection” option. Press “OK” in the pop-up window and then press “CTRL+C” to copy the machete.

4. Click the picture of Jason and press “CTRL+V” to paste the knife into the photo. Use the EDIT>TRANSFORM>SCALE tool to place the machete into Jason’s hand.

5. Use the pen tool to trace around the arm that holds the machete in it once the machete is in the correct place. Right-click once again and cut the arm out of the picture. Paste the arm in a new layer. Make a new layer by going to LAYER>NEW LAYER and giving it a name like “Jason’s Arm”.

6. Make sure that the arm layer is underneath the machete layer. If it is not then you can click and drag on the layer to move it down. Merge the layers by holding “CTRL” and clicking on the arm and machete layer. Right-click on the highlighted layers and select “Merge Layers”.

7. Save the file in the Photoshop format and exit out of Adobe Photoshop.

Adobe After Effects

1. Open up Adobe After Effects, start a new project, and import the Jason Photoshop file. Import the file as a composition and not footage so that all of your layers remain in place.

2. Drag the file down into the “Timeline” window by clicking the right arrow next to the composition folder and manually dragging each layer down. Make sure that the arm layer is on the top so that you can see the machete.

3. Change the “Anchor Point” of the arm by clicking the arrow on the arm’s layer, clicking once on the “anchor point”, and adjusting the anchor point until it just at the shoulder by clicking the circle with a cross in and it and moving it. This will create an accurate pivot point for the shoulder’s rotation. The arm’s position may move, so use your keyboard’s arrow keys to adjust the placement.

4. Click on the little clock next to the “Rotation” option underneath the arm layer in the “Timeline” window. This turns on the key frames, which will set the animations for your project.

5. Move the timeline navigation tool a few seconds to the right. Adjust the rotation degrees to “-41”. This will mean that from the starting point to the current position the arm will rotate 41 degrees to the right.

6. 

   Move the timeline navigation tool to right a little more and then adjust the rotation degrees to “+45”. This will make the arm swing back in the opposite direction.

7. Preview your animation by pressing the far right button in the “Time Control” window. Add more swings or output your video by going to FILE>EXPORT> and selecting the movie format that you wish to have it on.