How to Make a Flash Animation Banner in Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is one of the first tools that most graphics artists turn to when they have a job to do. This is because it has a huge number of tools and abilities, and can perform almost any graphics task, even animation. But one thing it can't do as of version CS4 is save or otherwise export animation as a Flash file. Fortunately, with a little help from Aleo's SWF GIF Converter, even this limitation of Photoshop is resolved. This tutorial applies to Photoshop versions CS3-4.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Open Photoshop. In the dialog box that opens, set the pixel width and height to your project requirements. Since you will be showing this online, make the resolution 72. Click "OK."

2. Select "Window" and click "Animation." Select the "Text" tool for the toolbar and type in some text. Go to the "Timeline" and click on "Duplicate" to make a second frame. Now select the text in the second frame and move it to the right until it is off the canvas. Move the text in the first frame to the left until it is off the canvas. Then click the "Tweening" Icon to make frames between frames 1 and 2.

3. Select "File" and click "Save for Web and Devices." Save the file as a GIF.

4. Purchase and install the Aleo SWF GIF Converter (see Resources.) Start the program.

5. In the panel on the left, switch it to "GIF, BMP, PNG, JPG to SWF" mode. Click on the plus sign to load your GIF, select the location you want to save the conversion to, and click "Convert." The program will now save out a SWF file and the HTML to go with it.

References

• How the Photoshop Timeline Works