Animated Icon Tutorial
This is the LJ icon that we'll make. I know it's very simple, but this tutorial is only meant to explain how animation in Imageready work.
What you do first is, open Photoshop and open a new file with size 100x100 px and save it. Name it design.
Usually when making animated pictures it’s good to work with two files. You’ll see why that is, while making this tutorial.
So, we’re going to make a second file. Go to File – New and make another 100x100px file. Name this one animation.
Go to the file design.
Create a black background in this file. Copy and paste it in the file animation.
Go back to design and put a text on the background. I’ve chosen for the word ‘Stargate’. Make sure it is white.
Now select what you have made in the file design and copy and paste all that in the file animation.
Use fore this either Edit – Copy Merged or Ctrl+Shift+C.
Now, you should have two layers in the file animation. Layer 1 only has a black background and layer 2 has a black background with white text.
Layer 1
Layer 2
Now go back to the file design. We’re going to change the colour of the word. I’ve chosen blue. You can also change the position of the word, so you’ll have more of an animation effect as a result.
Make a selection and copy all of it (background and text) into the file animation. This will be layer 3.
Layer 3
Now create more layers by changing the colour of the word. I’ve chosen
Layer4: green
Layer5: yellow
Layer6: orange
Layer7: red
So, in the file animation you’ll end up with something like this:
Now, you go to Imageready, while the animation file is active. You can close the design file. At the bottom of the Tools Palette you’ll find this button:
In ImageReady you have to make sure the palette animation is opened. You can find it under Window – Animation.
In this palette you click on the small arrow at the top right and you choose Make frames from layers.
Then you’ll see that all layers appear as frames in the Animation palette. If you click on the play-button, the animation will start. You’ll notice that it’s way too fast, but you can adjust the speed. You can change the speed of the frames one by one or all at the same time.
Select all the frames. Click the first frame – hold shift – click the last frame. Under each frame it says 0 secs right now. Change that to 1 sec. And hit play again. Now that’s better isn’t it? Feel free to change the speed so it looks good to you.
When you’re finished, you’ll still have to save the animation. Go to File – Save optimized as. You choose a name for your file and make sure your settings for save as type are images only. And hit save.
And that’s it! If you still have some questions, don't hesitate to contact me at ses_gatergirl@yahoo.com.
Note: you might be wondering why you made two separate files in Photoshop. That’s because ImageReady makes a frame of each layer. So each layer has to be a complete picture. If you would make an animation of the design file, you’ll be getting two frames, one with a black background and one with text and no black background. For an icon like this it’s not that important to work in two files, but if you’re creating complicated images with a lot of layers, you’ll get in trouble when you’re working in one file.
I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and please show me your results.
*ses*