Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Easy 2D Cartoon Animation Tutorial With Adobe Photoshop

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Thank you everybody for being with us. In our ‘Glittering Text Effect’ tutorial we have discussed about The Basics of Animation With Adobe Photoshop. Today we will discuss about an easy method to make a simple 2D Cartoon Animation. If you watch our video you must feel that it is very easy to animate any still picture and to make it live. Exciting? Ok, let us move…

2D Cartoon Animation Image


1. Open any image/cartoon image of a dog (If you use the picture of your pet dog it will be very interesting for you).

2. Copy the original layer and we will work with this copy layer.

3. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and select the tail area of the dog. Press CTRL+X and CTRL+V.

4. You will find only the tail of the dog in a separate layer. Select this layer and fix it to it’s original position.

5. Copy this layer for 2 times and name those: Down, Middle & Up like the image bellow.

Layer Pattern Image

6. Now you can delete the original image and a new Background layer.

7. Select the layer named ‘Down’ and go to menu and select: Edit> Free Transform (or press CTRL+T).

8. Move the upper part of the tail to downward and adjust it to the body.


9. Select the layer named ‘Up’ and go to menu and select: Edit> Free Transform (or press CTRL+T).

10. Move the upper part of the tail to upward and adjust it to the body.

11. Now select the body layer of the dog and select Elliptical Marquee Tool and select around the visible eye area of the dog. Make a new layer bellow Down layer and name it Eye like the image bellow.

layer palette image1

12. Select the Eye layer and fill the selected eye with red color and press CTRL+D to deselect the selection. When the Eye layer is selected set the blending mode of the layer to Hard Mix and set its Opacity to 0%.

13. Important Part:
Go to Window> Animation to open Animation window. In the animation window you will find the 1st frame is automatically generated. Go to the layer palette and click on the eye icon of Up and Middle layer to deactivate these layers.

Duplicate the 1st frame of animation window. Now select this 2nd frame. Go to the layer palette and click on the eye icon of Middle layer to activate it and click on the eye icon of Down layer to deactivate it. Select the Eye layer and set its Opacity to 30%.

Duplicate the 2nd frame of animation window. Now select this 3rd frame. Go to the layer palette and click on the eye icon of Up layer to activate it and click on the eye icon of Middle layer to deactivate it. Select the Eye layer and set its Opacity to 100%.

14. Set the timing of 3 frames of animation window to 0.2 sec.

15. Now click on the play button on animation window to test the output. You will find that the dog cartoon is moving its tail and its eye is glowing.

16. Go to File menu and select Save for Web Devices to save this animation .gif file.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Glittering Text Effect Animation Tutorial With Adobe Photoshop

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You have waited a lot for the animation part. Sorry for the inconvenience. Today we will discuss about the basics of animation with Adobe Photoshop and the 1st animation tutorial is here for your better understanding. Don’t forget to watch the video carefully. Feel free to make any comment or contact us for further assistance.

Basics of Animation With Adobe Photoshop:

Actually every motion/animation/video is frame based. In Adobe Photoshop you have the freedom to create several frames to make any animation work. Say for example you want to animate any object from left to right. You can create 4 layers of same object. Don’t change the 1st one. For the 2nd one move slightly from left to right and for the 3rd one move more to right. Move 4th one totally to the right position that you want. Place every movement of the object in individual frame of the animation window. Play animation and the object will turn from left to right. For smooth animation increase the numbers of frames and movements. Use Tweens option to create auto movements and several frames with a single command. Hope that you get the primary concept of Animation. Go through the bellow tutorial as well as the upcoming tutorials to have the complete knowledge of animation.



Tutorial on Glittering Text Effect:

Glittering Text Effect Animation Image

1. Create a new file.

2. Fill the background layer with your desired color.

3. Select Type Tool to write any text on it.

4. Right click on the text and select Rasterize Type.

5. Copy this layer 2 times and name those layers: 1ST, 2ND & 3RD

6. Now we will add noise to these layers. Select 1ST layer and go to: Filter> Noise> select the amount 30. Select 2ND layer and select the Noise amount 40. Select 3RD layer and select the Noise amount 50.

7. Go to Window> Animation to open Animation window.

8. This step is very tricky. In the animation window you will find the 1st frame is automatically generated. Go to the layer palette and click on the eye icon of 2ND layer to deactivate this layer.

layer palette image

Duplicate the 1st frame of animation window. Now select this 2nd frame. Go to the layer palette and click on the eye icon of 1ST and 3RD layer to deactivate these layers and click on the eye icon of 2ND layer to activate this layer.

Duplicate the 2nd frame of animation window. Now select this 3rd frame. Go to the layer palette and click on the eye icon of 2ND layer to deactivate this layer and click on the eye icon of 3RD layer to activate this layer.

9. Now click on the play button on animation window to test the output. Yes, you will find a nice glittering effect on your text.

10. Go to File menu and select Save for Web Devices to save this animation .gif file.