How to Create Animated Gifs Using Photoshop Cs3
As webpages develop into more sophisticated works of art, itbecomes necessary for designers to use different techniques toattract a viewer. One technique that is utilized is the animated.gif graphic. The animated .gif allows a designer to injectmovement into webpage graphics to draw the attention of the viewer.There are many software programs available that allow the creationof these graphics. One such program is Adobe Photoshop CreativeSuite 3 (CS3), which will be used for our tutorial. It is importantto note that this tutorial requires basic knowledge of PhotoshopCS3, along with experience using layers. For beginners, pleaserefer to the Related wikiHows and Sources at the end before tobecome familiar with Photoshop CS3. The following tutorial, createdby the Fighting Engineers, describes how to create an animated .gifgraphic using Adobe Photoshop CS3.
[
edit]Steps
- Create a document with each frame of the animation on adifferent layer.
Select the layers to be used in the animation from the layerspalette- Note1: To select a group of layers, select the layer at the topof the group. Then hold the shift key and click on the bottom layerand this will highlight every layer in between.
- Note2: To randomly select layers, hold the control button whileselecting desired layers.
Open the animation palette by choosing window from the menu bar andselecting “Animation“.
When the animation palette opens, it should look like this. If itdoesn’t that means it opened in the timeline view.
Change to frame animation view by clicking on the flyout menu inthe upper right hand corner of the animation palette and selecting“Convert to Frame Animation”.
Change every layer showing on one frame to every layer showing onits own frame, by clicking the flyout menu on the animation paletteand choosing “Make frames from layers”- Note: All layer don’t have to be selected, to select a fewlayers use the copy layer button at the bottom right of theanimation palette to add layers.
Modify each frame by selecting the frame on the animation windowand changing it as desired in the main photoshop window.- Note: To add or remove a graphic from another layer to anyframe r, select the frame and in the layers palette, click the“eye” to toggle on or off the visibility for that layer.
Under each frame is an arrow head pointing downward. Click on thearrow head to display timing menu and select the display time foreach frame.- From the file menu select export to export the document as amovie or under the save as option save the file as a gif.
