Sponsored by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Learn More

Background Animation

 

In this tutorial, Corey creates an animated background using Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended.

Corey Barker

Corey Barker is Executive Producer of PlanetPhotoshop.com and is an Education and Curriculum Developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Corey has also made numerous appearances on the highly rated podcast, PhotoshopUser TV, and is co-host of Layers TV.

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • NewsVine
  • Technorati
  • BlinkList
  • Design Float
  • Mixx
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • SphereIt
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Fleck
  • Netvibes

39 Comments

  1. Carl said on — June 27, 2008 @ 3:34 pm

    So simple yet effective….great corey mate, keep these awesome tutorials comming :D

  2. Scott said on — June 27, 2008 @ 5:58 pm

    Corey,

    YOU ARE THE MAN!!!! This is the best one yet.

  3. Alex said on — June 28, 2008 @ 8:53 am

    Hi nice tutorial! And i have a Q: when i press space to rendar frames the green line loand only 0,23 of 1 second not like in the video all soo plisss help me 10x in advance (sry for my english im from Romania and i think i have some problems at it )

  4. Márcio Guerra said on — June 29, 2008 @ 12:29 am

    Hi. Corey! Although I think of this tutorial as a really good one, with high quality teachings, I would like to know if this is the way photoshop is really assuming. I have seen other video lessons, from you and others, and see that you are giving good goals for the new options in Adobe Photoshop CS3, but, should we leave all the good photoshop technics, photo retouching, etc., and start learning to animate in PS?
    Although, again, it is quite a good tutorial, so, keep up the good work. This is just a theorical question.
    Thanks, from a fan.

    Márcio Guerra

    P.s.- Can you do some video lessons also for your Illustrator tutorials? That would be nice, to have the files, and to be able to see the videos!

  5. francois said on — June 29, 2008 @ 7:27 am

    hi Corey,
    the thing which is bugging me is that, i dunno to wat file type to save it, when i save it in .gif file, it shows only 1 frame.

    pls someone let me know how to save it to have it animated and not a simple image, thnx!

  6. francois said on — June 29, 2008 @ 7:31 am

    hi!

    thnx corey for the tuitorial,
    but i got a sort of problem,
    when i save it to .gif file it shows only 1 frame,
    I want it animated, pls someone let me know what must i do,thnx!

  7. hederly said on — June 29, 2008 @ 2:27 pm

    yaah I like so much you tutorials are really great and this one is fantastic to make one for my girlfriend you know thanks for the great tutorials that you make

  8. KidLizard said on — July 1, 2008 @ 11:34 am

    To save the animation go to File-Export-Render Video. You might have to clik on the Show all menu items under the file tab. Nice Tut by the way.

  9. Gary Spedding said on — July 1, 2008 @ 4:41 pm

    While I do not have PS-Extended – this is a cool technique and could be adapted to Image Ready (which I suggest people keep when moving to PS-CS3).

    But the simple method of creating and manipulating the pattern scale then creating a Smart object and warping can be used to create some very cool backgrounds.

    Thanks.

  10. Sean Canady said on — July 2, 2008 @ 2:22 pm

    Hey Corey! Great tutorial. Thank you for what you do for us!

  11. Mahon said on — July 3, 2008 @ 8:31 am

    Hi,
    Great stuff, thanks.

    Just one thing, though…..how do we, or can we export this, to .swf!
    We can not imagine, that this is not possible, but we can’t find it!! ….:(

    regards
    Mahon

  12. nurodin salibo said on — July 4, 2008 @ 8:32 am

    Hi Corey,
    The best tutortial i’ve seen before , the way you teach its look like a easy but its not.Ineed to learn more.. thank you..

  13. steve said on — July 5, 2008 @ 12:21 pm

    excellent graphic but why do you go through it so quickly i couldnt keep i am a new novice with cs3 and i got lost halfway through

  14. Rod said on — July 6, 2008 @ 10:37 pm

    Hey Corey, is it possible to send a photoshop animation to flash?

  15. Eli said on — July 8, 2008 @ 12:05 pm

    YOU ARE THE MAN COREY! GEEEZZ You help so much!

  16. Jolali said on — July 13, 2008 @ 2:40 pm

    looks so simple, but i dont have that timeline as it doesnt come up :(
    please help

  17. francois said on — July 14, 2008 @ 1:59 am

    reply to :
    KidLizard said on — July 1, 2008 @ 11:34 am

    To save the animation go to File-Export-Render Video. You might have to clik on the Show all menu items under the file tab. Nice Tut by the way.

    thnx dude!
    but i wanted it in gif,
    anw, movie will just do it..
    thnx lots!

  18. -::H.P::- said on — July 15, 2008 @ 8:50 am

    To Francois:

    I had the same problem like yours. Then I saw an option under the Color Table in Save for Web & Device window. Looping Option. Take it on Forever. Than save your document in gif. You’ll have a continued animation. Good Luck!!

    P.S: Sorry for my english ;) )

  19. frank said on — July 16, 2008 @ 10:15 am

    hi Corey
    about the background animation video tutorial.everthing works fine untill i come to the open the picture.how did you create the picture that you put on the animation.can you help me with it.because it’s a beautiful tutorial.

  20. Christian said on — July 21, 2008 @ 6:27 am

    Hey Corey. Great tutorial! I was experimenting with the technique and found that you can get some really interesting results if you use a displacement map! Thanks :D

  21. tipotaIsland said on — July 22, 2008 @ 7:00 am

    Thanks a lot mate. your tutorial is beautiful and helpful.

  22. Riya said on — July 30, 2008 @ 11:53 am

    Thanks for this awesome TUT, Corey!!
    Looking forward for more interesting ones, so keep them coming. :)
    Cheers ~ Riya

  23. lucas said on — July 30, 2008 @ 12:49 pm

    dude aamazing tutorial! i only have photoshop 7 right now… i want cs3 and im trying to get my parents to buy it for me ( im 12 by the way) anyway keep the wonderful tutorials comin!

  24. terrible said on — July 31, 2008 @ 1:08 pm

    This is one of the best tutorials! you are the man Corey!

  25. abcd said on — August 1, 2008 @ 8:15 am

    wow!!!!!good job!!!!hehehehehe!!!!!!!

  26. ANDRES said on — August 30, 2008 @ 9:11 pm

    how did you get the animation to become timeline,
    not frames. because that’s how mine shows up.
    please help.

  27. Power Of Thought said on — August 31, 2008 @ 9:39 am

    Thank u for that tutorial ..

    Isnt there a way to download that video tutorial ?

  28. Ryan said on — September 20, 2008 @ 6:36 pm

    Haha, thanks, great tut and easy to understand. ^_^

  29. jomburn said on — September 22, 2008 @ 10:07 pm

    good tutorial!!!!!!!!

  30. mathayo said on — October 20, 2008 @ 3:23 pm

    dope!!!!!!

  31. Adam said on — October 26, 2008 @ 6:45 am

    Great effect/tutorial its so adaptable, but i,m having the same problem as others who have commented… The time line doesn’t fully render (when I press space/play ) pass 5 secs the first try and 1.25 secs the second.

  32. Adam said on — October 26, 2008 @ 6:47 am

    Great effect/tutorial its so adaptable, but i,m having the same problem as others who have commented… The time line doesn’t fully render (when I press space/play ) pass 5 secs the first try and 1.25 secs the second. Thanks

  33. Jan said on — January 9, 2009 @ 5:40 am

    Hi,
    great animation. I would like to integrate thsi into a website header but it just turns out way to big even if i cut down the frames to 12 per second and only a 3 sec animation (with 50 percent web compatility still 800kb) Does anyone has an idea how to make these animations smaller?
    please mail to
    carbon2000@gmx.de
    thanx
    jan

  34. Daniel said on — January 27, 2009 @ 8:40 pm

    Corey-
    Great tutorial, I have the same question as many above, what format do you save this under in order to retain the animated back ground? I also did not understand what you did to the picture of the girl and what effects you were using there? Thanks!

  35. photoshop tricks said on — March 3, 2009 @ 8:16 pm

    Thanks for the info, I love finding out about new techniques

  36. Dan said on — May 8, 2009 @ 2:24 am

    To those who can’t find how to get it to show the timeline instead of frames, click the dropdown menu in your animation toolbar (right under the closing X in the upper right-hand corner) and select it to show the timeline.

  37. tom l said on — July 1, 2009 @ 12:35 am

    Amazing Tutorials! Thanks.

  38. Bikash Tamang (Nepal) said on — August 7, 2009 @ 11:27 am

    This is one of the best tutorials!

  39. szilard_clee said on — November 28, 2009 @ 5:10 am

    it’s so cool!you are good man….pls don’t remove this video…and we wait another…:D

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

Photoshop Tutorials

  • Animate 2D in 3D

    Corey shows you how to create a 3D animation form 2D elements using Photoshop CS4 Extended. Click here to download a .MOV file with the final version of this animation.

  • 3D Light Beams

    This effect was discovered by a ‘happy accident’ and uses the 3D features inside of Photoshop CS4 Extended.

  • More Texture Effects

    Further experiments into what you can do with texture images in Photoshop.

  • Animated Wireframe

    Create and animate a 3D wireframe using Photoshop CS4 Extended.

Premium Video Tutorials From NAPP


 

Sample Color from Anywhere

You can use the Eyedropper tool to pick colors from any area of your screen. First, press the letter I to select the Eyedropper tool, then click-and-hold inside your document, and drag outside the document window onto the object you’d like to sample. Release your mouse button and the sampled color appears as your new Foreground color.

Read More Tips

Tip of the Day
 
 
DVD Special
Online Training
Kelby Training