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Tip of the Day | Page 53
The Animation Panel: Taking Animated GIFs to the Next Level
You too can create exciting animated GIFs for use on your next website. Just follow these simple steps: (1) Create a text layer, (2) apply styles, and (3) hide the styles. The Animation panel takes care of the rest.
In the Animation panel, you can control the position, opacity, style, and wrap of a text layer. Clicking on the Clock icon to the left of the style layer activates that option. At that point, just move the keyframe playhead to the end of your animation and turn on the styles. Voila! Instant animated GIF. To export it to your very own website, choose File>Save for Web & Devices, and select your desired output features.
Toggle Between Keyframes
When animating objects in the timeline, Photoshop interpolates between keyframes to give a sense of movement. However, if you would like the animation to toggle between keyframes, Control-click (PC: Right-click) on that keyframe in the timeline to bring up the contextual menu and select Hold Interpolation. The appearance of the keyframes will change, and when played back it will cut to each keyframe.
Scrub Through Timeline
You can quickly scrub through the timeline by clicking-and-holding on the Current Time Indicator. You will notice the cursor turn into opposing arrows. Just click-and-drag either to the left or right to scrub through the timeline.
Change Timeline Settings
You can modify the duration setting in the timeline by going to the Animation panel’s flyout menu and selecting Document Settings. In the dialog, you can set the duration and also choose a frame rate from the pop-up menu or you can enter a custom setting.
Keyframe Comments
In the Animation panel (in Timeline mode), at the top of the layer list there is an item called Comments. This allows you to place keyframes on the timeline and each keyframe is an annotation which can contain information specific to that point in the timeline. You can add a Comment keyframe by clicking on the clock icon on the Comment layer. Toggle through them by clicking the left and right arrows to the left of the Clock icon.
Video Can Also Become a Smart Object
One of the cool features of video layers is that they can be set up as Smart Objects. This opens up a ton of possibilities for image manipulation, including scaling, rotation, and even warping.
Trim Your Video
At the top of the Animation panel (in Timeline mode), you will notice two blue handles at the ends of the Work Area bar. This is your work area. You can drag the Work Area Start and Work Area End handles to specify how much of the video you want to work with.
Vanishing Point 2
Big changes in Vanishing Point! Now you are not constricted to 90° angles. This offers lots of cool possibilities with the Vanishing Point filter.
Refine Edge
Although there are many tools that will create exact selections, Adobe does step up the game a little with Refine Edge (Select>Refine Edge). With the Refine Edge feature, you have the ability to modify your selection using a set of sliders and preview your output on different color backgrounds. Use the F key in the dialog to cycle through the preview options.
Use Overlay in the Clone Source Panel
Have you ever used the Clone Stamp tool and wondered what exactly you were going to paint in the area? Wonder no more. Now you can turn on the Show Overlay checkbox at the bottom of the Clone Source panel to automatically see an overlay of the image as you would clone it. You can automatically turn this off and on by turning on the Auto Hide checkbox.
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Photoshop Tutorials
Hollywood Touch-Ups
See how you can add some subtle touches to give that green screen studio shot the Hollywood treatment.
3D Christmas Ornaments
Corey shows how to create reflective holiday ornaments using 3D in Photoshop.
Styles & Text
This week Corey has a tutorial using layer styles and text shapes to create energetic effects.
3D Light Beams
This effect was discovered by a 'happy accident' and uses the 3D features inside of Photoshop CS4 Extended.
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Flare Effects
Corey has a cool trick for creating a flare brush and see how one effect can lead to another.
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Hollywood Touch-Ups
See how you can add some subtle touches to give that green screen studio shot the Hollywood treatment.
-
3D Christmas Ornaments
Corey shows how to create reflective holiday ornaments using 3D in Photoshop.
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3D Distortions
This week Corey has a cool new trick for using 3D reflections in a rather creative way!
Premium Video Tutorials From NAPP
Photo Retouch
Scott Kelby shows you how to take an overexposed photo into a great photo using Photoshop. Want Great Photoshop & Photography Skills?
Extended Definition Processing
Scott Kelby shares a technique he's been working on, which gives your final image an HDR look using just one photo.
Join NAPP & Get a Free DVD.
Smart Object Masking Trick
Dave Cross shares a trick he discovered that will help you remove white from around your subject when using smart objects.
Want More?
Light Painting
Dave Cross takes a popular trend - light painting - and shows you how you can paint text recreating this cool trend.
You Don't Need to be a Pro to Join NAPP.
Create A Composite Layer
If you have a multilayer composition and you
want to apply an effect to all the layers at once, don’t flatten the layers–use a composite layer instead. Hide the layers you want excluded, and press Shift-Command-Option-E (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E). A new layer will be created at the top containing a merged copy of all the visible layers.
Another option is to create a new layer at the top of the stack and make it active. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) each layer you want to include to make those layers active, as well. Press Option-Command-E (PC: Alt-Ctrl-E).
by Colin Smith
