Photoshop Training Animated GIFS Tutorial

One of the main interests in Photoshop Training now is how to interact with social media. How to create banners for Facebook, Twitter, PinInterest and many more. The answer often lies with animated GIFS which are really simple to create in Photoshop. In this tutorial we will create an animated colour for a ficticious flower shop showing the different colours of the tulip’s they currently have in stock. Incidentally we’re going to be very exotic with the colour choices – I’m not too sure if tulips actually come in shades of purple.

Photoshop GIF’s

So, what exactly is a GIF?

“The Graphics Interchange Format is a BITMAP format developed by a team at CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite on June 15, 1987” making it around 30 years old.

Photoshop Tutorial – Objective

In this tutorial I am going to show you a Frame Based Animation. I want to keep the whole image static apart from the flower which I want to change colour over a certain time. Let us begin…………….. After firing up Photoshop open the image you want to animate and select the area to be animated
In the image above I selected the tulip using the Quick Select tool.

Click on Tools >Quick Select

Click the area to be selected and draw across it using Quick Select

Saving a Selection in Photoshop

Because I want the selection to be in the exact same place on each layer for the animation I have saved the selection to reuse during the process.

  • Go to the Select Menu >Save Selection
  • In the Save Selection box make sure Channel is defaulting to New and give the selection a name
  • Click OK

Duplicate the Layer

  • Go to Layers Panel
  • Click either on the Layer or go to the Menu top right of the Layers Panel (as shown below)
  • Select Duplicate Layer
  • Rename the Layer

Change Colour using Hue & Saturation

Having created a second layer I now want to change the colour from red to blue

  • Load the selection made earlier
  • Make sure the correct selection is chosen in the Channel section
  • Under Operation make sure New Selection is chosen

Once the second layer flower is selected

  • Go to the Adjustments Panel>Hue & Saturation
  • Adjust the Hue Slider until you are happy with the result

    *Using the Adjustments Panel to change colours etc is working in a none destructive workflow and means that no edits are permanent until you decided so. If you apply adjustments from the Image menu then this will be applied directly onto the image

  • Merge the Adjustment Layer down in the Layers Panel when happy with the result
Repeat the process until you have as many layers as you need.

In this case for Photoshop Training purposes four layers are probably enough

What is Hue & Saturation in Photoshop?

Hue – is the colour of the image

Saturation – is the depth of the colour of the image

Lightness – tends to the light & shadow of the colour

Quick Tip on Hue & Saturation

When using Hue & Saturation tick the Colorize box to create tinted imagery

Try making a selection on a greyscale image and just tinting that specific region
Animating the Image

Now we are going to apply frame animation to the layers. To do this we need to use the Photoshop Timeline and the Layers Panel

  • Go to the Window menu >Timeline
  • Turn off all other layers and select just the one layer you want to apply the first animation to
  • (In this case I selected the bottom one (the first) then click on ‘Create Frame Animation’ in the centre of the Timeline
  • See example below
  • Repeat this process for each layer in the Layers Panel
  • Add New Frame from the Timeline Icon
  • New Frame button is found next to the Delete button on the Timeline

    Each layer should have its own Frame (as shown below)

All that remains to be done now is to set the timing

  • Select the Frame you want to adjust the timing on
  • Press the Downward Facing arrow and select timing. IE One Second

    Remember to Save As a GIF

    Finally press the Play button to watch

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If you have a specific requirement please get in touch for an informal chat about tailoring a course for you. There is no extra charge for this. Photoshop Training is available throughout the UK in and around all major towns and cities and their surrounding areas.