omg~ !ns4n3..
i went to the link u gave me. Didnt know i must have Adobe Photoshop 7 .. sigh~
well this is wat type of sig i was thinking..
PART IV : SIMPLE TEXT ANIMATION and METRO SIGGIE – Clean & Green Project
Before we get further on animated sig discussion, I would also like to incorporate some sig making starters and then we’d go to the basic animation of text.
Here, you’ll learn to do the following:
1. Crop big images and make suitable dimensions for a sig.
2. Make use of Magic Wand tool
3. Create a sig with a simple animated text
Lesson Starter: A bit more on how some tools work
Before we really get rolling on making animated sigs, we should always take note of our forum rule regarding the sig limitations.
And since animated signatures will most probably take up larger file size, we
should always consider making signatures that are not too big nor too spacious.
Starting a sig with a simple Text Animation
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There, I used 3 images all in all – 1] Female Novice, 2] Male Novice and the 3] Background
Like what I said, we should create a not so big siggie or our account is gg-tym.
Steps:
- Open a file you would want to be your background.
- Using the Crop Tool, select a specific part inside that large image.
o To select, simply hold and drag the left click of your mouse. It’s up to you to control the dimensions you desire.
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- now that you have it cropped, Duplicate it, why? Because you might forget that you are actually working on the original image (on our example, it’s a prt_fild background). But if you made a duplicate, the original image would be safe from any alterations beforehand, just have to make sure, ya` kno`.
- How to duplicate – simply right click on the document window, just beside the file name (or anywhere on that part)
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- and now that you have it duplicated, you may now close the original image and do not save it if it prompts you to save the changes you’ve done.
You can now start working on that duplicated image, remember to unlock the locked layers (by double clicking on that layer)
- start copy-pasting the images/sprites to your background.
- Clean the pasted images by using the Magic Wand Tool. Make sure that only the contiguous checkbox is checked.
o Click on the white background and adjust the tolerance depending on how hard or how soft the selection would be. The dirtier the background, the higher tolerance you’d most likely need to set.
o When selected, press delete key to get rid of the white background.
Here, I’ve shown the difference of how it would look like on using different levels of tolerance.
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Now that you have cleaned up everything, you now need to write some Text that you will be using later on for the animation. In the example, I made 3 layers of text (show me, signature, animation) + the other 3 images. Guess we’re ready to animate; we will now jump to Image Ready.
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Again: What’s the plan?!
Lets say, that what you are thinking is to animate the text like --- wherein the “show me†will go down, the “signature†will move coming from the left and the “animation†will move coming from the right – just an example
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on the Image Ready, First, we will have only two frames to start with the following:
- 1st frame: No text visible, only the background and the 2 novices
- 2nd frame: to show the show me text (signature & animation text = hidden)
we can just add more frames later on.
>> The Show Me Frames
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- Starting from the 2nd frame, move the show me text upwards like to where you want the downward movement to begin
- Be sure to hide first the signature and animation text layers.
- Now click the duplicate frame button to add another frame, (3rd frame)
- Select the show me text layer on the layers palette, you will now move it again some more pixels downward, but be sure not to fall out from the alignment or it’ll ruin your animation. (3rd frame)
- Add another frame (4th frame) and the same goes, move the show me text again some more pixels lower than that of its position on the 3rd frame.
- This fourth frame ends the movement of the show me text.
>> The (show me) Signature Frames
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- Starting from the 4th frame, press the duplicate frame button to add the 5th frame.
- Be sure that the animation text layer is hidden..
- Don’t mind the show me text layer anymore, it’s already a-Ok
- Now unhide the signature text layer
- Select the signature text layer on the layers palette, place it at leftmost part of the sig or from where it would begin its action (5th frame)
- Add another frame (6th frame) and the same goes, move the signature text again some more pixels going to the right. Take note of the alignment.
- Add another frame (7th frame) and make the final aligning for the signature text.
- This seventh frame ends the movement of the signature text.
>> The (show me, signature) Animation Frames
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- Starting from the 7th frame, press the duplicate frame button to add the 8th frame.
- This time, all the text layers are visible
- Don’t mind the show me and signature text layers anymore, they’re already a-Ok
- Now unhide the animation text layer
- Select the animation text layer on the layers palette, place it at rightmost part of the sig or from where it would begin its action (8th frame)
- Add another frame (9th frame) and the same goes, move the animation text again some more pixels going to the left. Take note of the alignment.
- Add another frame (10th frame) and make the final aligning for the animation text.
- This tenth and last frame ends the movement of the animation text.
Finalization:
Well, you just have to set the frame delays, its really up to you, like how fast or how slow you want it.
And then save your work .. whoala!!
Take note: You can make the animation smoother by adding up more frames, but don’t forget that every frame added adds up to the sig’s file size.. so beforehand, create a plan for your animated sig.
