Have you ever wondered how animated GIFs are created? Wish you could be a pro GIF animator overnight? Well, maybe you can because we’re revealing all the juicy secrets on how an animated GIF is produced, in this super exciting tutorial.
We’ll also introduce and teach you how to use the Timeline feature that is available only in the CS6 version of Photoshop. Ready, get set, GO!
Step 1
Create a new document (Ctrl+N) according to this file size – 800px x 500px. Fill the background layer with any color you want and go to Layer > Layer Styles > Gradient Overlay to apply the following settings – Style: Radial, Colors: Black (#000000) andDark Blue (#54799b, to be used at the center).
Step 2
Add a new layer and rename it as Noise Layer. Select the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and fill it with black color (#231f20). Keep selecting the Noise Layer by going to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. When the Add Noise pop-up box appears, set the Amount to 3%, select the Uniform option under Distribution and click OK.
Step 3
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U). When the Hue/Saturation pop-up box appears, apply the these settings – Saturation: 100, Blend Mode: Soft Light and click OK.
Step 4
Add in any text that you want. Here, we’ll be using the 123RF logo. Use an Outline Stroke and apply it according to your personal preference.
Step 5
In this step, we’ll be creating the lights effect using Layer Styles. Go to Layer > Layer Styles and check the following boxes – Bevel & Emboss, Inner Shadow, Inner Glow,Color Overlay, Outer Glow and Drop Shadow. For clarification, please refer to the images below.
Step 6
Once you’re done with the lights effect, go to the Layer window and set the Fill option to 0%.
Step 7
Duplicate the Layer, that we created in Step 5, and disable all the Layer Styles option. Select the Inner Shadow and Inner Glow options and apply the settings, as shown.
Step 8
Here’s the outcome, once you’ve applied the Layer Styles.
Step 9
Now, we’ll create the moving light spots. Add 5 layers on top of the existing layers and rename them as 1,2,3,R and F.
Then, group these 5 layers in a folder and rename it as Light Spots. Change the folder’sBlend Mode option to Color Dodge.
Use the Brush Tool (B), select the Soft Brush option, set the Opacity to 95% and paint on top of the 123RF text with white. Repeat the same step for all the alphabets of the text. Do refer to the image below for a clearer illustration.
Step 10
Now, go to Window > Timeline. The first thing you’ll notice is that all the layers are already in the timeline. Select all 5 layers from the Light Spots folder and make sure the timeline is set at the 0 frame. Then, click on the Position option to create a keyframe.
Step 11
Position the timeline at 01:00f and move the layers according to the composition you want it to move to.
Step 12
This would be the first position of the light spots. Move the timeline again and then, move the layers to create new keyframes. You can keep moving them until you complete the animation. Check out the images below for reference.
Step 13
This is how the timeline will look like. Do note that the keyframes for each point will change positions according to your animation.
Step 14
Once everything is done, go to File > Save for Web and apply the settings as shown. After that, click Save and save it in GIF format.
Step 15
Finally, here is our desired result… a super cool GIF with moving light spots.
How mind blowing is this?! Go ahead and give this tutorial a try! Make sure you practice more if you want to be a pro. 😉
See you in the next tutorial!