on the topic of animations
Note: This tutorial is for advanced users. Proceed with caution
I've had many many people ask me about how to do animations in icons. Most of my knowledge comes from the lovely
mannequinskin, but I've taught myself a few things as well. This tutorial expands to AS3 as well, so you won't be able to do this without an animating program of some kind.
02/04/2012 - I must also mention that this tutorial does not have helping images; both the base snow animation and the guide images have been lost, but if you have questions, just ask. A lot of the animation principles are the same as the ones for my other animations.
This one is going to be about snow. Before I continue, I would like to remind people that snow should not be added to just *any* icon. So please, do not put a snow effect on an icon using an image that takes place indoors. That just doesn't make sense.
Now first, you're going to need a snowy animation. You can make it yourself, or use an already provided one.
Now, there's a way to just "drag" the animation over top and you'll be done, but that only works on transparent images, so this will have to be done frame by frame. Other things will need to be done anyway, so give it some time.
Step One: Create an icon.
Make a base icon for your snow animation. Remember things like colour scheme, whether or not snow is a fitting theme, ect. I chose to make a Kikyou icon with a blue theme, because Kikyou is often surrounded by glowy lights when her Shinidamachuu things are around, which looks like it could be snow.
Step Two: Open up the animation
I recommend opening it into Animation Shop 3 (or an equal animation program. I recommend this one)
Now, when you open the animation, you'll see all the frames.
Step Three: Copy the frames.
You'll have to do this part manually, frame by frame, in order to get the effect just right. Click on the first frame, copy it (rightclick; copy or CTRL+C) and then go back to your icon in photoshop. Paste it over top of your icon (Edit; Paste or CTRL+V) Depending on your frame count, this may take a while.
Step Four; Blending
Go over to your layers window (Window; Layers) and right click on the top (Snow) layer, and right click, then select "Blending Options". The Layer style window will appear.
In that drop down menu, select Screen (not overlay!) and click okay, to close the window. This will make the darker part invisible and leave only the white snowy part behind. But the snow flakes are so blocky looking! We can fix that! We have the technology!
Make sure the snowy layer is still the one selected, go over to Filters in your menu bar. You want to go to Filter; Blur; Gaussian Blur. A little pop up box will appear. Set your blur amount to a radius of oh.... let's say 1.0! Don't set it too high, or the snowflakes will blur out of existence. When you'd get the right setting, click okay. Then flatten your layers (Layer; Flatten Image or Ctrl+E)
Note: For the sake of making this a little easier to understand, I'm going to tell you to just save the image now. Save it as something like SnowIcon0001. You're going to have to repeat Step four about 14 more times, so that's why the 0001 is there. The next frames will go over a little easier, since the most recent filter saves itself on the top of the filter list.
Step Five: Animating the icon
Once you're done making the frames, go back to AS3, and go to File; New. A window will come up. Set as 100 x 100, and it doesn't matter which canvas type you pick. A blank icon will come up, with the canvas frame you picked selected. DELETE IT. If you don't, it will mess with your animation.
When you've deleted the frame, it should be totally blank Go up to the menu bar, and go to Animation; Insert frames; From File.A pop up will appear with a blank list. Click on the Add File... button, and the file browser will appear. You can select all your frames at once, but you must select backwards, or your animation will run backwards. It other words, since there are 15 frames, select 15 first, hold down your CTRL button, and then select the first one. They will all be selected, and all in their proper order. Click okay to go back to the frame adder window, and click okay when you're done
If you want to see what your animation looks like, go to the menu bar and click View; Animation. If it's too fast/too slow, you'll have to change the frame rate. Go to Edit; Select all, and then right click in the selected area and choose Frame Properties. A prompt will appear with the Display time variables. Chose something between 8-12. I usually go with 10 ^^
Extras: Image Crunching
Now, chances are, your icon will be too large. With a frame count of 15 and that many colours, it's going to be a little large. So either save it as a lower quality, or if you have it, go to Adobe Image Ready (which comes with Photoshop) and go over to your Optimizing Window (Window; Optimize)
Another prompt will appear. Ask it to Optimize down to 38k so that it will fit to LJ specifications.
When you're ready to save, go to the menu bar and go to File; save Optimized as, and then hit save. If you just hit save or save as, it'll try to save as a .psd.
AND YOU ARE FINISHED. YAY!
I've had many many people ask me about how to do animations in icons. Most of my knowledge comes from the lovely
mannequinskin, but I've taught myself a few things as well. This tutorial expands to AS3 as well, so you won't be able to do this without an animating program of some kind.02/04/2012 - I must also mention that this tutorial does not have helping images; both the base snow animation and the guide images have been lost, but if you have questions, just ask. A lot of the animation principles are the same as the ones for my other animations.
This one is going to be about snow. Before I continue, I would like to remind people that snow should not be added to just *any* icon. So please, do not put a snow effect on an icon using an image that takes place indoors. That just doesn't make sense.
Now first, you're going to need a snowy animation. You can make it yourself, or use an already provided one.
Now, there's a way to just "drag" the animation over top and you'll be done, but that only works on transparent images, so this will have to be done frame by frame. Other things will need to be done anyway, so give it some time.
Step One: Create an icon.
Make a base icon for your snow animation. Remember things like colour scheme, whether or not snow is a fitting theme, ect. I chose to make a Kikyou icon with a blue theme, because Kikyou is often surrounded by glowy lights when her Shinidamachuu things are around, which looks like it could be snow.
Step Two: Open up the animation
I recommend opening it into Animation Shop 3 (or an equal animation program. I recommend this one)
Now, when you open the animation, you'll see all the frames.
Step Three: Copy the frames.
You'll have to do this part manually, frame by frame, in order to get the effect just right. Click on the first frame, copy it (rightclick; copy or CTRL+C) and then go back to your icon in photoshop. Paste it over top of your icon (Edit; Paste or CTRL+V) Depending on your frame count, this may take a while.
Step Four; Blending
Go over to your layers window (Window; Layers) and right click on the top (Snow) layer, and right click, then select "Blending Options". The Layer style window will appear.
In that drop down menu, select Screen (not overlay!) and click okay, to close the window. This will make the darker part invisible and leave only the white snowy part behind. But the snow flakes are so blocky looking! We can fix that! We have the technology!
Make sure the snowy layer is still the one selected, go over to Filters in your menu bar. You want to go to Filter; Blur; Gaussian Blur. A little pop up box will appear. Set your blur amount to a radius of oh.... let's say 1.0! Don't set it too high, or the snowflakes will blur out of existence. When you'd get the right setting, click okay. Then flatten your layers (Layer; Flatten Image or Ctrl+E)
Note: For the sake of making this a little easier to understand, I'm going to tell you to just save the image now. Save it as something like SnowIcon0001. You're going to have to repeat Step four about 14 more times, so that's why the 0001 is there. The next frames will go over a little easier, since the most recent filter saves itself on the top of the filter list.
Step Five: Animating the icon
Once you're done making the frames, go back to AS3, and go to File; New. A window will come up. Set as 100 x 100, and it doesn't matter which canvas type you pick. A blank icon will come up, with the canvas frame you picked selected. DELETE IT. If you don't, it will mess with your animation.
When you've deleted the frame, it should be totally blank Go up to the menu bar, and go to Animation; Insert frames; From File.A pop up will appear with a blank list. Click on the Add File... button, and the file browser will appear. You can select all your frames at once, but you must select backwards, or your animation will run backwards. It other words, since there are 15 frames, select 15 first, hold down your CTRL button, and then select the first one. They will all be selected, and all in their proper order. Click okay to go back to the frame adder window, and click okay when you're done
If you want to see what your animation looks like, go to the menu bar and click View; Animation. If it's too fast/too slow, you'll have to change the frame rate. Go to Edit; Select all, and then right click in the selected area and choose Frame Properties. A prompt will appear with the Display time variables. Chose something between 8-12. I usually go with 10 ^^
Extras: Image Crunching
Now, chances are, your icon will be too large. With a frame count of 15 and that many colours, it's going to be a little large. So either save it as a lower quality, or if you have it, go to Adobe Image Ready (which comes with Photoshop) and go over to your Optimizing Window (Window; Optimize)
Another prompt will appear. Ask it to Optimize down to 38k so that it will fit to LJ specifications.
When you're ready to save, go to the menu bar and go to File; save Optimized as, and then hit save. If you just hit save or save as, it'll try to save as a .psd.
AND YOU ARE FINISHED. YAY!
