Creating a short stop motion animation with Adobe Photoshop CC. Open Adobe Photoshop CC. A note about embedding

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1 Creating a short stop motion animation with Adobe Photoshop CC Open Adobe Photoshop CC A note about embedding Photoshop CC never embeds video or sound into your document. Instead, it links to the original video file, keeping your Photoshop document s file size manageable and leaving the original video file untouched; if you move the video file on your hard drive you ll break the link. This allows you to perform nondestructive editing Photoshop applies your edits to a copy of the original clip when you export your project. Creating an Image Sequence File! Open Navigate to your image folder (this folder should contain all of your images numbered in order). Click on the first image. Check image sequence on the bottom. Click open. Choose a frame rate This specifies how many frames/second will display in your animation Save your working document File! Save as! choose Photoshop for format

2 Timeline Panel Photoshop will open the Timeline panel and place the sequence into a video track. When you first import your sequence, Photoshop positions the playhead at the beginning of the clip; it looks like a blue triangle with three dots on it, and a thin red line extending down through all your tracks. The playhead moves across the track as it plays to indicate which part of the track you re viewing. You can move the playhead manually by dragging the blue triangle, or control its position by using the first four buttons at the top left of the timeline panel. Click the First button to move the playhead to the first frame of your project Click the Previous button to position the playhead one frame to the left of the playhead s current position. Click the Next button to position the playhead one frame to the right of the playhead s current position. Click the Play button to play your project and the playhead moves rightward through your tracks. As soon as you click this button, the icon on it changes to a stop symbol; click it to halt playback. As your project plays, the timecode at the bottom of the panel lets you know exactly where you are in the clip. Photoshop also displays the frame rate (the speed at which the individual frames are played back) to the right of the timecode.

3 NOTE: Even new machines can struggle with video playback, especially if the clips are high definition. If the frame rate turns red during playback, you aren t seeing all the frames (Photoshop shows how many you are seeing, instead of the intended frame rate). You ll also spot a row of tiny cyan dots beneath the Time ruler Cropping your animation Use the crop tool from the tool bar on the left to make minor cropping adjustments to your image. Changing Clip Length To trim your clip, drag its endpoints left or rightward in the Timeline panel. You can also click the triangle on the top right of the clip to change the duration and speed. Duration. Sets the length of the clip by trimming frames from the end. Speed. Sets the playback speed of the clip, from 25% to 400%. Allows you to create slow and fast motion

4 Adding and controlling Audio NOTE: you can only use original or copyright-free sounds. See Kate for more info. To add an audio track, mouse over to the Timeline panel and click the icon to the right of the words Audio Track that looks like musical notes. From the pop-up menu that appears, choose New Audio Track. Photoshop understands most common audio file formats, including AIF, WAV, MP3 and AAC (but not FLAC). Just like a video clip, you can adjust the start and end points of an audio clip to trim off its beginning or end. You can also drag the entire clip left or right to control when it begins to play. If you click the triangle at the end of the audio clip in the Timeline panel, you summon a panel that lets you set the time it fades in and out, as well as its volume. Adding Fade in/out to your stop motion You can add preset transitions at the beginning and end of your project. Photoshop CS6 offers the following transition styles: Fade. Fades the clip to transparent (empty) pixels. Cross Fade. Fades the first clip out as the second clip fades in. Fade With Black. Fades the clip to solid black. Fade With White. Fades the clip to solid white. Fade With Color. Fades the clip to the solid color of your choice. (Choose the color before you add the transition by clicking the color chip that appears in the Transition panel when you pick this style, or after you add the transition by Ctrl-clicking [rightclicking] its icon in the Timeline panel.) Transitions are 1 second by default

5 To add a transition to a clip, click the aptly named Transition button on the Timeline panel. In the resulting panel, drag a transition style and drop it onto the beginning or end of your clip, or between two clips. When you drop the transition, an icon appears on the clip where you placed it. If you drop the transition between two clips, the icon appears at the end of the first clip and the beginning of the second. You can control the duration of the transition either by using the slider in the Transition panel before dragging the transition onto the Timeline panel, or by dragging the edge of its icon after you ve dropped it on the Timeline panel. You can also Ctrl-click (right-click on a PC) the transition s icon in the Timeline panel to make Photoshop display another panel that lets you change the transition s style and duration To adjust a transition s length symmetrically, Option-drag (Alt-drag on a PC) one end of it. This lengthens or shortens the transition equally on both ends.

6 Ctrl-click (right-click) a transition s icon to display this panel. To delete the transition, click the trash can icon at the bottom-right of this panel. You can also delete a transition by clicking to activate it in the Timeline panel and then pressing the Delete key (Backspace on a PC). (TRICK TO KEEP Photoshop from DROPPING LAST FRAME. Layer! Video Layer! Add Blank Video Layer. Go to edit! fill and fill this layer with the color of your fade. Now, use the scissors to split this layer to one frame and delete the remainder) Adding Adjustment Layers You can add Adjustment layers to your stop motion by clicking the adjustments panel on the right side of the screen. There are options here to change the tones and colors of your footage. Hover over the different options to see what they do. Resizing your animation Rendering You need to resize your stop motion animation before rendering. Note: this will convert the animation layer to a smart object. Image! Image size Make sure resample is checked Look at the width and the height. Change this to pixels. If the height is over 1080 pixels, highlight the number and change it to 1080 pixels. If the height is under 1080 pixels, you can keep it as is. Press OK. Once you re satisfied with your animation, you can export it as a video file (this process is called rendering). Choose File Export Render Video or click the Render Video button at the bottom left of the Timeline panel (it looks like a curved arrow).

7 The Render dialog box will open Name: Title your Piece Click Select Folder and choose your desktop or another place of your choice. This is where your animation will go once it has rendered. Export Encoder: Choose Adobe Media Encoder Format: H.264 is a good compression choice for u tube, vimeo, etc. Quicktime is an uncompressed format which is good for exhibition purposes. Preset: High Quality or choose a YouTube preset Size: Use preset or choose a size based on the resolution of your files, HDTV 720p or 1080p Frame Fate: Use document frame rate All other settings can stay at default Click Render and wait for video to render