Underwater Ani 2 Ways

You will need:

PSP and Animation Shop

Both available from Corel

Adobe Photoshop

Available from Adobe

I used Version X2 of PSP and Version CS5.1 of Photoshop

Any version of PSP should work

Any version of Photoshop above CS3 should work

A Tube and a Close-up

I used art by Ismael Rac

Tubes and Licence available at his Store

MuRa's Meister - Copies

Krusty's FX Vol. I 1.0 - Transparency Grid

Ready?

Let's Begin!

Copy your Close-up and Paste as a New Image

Resize to 300px height

Add a Layer and fill with black

Drag to the bottom

Merge Visible

New Image - 600x250

Copy the first Image you made and Paste as a new Layer

MuRa's Meister - Copies - Wallpaper (rotate) default settings

Adjust - Blur - Gaussian Blur - 20

Effects - Texture Effects - Weave

New Layer Fill with color of choice from your Tube

Send to top if not already there

Krusty's FX Vol. I 1.0 - Transparency Grid

Drop Shadow - 2, 2, 44 and 2

Effects - Distortion Effects - Wave

Highlight your BG Layer

Copy your Close-up and paste as a New Layer

Place as desired - Change the Blend Mode to Soft Light

Merge Down

Copy your Tube and Paste as a New Layer

Position as desired

Send to Top

Give it a blurry Drop Shadow

Crop your Tag

Add your Name and CR Info

Hide your BG Layer and Merge Visible

Unhide your BG Layer

If you want a static Tag, you're done!

Animation

Save now in both psp and psd formats

Copy your BG Layer

Open Animation Shop

Paste as a New Animation

Effects - Insert Image Effects

Hit the Customize Button

Change the first 11 Waves as follows

Wave 1 - X -38 - Y -17

Wave 2 - X -42 - Y 17

Wave 3 - X 1 - Y 42

Wave 4 - X -24 - Y 33

Wave 5 - X 45 - Y 12

Wave 6 - X 35 - Y 28

Wave 7 - X -21 -Y -37

Wave 8 - X 41 - Y -8

Wave 9 - X 23 - Y -33

Wave 10 - X 2 - Y -40

Wave 11 - X 42 - Y -24

Delete Frame 7

If you decide not to mess with Photoshop

Do the Steps in between the star lines

If you want to animate with Photoshop

Skip this step and continue after the last star line

******************

In PSP - Hide your BG Layer

Edit - Copy Special - Copy Merged

In Animation Shop

Paste as a New Animation

Hold down your ctrl key and hit the L button until you have 6 Frames

Edit - Select All

Edit - Copy

On your Underwater Animation

Edit - Select All

Edit - Paste into current Frame

Click to place

Save as a Gif and you're Done!

Here's what it looks like this way

Using the art of Jennifer Janesko

Tubes and license can be had at CDO

***************

I learned the basics of this animation from this

Tutorial by Gizzy (Rebel Designs) - Thanks Gizzy!

At this point you have the Animated BG you made in Ani Shop

Edit - Select All

File - Export Frames - To Paint Shop Pro

Now you should have one Image with 6 layers

Frame 1 thru Frame 6 showing in your Layer Palette

Open your Tag - Hide the BG Layer

Edit - Copy Special - Copy Merged

On your Frames Image - Edit - Paste as a New Layer

Send to top

Hide all Frame Layers except for the Bottom Layer

Save this Image as a PSD File

Open your Photoshop

You will need your Layers Palette open

If it's not open

Window - Layers

If your Animation window isn't open, open it now

Window - Animation

You will see it at the bottom of your Workspace

File - Open

Find the PSD file you just made

Notice in the Animation window that you already have one Frame

This is what your Layers Palette should look like

You'll notice that your Bottom and Top Layers are visible and the rest are hidden

Ok, Let's build this Animation!

In your Layers Palette

Hide the bottom Layer by clicking on the eye just like in PSP

Unhide the next Layer up by clicking in the space where the eye should be

Click the New Frame Button in your Animation Window

Now you have two Frames!

Hide the second Layer by clicking on the eye just like in PSP

Unhide the next Layer up by clicking in the space where the eye should be

Click the New Frame Button in your Animation Window again

Continue this process until you have six Frames

Click the Play Button in your Animation Window to view your Animation

Now we're going to change the Frame Rate

Click on the first Frame

Then hold down the Shift Key and Click on the Last Frame to select all Frames

Click on the little drop-down arrow in any of the Frames

Choose Other and set it to 0.5 sec

View your Animation again to see if you like it

If not, play around until you get a number you like.

File - Save for Web and Devices

I used these settings

Hit the Save button and save as a Gif and youre done!

Sample Sets

If you try any of my Tutorials

I would love to see what you made!

Please leave a link in the comments section on my Blog