animation jogger guide

Animating a Jogger

Photoshop

Animating a Jogger

You are given the file with the assets already drawn. These are in the server folder called Animation. You are to animate a 2 second sequence using Opacity and Transform.

1. Open the file. There are three layers. The background,standing and sprint.

Layers Panel

2. The standing and sprint layers are Smart Objects. This will enable the characters to be transformed (flipped in this case). The background layer is not a smart object.

Timeline Panel

3. Begin by keyframing Opacity. Click on the Stopwatch icon of both the standing layer and the sprint layer.

The keyframe for frame 1 has been set.

4. On the Layers panel click on the sprint layer and move the opacity slider to 0%.

Opacity set at 0% on Sprint layer, frame 1

5. Move the Current Time Indicator along 2 frames. The current time indicator is the red line with the blue top.

6. On the sprint layer, change the opacity back to 100%. 

7. On the standing layer, change the opacity to 0%.

Scrub the current time indicator and the character now looks like he is striding. 

Current time idicator on frame 02

8. Move the current time idicator 2 more frames and switch the opacity for each layer from 100% to 0% and from 0% to 100%.

9. Keep moving the current time indicator 2 frames and changing the opacity until the 2 second duration is complete. The timeline should look like this:

Timeline with opacity keyframes

The animation will look like this:ok, but it is not too convincing.

A gif of the animation

Improving the animation by Holding the Interpolation.

Instead of having the legs fade we can hold the interpolation. This will then have the legs appearing open and closed without the see-through-appearance.

1. Click on the Opacity bar in the Timeline (here you see it as blue). This will select ALL the keyframes (they should all turn yellow to show they are selected).

All keyframes selected on the sprint layer. Click in the opacity bar (the blue area on the Timeline)

2. Hold the Control button on the keyboard and click on the first keyframe (the yellow diamond).

3. Select Hold Interpolation (at the bottom of the menu).

4. Repeat this action for the remaining layer. ALL opacity keyframes should now be SQUARE in shape.

5. Play the animation. This time the character doesn't appear to fade, but changes from wide apart legs to standing.

The animation with the interpolation held

Further improvements:

1. Keyframe the Transform layer to make the character move across the frame. Click on the stopwatch next to the word transform.

2. Make sure BOTH layers are selected on the Layers panel. Then move the Current time indicator to the 1 second position. 

3. Move the character to the right of the frame.

4. Move the current time idicator 1 frame only.

5. Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal.

6. Move the current time indicator to the end of the sequence.

Now play the sequence. The character should run across the frame, turn and run back. It should look something like the below.

The sequence. This is on a loop.

This is a loop so he is running forever. The actual sequence is just two seconds long.

Well done! You should have an animated sequence!

Extension Tasks:

1. Draw your own character moving about using the technique shown above. The example above uses just two figures in different positions. To have a more realistic movement, you would need to have more.

2. Create a new background that is 1576 pixels wide (double 788 pixels) and 576 pixels high. Copy and paste the new background into the existing animation. Keyframe the background to move too.

3. Try using the same assets to make the figure go slower. Instead of working on twos (where two frames are the same, work on threes or even fours. The only way to really learn is to experiment.