CREATING DIGITAL ANIMATION WITH PHOTOSHOP

From Photoshop's Main Menu, go ahead a choose a new file, by going to File > New:

• Preset: Film & Video
• Size: HDV/HDTV 720p / 29.97 (we'll change the frame rate later on)
• Width: 1280 pixels
• Height: 720 pixels
• Resolution: 72 pixels/inch
• Colour Mode: RGB Colour, 8 bit
• Background: White (or, you could choose Transparent or another colour if you wish)

The Pixel Aspect Ratio should be "Square Pixels."

To do Animation

Make sure the Animation Timeline is open: Main Menu > Window > Animation.

Then, create an Animation Layer: Main Menu > Layer > Video Layers > New Blank Video Layer. Photoshop will place the Video Layer in the Layers Palette.

There are a couple of settings you should change for the layer. To do so, locate the pull-down menu at the far upper right-hand corner of the Animation Layer Window and select the following:

• Document Settings:
  • Duration: From here, you can change the length of the layer (e.g., longer than 10 seconds)
  • Frame Rate: This is where you should adjust the rate to Custom > 12 frames per second (or 24 or 23.976 fps for single-frame animation)
• Onion Skin Settings:
  • Onion Skin Count: From here, you can select how many frames before and after you would like to set -- for example, 3 frames on either side of the drawing you're working on.
  • To turn the Onion Skin on, go to the Animation Layer and select the Onion Icon on the bottom-edge of the Layer Palette.
• Animation Panel Options:
  • Here, you can change the Timeline Units to Frame Numbers, or keep them at Timecode.

To proceed with animation, use the edit-line playhead to reach specific frames and draw /animate on the frames as you choose. If you've chosen to animate at 12 fps, then you would animate one move per frame. When you bring the file into Premiere, you will then interpret the footage at 12 frames per second.

Click here for information on > Exporting a QuickTime movie or image sequence from Photoshop