Rotating Colours Icon With Blinking Text
Hi! It's my first time giving tutorial so I hope I don't screw up badly. I've been prowling in this community for a long time now, picking up tips here and there. This community have been so useful to me that I decide to give something back to the community. I use PSP7 and AS3. It would probably work with PSP8 or PS. I want to show how to make this animated icon;
1. Choose a 100x100 image. I made my image complete with a border. Credits to Getty Images.
2. I am going to add in an outlined text onto my image. I selected a new image. the size is up to you. Here I choose 98x98 with a black background.
3. I click on Text and select the colour white for my font. It's better to use white because I'll be making blinkies later so its easier for me to see the text when painting. Remember to use floating selection and click off the antialias.
4. Click on Selections-->Modify-->Expand.I usually choose 1 pixel for a cleaner look.
5. Click on Edit-->Copy the image-->Paste it as new selection on our coloured image. When you're done, click on save and now we're ready to animate the image.
6. Open Animation Shop 3, open and select the previously saved image.Click on Effects-->Insert Image Effects and select Rotate Colours.
7. I selected 7 frames with 1.9 sec. You can adjust your frames and how long it animates by sliding on the bars. Remember to make sure that the images does not exceed 40k. I check on my images using the long way by playing and saving each animation. If it exceeds 40k, I cancel saving and do the process all over again. If someone knows an easier way of doing this; is welcome to comment.
8.Now that we have our images open, we are ready to make blinkies. I zoom my images to 6:1.
9. Select a colour that you want. Here I choose dark red #B31D1C and click on the paint brush. Select the pixel width to 1 and paint on the text. This is up to your creativity. I painted on the outlines of my text of each letter per frame.
10. When you have finished painting your text, press on Ctrl on your keyboard and click on all of your images. Select Animation-->Frame Properties. Here I used 15 sec for my display time. Now we select Animation-->Animation Properties-->Canvas Color as Transparent and Looping as Repeat the Animation indefinitely. Once its done, click OK.
11. Click on View Animation, save to optimum level and you're done! Feel free to use the icons in my tutorial as examples. The finished icon is free for the taking/sharing.
If there's any questions or comments, please feel free to do so. I'd like to hear constructive criticisms about my first time tutorial. Some of these tutorials were taken from various community members. Thanks so much!