A Power Rangers Tutorial
Turning this and this into this: 
Notes before we being:
- This was made using Photoshop 6.0 and ImageReady 3.0, so it should be translatable to later versions of these programs.
- This is made simply using layers and filters, so PSP users should be able to try this as well.
- This is a beginner level tutorial, as I wrote it for a friend who just got Photoshop and ImageReady recently and hasn't been playing with them that long.
- All images in the examples were scaled down for the purpose of this tutorial.
Step 1
In Photoshop, open up the images you wish to use. Using the rectagle marquee tool, I select the part of the picture I want, and crop my images. (Images - Crop) I use this tool instead of the actual crop tool because I find it's easier for me. When you select the tool, you'll have some options for what kind of square you want, I tend to use the 'constrained aspect ratio' with width and height set to 1. Also handy is the fact that if the square you've made is slightly off from where you really want it, just tap the arrow keys and it'll move around.
Note: I never shrink my images down to 100x100 until I'm ready to save the icon. It's a personal preference thing, as I find it's easier to work on the smaller details of the graphics this way. Your mileage may vary.
So now we have:
and
Step 2
So now we have two pretty pictures. Now, for photo clean up.
I always do Auto Levels on all my photos before playing with their colours. (Images - Adjust - Auto Levels) Depending the picture, this doesn't always help. If it's close to what I see as good colours, what I'll do is go into Variations and play around in there. (Images - Adjust - Variations).
I like the colours I have, but they look a little blurry. Depending on your preferences, the filters Sharpen or Sharpen More will work nicely. I chose Sharpen More for these two. (Filters - Sharpen - Sharpen More) But it did give me a bit of pixelation in the images. No problem. Despeckle is a handy filter for this. (Filters - Noise - Despeckle)
So now we have:
and
Step 3
Now, our base images look good, but given the lyrics I want to throw into this, I want to give the icon a vibrant yet dreamy look. So, I make a duplicate layer of the background and set it to Hard Light. (Layers - Duplicate Layer) You'll need your layers window open to set the layer to Hard Light. Now, they're vibrant, time for the dreamy look. Make sure the duplicate layer is the one selected and choose the Gaussian Blur. (Filters - Blur - Gaussian Blur)
For this icon, I was happy with a Gaussian Blur radius of 3.0, but don't be afraid to play around with it. Merge your layers. (Layers - Merge Visible OR Layers - Flatten Image)
So now we have:
and
Step 4
And now we're ready to play with text and such. For this, take one of the images and move it onto the other with the Move Tool. (It's the little black arrow with the plus sign). The image you move will pop up as a new layer. Since we're going to be animating this, it'll be easier to move the image you want as your third layer, not the the one you want to use to start the animation. In my case, that means I'm moving the darling emo Ranger onto the shot of his Princess.
Now, text placement is a big thing. (Personally, I'm not a fan of text that runs over the main part of the image that I want the text to refer to.) It also depends on the images you're using and the amount of text you're using. With the images I have here, and the text I need, I don't have the empty space to work with.
So, the easy solution is to make two new layers for the text. But I still want them to tie into the images, so we're going to have some fun here. Make duplicate layers of both your images. (Layers - Duplicate Layer) Now, go into Gaussian Blur again (Filters - Blur - Gaussian Blur) and set the radius to something around 10.0 pixels. Apply this two both duplicate layers. You can blur it more if you like, but I wanted to keep the ghost of the original image.
So those layers now look like this:
and
Step 5
Time for actual text. Click on the little eyeballs beside your two Emo Ranger layers, and your first Princess layer, so now all you see is our blurry Princess. Click on your text tool. Now there are two ways I recommend doing long lines of text. Either by typing each word out into it's own text layer, or by doing 'lines'. (Like if three words fit and then you have to hit enter for the fourth word, you'd make a new layer for the forth word on.) In this case, I'm making each word it's own layer. It gives you more control over how you're arranging the words.
Now, once that first sentence is typed out, we'll add the text filters. Pick one word and then click the funky looking 'f' on your layers window. I wanted to keep it simple, so I merely chose a Drop Shadow and then a Stroke of 1 pixel in black. (To change the stroke from that default red colour, merely click on the little red box and a pallet will come up.) Now, I know what you're thinking, 'we have to do this for ALL these text layers?'
Actually, we don't. There's a fun little trick I've picked up in PS 6.0, with your cursor, click on one of the listed filters under your first text layer, and drag it down to the next layer you want to apply this to. This is especially handy when you've got multiple filters that aren't using the default settings. You can set up all your text to look identical very easily this way. Note that your cursor's icon will look like a circle with a line through it if you're hovering directly over the layer, don't panic, just keep dragging down another milimeter or so until the little hand shows up again, then release your hold on the mouse button.
So our blurry Princess layer looks like this:
Step 6
Repeat Step 5, only this time, we apply all these steps to the blurry Emo Ranger layer.
So we've got:
Step 7
Okay, so we have the text up and ready. Let's mesh the text layers, starting with the Emo Ranger, since his was the one we worked on last. Make sure the blurry Emo Ranger layer and the text layers for that layer are the only ones who have little eyeballs beside them. Now, choose Merge visible from the Layers menu (Layers - Merge Visible) Ta da! We have our first text layer.
Rinse and repeat for the Princess layer and we're almost ready for animation.
First, shrink down the image to 100 by 100 pixels and check it over. (Image - Image Size) Is it still readable? Does anything look weird or out of place? One of the best things about PS 6.0 and later is the 'step backwards' feature. (Edit - Step Backwards) Which means that even if you've saved an image, as long as you haven't closed the image and then opened it again, you're able to undo changes you made. For example, after merging all my text I checked the image and found the text too small to read properly, so I stepped backwards until all my text layers were unmerged and started changing the font sizes.
Once you're happy with it, shrink it back down to 100x100. Now at the bottom of your Photoshop tools pallet, there's a little picture of a file with an arrow pointing to the little image beside it. Click that and this will automatically move your file into ImageReady.
Step 8
Time for animation. When your image loads, it'll look exactly how you last saw it in Photoshop. Don't panic. Select the little layers panel, now click beside the eyeballs of the top three layers, so now we only see our base image. Now, in the little pallet at the bottom of your screen, click the little white box button, the one sitting beside the trash can. Now you'll see two copies of your base image. Make sure the second copy is selected, then make your second layer visible. Repeat this for the other two layers as well.
Note: I am still a relative rookie when it comes to ImageReady, so there may be an easier way to do this, I just haven't figured it out yet.
Now, for the actual animations. The first thing you want to do is to click the optimized tab at the top of your graphic. You'll get a bunch of info now at the bottom of that window. This is good info to know. Especially the 29.1K GIF. Since LJ only allows 40K gifs or lower, you're gonna want to keep an eye on your file size.
In your little animation window, under each layer there is a 0 secs listing. Click on that and you have a list of times you can choose from. How fast or slow you want this to be is up to you. Personally, I like to give the text layers enough time for people to be able to read them the first time around. Usually 1-2 seconds max. Again, this depends on the text.
In the case of this image, I've set the two text layers at 1 second each, with the other two layers at 0.5 seconds each. You'll notice that once you've give each layer a time, you're able to click little 'play' button. Click it and you'll be able to watch the animation and make any changes to the times of certain layers. For example, I orginally had the non-text layers at 0.2 seconds, but it was moving too fast for me.
If you're happy with your animation as is, save the optimized file. (File - Save Optimized As) And you're done.
Ta-Da!
If you want to try some fancier animation tricks, I highly recommend this tutorial.
Notes before we being:
- This was made using Photoshop 6.0 and ImageReady 3.0, so it should be translatable to later versions of these programs.
- This is made simply using layers and filters, so PSP users should be able to try this as well.
- This is a beginner level tutorial, as I wrote it for a friend who just got Photoshop and ImageReady recently and hasn't been playing with them that long.
- All images in the examples were scaled down for the purpose of this tutorial.
Step 1
In Photoshop, open up the images you wish to use. Using the rectagle marquee tool, I select the part of the picture I want, and crop my images. (Images - Crop) I use this tool instead of the actual crop tool because I find it's easier for me. When you select the tool, you'll have some options for what kind of square you want, I tend to use the 'constrained aspect ratio' with width and height set to 1. Also handy is the fact that if the square you've made is slightly off from where you really want it, just tap the arrow keys and it'll move around.
Note: I never shrink my images down to 100x100 until I'm ready to save the icon. It's a personal preference thing, as I find it's easier to work on the smaller details of the graphics this way. Your mileage may vary.
So now we have:
andStep 2
So now we have two pretty pictures. Now, for photo clean up.
I always do Auto Levels on all my photos before playing with their colours. (Images - Adjust - Auto Levels) Depending the picture, this doesn't always help. If it's close to what I see as good colours, what I'll do is go into Variations and play around in there. (Images - Adjust - Variations).
I like the colours I have, but they look a little blurry. Depending on your preferences, the filters Sharpen or Sharpen More will work nicely. I chose Sharpen More for these two. (Filters - Sharpen - Sharpen More) But it did give me a bit of pixelation in the images. No problem. Despeckle is a handy filter for this. (Filters - Noise - Despeckle)
So now we have:
andStep 3
Now, our base images look good, but given the lyrics I want to throw into this, I want to give the icon a vibrant yet dreamy look. So, I make a duplicate layer of the background and set it to Hard Light. (Layers - Duplicate Layer) You'll need your layers window open to set the layer to Hard Light. Now, they're vibrant, time for the dreamy look. Make sure the duplicate layer is the one selected and choose the Gaussian Blur. (Filters - Blur - Gaussian Blur)
For this icon, I was happy with a Gaussian Blur radius of 3.0, but don't be afraid to play around with it. Merge your layers. (Layers - Merge Visible OR Layers - Flatten Image)
So now we have:
andStep 4
And now we're ready to play with text and such. For this, take one of the images and move it onto the other with the Move Tool. (It's the little black arrow with the plus sign). The image you move will pop up as a new layer. Since we're going to be animating this, it'll be easier to move the image you want as your third layer, not the the one you want to use to start the animation. In my case, that means I'm moving the darling emo Ranger onto the shot of his Princess.
Now, text placement is a big thing. (Personally, I'm not a fan of text that runs over the main part of the image that I want the text to refer to.) It also depends on the images you're using and the amount of text you're using. With the images I have here, and the text I need, I don't have the empty space to work with.
So, the easy solution is to make two new layers for the text. But I still want them to tie into the images, so we're going to have some fun here. Make duplicate layers of both your images. (Layers - Duplicate Layer) Now, go into Gaussian Blur again (Filters - Blur - Gaussian Blur) and set the radius to something around 10.0 pixels. Apply this two both duplicate layers. You can blur it more if you like, but I wanted to keep the ghost of the original image.
So those layers now look like this:
andStep 5
Time for actual text. Click on the little eyeballs beside your two Emo Ranger layers, and your first Princess layer, so now all you see is our blurry Princess. Click on your text tool. Now there are two ways I recommend doing long lines of text. Either by typing each word out into it's own text layer, or by doing 'lines'. (Like if three words fit and then you have to hit enter for the fourth word, you'd make a new layer for the forth word on.) In this case, I'm making each word it's own layer. It gives you more control over how you're arranging the words.
Now, once that first sentence is typed out, we'll add the text filters. Pick one word and then click the funky looking 'f' on your layers window. I wanted to keep it simple, so I merely chose a Drop Shadow and then a Stroke of 1 pixel in black. (To change the stroke from that default red colour, merely click on the little red box and a pallet will come up.) Now, I know what you're thinking, 'we have to do this for ALL these text layers?'
Actually, we don't. There's a fun little trick I've picked up in PS 6.0, with your cursor, click on one of the listed filters under your first text layer, and drag it down to the next layer you want to apply this to. This is especially handy when you've got multiple filters that aren't using the default settings. You can set up all your text to look identical very easily this way. Note that your cursor's icon will look like a circle with a line through it if you're hovering directly over the layer, don't panic, just keep dragging down another milimeter or so until the little hand shows up again, then release your hold on the mouse button.
So our blurry Princess layer looks like this:
Step 6
Repeat Step 5, only this time, we apply all these steps to the blurry Emo Ranger layer.
So we've got:
Step 7
Okay, so we have the text up and ready. Let's mesh the text layers, starting with the Emo Ranger, since his was the one we worked on last. Make sure the blurry Emo Ranger layer and the text layers for that layer are the only ones who have little eyeballs beside them. Now, choose Merge visible from the Layers menu (Layers - Merge Visible) Ta da! We have our first text layer.
Rinse and repeat for the Princess layer and we're almost ready for animation.
First, shrink down the image to 100 by 100 pixels and check it over. (Image - Image Size) Is it still readable? Does anything look weird or out of place? One of the best things about PS 6.0 and later is the 'step backwards' feature. (Edit - Step Backwards) Which means that even if you've saved an image, as long as you haven't closed the image and then opened it again, you're able to undo changes you made. For example, after merging all my text I checked the image and found the text too small to read properly, so I stepped backwards until all my text layers were unmerged and started changing the font sizes.
Once you're happy with it, shrink it back down to 100x100. Now at the bottom of your Photoshop tools pallet, there's a little picture of a file with an arrow pointing to the little image beside it. Click that and this will automatically move your file into ImageReady.
Step 8
Time for animation. When your image loads, it'll look exactly how you last saw it in Photoshop. Don't panic. Select the little layers panel, now click beside the eyeballs of the top three layers, so now we only see our base image. Now, in the little pallet at the bottom of your screen, click the little white box button, the one sitting beside the trash can. Now you'll see two copies of your base image. Make sure the second copy is selected, then make your second layer visible. Repeat this for the other two layers as well.
Note: I am still a relative rookie when it comes to ImageReady, so there may be an easier way to do this, I just haven't figured it out yet.
Now, for the actual animations. The first thing you want to do is to click the optimized tab at the top of your graphic. You'll get a bunch of info now at the bottom of that window. This is good info to know. Especially the 29.1K GIF. Since LJ only allows 40K gifs or lower, you're gonna want to keep an eye on your file size.
In your little animation window, under each layer there is a 0 secs listing. Click on that and you have a list of times you can choose from. How fast or slow you want this to be is up to you. Personally, I like to give the text layers enough time for people to be able to read them the first time around. Usually 1-2 seconds max. Again, this depends on the text.
In the case of this image, I've set the two text layers at 1 second each, with the other two layers at 0.5 seconds each. You'll notice that once you've give each layer a time, you're able to click little 'play' button. Click it and you'll be able to watch the animation and make any changes to the times of certain layers. For example, I orginally had the non-text layers at 0.2 seconds, but it was moving too fast for me.
If you're happy with your animation as is, save the optimized file. (File - Save Optimized As) And you're done.
Ta-Da!
If you want to try some fancier animation tricks, I highly recommend this tutorial.