Simple stop motion using Adobe Photoshop and Photography.

1. using Adobe Photoshop
created by Aaron Bernstein
modified by James Bryans, 2020

2. Photos don’t have to stand still. With a few quick steps, you can easily add
movement to your images. In this tutorial, see how you can manipulate your
photos using masks, then animate them using the Timeline feature in Adobe
Photoshop.
This tutorial assumes that you have some working knowledge of Photoshop
tools.

3. BEFORE YOU START
To practise, before you animate your own images, your teacher has provided
this popcorn sample file for you to play with…

4. ADD SOME POP (PART ONE)
The practice file has two layers, the kernel layer and the popcorn layer.
Create a layer mask on the popcorn layer by using the ‘add vector mask’
button (see arrow)…

5. ADD SOME POP (PART TWO)
Then press the Command Key + I (on Mac) to invert the mask.
(the mask should be coloured black now, and the popcorn layer disappears)

6. SNEAK A PEAK AT THE POPCORN
Make sure the mask is selected on the layer (a white border appears).
Select the Brush Tool (soft edge, approx 35 px in size).
Set your foreground colour to white.
Then carefully paint over the first kernel to reveal the first piece of popcorn
(see image)

7. REVEAL IN STAGES (PART ONE)
The following steps are the most time consuming. You’re literally creating each
‘frame’ of your animation.
To start this step,right-click on the popcorn layer and select ‘Duplicate Layer…’.
A window appears, just click OK.

8. REVEAL IN STAGES (PART TWO)
Then paint out another set of kernels to reveal more popcorn, the same way
as shown previously, selecting the mask on the layer, and erasing the kernels
with a white coloured brush tool (see image)…

9. KEEP GOING…
Continue repeating these steps (duplicate layer, select mask, erase kernels…)
until, line by line, all the kernels are erased and all the popcorn is revealed
(see image, note the layers, one by one more popcorn is shown).
If you make a mistake, change the colour of the brush to black. This will
reverse what you painted.

10. HALF WAY, FRAMES ALL DONE!
When completed I ended up with thirteen (13) duplicated layers.

11. CREATE THE TIMELINE
Go to the drop-down menu, select Window > Timeline.
The Timeline tab will appear at the bottom of Photoshop.
Click on the ‘Create Frame Animation’ button.

12. MAKE ANIMATION FRAMES
To create each frame of the animation, chose ‘Make Frames From Layers’ from
the Timeline tab menu (see image).

13. FIX THE GLITCH!
There is a slight glitch in this method. Only the edited images, without the
background appears. It’s easily fixed by clicking the visibility button (the little
eye) off the kernel layer, then clicking it back on again (see arrow).

14. IN PHOTOSHOP PRESS PLAY!

15. LOOP IT…
At the moment the animation just goes ‘one way’. To loop your animation
follow this sequence…
From the Timeline tab menu ‘Select All Frames’; then ‘Copy Frames’; then
’Paste Frames…’ (choose paste after selection); then ‘Reverse Frames’ (see
image).

16. EXPORT YOUR ANIMATION AS A GIF… (PART ONE)
To save your animation choose the ‘Save For Web’ feature in File > Export.

17. EXPORT YOUR ANIMATION AS A GIF… (PART TWO)
A new window appears. Copy the setting shown in the image…
and click ‘Save…’.

18. DONE!