Halp! Making an animation. [SOLVED]

[Ventus Fall]

So I have a reference sheet of a character and I want it to be made into an animation to gradually fade in and fade out something on the reference sheet.
Basically I want the animation to be (on a loop) between two layers.

I know you can animate in photoshop, but I need to save the animation into a specific file type.
Either .gif  or a flash animation. As these file types are more common and I can upload the piece to dA and FA, those kind of websites.

So what would be better? Flash or gif?
I understood gif is for small animations, and this is a pretty large file... So I was thinking flash. Any thoughts or input on this?

But then the problem with flash is I have no idea how to save it as a flash file with the programs I have.

Specifics:
-I have Adobe Photoshop (CS6)
-I have Adobe After Effects

Please halp?
I would appreciate it a lot.

~Ventus out~

[Vortex Cynbel]

I am thinking Gif since many sites don't accept Flash files and devices that does not support flash (Mobile phones, game consoles).


Another advantage of Gif is that it can be used as an animated profile pics too


The only disadvantage of Gifs is that they seem to be in a lower resolution..


Now if you want to export to flash using photoshop go to Window => Animation tab from there you can choose file => Export => Render video and chose an actual video file which then can be made into a .FLV or flash file.


Hope this helps

[Ventus Fall]

Thanks Vortex for helping out!

I have indeed worried about the resolution... I don't think gif is an option with this specific project.
So it would have to be flash. (Unless there is another common animation file type I'm unaware of?)

Does .flv indeed work?
I mean, I think I read deviantArt only accepts .SWF as Flash extension? Can I do that in Photoshop too?
I don't understand why there seem to be so many flash file extensions!

I also don't see the Animation tab in photoshop. Do I need to do something to make it appear? (It doesn't have a timeline yet or anything.)
When I just go to File -> Render Video -> Export
I don't see any flash file extentions as options.

Here, I made a screencap:



Also I don't know what anything else means ._.
Like Document size and stuff. I'm pretty sure my reference sheet is larger than what the Render Video window is showing me.

[Vortex Cynbel]

Hmmm


I kinda looked arround the interwebs for ya :p


I think this guide can help you.. but please plase read it very carefully! I had to read it 2 times to understand it completly :p

[Timmy Fox]

Photoshop can actually save out animated gifs if that helps.

File > Export > Save for web (legacy)
(Keyboard shortcut: Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S)

To open the animation bar, just go into Window > Timeline. You can also easily change the layout to a possibly more optimized one using the "Motion"-workspace (if you're unsure, it's the thing that probably says "Essentials" along the top right).
---
Flash would have better quality but since it's kind of a very slowly declining format and requires a plugin to view; I wouldn't recommend it unless it's a complex animation made from scratch in flash.

Gif is a more universally supported format that can be used and uploaded almost anywhere.

[John Red Beard]

I tried uploading a animated gif to FA recently but she he thumbnail and non-full-size looked all screwy, like only one of the layers was showing. Does anyone know how to fix that?


P.S. Sorry to intrude on your thread, Ventus, but I thought this info would be relevant to you too.

[Timmy Fox]

I tried uploading a animated gif to FA recently but she he thumbnail and non-full-size looked all screwy, like only one of the layers was showing. Does anyone know how to fix that?


P.S. Sorry to intrude on your thread, Ventus, but I thought this info would be relevant to you too.

Depends a bit on the file (how the animation was created). Thumbnails on FA are not animated so by default FA tries to make the first frame become the thumbnail. It's probably just FA's resizing algorithm that got confused and broke the animation (which commonly happens as it resizes to make the files as small as possible and ignores animation in the non full-size and thumbnail).

[John Red Beard]

Thanks. That's probably what happened. Next time I'll try including a static thumbnail.

[Ventus Fall]

Thank you all and to John Red Beard: That's totally fine x3


SO YOU ALL HELPED, AND RAZOT TOO! *HUGS*
LOOK!

http://ventus-fall.deviantart.com/art/ANIMATED-Kakusei-Reference-Sheet-658350545


(To Timmy: I did try to use .gif, but indeed the problem was very apparent with the resolution. I do want to use gif, but maybe in the future. Flash seems to support the higher resolution much more. Thank you for taking your time to help me out here too *special hugs for you*)

[Vortex Cynbel]

Hey Ventus!


The reference sheet looks amazing! But for some reason for me it looks static.. Like what's the animated part of it because I can't see it :p


EDIT:


It seems I was too quick to post :p . I had to right click and press play for some reason. Apologies...


Anyways it looks awesome ^__^ Amazing work!

[Ventus Fall]

Hey!

And thanks!
No idea what you have to press play on it O_o  All animations play automatically for me. (Unless the maker would put in an actual play/pause button, you know?
Anyways, glad to hear it! Everything readable and stuff? For me it is... but what about you?

[Vortex Cynbel]

Eveerything seems fine . Well done again