Animation

[uwbpet]

Happy New Year Everyone

Can someone suggest an appropriate vehicle and/or tutorial for animating the subject in a still photo?

For example: A still photo of a person standing with arms outstretched. I want to extract the subject to a different background and make the arms flap like a bird. I have done this to a certain degree in ImageReady, but I can figure out how to get the main body into each frame.

Can this be accomplished in ImageReady or will I have to go to one of Adobes other animation programs?


Thanks much in advance.

[uwbpet]

Correction: I CANNOT figure how to insert main body into each frame.

Sorry

[T Paul]

What I would do is extract the subject to its own layer. Place above your new background layer. Extract the arms onto their own layer. Remove the arms from the other layer. Now you can duplicate the arms and adjust them to simulate the flapping motion. Probably one layer with the arms down by his sides, one layer half way up, and one layer ¾ way up. You can do more, but the more you create, the larger the file will be. Save the file as a Photoshop file and switch over to ImageReady. Open the file and the animation window. Set your file so that the background layer, the body layer and the first layer with the arms down by his sides are all viewable. Turn all the other layers off. Now start creating your frames simple by creating a frame, and turning on and off the various arm layers. For example:

1. Frame one: background (bg) layer, body layer, and arms down by side layer on (all others off)
2. Frame two: bg layer, body layer, and arms half way up layer on (all others off)
3. Frame three: bg layer, body layer, and arms ¾ way up on (all others off)
4. Frame four: bg layer, body layer, and arms half way up layer on (all others off)

You can use the tweening option between frames to smooth the transition, and adjust the timing of each frame as you see fit.

[uwbpet]

Thanks much TPaul. Very helpful.