In this tutorial I looked at how to use the Photoshop timeline function for Animated gifs, and I also looked at the initial process of rotoscoping. When I created my new document I started to create the artwork I would be animating, I made sure to create each segment on a different layer so I can animate them independently. I then opened the timeline panel and created a frame animation from my layers. In the timeline panel I needed to make sure I selected the option to make frames from layers, I then changed the frame duration to 0.1 seconds. I chose to animate the word Type spelling itself out, and once I created the frames and set the time I could export it as a Gif by selecting the save for web option. This is a useful way to create simple animated web banners or other web elements like small ads. There are useful options when creating gifs, like the ability to switch off visibility on a layer so it will not appear in a frame. Once I created my first gif, I went on to create a more refined version, this scrolled through the letters slower and more smoothly, I also made it the ideal size for a web banner as I was experimenting with HTML at the time and I wanted to apply it to my experiments, you can see this in a screenshot above.
I also tried using the onion skins option which allows me to draw frame by frame and see what my last frame was, it is like drawing on a light box but in Photoshop, it allows for the traditional animation. I created the worm gif this way and drew each frame simply with the brush tool.
Then I moved onto Rotoscoping, for this I was only shown how to set up a photoshop file ready for the effects. I imported the chosen video into Photoshop, and I then created another layer and worked through it frame by frame drawing the shape of the dancer moving. I can then use this drawing to apply effects to the correct area so they fit with the video of the dancer.
