Step 1
House cleaning, before we invoke the animation palette delete the original background layer. You can click on the background layer and drag it to the trash can at the bottom right of the Layers panel. Or right click (PC) Control click (Mac) on the layer and choose Delete Layer. In photoshop you'll discover that "generally" there is more that one way to do the same thing!
Step 2
Choose Menu item:
Window > animation
In the Layers palette you'll see an additional box that says "Unify" and Propagate Frame 1
In the animation panel you'll see a "Frame" with the label "1" in the top left corner. This frame contains all of our layers (in this case all 3)
We only have two frames for our animation... (Saturday TV Cartoons use as little as 5 frames per second)
Step 3
Duplicate animation frame "1"
Step 4
Setting up the 2 frame animation
- Select Frame 2 in the animation panel, It'll turn blue.
- In the Layers palette turn off Layer 1 Garry Selection by clicking the eyeball
- Select Frame 1 in the animation panel, It'll turn blue.
- In the Layers palette turn off Layer 2 Garry Warp by clicking the eyeball
- Adjust the "dwell or frame delay time" that each frame will be visible by clicking the down arrow under the frames (experiment)
- Click and set the looping option, the number of times the animation will play.
Frame 2 and ------------------------------------------------ Frame 1
Step 5
Saving the animation.
There are several choices. In the example below I cropped the image on the canvas first.
- Save as a .gif file
- Menu: File > Save for Web & Devices...
- Advantage. It'll play on a blog, e-mail or a web page.
- Dis-advantage... It's only has a palette of 256 colors.
- Export as a movie file
- Menu: File > Export > Render Video...
- Post it on YouTube!
The "gif" Results! One, Two, One Two...
Have fun warping!
To learn more about animation in Photoshop check out these Blog Articles:
...in the mean time
Practice, practice practice