A Scrolling Background Animation

27th March 2007

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Part 3 : Animate!

We now have the perfect image for making an animation loop. What was the middle of the picture is now at the two edges and they match, plus we have doubled the image by copying it and moving the copied part off canvas. It is this copied part that will come into view as we animate each frame.

• Open the animation window in Photoshop : Window » Animation in the menus. This now shows us the first frame in our animation loop.

• Duplicate the first frame using the Duplicate Selected Frame button in the animation window.

Animation window showing the 2 frames.

• Ensure the Move Tool is selected. Holding down the Shift key, tap the Right Arrow key twice.

  This moves the image 20 pixels to the right.

Position of image before tapping Right-Arrow key.

Dotted lines show image movement of 20px to the right.

• Duplicate this second frame in the animation window. Again, holding down the Shift key, tap the Right Arrow key twice, moving the image on another 20 pixels.

• Repeat this process until you have 20 frames: 20 moves of 20 pixels = 400 pixels or the width of our animation.

Position after 20 frames.

• Check the animation works by clicking the Play Animation button shown bottom left of the animation window.

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