Fairy Dust Tag

I wrote this tutorial on my own.  Any similarity to another tutorial is purely coincidental.  I claim the copyright to my tutorial. You are free to do whatever you please with what you make, but please do not take my tutorial.  Do not send the tutorial through email.  Only share my link.

This tutorial is intended for a beginner to learn about making animation.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

To do this tutorial you will also need Photoshop CS or CS2.  You may download a free trial at Adobe.

Remember to save as a .psd file often!  You will need these animations:  Boxes

1.  Open up the image that you wish to use.  Image > Duplicate.  Close the original.  Resize if necessary.  Image > Resize

2.  Layer > New > Background to Layer.

3. In the tool palette, click on the Edit in Quick Mask Mode

4.  In the Layer Palette, click on the Channels Tab, then highlight the bottom layer (Quick Mask)

5.  Filter > Render > Clouds.

6.  Click back on the Layer tab.

7.  In the tool bar, click on Edit in Standard Mode.  Your image will now have selections on it.

8.  Layer > New > Layer

9.  Fill this layer with a color of your choice (Edit > Fill > Color)  or with a gradient.  This will color the magical fog around the image.

10.  In the Layer Palette, slide the opacity to 70%

11.  Layer > New > Layer.

12.  Edit > stroke.  width = 3 px, color = white

13.  with the magic wand select the white border and fill with the color or gradient of your choice.

14.  Select > All

15.  Edit > Copy Merged

16.  Open Image Ready.  File > New (size is automatically set).  Edit > Paste

17.  Open up the box animations that you want to use.  I chose 3 colors.  If you want to use the same color repeatedly you will have to Image > Duplicate for each repetition.

Now you will add the animated boxes to your background image:

For each animated box to add:

18.  Click on the animated box image.  Select > All Layers

19.  Drag the highlighted layers onto your background image (left-click, hold, and drag, release over the image)

20.  Repeat steps 18 & 19 for EACH animation box that you wish to use.

21.  In the animation window,  click on the right menu arrow and choose Make Frames From Layers.

22.  In the Layer Palette, scroll down to the bottom and right-click on the bottom layer and choose Duplicate Layer.

23.  In the Animation Window, click on the first frame, and then click on the trash can ONCE to delete (You will not notice a difference in the Animation Window.

24.  Now save this as a GIF.  File > Save Optimized As.

 Please do not remove this tutorial from my site.  Share my url.