The Digital Scoop!

Elements Animation

This style of animation is learned easily by creating animations, which “add on” or “take away”. An add on animation would start with a base image and be added to on each additional frame. A take away would start with the completed image and be erased in each additional frame.

Materials:

A gif animation.

Before the Computer:

Have a class discussion about styles of animation. Discuss the difference between hand drawn animation and computer-generated animation.
Introduce the students to the idea of frames. Open an animated gif from the web in Elements. Students will be able to see the animation broken down into its individual frames. Talk about how the image changes in each frame.
Introduce students to the idea of story boarding. Have them sketch a storyboard for the animation they are going to make on the computer using the Story Board handout.

Step 1: Create a new 200 x 200 pixel document, which is 72 dpi, RGB Color mode, and has a White Background.

Step 2: Draw the base of your animation.

Step 3: Click Layer-New-Layer via Copy in the menu bar or press command-j on the keyboard. You now have a new layer, which is an exact copy of the previous layer.

Step 4: Add to your image.

Step 5: Repeat step 3.

Step 6: Keep repeating steps 2 and 3 until you finish your animation.

Step 7: Click File-Save for Web in the menu bar.

Step 8: Check the Animation box.

Step 9: Click the Preview button to see how your animation will look in a web browser. Quit the browser when you are finished previewing your image.

Step 10: Adjust the speed of your animation by changing the Frame Delay.

Step 11: Click OK.

Step 12: A save dialog box will appear. Save your animation as a gif.