Animating hands in Photoshop

[Mike]

Hi
I've got Mikey here, from another piece of software and after I scew him anticlockwise and cut him in half I want to animate his right hand to wave to every one from behind the first letter of the page title.

The software I'm going to be doing this in allows Gif animations, so its worth seeing if I can do the animating of the hand here in Photoshop to start with.

Does any one know what I'm talking about.

Thanks in advance.

Mike.
P.S. Sorry about the size of Mikey, but I wasn't sure how to make him smaller in the post.
M.

 

[fredfish]

Hi Mike.

Have you by any chance got a version of Mikey without the drop shadow?

Cheers

John

 

[Eggy]

I'm not very good at creating gif's but I gave it a try. I had to remove the drop shadow though.

 

[IamSam]

@Mike are you asking for help with how to make the animation or are you requesting to have the animation turned into a gif for you?

 

[Eggy]

Sam, I'm trying to find a decent tutorial on how to create a simple animated GIF, nothing fancy.

 

[Eggy]

Hey Mike,

Correct me if I'm wrong but from your intro post I deduce your just have Photoshop.

Does that mean you have no experience at all with PS?

Before starting to animate the hand there's a whole lot of preparations to make in PS, like getting rid of the drop shadow, using the pen tool to separate the hand, filling the gaps in the face, rotating the hand three times ect...

 

[Mike]

Hello Eggy
I'm not surprised you've got all those awards & achievements. Very quick off the mark.

Yes I have Photoshop CS6 Extended and I know how to start it and open a new page, and Oh yes, I can make the background disappear from most graphics

(Thanks to Marty from Blue Lightning).

I also have a copy of 'Brilliant Photoshop CS6' which is helpful, but I like things explained to me by some one who's actually done the things I'm enquiring about.

I believe that's the reason I joined the forum to get my answers from similar minded people, if you see what I mean.

If you suggest a way of doing something in Photoshop and I'm not quite sure how to go about it or I get half way through it, I can't go back to Brilliant Photoshop and ask the book to explain further. See what I mean. Hopefully.

Getting back to the hand. How did you remove the hand to rotate it and then put it back. That's exactly what I was trying to figure out. Could you not remove the hand with the drop shadow in place.

Is there a video on this.

Thanks.

Mike.

 

[Mike]

Hey Mike,

Correct me if I'm wrong but from your intro post I deduce your just have Photoshop.

Does that mean you have no experience at all with PS?

Before starting to animate the hand there's a whole lot of preparations to make in PS, like getting rid of the drop shadow, using the pen tool to separate the hand, filling the gaps in the face, rotating the hand three times ect...

Filling what gaps in the face?

 

[IamSam]

Mike, you have to isolate the hand by selecting it and moving it to a new layer. Then your left with a deficit that needs to be filled in.

The ear, the face, and the arm.



The reason for this is that when you move the hand, the face, ear, and arm need to be filled in.....like this.

 

[Eggy]

No Mike, there no video on this specific case. (And I couldn't find a basic tutorial about something like this)

Concerning the 'gaps' to fill once you separate the hand and place it on his own layer, look at the red markings.

Once the hand gone those gaps need to be filled with the face texture.



You know, I will produce some guidance how this was made and post it here tomorrow. (I have to run now, sunday family visit)

But be prepared to encounter terms you've never heard of before.

We'll make this work but may I suggest you go through the basics of PS before trying something like this?

 

[Mike]

That's OK
I appreciate this is just a hobby and you have a life, I'll look out tomorrow for some more info.

Thanks again.

Mike.

 

[Eggy]

Hi Mike,

To start with the basics I'll give you one tutorial from a well known PS artist.

Its all about the basics of PS so you'll have an idea. There are 3 tutorials from him so feel free to watch them and try to have an idea how PS works.

I'm doing it for about 4 years now and I only know a fraction from what is possible.

Here's the tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryOgl4EDgn8

 

[Pipsmom]

Love all Phlearn tutorials, best teacher when I just started

 

[Mike]

I can only echo Pipsmom here as I found Phlearn really outstanding as a tutor.

I'm getting hooked with Photoshop.

Thank's Eggy

 

[Eggy]

Did you looked at the 3 tutorials for beginners Mike?

If yes, start to practise for yourself (no need to post here) and see if you can handle the basics.
If you have questions, ask here.

 

[Mike]

Thanks,
If I'm missing for a while its because my head is buried in Phlearn's videos.

Michael.

 

[fredfish]

Thanks,
If I'm missing for a while its because my head is buried in Phlearn's videos.

Michael.

A very productive place to be buried!!

Cheers

John

 

[Pipsmom]

Thanks,
If I'm missing for a while its because my head is buried in Phlearn's videos.

Michael.

Its the best place for us to be buried just learning and practicing as you watch Phlearn, Lyndia.Com and all the other tutorials, at least for the first month as you take it all in..... Best thing I ever did was play the videos on my laptop then stopped and started the video and applied the technique he was teaching on the big desktop screen in real time....I called it Monkey See..Monkey Do :biglaff:

But repeating and practicing this way over and over made it stick in my old brain better than reading it at the time... A months worth of practice everyday doing this will make all the difference
Make you a folder in Youtube and save every single one for easy return when you forget a step and have to take a refresher course...yeah that gonna happen too
Then you come here and ask for clarification how to do other things when you get stuck...I do that a lot and these guys have never let me down explaining things so I can move forward

 

[Mike]

I didn't know you could make folders on YouTube to put your favourite videos into them. Just shoes you how much of a newbee you have here. Although I did start out when the fist ZX Spectrums were released onto the market.

 

[Pipsmom]

I didn't know you could make folders on YouTube to put your favourite videos into them. Just shoes you how much of a newbee you have here. Although I did start out when the fist ZX Spectrums were released onto the market.

Yes Mike its quite easy and it allows you to save you specific clips into categories within your library to find them later.......example a folder each for Blending, Colorisation, Pen tool, Masks etc...in the beginning I had over 50 folders just to try to get my head around everything basic in Photoshop
Make sure your signed into your account, when you find something you want to save just press the Plus Sign (Add To) under your video




from the drop down menu Click on (Create a New Playlist) and name your folder
Once its created all you have to do from then on is click the plus sign, find the folders name and tick the box....it automatically will put the video in that folder of your choice.

To rewatch you look in your library and click on your folder so it will open and choose which one you want to see.....






When the time comes you no longer want to keep the video or its one that was saved by mistake, just send it to the trash can by hovering over the time of the video and you will see a trash can, just click and it erases it






I got my own little system that works for me but as a newby myself (since last September is works for this old brain that don't retain knowledge like it use to)....like create a new folder on your desk top mine is PS Projects, all my restoration practice pictures are placed there that need to be done, once completed the final picture is saved to a new folder I named Finished Edits and the original is dragged and dropped into that Final folder too, when it gets a lot it in I save everything orginal and edited to a external hard drive and empty the folder... so if I ever need to find it and rework it everything is safely locked away off the computer just in case it ever crashed