Start with a sequence of photos taken in quick succession of a flag waving in the breeze and create a waving flag animation in Photoshop Elements 7.

Animation

Photographing the Flag

You will need to take a sequence of photos in quick succession of a flag waving in the breeze. Most digital cameras have an option to shoot a series of photos in burst mode or continuous mode. Set your camera to burst mode (continuous mode) and take several photos in succession. Hold the camera steady to prevent shake or use a tripod.

Resources

This lesson uses four photos taken in burst mode. The camera was hand-held. If you want to use these same photos for your lesson, you can download the following ZIP file. The flag photos are numbered in succession. The ZIP file also contains a completed animation.

Download Flags ZIP file

Make a Waving Flag Animation

To make a flag animation:

1. Open three or more images in a sequence of photos to use in your animation. Minimize all images so that they appear in the Project Bin and the workspace is empty.
2. In the Project Bin, double-click a thumbnail to maximize the first image in the sequence. This image will be the base image for the animation.

3. Add the next flag image in the sequence to the base image:

   1. In the Project Bin, double-click a thumbnail to open the next image in the flag sequence.
   2. Using the Move tool, drag-and-drop the next image on top of the base image in the workspace. Hold down the Shift key before you release the mouse button so that the image is centered over the base image. The photo is displayed in a new layer.
   3. Optionally, minimize the image you just copied so that only the base image appears in the workspace.
   

4. Align the top photo with the photo beneath it in the layer stack. Especially with hand-held photos, you must align stationary objects in the two photos for a smooth animation:

   1. In the Layers palette, select the top layer and set the Opacity to 50%. Notice that objects in the top layer are not aligned perfectly with the layer below.
   2. Select the Move tool, then use the arrow keys on the keyboard to nudge the top photo into alignment with the photo beneath it. In this animation, the flagpoles in each image are aligned, while the flag remains waving.

   Before	After

5. After you are satisfied with the alignment, in the Layers palette, set the Opacity of the top layer back to 100%.

6. Fill any blank spaces in the image caused by the alignment. Nudging the photo into alignment causes blank spaces to appear along the edges of the photo; you must fill these blank areas for a smooth animation:

   1. In the Layers palette, select the top layer, then press Alt+Click on the layer thumbnail to hide all other layers. You can clearly see a blank (transparent) space along the edge of the layer.
   2. Select the Clone Stamp tool, then copy portions of the surrounding image to fill the blank spaces. Press Alt+Click on an area of the image to select the area to clone, then paint over the blank areas with a soft brush. Repeat as necessary until all blank areas are filled in.
   3. When you are finished, press Alt+Click on the layer thumbnail again to show all layers.
   

7. Repeat Steps 3-6 for each photo in the flag sequence. The following figure shows the Layers palette when all photos have been included:

   

8. Create the flag animation:

   1. From the File menu, select Save for Web.
   2. In the Save for Web dialogue box, select GIF as the file type.
   3. Check the Animate checkbox.
   4. In the Animation section, check the Loop checkbox and select a Frame Delay for each frame (photo) in the animation. This animation uses a frame delay of 0.5 seconds.
   5. Click OK to create an animated GIF file. Note: The animation is only visible when displaying this file in a browser.
   

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