Photo Animation

A contemporary technique used by photographers to give life to their images is to create 3D-like animations from regular 2D images. This was used prominently in the Kony 2012 video. The process involves the creation of a displacement map in Photoshop and After Effects to generate an uncanny animation sequence.

To put this all together, we will be using Photoshop, After Effects, and Premiere.

THE PROCESS:

1) Open your image in Photoshop

2) Crop it if necessary.

3) Unlock your background layer (drag the lock beside the background layer to the trash)

4) Create a new, blank layer

5) Ensure your colours revert to black and white by pressing D (default).

6) Fill the new layer with black (Edit > Fill, select black; OR use the paint bucket tool)

7) Set the opacity of your top layer to 70% so you can see through it.

8) Select the Brush tool (B), select white (X will flip your colours), and change the brush opacity to 20%. Change the brush hardness to 100%.

9) You will now brush a series of FIVE "depth maps" to show to the terrain of the face. Your first pass should cover the entire face and hair and each subsequent pass should highlight areas that are increasingly closer to the camera. The end effect is that the closer to the camera, the brighter the image.

4:05 - 7:30 in the video covers this part. Watch it!

10) Using black and white brushes, adjust the depth of your image as necessary. Try to think in 3D!

11) Put your opacity of your top layer back to 100% so you only see your black & white adjustments. Should look creepy!

12) Select Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and choose an amount that blends everything a bit more. (The video uses 14.8 px, but that will depend on the resolution of the image you're using!)

13) Select File > Save As and save your project as a .psd file.

14) Open up Adobe After Effects.

15) Open your .psd file in the Project window. (File > Import > File)

16) When prompted, select "Composition - Retain Layer Sizes" under "Import Kind" and also select "Merge Layer Styles into Footage".

17) In the Project window, find your imported .psd file. You will need to open the folder to reveal your two layers. Select both of these layers and drag them to the Composition window (main centre window).

18) At the prompt "New Composition from Selection", enter your desired duration (i.e. how long you want the animation clip to last). 3 seconds might be a good place to start.

19) In the bottom-left window, ensure that your background image is the bottom of the two layers. Also, turn off the displacement map layer so that you only see your original image.

20) In the Effects & Presets tab, type in "Displacement" in the search field to reveal "Displacement Map."

21) Once the Displacement Map effect option appears, drag it to the Timeline (bottom window) and drop it onto your background layer.

22) In the top left window you should be able to select "Effect Controls". In this tab there should now be a Displacement Map effect with a bunch of options. Make the following changes:

- Displacement Map Layer = 1. displacement map layer (probably still called Layer 1 unless you renamed it)

- Use for Horizontal Displacement = Luminance.

- Use for Vertical Displacement = Luminance.

22) At this point you can preview your 3D effect by clicking on the value for "Max Horizontal Displacement" (or Max Vertical Displacement) and dragging left or right. Try not to give yourself nightmares! Take note of the maximum/mininum values at which the angle no longer works.

23) Time to start assigning a timeline for your animation. In the bottom-left window, expand your background layer to reveal Effects > Displacement Map. Click on the the little stopwatch icon next to "Max Hor..." and "Max Ver..." to enable time-based editing.

What has happened is that After Effects has added a keyframe to the starting point. A keyframe is a waypoint for which you can adjust various settings.

24) At this point you need to decide how you want your animation to work. Over the course of the time you chose, do you want your subject to "move" left-to-right? Up-to-down? Diagonally? Play around with the Horizontal and Vertical Displacement values and figure out your starting and end points.

25) Once you've made up your mind, adjust those two values to where you want the animation to start.

26) On the timeline, move the blue time marker to the right (end) of your sequence.

27) Drop new keyframes at the end for both Horizontal and Vertical Displacement (click diamond "Add keyframe" button as shown in the picture below.

28) Select each of the two new keyframes and adjust their respective setting to establish the "end point" of your animation.

29) Drag the blue time marker back to the start, then press SPACEBAR to play the sequence! If done properly, the image should be animated smoothly from one point to the other.

30) If you want to change the displacement values, click on the appropriate keyframe and adjust the setting in question

TO HAND IN:

1) Import your After Effects project into Premiere Pro and render it as an .mp4 file.

2) Upload it to your YouTube channel and post it on your website (COM Project C > PHOTO ANIMATION). 3) PUBLISH your site then TURN IN on Classroom.