[WiggMuffin]

I've got the full Adobe Creative Suite, but I have no idea which program to make an animated image, or how to do it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Thorzdad]

What sort of "animated image" are you wanting to make? An animated .gif? A Flash animation? If it's a Flash animation, you will need to get Macromedia's Flash application.

[gautch]

You can make a PSD with all the layers being diferent frames. Then take that PSD into Imageready CS and flash each layer for each frame..

Or you can make one layer your background. Your next layer your moving object.
1) Then just put your object in its first position.
2) Make a new frame. Move you object to where you want it to end up.
3) Tween the frames.
4) Save Optimized As...

Both of these will create animated .GIF's
EG:

And These: , , ,

[WiggMuffin]

Originally posted by gautch:
You can make a PSD with all the layers being diferent frames. Then take that PSD into Imageready CS and flash each layer for each frame..

Or you can make one layer your background. Your next layer your moving object.
1) Then just put your object in its first position.
2) Make a new frame. Move you object to where you want it to end up.
3) Tween the frames.
4) Save Optimized As...

Both of these will create animated .GIF's
EG:

And These: , , ,

Thanks!

[Teri Pettit]

You can also export layers directly to .swf (Flash) format from Adobe Illustrator. It is often useful to first use the Blend feature in Illustrator to create smooth transitions between vector objects, and then use the Release to Layers (Sequence) or Release to Layers (Series) commands (on the Layers palette menu) to separate the blend steps into a series of layers.

Vector blends are much cooler for "tweening" objects than the bitmap tweening you get inside ImageReady.

Adobe's animated Christmas card for this year was created by this method:

http://www.adobe.com/special/holidaycard/peace2005.html

Illustrator cannot preview animations, though. You have to export to .swf and preview them in a brower or other Flash player.

Illustrator blends can also be the foundation for animated gifs. Just release to layers, export the Illustrator file to Photoshop preserving layers, then open the Photoshop file in ImageReady to create the animation.

Here is an old tutorial I put together in early 1999 demonstrating the steps:

http://tpettit.best.vwh.net/adobe/morphing_faces.html

[gautch]

Teri! Awesome! I never knew illustrator could do this! Thanks!!!