Transcripts
1. Introduction: The Art of Animated Icons: Hello and welcome to The
Art of Animated Icons, Design and Animate with
Photoshop and Illustrator. I'm Cynthia Oswald, an artist
designer and founder of a thriving boutique branding agency with the background and communication design
and experience as a university instructor, I've combined my love
for creativity and teaching to bring you this
comprehensive course. We'll dive into
the rich world of icon animation in Art Forum. I've been practicing
professionally for years, whether you're a seasoned
designer or new to the field, this course aims to inspire, empower and equip you
with the skills that are applicable in today's
digital landscape. But what's special about animating Icons
and are digitized, world motion is key
for engagement. Imagine adding animated icons to your brand package or
your e-mail campaigns. It's a creative way to bring your design to life and
connect with your audience. The beauty is you don't
need specialized software. We'll be using
industry standards, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator
before we get started, here's a quick rundown
on what you will need. Basic understanding of Adobe Photoshop and
Adobe Illustrator. Both platforms installed on
your computer, a sketchpad. So grab your digital pens and notepads because
right after this, we'll dive straight into
an exciting class project. You'll get to Design and
Animate your own Icon, combining the elements
of design and motion to create something
truly spectacular. I can't wait to
see the creativity you bring to the table.
Let's get started.
2. The Class Project: Animated Icon: Welcome back to our course, icon animation with
Photoshop and Illustrator. Today is especially
exciting because we're diving into a transformative
class project. You'll be designing and
animating your own unique icon, whether that's for a brand, an idea, or a
creative expression. Using the magic combo of Adobe Illustrator and
Photoshop handpick this project for you to Gain hands-on experience with the very same
professional tools I use. This experience
will empower you to create content for
Various Platforms, be at emails, websites,
or social media. Before you jump in, I have
some vital tips for you. Consider where you
intend to use this icon so you can select the
appropriate size and format. Aim for smooth and visually
appealing transitions. But also don't forget to infuse your work with your own
unique style and flare. In terms of steps, start by choosing a theme that resonates
personally with you. Design your icon and
Illustrator paying close attention to shape,
color, and alignment. Then let's breathe life into it by animating it in Photoshop. Don't be afraid to
experiment and get a little creative with the animation
techniques we've discussed. Once you're satisfied
with your Creation, go ahead and export it
as a GIF or movie file. Share it in our project
gallery along with a brief description
of your concept and the process you followed. By participating. You're not just
submitting a project, you're gaining
valuable experience, enriching your
portfolio and expanding your creative network through interactions with your peers. So grab your Design Tools, fire up your creativity, and Let's embark on
this remarkable journey together. Happy animating
3. Sketching & Creating Illustrator Icon: Welcome back. This class
is all about birthing your icon from a mere thought to a vibrant Design
in Illustrator. Let's get those
creative gears turning. Every masterpiece starts
with inspiration. Are you leaning towards nature, technology, vintage vibes? Your theme or concept sets
the stage for your design. Think of an idea that resonates as this
becomes your compass. To create a powerful icon, you need to grasp some
foundational design principles. Balance, contrast, alignment. These aren't just words
there your tools. When well-understood,
they elevate your design from good
to jaw dropping. So if something
doesn't feel right, consider looking at how you
could adjust or better think through hierarchy,
contrast, repetition. We're Consistency,
proximity, balance, color space and overall
movement or flow. Now, let's sketch. Remember to lay down as
many ideas as you can. Multiple sketches give you a number of concept
to cherry pick from. I love this quote I've
recently read by Louise Fili. The sketch is the
soul of a design. A good sketch has the
potential of greatness or not, depending on how well
the finish is executed. Well, I'm not teaching you about my sketch process in this class. I do want to make note
of the importance this stage will play
in the final result. It's time to digitize, Choose a few sketches
you love and begin tracing and iterating them
in Adobe Illustrator. You might be surprised how
a rough pencil line and transforms into a
crisp digital curve. I have a few tips for you for
vectorizing your sketches. First, if you have
an iPad handy, you might consider
redrawing them in Adobe Illustrator or even
procreate using your iPad. If that's something
that you're used to using as part of your practice. I played around with this, but ultimately decided to
start with a clean slate and Adobe Illustrator on my
computer using the Pen tool. And this is because I wanted a Polish design
that I could pass on for a font and not
necessarily a hand-drawn look, but either could work. It's important to
note that you can do this class without
vectorizing type. I'm utilizing a logo that
I'm developing that said, use whatever you're
interested in creating. If you decide to go
to the type route, you may want to take some advanced type
classes before you begin. Here are a few of my favorite type tips
to get you started. First, keep it simple. The less points, the better. Each curve should only have
one point and the anchors should not extend past the
previous or the next point. I break the rules
at times when I'm creating and then resolve
it when I'm finished. Using rulers will help
keep you on track. I sometimes don't
turn the rulers on until after I
retrace my drawing. Double-check that the largest
and smallest thicknesses remain the same for
consistency sake, I'll often use different
colored blocks on separate layer to double-check the thicknesses of the letters. I recommend researching
Serifs sans serif, end script fonts to understand some basic rules
before you begin. For instance, the curved
letters like Oh and see, often extend past the x-height. And the x-height is the
height of the lowercase X. Before we get back to
designing the Icon, I just want to walk you through a few tools that I'm primarily
using during this lesson. I'm tracing my sketch
using the pen tool and you can bring that up by
typing P on your keyboard. When you have the
pen tool selected, you can draw using points and
make curves by clicking and dragging when you
make a point to select and edit a
specific point, you can use the direct
select tool or type a to grab your entire object. Use the select tool
or type V. Finally, to edit anchor points are
the curves your points, you can hold the pen
tool down in the toolbar and the anchor point
will show below, or you can type Shift plus C. Now that I have the main
part of my icon design, I want to create
some elements that illustrate growth
surrounding the letter. I'm going to use the
pen tool to create strokes for the lines
representing the stems, and then create
shapes or objects using the pen tool for the
leaves and the flower. While I'm working, I'll
zoom in and out of the design to see how it's
working in multiple sizes. This helps to shine light on anything that may
feel unbalanced. I also think it's
important to leave time to work on this portion. Once you bring it
over to Photoshop, you'll want it to be polished so you don't have to backtrack. I decided to make the
caps of my strokes rounded since stems are typically
more rounded in nature, I wanted to have
that organic feel. I also wanted to
keep each element separate for animation purposes. So instead of
attaching each stem, I click off the
design in-between by toggling between the pen
tool and the selection tool. When I want to start
a new shape or line, I simply tap V and then I tap P again to start
a new line or shape. This ensures that each element
is on its own and we'll make the animation more fluid and interesting in
the end result. You could also start organizing
by layers, if you prefer. But I walked through
this process later on as I prepped
the file for Photoshop, you'll also notice that
I only drew one leaf, and this is because I end up duplicating them by
selecting the leaf and option on the keyboard and then dragging it
to the new location, this will automatically
duplicate it. You can also easily flip a leaf by selecting object transform reflect in the top menu bar and I use the
vertical transform. One final illustration
tip to note is how I work using strokes
to create the shapes. But once they're
completed by enclosing the shape from start to
finish with the Pen tool. I then swap stroke
to fill by typing Shift X on the keyboard or using the swap
errors in the toolbar. Keep in mind that I know I
want to animate this and I'm going to be
thinking about that as I design the illustration. How could this look in movement? What parts of the original
file do I need to preserve? You'll notice that
I'm copying and pasting my work
throughout the process. And that is so I have a history
of each version in case I don't like the direction it's going and I went
ahead backwards. I also saved my file
throughout design process by just selecting Command
S on my keyboard. I have some elements
that I would like evenly distributed once I have them generally where
I'd like them all, select them all and the distribution icon appears
in the top menu for me. You can also go to Window
Align to open the panel, then select horizontal
or vertical distribution taught bottom or center
depending on your design. At this point, I'm pretty
happy with the design and while I have others
already rendered, I'm sold on this version
for the animation, but now I need to refine it. I'm going to take a quick step back and see what
else I'd like to do. I'll compare a few options to see which is strongest and make some final adjustments to the illustration to better
fit my long-term vision. It's important to design
with the end in mind, especially if this is a
branding project like mine. Once you have all of your
final designs rendered, zoom out and make
the final call. In this video, we reviewed
deciding on a direction, creating sketches, rendering your sketches
and Illustrator. And I gave you a behind
the scenes look at my process and favorite tools
for designing the icon. Next, we'll walk
through preparing your file for Photoshop
4. Prepping the Icon for Photoshop: Ready to get started. The very first
thing need to do is expand the appearance of
our Illustrator file. This keeps everything
looking crisp and clean as we make
the file larger. But before we jump in, Let's save a copy of
our current design. You never know what
you might want to come back and tinker with, especially if you
plan to use it in another program like
Adobe After Effects. The duplicate, just
select the entire icon by holding down Shift and
clicking the area around it. Then hold down the Option key. Click and drag to a new spot
on your Canvas. All set. Now go to the top
menu, select Object, Expand and then choose
object stroke, fill, Walla. Your lines have now
morphed into shapes. Next up, let's copy that newly transformed icon
into a fresh, clean file. For this example, I'm aiming for a square format,
perfect for Instagram. Remember, because
it's vector Art, we can resize it without losing any quality when we
move into Photoshop. Now it's time to put our
organizational hats on. We will arrange our
layers in a way that'll make the
animating a breeze. You'll do this again in
Photoshop, but for now, groups similar items together on the same layer or
individual layers. For example, let's move all decorative items
onto one layer, leaves onto another, stems on yet another.
You get the idea. Alright, let's dive
into the specifics. It's time to map out how your illustration will
reveal during the animation. I'm gonna be doing some of
this later on in Photoshop. But let me show you one
way you can achieve it right here in Illustrator in
case that's your preference. First, select the
line that represents your stem and hit
Command C to copy it, to paste it back
in the same spot. Use Shift Command and V. Move
this line into a new layer. Now let's focus on this layer. Go ahead and hide all
the other layers. You can activate the pen
tool by pressing the peaky. We're going to slightly
erase some portions of the stem using the
pen tool as a slice. Using the Pen Tool, place
a line with no stroke across the illustration where you'd like to create
the first marker. Then open the pathfinder
panel, select divide, then delete the top portion or the portion that will
be revealed later on. This will act as
a growth marker, essentially what your audience will see before the full stem appears or whatever you're
illustrating or animating. The more growth
markers you create, the smoother your
animation will look. Speed is also a factor. A faster reveal yields
is smooth or Animation. Once you've adjusted the stem or whatever you're illustrating, toggle the layers on and off to preview your animation steps. This will give you
an idea of how everything will come together
in the final animation. Ready for some blend tool
FUN here will create steps or how the leaves and
flowers will grow. In other words, how
your illustration will reveal and Animate. First, let's draw
the starting point. In my case, that's a small bud. Using the blend tool, I'm going to create
five growth stages. Double-click the Blend tool from the tool panel to open
the blend options, choose specified steps and then select the desired
amount of steps. I'm going to separate them a
bit and choose five steps. We can always remove some. The idea is to be
sure you can see each step clearly
and separately. Make sure they're not
touching, adjust if necessary, then expand the appearance so each step is a
separate object. Finally, you're going to align them at their starting point. Remember, you can
adjust the number of steps to match the pace
of your animation. More steps for a slow, smooth, or reveal fewer steps
for something quicker. Now let's repeat this process
for the entire animation. Thinking through
how you would like each object to reveal and
Animate throughout the process, will have more time to
iterate in Photoshop, but you'll need the bones
at this complete before. So take your time and
don't move on until you're super-excited to
make this thing dance. Now that you have all the
growth steps created, Let's make sure each
or in their final location and separate each step onto its own layer. Be sure to label in a way
that makes sense for you. My final animation
has 100 layers, but you could easily
have 300 or more. So the clearer you are about
your file organization, the faster and smoother the
animation Creation will go. Time for a quick review. Now that you have each
step on its own layer, toggle through your layers to preview how the
animation will unfold, make adjustments as needed. For instance, I noticed my smaller leaves should
be closer to the stem. One last pro tip,
think about color. The flow of your animation can influence your
color choices. So consider that when
making your selection, I went with my primary brand
color to kick things off, adding secondary hues
for that extra pop, keep in mind, you could even animate transitions with color. Finally, Save your
original file in case you want to switch
up the colors later. Alright, let's take a moment to review what we've
accomplished so far. First up, we started by
expanding our Canvas and Illustrator to ensure
everything stays crisp. Remember to save
a copy you never know when you might need
the original design. Next, we move that expanded icon into a fresh square file format. Ideal for Instagram and easy to transition into Photoshop
without losing quality. Organization was key. We started sorting our layers
in a way that will make the animation process
smooth or down the line. We got into the specifics
of animation planning, right down to creating
growth markers for our stems or whatever
illustration you've created. The more you have, the smoother
your animation will be. The blend tool came into
play to create steps for how your illustration
will reveal and Animate, adjust the number of steps based on the piece
you're aiming for. Once we've finished the steps, we reorganized our layers, then game the moment
of truth as we toggled through the layers
to preview the animation, making sure
everything looks good and adjusted as necessary. Lastly, we considered how color can impact the flow and
feel of your animation. Choose colors that
complement the brand you're creating for it and
your animation style. Are you excited for
the next steps in? Next, we're going to bring
all of these into Photoshop to truly bring your
design to life. I can't wait to see what
we create together.
5. Animation in Photoshop: Hello again. After our
meticulous work in Illustrator, it's time to give our
icons that touch of magic. Let's jump into Photoshop and breathe life into our designs. Let's move our layered
Illustrator icon into Photoshop. First things first, we'll create a new file at whatever dimension you'll
use in the final form, I'm going with a little
larger than what I need in case I want to use it
for another application. Once your new file is created, all you have to do
is head over to Illustrator and select
your entire design. Hit copy or Command C, and toggle back to Photoshop, hit paste or Command V. And you'll be prompted
with a few options. Choose Paste as layers to
transfer all of your hard work. Think of animation
as a sequence of static images shown rapidly. Here. Layers become frames and your timeline organize them. This is the storyboard
of your animation. Now that we're in Photoshop, we can see that the Illustrator
layers were brought in as groups and each object is on
its own group in the layer. This is perfect for the
foundation of your organization. Let's label each object and put them in the order we
wish them to reveal. Keep in mind that will turn
off the previous steps so the animation doesn't get
messy in each micro reveal. For the stem or the flower, each stage will be hidden
as the next one reveals. In the last class, I
showed you how you can edit the growth stages
directly in Illustrator. I chose to do the stems
here in Photoshop because it felt easier and
more often for my process. I'm gonna do that now. And hopefully it will
give you insight on how you could use this
and do something similar. Before I move forward, I'm going to rasterize
all my layers. By going to layers. Rasterize all layers. I just grabbed the
layer I want to create stages for and the layers panel and Option click and
drag it to duplicate it. Then I grab the
eraser tool and erase the area I'd like to
reveal in the next stage, I repeat this
process until I have about three or four stages
for each of the stems. Then I'll test out
the entire animation by revealing each
layer individually. One important thing
to note is that this process revealed some crunchy areas
in the animation. And I was able to
fix it here before. I do have into the
animation where it's much harder
to work backwards. Photoshop traditionally, a photo editing tool hides a treasure trove of
animation capabilities. Let's explore just a small bite that will make those
static vector stance. In this class, we're creating a timeline animation
to get started, go to Window
timeline and select, Create frame animation
from the pop-up window. It should start you off
with one frame that shows everything visible
in your Layers panel. Right now, it acts as a
photograph of what's visible. So don't move on to creating a new frame until
you have everything hidden or displaying that you would like visible
in the first frame. Then hit the plus
sign at the bottom of your timeline panel to
create a new frame. Repeat the process and only reveal the next portion
of your animation, making sure to turn layers
off that will be redundant or won't show up until
later on in your animation. Now you're off to the races. Before you get too far, set the pace for your animation. After adding new frames, you can hit the Play button at the bottom of the timeline
to see how it's looking. If it feels too jumpy, reduced the time on each frame. You can do that at the bottom of the frame by clicking
the down arrow, then selecting the time you'd
like that frame revealed. For my animation, I
went with 0.02 s, literally a split second, so it could quickly loop. Which brings me
to my next slide. Should this animation
loop or play through once,
twice, three times. That's something you'll want to determine before
exporting the file. Mine is set to default forever. So if you click that and the
bottom the timeline panel, you can choose how many
times it will loop. In my case, I only
wanted to happen once. Today. I'm walking
you through the most basic of animations. There are other animation and video capabilities
in the timeline, and there are other effects you can add into your animation, such as tweening between frames, which can automatically
add steps and can be another way for
you to eliminate layers. For this class, I wanted
to show you how to create a beautiful animation using the skill sets you most
likely already have. Think of this as the foundation to animating in Photoshop. Consistency is key for a
truly professional finish, Ensure your animation
is buttery smooth. Watch it for jarring
transitions are mismatched. Frame durations. Your icon should move naturally as if it has
a life of its own. You can delete frames
and add new frames, but it's always easiest to do this and then natural order. So I recommend checking how your animation is
looking as you build it. Okay, let's quickly recap what we went over in this class. First, we imported the icon into Photoshop by literally
copying and pasting. We set up a frame
animation using layers. Then we were really getting into the nitty-gritty of
editing and organizing. Then I went over
the animating tools that we were using in Photoshop. Next, we talked about pacing your animation and adding
animation effects. And finally, just
double-checking your work for ensuring that
smooth transition. Fantastic work, your icon
should now be a fusion of your unique design skills
and the magic of Animation. Are you ready to share your
creations with the world? Let's dive into exporting and showcasing your
animated marbles. I cannot wait to see
what you've created.
6. Exporting Your Animation: Welcome back design enthusiasts. With our animation complete, it's now time for one of the most crucial
steps exporting. Let's Ensure your
animated icon is optimized and ready
for the world to see. Now when it comes to exporting Photoshop gives you a
lot of choices and I'm going to walk you
through the two that you'll need for
this type of animation. Movie or gifts. Gifts are great for the broad capability and looping nature, while movies offer
great high-quality and better color depth. Remember the choice
is yours based on where you want
your icon to shine. Let's get started
by exporting or movie file for my
Instagram feed, simply go to File, export, render video and the movie
settings will appear. Choose where you save the file
and the size of the file. Remember, I started with
something larger than I needed so that I
could have flexibility. But there's no need to save
a large video for Instagram. Go with this specs from your specific
platform. That's it. Then upload to your
preferred location and Share Your Animation. The real reason is
animation was born was to share via email as a GIF file. You simply can't Share
Video via e-mail, but you can share Animated
GIF or GIF file will provide that engaging or
high-quality image with a professional edge. Always keep the
Platforms limitations and advantages in mind. You can hit Command, Option Shift and S or go to
File Export Save for Web, and then choose Gif from the options and the
top-right corner. You can even test your
animation or choose additional settings or edit your looping preferences
right there, and then Save for output. Rather though, you've
just mastered the Art of icon animation from
designed to Export, whether it's for your client, your portfolio, or just for Fun, you now have the skills to create captivating
Animated visuals. In the next video, let's recap what we learned and Celebrate by sharing our designs
7. Conclusion & Let's Celebrate!: Hi everyone, Congratulations on making it to the
end of this course. The Art of Animated Icons, Design and Animate with
Photoshop and Illustrator. What an incredible
journey it's been, and I'm so proud of that
progress you've made. Let's take a quick
moment to reflect on all the new skills and
techniques you've learned. First off, you mastered the
Art of bringing to life your sketches by designing
layered Icons and Illustrator, where we focused on dimensions, color and intricate detailing. Then we shifted
gears and moved into Photoshop where he
learned to breathe life into static designs by creating frame-by-frame
animations, we even delved into more
advanced features like setting the pace
of your animations and adding special effects. What's learning without
application, right? You have the chance to apply all these techniques
in our class project. Now, it's not just about
the final product, but also about the journey and the skills you've
acquired along the way. Each of you brought your
unique vision to life, combining design principles with animation techniques to produce
something truly magical. Now for the grand finale, I invite you to Upload your final animated icon
to the project gallery, is a great opportunity to
share your work, get feedback, and even see how your
fellow classmates tackled the same challenges. Don't forget to include
a brief description of your concept and the creative
process you followed. Engaging with the
community can offer new perspectives and even spark inspiration for
your next project. So go ahead and showcase your masterpieces and bask
in the fruits of your labor. Remember the project
gallery isn't just the display,
it's a conversation. Jump in and take part. Thanks for joining this course, and I hope to see
your Animated Icons light up our project
gallery soon. Until then, keep designing, keep animating, and most
importantly, keep creating
Cynthia Oswald, Artist & Designer
