[SkyGuy]

This is my tutorial for making a smooth, animated shine effect for Photoshop. It's fairly simple and not at all complex, this tutorial is aimed at the beginners with the program. Anyway, without further ado...

1). Create a new Photoshop canvas, any size you want, for this tutorial I'm gonna be using a size of 800x300.

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2). Select the text tool, type anything you want. For this tutorial I'm going to be typing "Hack Forums". I'll be using the font arial of size 100pt, and a nice red colour.

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3). Create a new layer on top, call it "shine". The layer properties text book and be brought up by right clicking on the new layer which you have created.

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4). Click the gradient option. If you can't find it, it's most likely because you have the fill tool selected over this. In order to change it, right click the fill tool and select gradient tool. Once you have done this, make sure your primary/foreground colour is white and choose the reflected gradient option. Make sure the gradient type is "foreground to transparent", too.

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[SkyGuy]

5). Making sure that the gradient tool is selected, shift click in the center of the image and drag to the right like shown, and it should result in something like what is displayed in the second image. Next, press CTRL + ALT + G. This will create a clipping mask on the layer, however you will not notice any difference because the background is white along with the gradient. Had the background been of a colour which is different to the gradient, you would notice that the gradient would only be visible when inside the text.

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Before creating clipping mask with a blue background:


After creating clipping mask with a blue background:

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6). Make sure that the layer of the shine is selected. Then, click on the canvas and drag the gradient, while holding shift off to the left so that it can no longer be seen on the text, like shown in the animation. You will end up with something that looks like how it did before the gradient was made.

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7). Now, where you start to bring the image to life. First of all you need to enable the animation tab in Photoshop. You do this by going to Window and then clicking on Animation. You will get a new bar at the bottom of the screen, like shown in the image.

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8). Click the duplicate tab icon on the bottom of the screen. Then, with the layer "shine" selected, drag the gradient, like you did last time, but to the opposite side of the text (the right), while holding shift. Again, you should not actually be able to see the gradient at all once this has been done, although as you drag it the gradient should be visible inside the text. This is demonstrated in the animation below.

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9). Almost onto to tweening the image so that it moves! You have to select both of the frames in the animation tab by holding down CTRL and clicking each of them. It should look like it does in the first image below once done. Then, click the little black down arrow on either of the frames and select the "other" option on the list that appears. A box will then pop up, into which you must type: "0.03".

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[SkyGuy]

10). In order to create new frames so that the image appears to be moving, you have to click the tween button which is shown below. A popup box will appear, and you will enter in either 40-50 frames, depending on how many you want. For this tutorial I will be using 40. This will create a slow, silky animation. This will then create a very large number of frames, but don't be scared! That's what it should be like.

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11). Then, click the down arrow next to where it says "once" and change that to forever, if you want the animation to be repeated. However if you're worried about it playing over and over continuously there is a solution. Scroll to the end of the horizontally-sorted list of frames, and on the last frame set the delay to 2 seconds. Do this by clicking the down arrow next to where it says 0.03, making sure this is on the last frame, and on the list it should have 2 seconds as an option. Select this.

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12). Click the play button to watch your animation!

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13). To save your animation so that you can upload it, you must go to File -> Save as for web & devices. On the pop up, make sure you set the box at the bottom right to "Forever" as well, or it will not repeat when viewed. Then hit save and your image is done!

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Finished product:

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-Sky.

[Tarn]

I actually needed this haha, thanks a lot. I might get back into photoshop in the near future :D great!

[Wonders]

Great thread, thanks a lot for the tutorial Sky!

[Mittu]

Great thread, thanks a lot for the tutorial Sky!