Now let's explain the homework of the previous class. Compared with the previous "Stone Age" homework, its difficulty has increased significantly. One is the increase in animation elements, which are no longer composed of a few simple objects. Furthermore, it is required to have a clear picture in mind before making and plan the steps in advance.
Create a new image, about 100×100, use the shape layer mode of the Ellipse Shape Tool to draw a vector perfect circle, and fill it with green (the value is 19631c, which can be filled in the # area below the color picker. This is actually using hexadecimal system to represent decimal 0~255, no need to go into details) or other colors. Then copy the layer (CTRL+J, the copied layer should be above the original layer), use the free transform function on the copied layer, and shrink it with reference to the center point (ALT+SHIFT). Then define a stroke style for it (size 1 pixel, white) and set the fill opacity to 0% to get a line circle. Appropriately lower the opacity of this layer (about 15%) to achieve better visual effects. Duplicate this line circle layer again and shrink it again as before to get two concentric line circles. You can also create more concentric circles in sequence. The image should now look similar to the image below on the left.
Then create a new normal layer and use the Fill Pixels mode of the Line Tool (thickness 1 pixel, turn off anti-aliasing) to draw a horizontal and vertical cross in the center of the circle. When drawing, you can enlarge the image to facilitate alignment. You can also use the multi-layer alignment function to adjust after drawing. At this point, the image looks similar to the middle picture below, and the layer palette looks like the right picture below.
In the preparation process of this early animation element, we first used vectors to draw circles because they needed to be reduced, and the vector method can ensure quality. The latter cross can theoretically be drawn using a vector method, but since the vector line is drawn in units as small as 1 pixel, the edges may be blurred due to its own anti-aliasing function, and the result will look like a thickness of 2 pixels. You can try it yourself. Except for the case of extremely small units, vector drawing should be used as much as possible. This premise will not change.
The realization of the radar scanning effect is the first difficulty. This is actually the gradient overlay style. The key is to choose the gradient method of the angle and the corresponding gradient settings, as shown in the left and middle pictures below. The gradient color code is 96de8a. The gradient stop can also be white and blended into the image by changing the blending mode or lowering the opacity. The image should now look like the image below on the right. If you do not understand the content here, please review the corresponding chapters of the basic tutorial.
Now we make the scan line move by changing the angle value in the gradient overlay settings. The second difficulty you will encounter here is how to set animation parameters. The scan line should start at 90 degrees and should return to 90 degrees after rotating 360 degrees. But if both are set to 90 in the keyframe, there will be no animation effect, so we first set it to a position rotated 180 degrees. It should be noted that if the absolute angle of rotation is less than 180 (181 degrees is equivalent to 1 degree), the minimum rotation angle will be used as the direction of rotation.
Change the animation's document settings to a duration of 01:00 and a frame rate of 15fps. Turn on the circle layer's style animation recording at the beginning. Then move the time benchmark to the end of the animation and set the angle to -90 degrees. The animation palette is shown below on the left.
Watch sample animation
Now we extend the duration of the animation to 02:00, move the time marker to the new end moment and create a keyframe, then copy frame 1 of the style to that moment. At this time, the animation palette is as shown on the left below. It looks like the setting of one rotation has been completed, but if you think about it carefully, the status at 00:00 and 02:00 is the same now, so when the animation loops, the two identical frames will form one This kind of pause effect is not difficult to find if you look carefully when playing the animation.
Watch sample animation
We have encountered this problem before in frame-based animation. The method at that time was to delete the last frame. However, in timeline mode, a frame cannot be deleted individually, only by changing the duration. We change the duration to 01:14. The animation palette is shown below.
Note that the originally set frame is now outside the time area, but it is still functioning, controlling the parameter changes of the animation. This is true even if you change the duration to something shorter, so that the animation palette is no longer visible. Therefore, the keyframes defined in the timeline mode will not disappear because the duration becomes shorter. They will appear again in the future as long as the duration is increased. This is a very important feature.
Here again, I would like to emphasize the expression of animation time. 01:14 itself includes both seconds and frames, which means the 14th frame after 1 second. According to our setting of 15fps, this absolute frame number should be 15+14=29 frames. The time representation of the next frame should be 02:00 instead of 01:15. Just like the time in daily life is in base 60, then it is impossible to express it as 3:60, but it should be expressed as 4 o'clock. Similarly, 15fps represents the hexadecimal system, which divides one second into 15 units, and rounds to the second after 14 units.
Watch sample animation
Now we have to create a simulation of the object scanned by the radar. This should have been done at the beginning, but in order to reflect the possibility of adding elements later during the production process, we did it now.
Create a new layer and use the pencil tool with a diameter of 1 to make a few clicks on it with white (the spacing should not be too large). As shown below on the left. Then move the time marker. When the scan line contacts these points (at 00:10 in the example), click the opacity stopwatch button to create a key frame, and then move the time marker until the scan line almost returns to the origin (example) Located at 01:10) Create another one and set the layer opacity to 0%, thus creating an animation of the dots gradually fading out.
Watch sample animation
From the above animation, you can see that the small dots have a fade-out effect after the scan line passes. However, the problem is that the small dots should be invisible when the scan line has not yet reached it. They will appear when the scan line reaches it, and then gradually fade out. Then we should set keyframes at the beginning and set the layer's opacity to 0%. But there is another problem, that is, the appearance of small dots becomes a fade-in effect, that is, the small dots gradually appear before the scan line reaches it.
Watch sample animation
How to solve this problem is the third difficulty. There are two ways to solve it. One you should be able to think of by yourself is to move the key frame at the beginning to the frame before the small dot completely appears, as shown in the left picture below. In addition, another method is more "formal", which we have not talked about before, and that is to change the transition relationship between frames.
Now there is a transition relationship between the three opacity frames, that is, frame 12 transition and frame 23 transition. If we can prevent the transition between frames 12, we can achieve our goal. Right-click on frame 1 in the animation palette and select "Preserve Interpolation". Note that the frame icon changes from
became
, as shown by the red arrow in the right figure below. This means there will be no transition between one frame and the next. The approach changed from "black to white" to "either black or white". At this point, the entire animation production is completed.
Of course, you can change it to the default "linear interpolation" method later, and the transition effect will reappear. You can try to change the interpolation method of other frames yourself. The "interpolation" here is a rigid translation from English. Although some words do not convey the meaning, just remember its effect.
After the introduction of layer styles, our ability to express animation effects has been greatly improved. Everyone should practice more on their own outside of the course, and don't just limit themselves to what is introduced here. Know that our examples are limited and your creativity is unlimited. For this completed animation, you can try to make the cross lines or concentric circles flicker. To put it bluntly, this is the alternation of fade-in and fade-out, but it is not an extreme state like 0% or 100%.
Today's homework is to complete the following animation. In addition to the background layer, only one text layer is allowed.
