Learn 2D Game Special Effect Animation in Photoshop

In this lecture we'll go over the best practices for getting the most out of this course. These are all recommendations that have worked for my students. Remember to finish the course, ask questions, and get involved with the course by posting you artwork. 

In this lecture I'm going to go over what is required to complete this course as well as what is recommended. You will need Photoshop for this course. If you don't have Photoshop you can download a 30 day free trial at the adobe download page. A drawing tablet is recommended but not required.

Here's the link for the free Photoshop trial that you can download for 30 days.

This lecture is very important if you are new to Photoshop or have never used it before. In this lecture you will learn the basic tools we will be using though out the course. If you are experienced in Photoshop you can go ahead and skip the next few lectures. 

In this lecture you will learn all the hotkeys for the tools we have gone over. Hot keys are keys on your key board that will bring up tools quickly when pressed. Hot keys are very important for making your work flow faster.

Many people find layers in Photoshop to be the most difficult and confusing part about using Photoshop. In this lecture I'm going to teach you a simple concept that will help you better understand layers. You'll also learn about layer types and how to keep your layers organized. 

Take this quick quiz to test your knowledge of this section of the course.

Photoshop has too different tools for creating animation. Video timeline and frame timeline. In this lecture you are going to learn about the video timeline and how it works. You will also create a short animation of a bouncing ball using the video timeline tool.

The second animation tool in Photoshop is the frame timeline. The frame timeline allows you to create individual frames of your animation. In this lecture you will be creating a bouncing ball animation by creating each individual frame one at a time then adding them into your frame timeline.

Now that you are familiar with Photoshop's two different animation tools you are going to create your first animated effect. In this lecture you will beguine to build a game play button that you will animate in later lectures. This lecture will go over how to layout the basic shapes for your button.

Once your play button shapes are blocked out you can add in your glowing effects. In this lecture you will create a play button icon with a ring around it. Then you are going to learn how to add a blue glow effect to it.

In this lecture you are going to create a glossy effect over the play button icon. This will give you your button a more realistic look and add depth to it. The glossy effect taught in this lecture can be used on just about any button or icon.

Once you have design and created your play button you are going to go ahead and animate it. You will animate the button using Photoshop's video timeline tool. This will allow you to quickly animate the button. Once you have animated it, you are going to learn how to save you animation out as a .gif file.

In this lecture you are going to use Photoshop's frame animation tool. Your first frame effects is going to be an orb that explodes. In this lecture you will create the first four frames of this animation.

In this lecture you are going to create the last four frames of your orb explosion animation. Once all of your frames are complete you will set your frames up in your frame animation timeline for play back. The last four frames of your animation will be the explosion of your orb and the dissipation of your explosion.

Once you have all of your animation frames you are going to put them into a sprite sheet. A sprites sheet is a document that holds all of you animation frames in a grid system. Sprite sheets are a very common way to add animations to your games.

Take this quick quiz to test your knowledge in Photoshop animation. 

You have now finished this section of the course. Lets do a quick over view. So in this section you learned about the two different animation tools in Photoshop. Video timeline animation and Frame animation timelines. You then had a chance to test out both of those animation tools by building your first to game effect animations. 

In this lecture you will learn how lighting is animated and how easy it can be. Your lighting bolt animation will be made up of eight different frames. The lightning bolt will first start off small then grow until it strikes the other side of your document, and will then dissipate.

In this lecture you are going to add in some sparks to your animation. These sparks will add a more realistic effect to your lightning. Once your frames are complete you will set up a playback animation so you can see your lightning in action.

In this lecture I want to go over creating a sprites sheet with you once more. Some students need to see it again and it helps many remember all the steps. Don't forget to save out your document as a .psd and .png

In this lecture you are going to create the basic frames that will make up your sword swipe animation. The sword swipe animation is very quick to make. It consists of only three frames.

In this lecture you are going to add some cool effects to your sword swipe animation. The first effect will be a yellow glow. Then you will add a spark effect to the animation. Once the animation is complete you will set it up in your timeline to see it in playback. 

In this lecture you are going to create the first four frames for your fire explosion animation. The fire explosion effect looks fantastic but is actually very simple to create. 

In this section you are going to create the last four frames for your fire explosion animation. The last four frames will be the smokey dissipation of your explosion. Once you have finished all of your frames you are going to set them up in your timeline for playback. 

In this lecture you are going to animate the basic shape of your fire. This will be done by drawing your fires shape out with you lasso tool then filling it in with an orange color. Fire is one of the most difficult animations to master so don't feel bad if you don't get it on your first try. 

In this lecture you are going to add some very cool glow effects to your flame animation that will really bring it to life. You are also going to add a gradient overlay to your fire. Lastly you are going to animate in some white hot flames into the center of your fire. Once you've completed your animation you will create a timeline animation to see it in playback.

In this lecture you are going to animate the first four frames of the dust explosion. The dust explosion effect is very similar to the fire explosion effect. The difference is the shape of the explosion.

In this section you are going to finish up the last few frames of your dust explosion animation. Once you've finished the animation you will set it up in our timeline for play back inspection. Remember that you can change the colors of your explosion to give it a different look. 

In this lecture you are going to animate the first five frames of your crate explosion effect. The first five frames will involve two parts to it's motion. The squash and the stretch.

In this lecture you are going to animation the last five frames of your animation. The last five frames will consist of the actual explosion and then the dissipation of that explosion. Once you have completed the course you are going to set up you animation in the timeline for playback.

In this lecture you are going to create the basic shapes of your tornado animation. The tornado animation frames can be very organic and messy. 

In this lecture you will be adding the top highlight to your tornado. The highlight will will rotate around the tornado frame by frame to give the illusion that the it is spinning.

In this lecture you are going to add a motion blur to your tornado animation. Then you will add a wiggle to the tornado that will make it appear that is swaying from side to side. Once you have completed your animation you will set your frames up in your timeline for play back. 

Congratulations! You have made it to the end of this course. Remember that if you have any questions you can ask them in the Q & A section of the course or direct message me. Thanks for joining me in this course on Animating game effects and I look forward to seeing your animations soon!

You can download all of the project files from this course by clicking the resource tab and then downloading the zip folder.