[SKETCHi]

[h1]Crosshair Animation[/h1]
Here is an example of what we will be making.


Click here for the photo of Hitler I used.

1. Making the cross hair.
 a. Make a new doccument, three times larger than the doccument you are going to be placing the cross hair on.
 Example: My doccument is 200x200, so my cross hair doccument is 600x600.
 b. Make a new layer and title it Cross Hair, Edit > Fill 100% Black (000000)
 c. Select the Cirular Marquee tool . Make a circle in the center of the doccument.
 Screen Shot
 d. Make sure the Cross Hair layer is selected. Delete. Deselect.
 Screen Shot
 e. Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with these settings.
 Screen Shot
 f. Set your foreground color to Black (000000). Select the Line tool , draw a cross through the center of the circle.
 Screen Shot
 Screen Shot
 g. Link the Cross Hair layer to the two line layers, Layer > Merge Linked.

Your cross hair should now look like this:
Screen Shot

2. Additional effects and animation preperation.
 a. Open the doccument you want the animation on. Duplicate the original layer 4 times (So there are 5 of the same layer. Layer, Layer Copy, Layer Copy 2, etc...). Make sure they final copy is on the very top.
 Screen Shot
 b. Select the first copy (The second layer (Layer Copy)), Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with these settings:
 Screen Shot
 c. Repeat step 2b twice on the second copy (The third layer (Layer Copy 2)).
 d. Repeat step 2b three times on the third copy (The fourth layer (Layer Copy 3)).
 e. Repeat step 2b four times on the fourth and final copy (The fifth layer (Layer Copy 4)).
 f. Now, the coppies should get progressively clearer as you move down from the final copy to the original image. This will be the focus animation, after it targets.
 g. (Optional) Make a fifth copy of the original layer. Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Make it red... Place it under the other layers. This will be the final frame in the animation.
 h. Make a new layer, title it Flash. Edit > Fill 100% White (FFFFFF). Set the opacity to 0%. This will be used for the final animation in the sequence.
 i. Return to the Cross Hair doccument, grab the Cross Hair layer and drag it over to the doccument you want the animation on.

3. Movement Animation.
 a. The easiest way to explain this part is to just show you. Here are screen shots of all the movement frames. You want to start in a corner, moving the cross hair progressively closer to the targets head.

Make sure the Cross Hair layer is selected. Make sure all of the original layers are visible.

Frame 1:
Screen Shot

Make a new frame, make the following movement.
Frame 2:
Screen Shot

Continue making new frames and moving the cross hair to a new location.
Frame 3:
Screen Shot

Frame 4:
Screen Shot

Frame 5:
Screen Shot

Frame 6:
Screen Shot

Frame 7:
Screen Shot

Frame 8:
Screen Shot

That will end the movement animation.

4. Focus Animation.
 a. This one is simple. Make another frame, set the final copy to invisible. Make another frame, make the next copy invisible, continue this until only the original layer remains. Make another frame and set the first copy to visible again, then make another frame and set it back to invisible.

Frame 8:
Screen Shot

Frame 9:
Screen Shot

Frame 10:
Screen Shot

Frame 11:
Screen Shot

Frame 12:
Screen Shot

Frame 13:
Screen Shot

Frame 14:
Screen Shot

That will end the focus animation. Now for the flash.

5. Muzzle Flash Animation.
 This is by far the easiest part of this tutorial.
 a. Select the Flash layer. Make sure it is on top of all other layers. It should still be set to 0% opacity.

Make a new frame, set the opacity to 50%. Select the Cross Hair layer, move it up and to the right or left.
Frame 15:
Screen Shot

Set the Flash layer to 100%.
Frame 16:
Screen Shot

That ends the muzzle flash animation.

Optional:
Remember that red layer we made? Now it comes in to play. This part is entirely optional though. You could simply use a solid black layer or just leave the final muzzle flash layer at 100%. But I chose to end the animation in blood red.

For the final frame, simply set the original image layer to invisible and make sure the red layer is visible and set the opacity of the Flash layer back to 0%.

6. Select frames 1 through 13. Set the 13th frames wait time to 0.1 sec. This will set all of the selected frames to 0.1. Set the wait time for the 14th frame to 0.8 sec. Leave the rest at 0.
Screen Shot

7. File > Save...

Finished! Whew... that was a long one eh'?

If you like this tutorial, please Click Here to register.

Click the link below to download the PhotoShop file for this tutorial.
Cross Hair Animation PSD

[ZT]

Cool idea for a tut.

Could save yourself a few hours and invest in flash... lol

[SKETCHi]

It actually only took a few minutes to make... Besides, you need Photoshop to do the blur effect anyway, so you don't save that much time. I guess tweening the movement on a path would be faster though.

[kippah]

hi guys i liked that tut and have actually used it but there is one problem, when it has all finishes it doesnt go back to the beginning, for me, it just stops and then i have to press the play button again to make it work. Could you please tell me were i have gone wrong and tell me what to do about it.

[SKETCHi]

On the animation pallet, next to all the frames on the bottom left. Theres a selection that says something like "Play Once". Click and hold, then choose "Forever". Then save the GIF again.

[mugen]

um how do u make frames??? how do u save each shot as a frame or w/e

[mugen]

nvm i figured it out now

[foxshox]

you know what would be cool, if you could mask it, and have like a thinner black circle and on the outside of the circle it would be zoomed out

[Diyoku]

Now to get an animation for the various Hitman 2 sniper rifles... mrrrrow. Always cool things Sketchi. /claps!

[mch2fast]

pretty sweet

[sholva]

um how do u make frames??? how do u save each shot as a frame or w/e

my question is same..how can I make frame?

[badman3670]

very cool tut bud.

[wildestdream]

cheers SKETCHi, thanks very much for the tutorial, i have just started animation today, and needed some tutorials to help me learn, im  a beginner, is there any particular tutorials you could maybe recommend me please, thanks very much, keep up the great tutorials

kim
aka wildestdream

[SKETCHi]

Yeah there is actually, at the bottom of this page http://www.graphicaddicts.net/ptutorials.php you will se "The Basics of Animation in Imageready by foxshox". Read that tutorial.

[wildestdream]

Yeah there is actually, at the bottom of this page http://www.graphicaddicts.net/ptutorials.php you will se "The Basics of Animation in Imageready by foxshox". Read that tutorial.

thansk very much for your help