------------------------ Monday, March 28th, 2011 ------------------------ 1. Open up the Snorg Tee shirt graphic RockPaperScissors.gif using Photoshop. It is a GIF file (not JPG, not BMP, not PSD, but GIF). 2. Photoshop's Image menu > Mode > RGB Color Why do we need to do this? Because the GIF file type is Indexed Color. Changing the MODE to RGB Color creates 3 new channels (R and G and B) and allows us to use the graphic file in the ways that we need to. 3. Choose the Lasso tool. Shortcut is L for Lasso. Use the Ctrl++ shortcut or the Ctrl+- shortcut to zoom in and to zoom back out, i.e. to increase or to decrease magnification. You can also use the Zoom tool (Z) and the Hand Tool (H) to zoom in or zoom out and to track or pan to see different portions of the image. Zoom Tool will allow you to zoom out and decrease magnification when you hold down the Alt key. Notice the MINUS instead of PLUS. Goal: Get a larger shot of the scissors so you can more easily Lasso it. 4. After you have drawn a Lasso around the entire scissors and connected the end of the "rope" to the beginning, the entire area will be selected. Ctrl+X will Cut out the selection. 5. Create a new layer. The 2nd to last icon on the bottom of the Layers panel will allow you to create a new layer. Note: If it does NOT allow you to do this, you likely forgot to switch the Mode from Indexed Color to RGB Color. Photoshop cannot do layers on a GIF file until its converted from the GIF indexed color format to the RGB colors format. 6. Edit menu > Paste Special > Paste in Place will paste the scissors back into the graphic, but in the new layer you just created. Double click on the Layer 2 layer name and rename it scissors. 7. Select the Layer 1 (the bottom layer) again. Using the Lasso tool, lasso the entire paper portion of the graphic. Use Ctrl+d if you accidently get part of the rock or miss part of the paper. Ctrl+d allows you to deselect and start over again. 8. Edit menu > Cut or use Ctrl+X to cut the selection out. Create another new layer. Double click its name and rename it Paper. Then Edit menu > Paste Special > Paste in Place. 9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 to create a separate Rock layer. You now should have FOUR layers total. 10. Eyedropper tool is shortcut key I (Eyedropper (I)). Click on the background layer, the bottom layer to make it active. Click on the canvas where the color is dark red/burgundy. The foreground color swatch should now show that the foreground painting color is that dark red burgundy color of the t-shirt. 11. Make sure that the bottom layer is still active. It is the layer with 3 holes in it. If you click the eyeball icon for the rock and the scissors and the paper layers, you will see only the background layer with its 3 holes where you cut out the rock and paper and scissors. 12. Select menu > Select All or the Ctrl+A shortcut will SELECT ALL. What did you just select? The entire background layer, the bottom layer. 13. Alt + Backspace key will PAINT with the Foreground color whatever is selected. In this case, it PAINTS the entire layer, since you had it all selected. The whole canvas is now the same color, and the "holes" left by scissors, rock and paper are gone now. 14. Magic Wand tool is in the 2nd row and 2nd column of the Photoshop toolbox. The default Tolerance setting of 32 will work fine for the task with rock, paper, scissors graphics. 15. Magic Wand tool. Hide the background layer so you only see the rock and paper and scissors on the transparent checkerboard background. Click on the ROCK's reddish brown burgundy outline area. It should be ALL selected now. Ctrl+X to cut it. Now when we animate the rock to move around it will not have a painted border that looks bad if we get close to another object. Only the rock itself will cover up a layer below it in After Effects. 16. Do the same thing described in #15 with the paper. Do the same thing with the scissors. Be sure to get the reddish brown color inside of the scissors handles too. Hold down the shift key if you want to get all 3 areas selected and just do one Ctrl+X edit menu cut. Reflect on the fact that the magic wand tool is pretty cool. March madness, Cinderella stories, magic wands. 17. Save your Photoshop document. It will have a .PSD extension and will contain 4 layers. 18. Start up Adobe After Effects and import the .PSD file. It is going to be footage and a composition with four layers. It can be imported into Adobe After Effects as a composition now. Composition and Retain Layer Sizes is the choice you want. Import Kind: Composition - Retain Layer Sizes