Ellie's Treasures Photoshop-Photoshop Elements Tutorials - Animated Neon Sign http://www.ellies-treasures.com/pstuts/neonsignps/neonsignps.html This tutorial will print out on standard 8½" X 11" paper

For this tutorial you will need: Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements - available for purchase here Filters and materials needed The Pipeline font - download: http://www.ellies-treasures.com/files/fonts/Pipeline.ttf I am assuming you know the basics of Paint Shop Pro and where the tools can be located. *Note: this is for older versions of PS and PSE, in the newer versions you can save an animation right in the program itself and don't have to use Image Ready

1. Either install the Pipeline font or open it by double clicking on it, and minimize, that window before you run Photoshop 2 Open canvas 700X100, color of your choice, black works well with this, resolution of 72. With font size set at 65 and smooth, in soft color of your choice, type in some words (font can't be bright as the next layer will need a bright shade of the same color). You may have to play with canvas size and font size a bit, it all depends on how large you want the sign and what text you put on it. Keep selected.

2. Right click and duplicate this layer. Click on eye in layer palette of the original text layer so the eye goes away. With the duplicate text layer the active layer, go to blend mode at the top where it says normal, change it to hard light.

3. Now save one copy as a gif (File>Save for web) with the eye of the original text layer on and one with it off, name the darker one dark and the lighter one light, to keep it easy for you. Save them both to a folder with nothing else in the folder, so these two files will be the only files in there. For dark gif For light gif

4. Open Image Ready. Go to File>Import>Folder as frames; browse to the folder where you saved your gifs and click OK.  In the animation toolbar (if you don't see it, go to Window>Animations and make sure there is a checkmark next to it), you will see both gifs as frames.

5. Go to the seconds listed at the bottom of each frame, left click, a drop down menu will give you some choices. Pick 0.5 sec. for each frame and pick forever in the little dropdown menu below that.

6. Click the play button and you will see your animation in the preview window that is open in the main window.

7. Go to File>Save Optimized As and save to location of choice.

If you have any questions or suggestions, email me at this page http://www.ellies-treasures.com/email/email.html

These tutorials are all my own creations. Any resemblance to any other tutorial is purely coincidental and unintentional. Feel free to share any of my tutorials on this site by a link back to my site, but do not copy and send the entire tutorial to anyone or any group. You may also save it to your hard drive (go to File>Save As, and save as an mht file- this will save the pictures with the page in one single file and will open in a browser) or print it out for your own personal use. ©2003-2010 Ellie's Treasures