Awesome Author Drawings!

I work in a library so sometimes I get to draw AUTHORS!!! I drew this group on poster board with pen and ink in the mid 1990s. These days, instead of drawing them myself, I'd probably do as everyone else does and just grab images from the web. I must say, although I love computers and all things digital, there is something so gratifying about the act of drawing and I hope that I do much more of it when I retire.

Jumping Rope Animation

Here's how I made this animation using Photoshop:

1) I made 9 drawings. I changed each drawing to what I determined would be the next sequential move in the animation. It helps to be able to draw and be interested in movement. Scan the drawings into Photoshop and color them.

2) Edit each image to be the same size. These are 4" wide x 5" high, and 72 dpi. I like to place the drawings beside each other on my computer desktop so I can visualize how they relate to the previous one and next one— in other words: how they will animate.

3) Using my very first drawing in Photoshop, I open LAYERS. Make a new layer; in my version of Photoshop, I create a new layer by clicking on the box at the bottom, directly to the left of the trash can (in the layers window). Copy and paste drawing number 2 into the layer. Create another layer. Copy and paste drawing number 3. Another layer, drawing 4 ... until all drawings are in LAYERS in the very first drawing.

4) In the LAYERS window, unclick the check mark to the left of each layer, except for the first drawing at the bottom.

5) Open the ANIMATION window in Photoshop. The first layer will be there. Click the new layer icon (same icon as in the LAYERS window) at the bottom. In LAYERS, click the check box for drawing number 2. It will then appear in the ANIMATION window. Make another new layer and add drawing 3 by clicking its box. Add all layers to the animation. 6) Choose how long you want each frame to display. Each frame in this animation displays for .2 seconds.

7) Hit the play arrow to see how it looks! Hit stop if you need to make adjustments to display time.

8) Save for Web to create a lovely little GIF animation.

Note- The effect is similar to a flip-book. I could create more drawings to make an even smoother transition. See my "Dancing Sisters" and "SnowBunny" blog posts for similar animations.

Note 2- I got a bit artistically exuberant with the length of the rope. I may fix that (or not).