Abstract Shine Animation with Photoshop and ImageReady
Few days ago, I was playing with Photoshop and ImageReady, and I came up with something really delicious 
. I was trying to make an animated Display Picture or Avatar for Windows Live Messenger 9 (which supports recently animated avatars). So I mastered an amazing technique that I’m going over step by step below. Note that this is an advanced tutorial because it involves the usage of Pen Tool, Layer Mask and Tween (ImageReady). Here’s what we’ll be working on
Let’s start:
Step 1
Open Adobe Photoshop and press CTRL + N to create a new image:
Step 2
Set the background color to #000000 (black) and the foreground to #122c52.
Step 3
Filter > Render > Clouds to get something like the following:
Step 4
Select the Pen Tool, make sure the “Paths” option 
is selected in the toolbar. Draw the following shape:
Step 5
CTRL + SHIFT + N to create a new layer (Layer 2).
Step 6
Select the Brush Tool, set the Foreground color to #ffffff (white), master diameter to 4px and hardness to 100%.
Step 7
Select the Pen Tool again, right click on the image and press Stroke Path…
Step 8
Set the following options in the Stroke Path dialog:
Step 9
CTRL + SHIFT + N to create the third layer.
Step 10
Select the Brush Tool again and increase the Master Diameter to 5px.
Step 11
Right click again on the image and press the stroke path. Then apply the same options.
Step 12
Hide the Layer 3 by unsetting the eye in the layers panel:
Step 13
Select the Layer 2 from the Layers panel. Then, Layers > Layer Style > Blending Options… and set the following settings (Outer Glow and Color Overlay):
Step 14
You will get something simillar to this (do not remove the pen tool selection):
Step 15
Now, we’re done with Photoshop, we’ll start editing with ImageReady:
Step 16
ImageReady will open. Window > Workplace > Default Workplace to arrange your windows.
Step 17
Window > Animation to show the animation window:
Step 18
Now, we will show the Layer 3 (that we already hided in Photoshop) by setting the eye back.
Step 19
Be careful here!!! Drag the Layer 3 in the Layers Panel to the “Add a mask” button in the bottom to create a mask of that layer. Select the Brush tool and clean up the white area in the mask. Then unset the link between the layer preview and the mask:
Step 20
Here’s the tricky part. Although it can be done in many ways, but i find this way the easiest. Select the Brush Tool (I think it’s already selected ), set the foreground color to #ffffff (white) and select the following Brush:
Step 21
Make sure the mask is selected! draw with you free hand a line like this (Note that you will only see this line in the Mask preview in the layer panel):
Step 22
You should see in the Layers panel the following:
Step 23
Let’s start with the animation now. Press the 1st Frame in the Animation windows and press “Duplicate current frame” icon to duplicate the layers state.
Step 24
Now make sure the the mask of the layer 3 is selected, select the Move tool and Press Shift + Right Arrow around 25 times to reach the following state:
Step 25
So, we have moved the line mask from left to right. It’s time to animate it! The frame 2 is selected, hold CTRL and click on frame 1 to make them both selected. Then press the Tween icon:
Step 26
Apply the following Tween settings:
Step 27
A set of frames will be created for you. Select the 1st frame, scroll to the end, hold SHIFT and click the last frame. You will have all the Frames selected. Click the delay drop down on any of the selected frames and choose Other:
Step 28
Enter 0.03 seconds as a delay between the frames:
Step 29
Now select the last Frame alone by clicking on it, and set its delay to 5 seconds:
Step 30
We’re done. It’s time to save the animation as gif. Make sure the format in the "Optimize" panel is GIF:
Step 31
File > Save Optimized As!
Open it with Firefox, because Firefox renders the Gif formats faster than Internet Explorer (I’m not sure about Safari or other browsers).
By the way, here’s the avatar I discussed earlier in this tutorial:
If you have problems completing the tutorial and would prefer me doing it for you. I offer a custom design service for 20$. After sending the payment, simply click the “My MSN” button to get in contact with me, or, I will contact you as soon as I receive the payment.
I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial. If you have anything to add, or you found out that I missed something, leave a comment and I’ll be glad to fix it 
Stay tuned!
I am Elie El Khoury, from Lebanon (Byblos), Woopra co-founder & CIO, Web & Software Developer, Designer, Guitarist, Mac user and the worst blogger on earth! 
January 8th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
:O sexy
January 16th, 2008 at 3:54 am
Hey thats one of the coolest ….am an amateur and have a self designed website and would love to learn from people like you on how I can spritz up my drab website.Thanks dude!
January 16th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Very nice! The animation is so smooth, and I’m surprised it’s only 20kb to boot. Simple technique as well, kudos.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Nice
January 16th, 2008 at 9:45 am
nice
January 16th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Hello! Only works if the options Parameters, from Tween settings, are selected!
Bye!
January 16th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
very cool! I can only create the image but not animate it because I have Photoshop CS3 and they discontinued it. Can you please tell me how to make it in CS3, i understand that the same features are in CS i just don’t know where
January 16th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Thanks Ankit. Actually I didn’t upgrade yet to CS3, I’m not sure about its features…
January 16th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
It’s a great tutorial!
At step 14 i have this:
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/9316/aaaaaaaaaaaaaabm8.png
and I don’t know what’s the problem???Pls help me?!
January 16th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
[...] : Abstract Shine Animation with Photoshop and ImageReady – by Elie El Take your fantastical swirls to another level! This simple tutorial will teach you how to add in a [...]
January 16th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
hey game, make sure you check “Simulate Pressure” in step 8
January 17th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Yes.
Here are the pictures:
Step 1 to 5:
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/2664/step1to5ql2.png
Step after 7(after stroke path):
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/835/afterstrokepathonthethiol7.png
Step 14:
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/3180/step14ob2.png
Maybe you can find the failure in “History”?
I don’t know but help me it’s the best tutorial that i have seen yet!!
:S :S
January 17th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Really nice technique. I can picture a lot of uses for this. Oh, and it looks great when viewed on Safari too. Keep up the good work.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
hi, it worked perfectly with me…but the problem is tht i don’t know how to save it as GIF in CS3
January 17th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Can anyone send me this .psd file,maybe I can find the failure……pls
Here’s my msn:
da_game92@hotmail.com
January 19th, 2008 at 1:28 am
Hello! This tutorial is amazing! I’d like to do this with Text if anyone can help me please drop an email! Thanx so much
January 20th, 2008 at 12:51 am
game, recheck Step 6… I solved ur problem
January 21st, 2008 at 12:28 am
If you have cs3 you only hacve to press Window>Animate
It’s almost the same thing
January 21st, 2008 at 10:23 pm
you needed to mention that on layer 3 the layer and the mask needed to be unlinked, otherwise its brill
January 21st, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Dan, I mentioned that in Step 19!
January 23rd, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Oh just i was looking for some good tutorials to link to off my website and i come across this! this is fantastic! hope you dont mind if i link to it!
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:21 pm
You’re free to link Tim! thanks
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I follow your guide really slavish but at the end I ended up with the problem that I couldnt save as gif file. The only option I have is photoshop file.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:33 pm
you should “Save Optimized As” not “Save As”
January 24th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Hey Elie i have a problem i am in CS3 extended and i dont have image ready which makes it difficult because i dont think it can be done unless there is another method? however i am trying to apply this to my forum heads so it goes in from the left so far and at the same time it comes in from the right at the same time. Do you think you could apply this to the images to me if i e mail you? my e mail is tim@tksdofficial.co.uk if this is possible for you to do. Thanks
January 24th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Hello!~ very nice tut! for a start!
Who ever is using cs3- Extended.. you can still do this tut.. as i found out!
Just go to Windows-Animation while in PSCS3
January 25th, 2008 at 2:01 am
Awesome!
January 25th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I do know you can do animation in CS3 extended but its different to image ready its the Mask part i got stuck on not the animation
January 26th, 2008 at 1:04 am
i had this problem also… couldnt see why i couldnt get the animation to work but as someone said before the mask shouldnt be linked and it worked for me
January 26th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Hey Dude Cool tutorial but one thing… when i’ve done the animation how can i add a text and make it go with the animation? think you could tell me that? becouse everytime i try that layer mask thingy my text goes all shitty
It get’s pushed away and stuff, and when i try to remove the white stuff from the layer mask it removes the whole text :S
January 28th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I have problems with photoshop cs3 the mask, when one is moved for the
animation remains full white not only line…
February 5th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Cool tutorial… I’ve seen this in a few sigs/avatars, where it goes across the whole thing… I hope I find a good use for this one.
February 6th, 2008 at 11:19 am
glad to see that we have same thinking.
February 8th, 2008 at 3:42 am
[...] part is that it is not a hard technique (that is always a plus). The original tutorial was by Elie El Khoury, found on tutorialized.com. So first, get an appropriate canvas size and put black in the [...]
February 8th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Thanks for the tutorial it’s great and it works!!!!
February 12th, 2008 at 8:01 am
[...] this tut out mang, it says image ready but forget that its the same for PS CS3 Elie El Khoury Abstract Shine Animation with Photoshop and ImageReady ★ this is how i learned how to do basic animation to banners and what not. Get this down and you’ll [...]
February 15th, 2008 at 9:09 am
I can’t save the animation, why?
February 15th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Check out step 30
February 16th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Hmmmm.
dont understand.
February 17th, 2008 at 8:55 am
That effect was awesome… I´ll try it…
Byezzzzz
February 18th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Ankit,
The only thing that you need to do is instead of opening imageready, just go to window>Animation. Also, when you’re going to save go to file>save for web and devices. Everything else is the same.
February 18th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Awesome… I did it
…
Byezzzzz
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:29 am
Hey,
Saweet idea, but I’m gettin the same problem as game, and before you say select the pressure option, I did. Still the same results as game. I’m using Photoshop CS3 Extended. Any solution?
February 23rd, 2008 at 1:58 am
I can’t seem to get the animation to work, im using Photoshop 7.0. I’ve followed everything to the very letter, but when i play the animation the masked layer doesn’t show as it passes across to great the effect of the light following the line. What have I done wrong?
February 25th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I’m having the same problem as game posted and Chris on step 14. I don’t get the edges of the line as sharp as it is in the tutorial?!?!?!?!
game solved the problem but he didn’t tell us how
HELP
February 26th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Can you do something like this with a rotating Shine ? like a Globe and then of the centre you rotate the shine so, that it goes around te world
March 1st, 2008 at 1:11 pm
WOOOLALA
THANKING
March 1st, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Anyone?
March 1st, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Phantom, check out the yellow note in the step 6
March 7th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I have the same “Pen Pressure” problem.
It seems Photoshop need a pressure supported tablet bevore supporting this function.
But it sounds a bit odd to me.
Wy you can’t use the tool for automatic fade in and out? you don’t need a tablet for that because its just fading … px at the start & end.
Is there a way to make a auto fade in/out with a brush when you don’t have a pressure supported tablet connected?
(the normal “fade” function only fade on they end, so its no option.)
March 9th, 2008 at 3:27 am
I’m having a problem with it not shining…I got your basic thing down
Great tutorial by the way, but for some reason when I try to make it on a text it like…moves the aura of it off or something. Not sure what it’s doing. Here’s a link:
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n308/dragonbok/GlowSigGIF1.gif
March 10th, 2008 at 7:52 am
nice tut..but im lost at step 19…there is no brush in my imageready..im using CS..
is there a work around? thanks.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Dude, nice tut!
It didn’t work for me at first because i forgot to unlink the layer and its mask, step 19, i read over it (me – dumbass hehe).
This is a sick technique!
thanx
March 18th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
[...] Posted on March 18, 2008. Tutorial from ekhoury.com [...]
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:24 pm
well very nice
but it doesn’t move i think i did something wrong by step 19
cause when i move the vector mask
the side before i made the line its white
maybe i used the wrong tool
can you explain more about the brush tool
March 24th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
thanks elie! ur the best!
April 1st, 2008 at 11:27 pm
hi man,
the park of the animation..the moving to the white brushed area on the layer mask does not works…
it does nothin at the animation it moves the layer..
April 14th, 2008 at 6:27 am
LOVE IT!!!
I have played with about 15 different pictures with this one. This is an awesome and well described tutorial.
My fave one I’ve done with this tutorial so far is here.
Thanks!
April 16th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
1st let me say that this is a great tut.!
But I have some questions, I used this tutorial to make my own pic and it seems to work well when in a *.psd format but when I save it as an optimized *.gif then it just comes out black with no pic or animation and I can’t figure out why. could you gimme some pointers?
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
could you please tell me how to do step no.2! i am ok with all the rest (i looked/read through it) but i’m not sure how to “do” black at 000… and the forg.122c52!
thank you.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:17 am
[...] View tutorial [...]
April 26th, 2008 at 3:33 am
him
could u plz help me figure out what “Move tool and Press Shirt + right” means.
really appreciate it
April 26th, 2008 at 3:34 am
reply to this one plz
help me with “Move tool and Press Shirt + right”
wat does it mean?
April 26th, 2008 at 11:00 am
on Cs3 there is the problem of the mask does not work… what we can
make?
kind ekhoury it helps us!
April 26th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
@girlie u select the move tool and the u hold shift + u press ur right arrow (on the keyboard^^)several times. I had a question to is it possible to do this with text to ? if it is and some1 knows a tut about it let me know plz ty. very nice tut btw =)
May 12th, 2008 at 7:07 am
make again a tutorial that is more simple please…
May 12th, 2008 at 7:23 am
can you guide me in step19 in your Abstract Shine Animation with Photoshop and ImageReady im havign problemin that step cant continue..help
May 14th, 2008 at 8:13 am
i cant do the step 24! huhu..help me please…
May 20th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
hiiii people
i need help with this method of how you animate in photoshop ( by the way i have an ileagle copy of photoshop so feel free to sue me adobe) <<<<—— but i will be sad and think of my puppy dog eyes in court hahaha
i will sned you pornographical images that i made
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:08 am
I love this tutorial, very well explained and easy to follow. I have a question, is it possible to animate multiple curved lines rather than just the one?
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:10 am
Here is a sig I made using your tutorial Eli.
http://star.walagata.com/w/udcki/swirly-sig.gif
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:14 am
You helped me so much! Your service was awesome and it went by quick. A++!
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Here is an example of multiple streaks being animated with the technique:
http://star.walagata.com/w/udcki/red-streaks.gif
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Wow Kirk… Very nice choice of colors
I would suggest to make the shine bush’ hardness much lower.
May 24th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Thanks, I will give that a try.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Nice! very very nice!, my result: http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2407/bnkandesnreby6.gif
June 12th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
very nice!
June 20th, 2008 at 8:36 am
inn step 24, ?????Move tool and Press Shirt + Right ?????
July 16th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
I’m stuck! I get to apply the mask in step 19, the mask in the layers panel is colored white, so do I paint the whole thing black with the brush? (I’m using Photoshop CS3 if that makes any difference)
Sorry to be a nuisance but this look awesome and I really want to do it!
July 24th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Sorry, It took a train journey and my laptop and I got it figured. I’m not sure what I was doing wrong. Great stuff though. thanks
July 30th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
thanks
August 12th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
VGG. Nice animation
August 15th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Daymo & anyone else stuck on that masking part. after dragging the layer to the “add layer mask” button, you have to paint the mask all black. You also must unlink the image and the mask (the chain in between the two in the layers menu). Then while making sure the mask is selected you have to use the paintbrush and paint a white squiggly line on the left of the mask (which actually will make that part visable during the animation). Then in the animation window (window>animation in CS3). Continue with step 23.
EXELLENT resource for image ready controls in CS3 http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb400899
September 6th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
excellent idea! thank you so much!
September 6th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Can you show a similar tutorial for making a zorro effect, just like in the movie? Im trying to create a 3d effect of an INFINITY IMAGE in blazing fire, formatted in GIF.
please show me how to do it. 
September 7th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
thank you so much
September 10th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Very nice!
September 15th, 2008 at 10:20 am
very nice
September 15th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
very nice animation
thnx
i will try it
October 2nd, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Hello Mr.Khoury
I’m using photoshop CS3, w i can’t save the file as a GIF image file, when i save it as GIF, the picture won’t glide anymore! what to do?
October 5th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Hi,
Is there any way to make this animation follow a path? I mean, over here we scroll the white bar in the mask from the left to the right, but how to create this effect when you would like the shine make to follow a certan abtract path like the form of a sensual woman, form of a flower, …
Please Advice.
Sincerely,
JDV.
November 8th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
can someone upload PSD please?
i do all as is in tutorial and it doesnt work
and i dont know what i do bad
(sorry for my english)
November 18th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
This tutorial looks great, except how do you get those curves using only three anchor points with the pen tool? Mine turn out all straight TT~TT
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:50 am
great tutorial, but im getting really annoyed tryin to make an animated gif using image ready, im saving it as gif 128 dithered, then im going to save optimise as and it just isnt saving it at all as animated!! im downloading other animated images and wallpapers and they are all flattened images to!! can any one help me!!
December 6th, 2008 at 8:22 am
UsefZ, save the file as follows, “Save Optimized As”, save as gif. To see it as an animation, open it with MS Explorer. It should animate then for you. Good luck!
December 6th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Janine, open Image Ready and reset your preferences. Dont change anything and then go to Save Optimized As, then Gif, then open with IExplorer.
December 14th, 2008 at 2:11 am
That is an awesome animation
Was the first time i’d used imageready, and was still pretty simple. Two thumbs up.
December 27th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Good Tute looking to make these wavy things for ages and now you have shown me how to animate and even bigger plus
January 5th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Totally awesome! I’m also looking for tutorial which shows how to make irregular gradient, (it’s behave and looks like it moves or something like a wave. Very delicate of course, we not talking about some dirty solutions)
//
February 4th, 2009 at 12:38 am
please someone explain step 24 for me as i dont understand what he means by shirt + right
February 4th, 2009 at 1:12 am
He means press shift and the right arrow button.
April 28th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
[...] 19. Abstract Shine Animation with Photoshop and ImageReady [...]
May 26th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Hey realy nice tutorial mate
thanks for it ^^