If you've ever made an Instagram story, you probably know you can add stickers to your stories. These stickers are interactive but, like real stickers, they don't move ... until now. In a Jan. 23 update to the app, more action can be added to your stories with animated GIF sti ...more
TikTok is great for creating short videos of people lip-syncing to songs or comedy sketches, but it's also very entertaining to just browse and share cool videos with friends. When you stumble across a video you like, you can download it onto your phone to watch over and over ...more
Apple's Messages app has long had visual effects you could apply manually after long-pressing the send button, and there are even hidden keywords you could use to trigger full-screen effects automatically. FaceTime's latest update also gives you some full-screen effects to pla ...more
When you wake your iPhone X, XS, or XS Max for the first time, you'll probably notice a subtle animation in the top right of the screen that slides down to reveals a couple switches, one toggled on and one toggled off. At first, the meaning of this could be confusing, but it's ...more
This video editing software tutorial shows you how to create animated smoke in After Effects. You will learn how to create authentic smoke for any special effects purpose such as fires and action sequences. See how you can use After Effects CS3 filters to create animated smoke ...more
You can set a GIF as the wallpaper for your iPhone's lock screen, but it won't animate like it does when looking at the image in the Photos app. It's an annoying limitation on iOS, but one that's easily bypassed with a tiny bit of work. If you want an animated wallpaper on yo ...more
SchizoFilms brings the viewers instructions on how to make an animated GIF in Windows Movie Maker. First open up Movie Maker. You will need to import pictures. To do this, click the button on the top left of the screen that reads 'Import Media'. Find your files here and import ...more
Once you jailbreak, there are hundreds of options available for you to fully customize your boring stock iPhone into something more efficient and fun. We've already shown you a bunch, like how to beautify app icons and change battery icons, but now it's time for a badge alert ...more
Bill Myers shows how to quickly animate text and titles in Sony Movie Studio and Sony Vegas using the intro title from the LOST TV show as an example. Find more like this at http://www.bmyers.com
In this how-to video, you will learn how to make an animated optical illusion with paper. First, start off with one ball and copy it five more times so that it goes in a line to the corner. Make sure there are six balls in total. Next, create a striped pattern shown. There are ...more
Get started using Adobe After Effects with the help of The New Boston! This beginner's tutorial is bound to answer the many questions you have about the popular digital motion graphics and compositing software. The main purpose of After Effects is for film and video post-produ ...more
The bouncing ball animation is a classic beginning point for animating in every 3D software package. This tutorial shows you how to do it in Maya. Part two will concentrate on keyframes. Part three will turn the bouncing ball into a character set. Part four will cover using th ...more
Why make a flip book? Because all animation – even stick-figure Flash animation and multilayered, highly technical 3-D effects – is built on, and can benefit from, the basics of the craft first developed by artists working at the beginning of the last century. And while fancy ...more
Emoji are, without a doubt, an integral part of messaging on smartphones. Whether you're team iPhone or Android, chances are you send emoji daily. However, years after their introduction, emoji remain static in most cases, even with animated stickers and GIFs supported on almo ...more
This web development software tutorial shows you how to create an animated banner in Flash that you can upload to a website. You will learn how to use the timeline, learn Flash layouts, and discover animating as you create your website banner in this Flash tutorial. The video ...more
This walks you through how to create an animated GIF image file that can be used in websites, as avatar's, as icons, etc. You'll be using Microsoft Paint to create each frame of the animation, and an application called Unfreez (found here) to animate them together. This examp ...more
Christmas sweaters are one of those anomalies that everyone complains about, yet so many are sold every year that someone has to like them (kind of like fruitcake). Whether you're keeping tradition for tradition's sake, or secretly you actually enjoy ugly sweaters (we won't te ...more
A tutorial on character animation in Flash that teaches you how to create a walking stickman or stick figure. You'll also learn how to mulilate him and create blood effects. Part 1 of 2 - How to Animate a walking stickman with Flash. Part 2 of 2 - How to Animate a walking sti ...more
This 3D software tutorial shows you how to create and animate a free camera in 3D Studio Max. Not only will you learn how to animate the camera in 3ds Max, you will also learn how to use the timeline and auto key features. This 3ds Max tutorial is best viewed full screen.
Attention: Digital 3D animators and modelers, watch this 3ds Max video tutorial to see how to add sound as reference to your scene for lip synch or animating to key events. Autodesk's 3D Studio Max is a customizable and scalable 3D modeling and rendering solution for games, f ...more
Learn how to use Masking, Motion Tweens, and Motion Guide Layers to create an animated pencil drawing a curved line. Tools used are the Rectangle tool, Pencil tool, and Free Transform tool. This is an intermediate level Flash tutorial. Animate a pencil drawing a curved line in ...more
Create and animate a stop motion LEGO brickfilm! Yes, that's right... you can make your very own animated brickfilm, but wait... what exactly is a brickfilm? Brickfilms are animated films using LEGO, Mega Bloks, or other plastic construction building block toys. Most are stop ...more
Get started using Adobe After Effects with the help of The New Boston! This beginner's tutorial is bound to answer the many questions you have about the popular digital motion graphics and compositing software. The main purpose of After Effects is for film and video post-produ ...more
In this Photoshop video tutorial, see how to make an animated dancing GIF picture in Photoshop. With Adobe Photoshop, you can do virtually anything, and with one single photograph, you can create a dancing animation of your character. After a little manipulation, save it as a ...more
This tutorial presents a lesson in how to use MoGraph to set up and animate a book. Whether you're new to MAXON's popular 3D modeling application or are just looking to get better acquainted with Cinema 4D and its various features and functions, you're sure to enjoy this free ...more
This video describes how to use Adobe Photoshop CS4 software to create and manipulate text in animated .GIFs. GIF stands for Graphic Interchange Format, a type of image file which allows short animated sequences to be displayed. A preselected scene from a television show is op ...more
Get a cool animated wallpaper for your iPhone or iPad Touch! You'll need to have jailbroken your device, then go the Cydia website where you can find two separate apps that let you download a live wallpaper. This even works for first generation devices.
Check out this Autodesk 3ds Max video tutorial on how to animate a basic biped. This 3D graphics application will have your digital character walking in no time. Creating multiple footsteps in 3D Studio Max is a cinch. So, if you're a beginning 3D modeler, than this would be ...more
Cinema 4D is an amazing program, but not a one-stop source for animation needs, especially if you're planning on making a 3D video game, for which you'll need Unity 3D. This three-part video covers the process of rigging a character in Cinema 4D and transferring to Unity 3D. ...more
This is the basic bone animation using a character set and the hypergraph within Maya. Geared for kids to learn 3D modeling and animating this video is great for beginners.
Selfies are on there way out. Not because I said so, but just because I want them to. They're both aberrant and curious. They carefully hobble between the lines of self-exploration and crippling insecurities terribly masked as blatant narcissism. They're like a horrible car a ...more
Learn how to use After Effects CS5 to create a simple growing vine animation. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with CS5's new features, you're sure to be wel ...more
Creative Cow contributing editor Tony Ross introduces drawing techniques in Flash, as well as how to use Masking, Motion and Shape Tweens to create an animated pencil drawing a line. Tools used are the Rectangle tool, Pencil tool, and Free Transform tool. Animate a pencil draw ...more
Giphy has had a few apps for iOS over the years. Giphy Keys was a keyboard built specifically for GIFs. Giphy Cam lets you create your GIFs complete with stickers. Giphy World is for adding augmented reality stickers to the real world. But now, Giphy has combined elements of a ...more
Check out this informative video tutorial from Apple on how to add animated travel maps in iMovie '09. iLife '09, the software suite from Apple, is the easiest way to organize, view and publish digital content, like pictures, movies, music, and webpages. iPhoto makes managing ...more
This software tutorial gives you an overview of how to animate text in After Effects CS4. Learn how to employ manual and automated text animation techniques in After Effects CS4 as well as how to adjust the range selector and add animation properties. If you want to get starte ...more
Spraycans filled with paint have been the graffiti artist's chosen medium of artistic creation since the street/urban art form began. Graffiti artists utilize spray cans daily to create sociopolitical commentary and to animate their work, so why not give these important tools ...more
Learn how to incorporate animated GIFs into Flash projects.
If you didn't know you could make videos in Photoshop, you've got to watch this video tutorial! It's a simple process in PS CS5, much like making an animated GIF, but you can save (export) these files to video formats such as .MOV, .AVI, .MP4, and more! Just follow along throu ...more
In this After Effects tutorial, you'll see how to use Trapcode 3D Stroke to create animated arrows and lines. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the progr ...more
This SketchUp software tutorial shows you how to work with moving cameras. Learn how to animate Sketchup "cameras" along a precisely drawn path using the camera position tool. You'll also cover the uses of Layers and Scenes to help create a final animation in SketchUp 6.
This tutorial shows you how to switch between animation mode and dynamics mode in Maya so you can animate objects with constraints on them.
Need a little help with your new Adobe Photoshop graphics editing program? Working with Photoshop can be a bit tough if you don't know what you're doing, so instead of getting out the books, check out this 'no nonsense' video tutorial to learn how to create an animated text ba ...more
New to Ubuntu Linux? This computer operating system could be a bit tricky for beginners, but fret not, help is here. Check out this video tutorial on how to create an animated desktop (GUI) on Ubuntu Linux. This is a modified version of A-Desk v.14.1 that includes more videos ...more
I recently wrote about Twitter's super now app called Vine, which lets people create 6 second video clips that can be embedded in a tweet. Those videos have their own proprietary extension, but if you want to turn those 6 second videos into an animated GIF, you can now do so t ...more
This is one more cool illusion by maricv84, one where you slide a transparent sheet with black bars overtop a cryptic image to create an animated effect. Video: . The links for the images used in the video are below. You can print them out and try it at home. Just make sure to ...more
This friendly tutorial guides us through the process of creating a simple animation from a still image, using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects. Although the narration is at times difficult to understand, the tutorial provides a good way to learn one common technique of ...more
This video shows you how to correctly animate a walking stick figure in Pivot. It covers principles of animation and tips more than specifics of the software.
One of the most powerful features when editing videos with Enlight Videoleap is the keyframe tool, which allows you to add custom transitions, animate text, granularly adjust audio, move video clips across the frame, supplement effects, and more. If you want your video to chan ...more
If you have an Apple Watch, you might know that the activity awards you earn can be shared with your friends as iMessage stickers on your iPhone. However, you first have to earn achievements in order to use them as stickers. That changes somewhat with iOS 12, as Apple added an ...more
Typography is an important aspect of the video editing process. You deal with it when adding captions to news clips, giving on-screen recipes in food videos, creating burned-in subtitles for short films, making no-sound-needed videos for social media, and so much more. Enlight ...more
Yes, emojis are the [insert poop emoji here]. They can help improve your love life and even let you portray emotions in a more diverse and well-rounded way now. But combining emojis with GIFs? Well, that's some next-level [insert poop emoji here] right there, and with a new iO ...more
Want to learn how to turn photos into animation? It is possible, in Adobe After Effects! Watch this tutorial to learn how to animate photos using the After Effects Puppet Tool.
As worn by "The Merovingian", the villain in the Matrix Reloaded & Matrix Revolutions Hollywood movie. Video: .
Windows Movie Maker has some pretty cool text effects. One of them is a layered effect for titles. Here is basically the same thing in Sony Vegas. I wasn't 100% sure if it was Furyp (I should have been saying Fury P)that requested this tutorial and I appoligize for not rememb ...more
Almost every website on the web has buttons that enable users to interact with it. They are easy to make, but making them interesting and reactive to user's activities is more of a challenge. This video demonstrates how to create animated rollover buttons in Adobe Flash CS4 qu ...more
Corey Barker demonstrates a technique for animating text using the stroke effect in After Effects. For more Adobe software tutorials from Layers Magazine, search Layers Magazine on WonderHowTo. WonderHowTo indexes all Layers Magazine tutorials for Illustrator, InDesign, Photo ...more
See how to create a fancy "loading" animation using Adobe Photoshop CS4. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular graphic editing program or a seasoned design professional looking to better acquaint yourself with the new features and functions of this particular iteration of the ...more
This After Effects tutorial will show how to create a nice, smooth animated text effect, which turns your icy font into a frozen font. This is a great animation that can be easily learned, whether you're an AE pro or novice. Laurence Grayson chills out as he shows you how to c ...more
This tutorial shows you how to make an animated GIF out of any video on Adobe Photoshop CS3. If you are having problems with the video not showing up, then: Does the video file work in other programs, and do any other video files work in Photoshop? You might have a codec miss ...more