CIS 421 › Photoshop >Video Layers

Photoshop Video Layers

How does it work?

Photoshop CS3 has new capabilities in
- video (special video layers into which video can be imported).\
- must have Quicktime installed on computer
- Audio does not work in Photoshop
Open the Animation Palette in Photoshop: Window>Animation
Animation palette has
- frame mode shows video frame-by-frame.
  - modify video in each frame
  - each frame has a layer in the layers palette
- timeline mode shows video in a single stream
  - puts entire video into single layer in PSD file
  - shows the frame duration and animation properties of PSD video layer
cannot convert video layer to frame-by-frame mode, but can import it to frame-by-frame mode.
To switch modes, click the small icon in the lower right corner of the animation/timeline window.

File>Import> Video Frames to Layers
In Load window, choose an MOV, AVI, MPG or MPEG, FLV file
Click on 421video
sort by Last modified column and choose one of files at top of list with 2008 in title for smaller file size scaled to 160x120
In Import Video to Layers window, choices:
- Range to Import
  - from beginning to end
  - selected range - hold down shift key and drag slider
  - easier to use shorter range.
When you click OK, Photoshop creates a new file the size of the movie and inserts each frame into its own layer.

Frame by frame animation palette in Photoshop

Each frame of the movie is in its own frame in the animations palette.
Edit each frame by editing its layer in the layer palette
In this example, the Stylize>Find Edges filter was applied to each layer in the layer stack. To facilitate the process, I assigned a keyboard shortcut to the filter under Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts from the Photoshop menu bar.
This method is very labor intensive, and you probably can accomplish the same results in either Premiere or After Effects.

Play the video by clicking the play button at the bottom of the animation palette.
Save the PSD version of the file
File>Export>Render Video converts the PSD file into an FLV file.
Import the FLV file into Flash, add a skin if you want, and click Control>Test Movie to see the SWF file..
Click File>Publish Preview to create the HTML page with the code to play the SWF file. Copy & paste the HTML code onto any page on which you want to play the video.
Be sure to fix the <script> tags and delete the <embed> tag to make the page validate.
Be sure to upload the javascript file, the flv file & the skin, as well as the swf file.

File>open> choose video file
Photoshop creates a one layer movie with a video layer that is the size of the movie
Animation palette changes to timeline mode
alter video by:
- painting
- adding adjustment layers
- create selections, apply masks to edit specific parts of frames
- apply layer styles (not automated ones)
Properties of video in timeline mode that can be manipulated with keyframes
- Altered video shows changed sections
- Position -- can move layer
- opacity -- change opacity of layer
- style -- where layer styles added
- Global lighting -- change angle of lighting in styles

Save file as PSD format to import into After Effects
Photoshop exports several Video formats: Quicktime, AVI, MPEG-4, DV Stream. Quicktime & AVI yield larger file sizes
Video format, MPEG-4 requires special plugin in Browser which user may not have.
FLV format can be played with an FLV PlayBack component inserted into a Flash ActionScript 3.0 file -- Flash has excellent video compression.
The FLV file, the Player Skin, an ActiveX file and the SWF file must all be uploaded to the Web.
See directions for setup for playing FLV file from a SWF file