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 vldeo 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.

How to do it

Import video for frame Mode

• 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.
• Can edit each frame
• In this example, the Stylize>Find Edges 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.

Import video to video layer

• File>open> choose video file
• Photoshop creates a one layer movie with a video layer that is the size of the movie
• Animation paletted 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

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Saved as PSD file, then exported in Flash Video (FLV) format (File>Export>Render Video)

• 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

Example

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