compatible with photoshop 7+ and imageready
Drag images to where it says http:// to see the full image
1. First off, open up an image. I'm using a neopets background. You can download it to your desktop here.
downloading an 800*600 image is faster, as the image is smaller. I'll resize it by going to image » image size. At the width, enter 600. In the height box, enter 452. If your 'constrain proportions' box is checked, it should automatically type in '450' when you typed in 600px. Make sure the quality is bicubic.
2. Next, take the rectangular marquee tool. At the top, you should have a little tool bar. Where it saysStyle change it fromnormal tofixed size. Where it says Width, change it to 600px. Change height to 150px. You can change these settings.
3. After this, you can select the part of the image you'd like to make into the banner. Try not to cut off anything. When you've got what you want, go to image » crop. Now you can work with this image.
4. Now, you can add brushes or textures. I use mine from streetcarcircus, but if you have any other texture sites like FEEL or HG, you can use those too. I find its best to use textures that have somewhat similar colours to your image.
This is my banner when I've added textures:
5. Your banner looks pretty, doesn't it? You're going to add text now. Select the text tool. I'm going to use Arial at size 72 with -150px spacing. I'm also going to add a drop shadow.
6. Next, make a layer and fill it with any shade of grey. Go up to filter » noise » add noise. Where it says amount, change it to 400%. Don't mind distribution; Uniform and Gaussian give practically the same result. Make sure monochromatic is checked off.
Your image should be all black and while and speckled. Duplicate this layer, and press ctrl + f. That will make the second layer differnt from the first.
your layers palette should look somewhat like this:
7. Now you can add text again, if you'd like. I used Amano at 36px, and a drop shadow. Your text won't really be seen with the black and white background. That will be fixed soon :)
8 Duplicate your base layer and drag it under your second text layer. Click on that layer and press ctrl + e on your keyboard. This will merge the text layer with your base layer. Do the same with your first text layer.
The last step I took was duplicating layer 2 and layer 2 copy I put these on the top of my layer palette.
8. Horray! Now we're ready to animate our banner. Go to window at the top and select animation. This will bring the animation box out.
At the top-right of the animation box, click the small triangle inside the circle. Click Make frames from layers. Now you'll have all your layers in the animation box, but the animation will be very quick. If you'd like to try it out, click the play button (highlighted in red).
9. I changed the animation frame times so that the layers with text on them show for 1.5 seconds and the black and white layers show for 0.1 seconds.
10 Make sure your image continues forever.
To save in imageready...
Go to file » Save optimized as. Make sure it is set as gif.
To save in photoshop...
Go to file » Save for Web. Save it as a gif.
done!
Mine :
I'd love to see your results. If you have any questions, neomail me at conflictual on neopets.