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Blurring & Animating Icons

Start with a screencap from Red Eye; where the gorgeous Rachel Mcadams and Cillian Murphy star in.

1-//Despeckle, smooth out skin. Resize the image to width= 490/ height= 330, just so i can fit their huge heads in the icon. =)

2-//With the rectangular maraquee tool, i set the style to be fixed 100x100(px). I then select rachel's head, copy it, and on a new 100x100 document, paste it. I do the same thing with Cillian's head, but on the same document that i pasted rachel's head on.

3-// onto the motion bluring. I'll start with rachel (Rachel). duplicate the picture of her twice (Rachel copy 1, rachel copy 2). Click filter->blur->motion blur, but make sure the first duplicated base is selected (in this case, rachel copy 1). Make the angle 0 (or anything you'd like, really), and make the distance 10px.

4-// Select the second duplicated base (rachel copy 2), and go to filter->blur->motion blur. Keep the angle as you used before, but this time change the distance to 20px.

5-// Follow steps 1&2 for cillian's head (and/or for any other layers that you will use in the icon).

6-// Before We switch to imageready, let's add things. I want to add some text, so I'm going to write "Uh-Oh" (fishsoup, 28px, #CABEBD) on a blackish/redish (#755B56) background. I added a texture by scarsonchest under the text, over the background, and set it to multiply.

Animating time!

No steps now. It's hard explaining how to animate, so just.. stick with me. =)
Mmkay, im hoping you have the basic knowledge of animating. You should know how to use the tween tool, what frames are, etc. If not, then go to the memories or google a tutorial that's just for beginners.
We'll start with rachel. Duplicate the first frame, which is the rachel base. Now you have 2 frames; both the rachel base. (delay 1 sec.)
With your second frame selected, click on the eye to make rachel copy 1 appear, and the cillian base. Make the cillian base have the opacity of 25%. (delay 0.1 sec)
Add another frame. This time, make Rachel copy 2 appear and the cillian base. On this frame, make the cillian base have the opacity of 50%. (delay 0.1 sec)
Add yet another frame. Make rachel copy 2 appear along with the cillian base. Now, put the cillian base to have an opacity of 75%. (delay 0.1 sec)
Add one more frame that only has the cillian base, and make the opacity 100%. (delay 1 sec.)
This is how it should almost look.

Almost done! =)
Add another frame. Make it cillian copy 1 at opacity 75%, and the rachel base. (delay 0.1 sec)
Add yet another frame. This time, make it cillian copy 2 at 50% opacity, and the rachel base. (delay 0.1 sec)
One last frame. This time, make it just the rachel base. (delay 1 sec.)
No, I haven't forgotten the text. On a new frame, let the background, texture, and text appear. (delay 1 sec.)
Okay, now we must use the tween tool. Go back to frame 7 (the very last rachel base), and click on the tween tool. It looks like a line out of dots, slowly fading away. On the box that comes up, use these settings:

You can change the frames to add to any number you want, actually.
Ohh, and make sure that the frame delay is 0 sec. (or no delay), or else the transition will look very choppy and blah.
To save, go to file-> save optomized as.., or press ctrl+shift+alt+s.

And there you have it! Your final result.

This tutorial seems long and complicated, but only because i add in the most unnecessary details.

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