Animated Butterfly

• Download this image of a butterfly from free stock photos

1. Open your butterfly image in Photoshop. Use the rectangular marquee to select the rectangle around the butterfly. Click image=> crop.

2. Click Image=> image size. set the height to 100 pixels and constrain proportions checked.

3. Right click on your layer and select duplicate. Turn off the background. Magnify your image to 300%. Use the lasso tool to select your butterfly. Click Add layer mask. Adjust your mask so that you get just the butterfly in the image by using your black and white hard brush on your mask layer. when you are satisfied with the masking, right click on the mask and click Apply layer mask.

4. Click View=> new guide and set the guide at 80 pixels vertical. Select your move tool with the show bounding boxes checked and rotate your image about -20 degrees, or until the body is parallel with the vertical line. Move the image so that no part of this butterfly is off the canvas. Apply the transformation.

5. Duplicate this layer three times calling the layers open winged,  middle winged,  and closed winged. Turn off the background copy.

6. Click on the middle winged butterfly layer, turn off eye on other layers.. Use the lasso tool starting at the upper joint between the body and wing neck) and selecting around the left wing and releasing at the lower joint where the body and wing meet. (see image). This will allow you to select just one wing without antennae.

7. Using your move tool with show bounding boxes checked, Grab the middle left handle and move the bounding box in towards the body until the width of this is somewhere around 70%. Don't apply yet.

Click Edit=> transform=> skew. Draw the upper left handle up a little so it nearly matches the other wing. Apply transformation.
8. Select the other wing with your lasso tool and do essentially the same thing, resizing from the right side inward to 70%, but on the skew, bring the upper right handle up a bit so the top of the wing is closer to the top of the right antennae. apply transformation.

9. Turn off the middle winged butterfly layer and turn on the closed wing butterfly layer. select the closed winged butterfly layer.

10 Use the lasso tool to select the left wing. Select your move tool and drag the center left handle to the right until your wing is at about 25% Click edit=>transform skew and grab the upper left bounding box and draw that till it is about even height wise with the left antennae. Apply transformation.

11. Use the lasso tool to select the other wing in the same fashion. Drag the center right bounding box handle inward until the scale is at 25%. Click Edit=> transform=> skew. Drag the upper right bounding box corner up till it is at thee same height as the antennae. Apply the transformation.

12.You should now have three layers with wing positions changing. Turn on all three layers. Link the three layers. Use the move tool to rotate them back about 20 degrees or where you first started. Click The right hand arrow on the top of the  layers panel and select new set from linked.

This set will allow easy transfer to a new canvas as a "set" in the future.

For each layer in the set, one at a time, apply the following:

Control click the layer. Click select=> inverse. Hit your backsace key. Click select=> deseelect. Click layer=>matting=>remove white matting. Stop here if you are saving for a dark background. Click layer=>matting=> remove black matting if saving for a light background.

13. Switch to image ready.
14. Click the right hand carrot on the layers panel to open your set. Turn the eye off on the closed and middle wing layers. Switch the the animation panel. Duplicate the current animation frame 2X. Below are the settings for the animation frames. Click on each frame and make the adjustment in your layer visibility and timing for the frame..

15. Optimize settings for saving

• Gif
• lossy = 0
• adaptive colors
• 32 colors or whatever you can live with.
• transparent, or if you place on a background, no transparency.