***** This is an approximate 7.08 MB download *****

It is a rarety to hear me go in depth about a project of mine, but I think I'd like to share with you all some of the steps I took for creating this piece. Read if you'd like

*The Idea*

You can take a look at the first concept of this here
[link]
The idea was to create something like this effect but have it animated. Using photoshop as my special effects tool.

*The Process*
Max-
Seeing how i've been lacking in my bi-ped animations in 3dmax thus far, I wanted to figure out a way I could have my character walk towards the camera. I decided to animate the camera instead of the character, to make it look like she was kinda walking towards it. So, in 3dMax I added some noise to the camera's x,y, and z position as I moved the character closer to it. This inturn changed the horizon line aswell making it different on every frame.
After rendering the 70 frames by way of "render to frames" in 3dMax, I brought those 70 frames into photoshop as jpg bitmaps.
Photoshop-
I made a copy of the first frame's horizon line, cuz I knew I'd need it for all the other frames. My idea was to have the horizon line be the same so that it kinda appeared as if the camera had never been animated. For each frame, I set up a layer mask in photoshop and plopped the original frame's horizon line underneath it. That way when I painted black on the layer mask, the number 1 frame's horizon line would show through. After doing this to 69 frames, I began adding the effects.
I used photoshop for all filters/effects. Using the actions and batching (not going to go into complete detail here), I rendered each effect to each frame one at a time. Several filters where used and several steps were taken to get the final result for each frame.
Lastly, I added in some needed time for this very short animation by creating a blink effect and adding some text.
Flash-
I brought all the frames into flash and worked it all together as an animation. Compressed, added sound, and rendered. Nothing too much done in flash, just the begginning "Don't blink" was a ps jpg that I did a tween animation on. That and the "ready" button was all flash really was used for besides the last stage to bring this thing to a swf. file.

*Problems/Resolution*
I ran into several problems while doing this little experiment of mine. The major thing was that it was only suppost to be an experiment. I wanted to see if I could use photoshop in this way and if I could learn anything from it. Wow though did it take some time to get this done.
I did learn a lot though. Like to make sure to name every layer so I know what I did to it!
Also that actions arn't the ends all to everything and that you sometimes just have to go in and do it yourself. No matter how long and boring the task is.
Oh well, several hours of work non logged, approx. 30 seconds animation, who could ask for more??

Thanks for reading and watching