Timeline in Adobe Photoshop CS4
By: Rafiq Elmansy on Tuesday, May 19, 2009
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I remember the old days, when we first saw layers in Photoshop. It was arguably the most important update in the history of the product. As time moved on, we naturally saw additional updates with each new version, but most them did not impact the application in quite the same way. Few updates have actually introduced new trends to the Photoshop workflow or opened new capabilities to Adobe Photoshop users. Animation is one of those few.
The addition of animation capabilities was one of the major features, starting with Adobe Photoshop CS3. Actually, it wasn't a totally new feature even then, as it was inherited from a previous Adobe product, Adobe Image Ready, that had died after the merge between Adobe and Macromedia.
Adobe Image Ready did not use a real timeline, like the ones we are used to seeing in products like Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premier. It was based on frames, where each frame included the changes you made to the layers through the Layers panel. Personally, I did not like this layer/frame style much, as I am more used to the traditional timeline in Flash, After Effects ... etc.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 and CS4 have merged the two methods of animation, the timeline animation and the layer/frame style animation. In this article, we will talk about the timeline in Photoshop and how to use it to create layers and layer styles.
Rafiq Elmansy has been a multimedia graphic designer, graphic and web designer since 1999. His background is in fine art and sculpture. He uses Adobe Products to create graphics and animations for desktop applications, cartoons, games, web sites, e-learning courses, and mobile and Pocket PC applications. He is the founder of Bee Design Studio. He is an Adobe Flash CS3 Certified, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Certified, and the founder of the first Adobe User Group in Egypt. Rafiq also creates computer artwork and writes articles and reviews about graphics, animation, and Flash topics at his site, Graphic Mania. Rafiq is an Adobe Community Expert, contributor writer at Adobe Design and Developer center and uCertify.com co-author.
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