#sparkle tutorial

like the dummy that I am, I didn’t keep the original psds for either of the pictured projects, so I’m working from scratch.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

1. create a new canvas, 540 x 300 pixels. make sure your workspace is set to “essentials”.

2. Create your cool character aesthetic thing with whatever text and coloring you want. 

I’m using some pictures I found off Pinterest. :P If you want to find colorings, check out some resource blogs such as @itsphotoshop or @fyeahtutorial.

keep in mind that this is an approximate remake, since I deleted the orginal files. @ me why 

3. save + close that file and change your workspace settings to “motion”.

You should have a little Timeline bar at the bottom of your workspace.

4. drag the sparkly gif into photoshop. 

Photoshop will break the gif down into its separate frames for you. 

5. change the frame speed.

this is a very important step–I forgot it the first time and had to re-do the entire thing. Ugh. Anyhoo, change it from 0 sec to 0.1 seconds. 

6. Convert to Timeline & consolidate your frames. note: the frame speed should be 0.1 seconds, not 0. Whoops.

click this button……

…and you’ll get this in the Timeline bar at the bottom of the window. 

now, shift + click to select all your layers on the left side of the window.

Right click on the layers and select “convert to smart object”.

now, you should only have one layer in your timeline.

don’t worry, the gif still plays.

now save this glitter file. you don’t want to re-do this process every time you want to make a sparkly aesthetic edit. I saved mine as “glitter.psd” or something thereabouts. 

6. Convert the original edit to timeline.

Make sure you’re still in the Motion workspace. re-open your aesthetic file.

click “Convert to Timeline” again, and it will transform it into its individual layers.

7. Adding the sparkle to the edit.

go up to Window < arrange < tile all vertically. The two files should be side by side.

Select the gif file…

…and drag it on top of your edit.

It’ll look like this–but we’re not finished yet, so hold on. 

Adjust the dimensions of the sparkle to fit the dimensions of the edit (command + T to transform, hold shift while clicking and dragging)

Change the blending mode of the sparkle layer from “Normal” to “Screen”.

voila.

8. Trimming the timeline

Your timline should look like this:

(Layer 2 is the glitter.)

Trim layer 2 until it touches the edge of all the other layers, and make sure the little bars at the top are aligned with the edges of the other layers.

9. saving the gif

go to File < Save for Web. Select Gif 128 Dithered from the option bar on the left side:

and make sure Looping Options (at the bottom of the window) are set to “Forever”. 

Click save, and you’re done!