Adobe Photoshop/Imageready CS2 Icon Tutorial: Animated Shifting Pinwheel

This tutorial was written using Photoshop & Imageready CS2. It may be translatable to other versions of Photoshop or other photo editing software.
We are making this icon: picture#1

Prepare the base for your icon. I am using a premade texture, made by me. picture#2 Make a new layer & fill it with any color you want & set the layer to screen 100%.
picture#3 For the next steps, you can use any pinwheel brush you choose, but I am using this one, made by me. picture#4 You will need to define this as a brush. Then go to image >adjustments >invert. picture#5 Define this as a brush as well. Make a new layer and put the first brush on in #ffffff. Make another new layer & do the same with the second brush. Set the opacity for both layers to around 35% to 45%. picture#6

For a picture icon, use the magnetic lasso tool, set to anti-alias with a 3px feather and cut out the subject for your icon. picture#7 I am using this picture of Paris Hilton, desaturated so it blends better. picture#8 Put the photo over the pinwheel layers, but under the color layer. Use the scale tool to get the pic sized the way you want it. picture#9 Add some text and whatever effects you like to use. Then add any border to give it a finished look. picture#10

Make sure all the layers visiblity is turned on except for pinwheel 2. picture#11 Transfer the document to imageready. picture#12 Once you are in Imageready you should have 1 frame. Set it to .2 seconds. then click the little arrow and add new frame. Go to your layers with the new frame selected and turn off pinwheel 1 and turn on pinwheel 2.

Again, select the first frame and click the tween button (the 3 little dots) and set it to tween with next frame, frames to add: 1, with all layers and all 3 parameter boxes checked. picture#13 Now select the third frame and click the tween button again, with all the same setting except set it to tween with first frame, so you get a continuous animation.

And that's it. you can play around with the settings and get it just the way you like it, but it really is very easy & there are a million ways to do it! If you have any questions, feel free to comment.