Preparing a Stopwatch Image in Photoshop and Then Animating it in After Effects

http://www.germes-online.com/direct/dbimage/50250684/Mechanical_Stopwatch.jpg

1. Open the image you just downloaded of the stopwatch in Adobe Photoshop
2. In your layers panel double click on background to enable it for editing
3. Using your pen tool trace around the hand of the stopwatch. Save your path and make the selection
4. Edit Cut and then paste it. The hand should now be on its own layer
5. Rename the new layer hand
6. Move back to your stopwatch layer and using your clone tool fill in the area we cut out to give us a clean watch face area in that spot.
7. Use your pen tool and cut out the left button of the stopwatch and paste it so its on its own layer
8. Rename the new layer left button
9. On your main stopwatch layer use your clone tool to fill in the hole you created by removing the left button
10. Move your left button and place it in it appropriate spot. Do the same with the hand of the watch if you have not already
11. Move to your stopwatch body layer and rename it body.
12. Using your magic wand select all the white area
13. Chose Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All
14. Chose your paint bucket and fill this selection with black. The selected area should now look checkerboard as it is hidden
15. Save your file as a .psd

1. Open After Effects

2. Import your stopwatch psd file by right clicking and say import or file import or apple I

3. In the import file dialogue box chose Import As: Composition and click open

4. Double click on your watch composition in your project panel so we can edit it/animate it

5. You should see layer showing up hand, left button and body. Move left button layer to the bottom of the stack beneath your body layer

6. Go to Composition>Composition Settings and change the duration to 60 seconds and click ok. Shortcut apple k

7. In your timeline drag out each layer to the end of the timeline

8. Move your CTI or current Time Indicator in your timeline to 0 seconds

9. Select your hand layer and double click on it so we can edit its anchor point.
Anchor point is where the image will rotate from. It should come up in a new tab in your monitor area

10. A cross hair should be seen on the screen click and drag it in your comp window to the middle area of your watch hand the point it will rotate from

11. Close that tab by hitting the x

12. Select your hand layer and hit r to bring up its rotation properties

13. Hit the stopwatch next to rotation and making sure you are at o seconds in the timeline change the rotation properties so that your hand is pointing to the 60

14. Move your CTI or current time indicator to 60 seconds in the timeline

15. Change the rotation so it goes around the whole watch face and back to 60 again

16. Select your left button layer and move in your timeline to 0 seconds

17. Hit p to bring up its position property as we are going to animate its position and hit the stopwatch next to tell after effects we are animating position

18. Move your button image down so that it looks depressed into the watch side

19. In your timeline move to 60 seconds

20. Move the position of your button image so that it is back to normal and up

21. If you play your movie the stopwatch should go for 60 seconds and the button slowly come back up after it has been in the depressed state