Simple Word Flash Animation

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a flash animation across words, giving them a 'shine' effect.

Step 1: Create a new document, background contents anything you want, and insert your text. I'll be using this.

Be sure to not add too many fill effects to the text (i.e. color/gradient overlays), or else the flash animation won't really be seen later on.

Step 2: Click the gradient tool on the toolbar.

Be sure your foreground color is set to the color your want the flash to be. In this case, I chose white, which is what the standard normally is.

Step 3: Create a new layer. Place your mouse around the center of the image. Press down, drag a little to the lower right corner, and then let go. It should resemble this.

Step 4: Now click the magic wand tool

. Select the background color of the gradient you just made - in this case, it's black. Once you've selected, the areas, hit delete. Be sure to erase as much as possible.

Step 5: Look back at your panel and make sure the gradient layer is above the text. Then highlight the gradient layer and press Ctrl+G. You will notice that now the white gradient looks like it's part of the text. If nothing happens, try removing some effects from your text, if there are any. Also make sure that all of your text is in one layer. It should look something like this.

Step 6: Time to animate! xD Press Ctrl+Shift+M to jump to ImageReady. A new window should pop up. Move the layer with the gradient on it outside the window until it's no longer visible in the image.

Step 7: Duplicate the frame. If you don't know how, go to your animation palette (it normally is in the lower-left corner with 3 tabs: Animation, Image Map, and Slice) and click on the duplicate button.

In this new layer, move the gradient layer to the opposite corner. In this case, we'll be moving it from the upper left to the lower right, as shown in this image.

Step 8: Now we have to tween the two frames. Look at the animation palette (the one where the duplicate button was) and click the button that looks like this.

A window should pop up. Be sure you're tweening with the Previous Frame. The frames to add is entirely up to you - the higher the number, the smoother and slower the animation is. For this example, I'll be using 5.

Step 9: You should immediately notice how a bunch of new frames pop up in the animation palette. If you chose 5 frames to tween, like me, there should be a total of 7 frames now.

Step 10: Click on the little arrow that says "0 sec" on the very last frame. The number you choose will be the amount of time in between the flashes. In this case, I'll choose 2 secs.

Step 11: Now all you have to do is save it! Go to File -> Save Optimized As. Enter a name and make sure the file type is .gif. Upload it to a host and you're done! <3 Here's how mine came out: