For artists and partners Lucy Cheung and Patrick Gildersleeves — who together run the illustration studio Yuk Fun from their home in Brighton — work and life go hand and hand, with shared holiday traditions from both of their cultures.
To celebrate Lunar New Year, which takes place this year on January 22 and marks the Year of the Rabbit, the duo have created an animated greeting card in Photoshop, featuring a trio of festive illustrations — a happy bunny, a carrot, and a cherry blossom flower — that gather and accumulate in a cheerful way. The cherry blossom flower is also significant to the celebration of well wishes and new beginnings, “because they bloom soon after winter and represent new life.”
“We were inspired by cute, colorful stickers, a bit like the ones you find on fruit at the supermarket,” they say, of the simple but bold animation style that you can easily adapt with your own artworks. “GIF-making is really fun because the movement makes it feel like there’s a whole other world of possibilities!”
Download Yuk Fun’s practice file and follow along to make your own animated greeting.
STEP 1/7
Dive into the practice file.
To start, open Yuk Fun’s Photoshop file, which has been organized into three Layer groups. For this tutorial, we’ll be working in the folder labeled “Make your frames here,” and using the three illustrations provided in “Yuk Fun’s stickers.” (The third folder, “Yuk Fun’s final frames,” is provided for reference — feel free to take a peek as you create your own GIF in the following steps.)
STEP 2/7
Create your first frame.
Let’s create the first frame of our animation. Open up Timeline (Window > Timeline). Then, select the Layer titled “Lunar New Year GIF – Frame 1.” Make sure the Layer is visible (indicated by the Eye icon), then click the (+) icon in the Timeline toolbar to create a Frame.
STEP 3/7
Add a sticker.
To create a GIF style similar to Yuk Fun’s, we’ll add a sticker for each subsequent frame. Select one of the images provided in the Layers folder labeled “Yuk Fun’s stickers.” To copy it over to your active Layers folder, hold down the Option key (Mac) or Alt key (PC), then drag and place it above “Lunar New Year GIF – Frame 1.” Make sure the Eye icon for your sticker layer is turned on.
STEP 4/7
Adjust the artwork.
Adjust your sticker placement using the Move tool. Use Free Transform (Cmd+T) to rotate or resize your stickers, if you’d like, and finalize any changes by pressing Return (Mac) or Enter (PC). Make sure both your Layers are visible, then add a second frame to your Timeline by clicking the (+) icon once more.
STEP 5/7
Repeat to create your next frames.
Repeat this process as you add more stickers to your frames, alternating between the rabbit, flower, and carrot illustrations until they have accumulated atop the Lunar New Year message. In their example, Yuk Fun have created 13 frames in all, but feel free to switch it up by adding fewer or more as you’d like — this style of GIF making is meant to be fun and open-ended.
STEP 6/7
Tinker with Timeline settings.
Once you’re all set with your frames, head back to your Timeline panel. Set the duration for each frame to 0.5 seconds — the lower the number, the quicker the GIF will cycle through frames. Choose the Forever setting to make the animation loop. Then, press the Play button (or Spacebar) to preview your GIF.
Pro Tip: Use batch selection to change the duration for all your frames at once. Select all frames by holding down the Shift button and keying your frame selections. Then simply change the Duration for any frame to update the whole batch.
STEP 7/7
Make it a GIF.
Now you’re ready to export. Go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy). Select GIF from the pull-down menu of file types. Then press Save. All done! And just as impressive as pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Enjoy, spread the Lunar New Year joy — and have a hopping Year of the Rabbit.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
YUK FUN is illustration duo Lucy Cheung and Patrick Gildersleeves. They work from their home studio in Brighton designing, screen printing and making things for people who love color, animals and fun. For more from YUK FUN, follow them on Instagram @yukfunnow and on Twitch @yukfun.
