For us is so satisfying when we have different options of design and architecture software to use for our projects. And you know us already, always trying out new things and just experimenting. In this tutorial, you will learn how to animate easily a landscape section and a diagram, using Photoshop and Premiere pro. Plus! since it’s Friday, we have some free assets so you can skip some steps in here and finish it quick!
If you want to watch the video tutorial, click here, also we have the complete animated assets here or you can download the free animated assets here.
Animated Landscape Section and Diagram
Create a diagram
First, we started sketching out a diagram of a garden, we did it with the spline tool, overall it was easy and fast.
We put it in isometric mode, put it in pdf, and imported it to photoshop. We created a new layer, painted it white, minimize the diagram to have more white space.
Then we imported a grass texture, copied it and paste it out, then creating a mask, we masked out the parts where the grass would go.
After masking it out, we saw that there were some spaces that needed some more editing
Using the clone tool, we erased some visible seams, and also with a grass brush tool, we started painting outside of the margin so the grass could have that 3d effect.
We made this by modifying the brush dynamics, the scattering, the smoothing, so it can look a bit more real.
Finally, we added some shadows to the edges of the whole grass, so it can have more difference between the inside and out.
In one of these sites to download free png trees, we found these trees and started adding them and scaling them accordingly.
Create a section
We used some of the same trees we downloaded and imported a grass texture, so it can work as a base for the grass for the section.
We started painting the grass so it can have a little bit more imperfection and be more realistic from far away.
So we finished our image, and now we are going to export this into Premiere pro.
Premiere Pro
We open a new project, then in file > create a new sequence, with a 1920 x 1080
We import the image we just made in photoshop, when we click on the layer of the image, we can resize it.
If you see some black margins outside, create a new layer, then color matte, and you can change the color of the background.
If you want green screen people, you can download a video from youtube
Once you have it, you can drag it down to the timeline
Of course, you can see how it looks, you can resize it. Go to effects, search “Color Key” drag it on top of the layer, and “key” out the green. Select the green so it can disappear. Resize it and you have the animation.
What we did, we went to Lumion, and we animated each person and made our own assets.
We then started adding each animated person to the image accordingly, we resized them, we made sure that they are in scale.
We went back to photoshop because we weren’t really liking how it came out, we knew that there was something missing.
So we added more trees in the background, more textures, some concrete texture. We exported a plan view of the garden so the section can have more aesthetic.
We went back to premiere pro, and we were still not liking it, haha, but no worries, we felt that there were still people missing. So we added them in Photoshop and the animated people in premiere pro.
Final Result
In the end, we added some animated birds, some more details. We know that we could have done much more things, but we were really happy with the outcome. Watch the video tutorial below!
