I have a regular client that needs shots of the local river to make a web animation. This will be a dawn to dusk shoot, every couple of hours. When he finds out what this is going to cost he may loose his enthusiasm for the idea. Also I'm not sure it is worth the cost for what it will do for the web site.

So. Before I start looking for alternatives, I would like to find out if anyone has created something like this in Photoshop, from one image? Is there any particular time of day that is best for a starting-off point?

Also, I would be glad for any alternative suggestions, perhaps I'll just animate the water.

Thanks
Michael Canyes

Considering you're thinking of a small gif animation you can do this in Image Ready. Shoot a bunch through the day, make them small gifs... Switch to Image Ready. There's an Animation feature in there under Window... Put them in timeline, specify delay, export... Don't remember the details, but simple. Oh I think you need to align them on layers in PS before going ti IR or something to that extent...

If he wants a bigger one and jpg quality then the simplest I can think of is throw them in the Flash timeline and use as a flash file...

Serge,

Thanks, but the problem is not making the gif. The problem is that it will take about a day of my time to shoot the images. I don't think this will be within his budget. So I am looking for a way to create an animated gif from one image using photoshop.

Thanks,
Michael

Oh. Essentially to make the image look like it's a different time of the day. I think it's going to be hard to do realistically because of the sun's position. But maybe there are some tricks people might now...

Doing it realistically in PS will be quite difficult, especially if there are shadow casting objects in the shot (trees, bushes, etc.)
One way to do it might be - shoot a picture on an overcast day (no shadows, even illumination). On a different day note where the sun is at different times - the position and size of shadows. From original pic select the most prominent objects that are likely to cast the most noticible shadows - using a new layer create shadow outlines from the selections. Using Lighting filter place "sun" where you need it and create overall believable lighting scheme. Using Transform on shadow layer position the shadows where you need (use Multiply blending mode and change opacity as needed). Save the version and repeat the process for each state you need.
There's a very good book on PS lighting - "Creative Photoshop Lighting Techniques" by Barry Huggins.

Hope this helps.
Allan

Allan,

Thanks, that sounds like what I am looking for. I'll check out the book.

Michael