In this tutorial we are going to take a map and make an animated globe. To do this we have to use ImageReady. When you buy Photoshop you also get ImageReady so you don't have to buy another program.
First you have to have a map. Get one : ). When you have the map open two documents with it.
The problem with my map (and many others) is that you don't get the whole globe because the map have to overlap. In this case you don't get Bering Strait in the animation. Go to Image>>Canvas size. Now you make the canvas size to the left broader. How much depends on the height of your pic. For example; if your pic is 200 pixels high then make your canvas 200 pixels broader.
Go to the other map pic. Use the Crop Tool (C) and crop the right part of the pic. If I use my previous example you have to crop 200*200 pixels (see above).
Now you use the Move Tool (V) and move the cropped image into the other one and place it to the left. Now you have an overlapping pic of the world and it should look like mine above.
It's time to decide how many frames our animation shall have. More frames equals longer download. I'm going to use eight frames for my animation. Use the Rectangular marquee tool and make a quadratic selection (in my case 200*200 pixels) in the right part of the map. Right click and choose layer via copy. Now you are going to move the selection to the right. How much you are going to move it depend on how big your pic is. The important thing is that you move the selection the same distance every time. Move the selection using the left arrow key. Right click and choose layer via copy. Now do this until you get to the left part of your pic. If you choose eight frames you are going to have eight layers with quadratic pics of the globe.
Now you have to align the eight layers. Link the layers together by checking the link button in the layer palett (
). Choose the move tool and push align vertical centers (
) and align horizontal centers (
). If you can't see them go to Window>>Options. Use the crop tool and crop the pic (in my case, 200*200 pixels).
The only layers you are going to use from now are the eight quadratic layers. It's time to spherize the world. Go to Filter>>Distort>>Spherize and do this on every layer.
You have to get rid of the edges. Use the elliptical marquee tool and start at the top left part of the pic. Holding Ctrl down makes the ellipse circular. Go to Select>>Inverse (Ctrl+Shift+I) to inverse the selection. Delete on every layer.
Here you can see my eight layers. And if you look closely enough you can see how the globe is rotating. You are done in Photoshop for now. Open ImageReady (
or Ctrl+Shift+M)
Now you are going to make the eight frames I wrote about earlier. You have the frames ready in different layers so that's not a problem. To create a new frame, click the black arrow on the right and choose New frame. Show one of your layers on that frame using the eye icon in the layer palett. Continue to do this for the rest of your layers.
You can also decide how long it's going to take. Press the 0,00 and choose the delay you want between the frames. Press play when you are ready to try your animated globe out. The last thing you do is to save it as a gif.
More Tutorials: 
