STEP 1
The Hawkeye
Load up a pitch in Photoshop, any kind will do. This one is linked at the bottom of the post.
The first thing to do is make the track of the ball, using the pen tool
Select your brush tool
Remember, if you make a mistake, just press ctrl + alt + z to go back a step, because this is Pen Tool, you can go back to each anchor point. I am going to over-exaggerate some away swing so I will move the mouse left for away swing, and forward to choose the flight. As it is a fast bowler, I will not have very much flight. Once you have something you are happy with, right-click and choose stroke path, Select; tool: Brush. Now you can see that the settings you chose earlier has returned. Now right-click, and delete path.
Open a new layer using
I am giving mine over-exaggerated in-cut. Once again, choose right-click, stroke path -> brush, Right-click -> delete path. Additional steps are making the bails fly off, or making the ball look like it actually goes through the stumps, I haven’t done these on this one as it isn’t a very good picture. So far it looks like this.
STEP 2
Setting up
Now you can lower the Opacity of the Pentool layers to 70%-80%, You can merge them together by pressing ctrl + e when you have the top layer selected. Duplicate the pen tool layer and put the original out of the way, I put mine below the pitch. Click on the copy, and select the eraser tool. Erase a little part of the far end of the pen tool (next to the far stumps). Now duplicate the layer which has a little part taken off it, and hide the one you just duplicated ( not the new one, the old one).
Repeat that last step (The section in red) until you end up with nothing left. Make sure that you have a part where you can’t see after the bounce, but you can see what has happened in the air. It could take anything from 10-50 layers depending on how much you delete at a time. Move the original layer from under the pitch to below all of the others. Before you open it in Imageready, copy and paste in a little cricket ball, to put in front of the Hawkeye. I am using this ball:
STEP 3
Graphics
This is where you can add in graphics such as ‘Bracken to Vaughan’ or ‘Animated Hawkeye’, and stuff like that.
You can also add in a cut out of the batsman in front of the stumps. Put him on 20-30 opacity, or whatever is best for you.
STEP 4
Animation
Open the document in image ready
You can see what you have made by pressing play. When you are happy with it, go file -> save optimized as/save fore web and devices
This is what I have come up with, i have attached it so anybody can look at it:
Later versions may include; bails coming off, ball going through the stumps, and more add-ons that make it look better, i have shown you the very basics, so i hope you can understand them and build on them
Last edited:
GK...if you have any tips, please post them here
