Rear Window Animated Movie Poster

Alan Levine’s post about watching cool flick’s with Jim Groom finally got me to get of the snide and finish this animated movie poster for the amazing Hitchcock classic Rear Window. I have an older post with animated GIFs from Rear Window, but all things GIF need to ratcheted up a notch every few weeks.

This poster is was created for the limited theatrical re-realease of the movie in 1999 after an extensive restoration. I am a little disappointed with myself as if I were to really make something truly awesome, it would have been modeled after the original theatrical poster, which showcases all the happenings in the many neighbors windows. *Note to self, amazing summer project might include creating a number of Hitchcock animated movie poster GIFs.

To make this poster, I used the James Stewart GIF from the previous post, as well as made a new one for Grace Kelly. The work on Grace Kelly’s GIF was a lot tougher as it required the erasing of the background on ten separate frames (not fun). Here’s what one of the frames looked like beforehand:

To create the animation, I used the animation timeline in Photoshop in which you basically turn on and off different layers per frame. This is also a bit tedious, but it allows you to create some interesting timing options. Each frame can be assigned its own amount of time, which is how the pauses work. Here’s a look at a few frames of the animation timeline:

And here’s a look at the layers:

Since Alan’s post refers to Blow-Up as well as Rear Window, looks like I still have more work to do.

Comments

6 responses to “Rear Window Animated Movie Poster”

  1. Brian Short Avatar

    So awesome MBS.

  2. Kat Avatar

    Grace Kelly’s headturn is so fierce.

  3. Alan Levine Avatar

    You have so stepped up the art of the GIF here, Michael. Their movements are so syncopated, and yet fit into the character’s differences and similarities. I am torn as to suggest what’s next-Psycho? North by Northwest is always a favorite.. The Birds? Yes, you could have a busy summer.

  4. Abby Avatar
    Abby

    Thanks for sharing! I am about to attempt something like this for the first time so your explaination was helpful.

  5. […] animated movie poster for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic North by Northwest. I previously created one  for Rear Window, and I love making these. So I’m thinking I should commit to a series, six? A dozen? […]

  6. […] another Alfred Hitchcock animated poster which I made while at UMW’s Faculty Academy (with Rear Window & North By Northwest this makes three, nine to go). But I’m not going to write about the […]