In this instructable you will learn how to make an animated LED sign in Photoshop. Dont worry ill give you the a PSD of the template in multiple colors. Oh Yeah I made this one for my girlfriend.

Step 1: What You Need. (Don't Skip This Step.)

You will need the following:

-Mac/PC
-Photoshop
-The template pack below (red, blue, and green)
-Patience... lots of it.

ledsign.zip
Download

Step 2: Plan

You really don't want to make our message very long or you could be working for quite a while. My I love you thing took ~45 min but i had to make the templates and stuff. So plan on at least a half hour.

Step 3: Start Making Your Message.

To make your message you will be using mostly the paint bucket tool. First open up the template color of your choice and the dot color. Then load the lighter of the two colors with the eye dropper tool. Then you can start making your first letter. My first letter was an "I" so I put two dots on the top and bottom. Then save it as number 1.jpg or something like that. MOVE YOUR LETTERS TWO DOTS TO THE LEFT FOR EVERY IMAGE.

Step 4: Next

Everyone you make save it as a different number. You will have to turn the lighter colored "LEDs" back to dark so load the darker color. To do that load the darker color in with the eyedropper and use the paint bucket to return them to the original state.

Step 5: Pre-Animation

You should have 20+ images. Open them all in Photoshop. Then close and reopen the the template image. After its open go to the layer menu > merge visible. Find the image called 1.jpg (or whatever you named it) and press command(mac)/control(windows) + A to select all then command(mac)/control(windows) + C to copy it.
Then go back to the template image and press command(mac)/control(windows) + V to paste it as a new layer. Continue this for every image until you have all of the images in one side the template document.

Step 6: Animation

So now go to Windows > Animation. Then go to the drop down arrow and click make frames for layers. After that change the time to .2 seconds. Hit play and see if its how you like.

Step 7: Saving

To save to to file > save for web. Then just hit save and it pick your location to save it. After its saved you may have to open it in a browser such as firefox to see the animation, so right click on the file and go to open with and chose your browser.