Animating your own drawings is a time-intensive, but not impossible, process. As important as learning how to animate a still image is preparing that image for animation. Drawings, images or cartoons should be saved as a document with a transparent background, and they will likely need several layers to effectively portray movement, depending on your ultimate objective.

1. Scan your images into a photo editing program. If you have the capability to scan your image with a transparent background, do so. If you do not scan your image with a transparent background, you must select the positive areas of your image and paste into a new document with a transparent background.
2. Step 2

   Select the positive areas of your image. If your image is all one color or tone, this is easily accomplished with the selection tool known as the “Magic Wand” tool. Click on the tool and the click on the image itself. Depending on your “tolerance” settings for the tool, the entire image should be selected. Adjust your tolerance setting to a higher number if your entire image is not selected. If you have a more complex image to select, use the “Lasso” tool. This tool allows you to draw a perimeter around the area you want selected.

3. Step 3

   Press your CTRL key and then the letter “C” to copy.

4. Step 4

   Create a new image with a transparent background. Go to the File menu and then “New.” Choose the appropriate size and resolution and make the background contents transparent.

5. Step 5

   Press your CTRL key and then the letter “V” to paste your image.

6. Step 6

   Save your image in a format that does not automatically flatten the layers, such as a PSD or TIFF file.

7. Step 7

   Select any area of your image that you want to “animate” or move independently of the main part of the image. For example, if you have an image of man and you want to animate him waving, you will need to select his arm.

8. Step 8

   Create another new image with a transparent background and paste the arm into it. This is known as a secondary layer. Save this image independently of the main image. You are now ready to create a simple animation in After Effects with these layers.