Need advice for assembling still images

[stebinus]

I have been working with digital photos for some years now and now I would like to animate them through changing abstract forms. I am using Paint Shop Pro (primarily but not limited to the kaleidoscope effect) to incrementally alter the images and then I place them in a movie program to animate the changes. Unfortunately the smallest changes I can make with kaleidoscope create a greater change than I want my animations to proceed with so that I end up getting either jerky motion or having to run the frames too fast so the movement will be smooth. Can I get some hints on how to alleviate this and with what animation software? I guess I should also ask if this is feasible with an older PC 2.4G mhz and 512 M of RAM. Thank you.

[Charles]

Have you considered After Effects? I'm not familiar with the program but will be picking up the basics of it soon. I hear from many people who've had success animating with it.

[stebinus]

Do you think the earlier versions(4-7) would do the job? The CS versions are out of my price range and possibly computer specs too.

[Charles]

I couldn't tell you as I really don't know. Hopefully one of our members will check in a share their knowledge. You can animate in Photoshop. I'm not aware how extensive the animation tools are but from what I understand After Effects is popular and effective in that area.

Google "animating in After Effects" and "animating in Photoshop" and I'm sure you'll find helpful info.

[Sikanda]

I think for simple image movement you should be able to. If not you can try flash or FCP

[stebinus]

i now have After Effects 6.5 and Flash 8. What I want to do is to have a program that will interpolate a frame or two or three between two complex images(see attached). I don't think morphing will work. Before I get deeply into these programs can anyone tell me if they or any other program will do the job and with the amount of computing power I have?