Animated Business Cards - Tutorial

1. Pick the desired animation from the thumbnails and click on the picture. This will open the bigger version of the same picture that you can add text to.
2. Using the text font boxes that are underneath the animation, choose a colour, type and size of font and type it in to line 1.
3. Push the preview button (or “Enter”) and the desired text will appear on the animation. Make adjustments as necessary and continue until you are happy with the size, colour, type and location of text on the picture. To move text to the right use the space bar. Where you have not put text it will remain blank on the finished card. Note that the text does not go to the very edges but remains in the “text-safe” area.
4. Continue to the next line down and continue your typing and previewing. If your text was so big to cover more than one line continue to the next line down that will accept text. If you want a blank area just skip the line to a lower line.
5. Eventually, you will have completed all the text that you want on the front of the card. If no back text is needed just push “send” with your contact info and we will send back an acknowledgement.
6. If you need back printing, open the “back animation text template” and type as before until the back is the way you like it. Note that the only colour on the back is black. When complete push “send” and give info. An additional $25 is charged for back printing.
7. Extra Service:
   If you want a logo or custom design to be put on the front or back of the card, Write in text “Logo here”. Send us a low compression (good quality) jpg picture of the logo or design and we will place it where desired. The front can take full colour designs and the back can take black designs only. There is a $25 charge for the design insertion.
8. Tip:
   Don’t clutter up the animation with too much text on it. It’s better to put extra info on the back and keep the animation relatively clean. Use contrasting colours so that the text stands out.
9. Note:
   Once a card is designed there is only reprinting costs after that for future orders.
10. >> Read a More Detailed Tutorial

1. Download our “Snap 3D business card template” and then use Adobe Photoshop to create whatever animation, text, design or what have you on the front of the card. The template has 2 sets of grid lines. The inner set is text-safe. Do not have any text outside of the inner lines. The outer grid lines are picture-safe. Do not have any crucial picture elements outside of these lines but have the picture bleed to the very edge of the template. The template has a tutorial and the sizes of the safe areas as Photoshop layers. Of course, these will be deleted on the final card. They are there for your working reference only.
2. Create or obtain your own animation from various sources such as computer generated, your own photography (see "Taking Animation Pictures" Tutorial), clip art, etc. You can also have your text expand and contract, change colour etc. You can have one or multiple animations on the same card. Use your creativity.
3. Create a PSD file of your animation with layers and label the layers and put in order “Cut 1, Cut 2 etc.”up to 6 layers.
4. If you want back printing use the same template and add text or designs that are black. Flatten the text and designs and add as a layer to your animation file and label “back”.
5. Tip:
   After creating your finished animated business card you can play it as a GIF animation in Adobe ImageReady or another suitable program to check out your artwork. I recommend having a 0.2 sec delay or longer between frames so the animation is slow enough to analyse. If something isn't right you can go back into the file, fix it and try again.
6. Note:
   Once a card is designed there is only reprinting costs after that for future orders.

1. We do everything for you.
2. We take your ideas and try to make them work as an animation.
3. There is a cost of $25 US per hour for our services. Depending on the complexity of the job this could run into several hours.
4. Instead of us, we recommend that you use local imaging services to create your card as you will have closer input to your design and it will keep your costs down.
5. Note:
   Once a card is designed there is only reprinting costs after that for future orders.