How to Create a ’90s Style Animation in Photoshop (Risograph)

How to Create a ’90s Style Risograph Animation in Photoshop

Turning a still risograph-style pattern into a looping animation takes just a two-frame setup and a handful of small rotations and nudges applied to individual shapes — no keyframe animation or motion graphics software required. Built on the shapes and paper texture from a still risograph design in this episode, the whole thing exports as a looping GIF ready for an intro, outro, or video transition.

Getting Started: Preparing the Layered File

Before any animation happens, the shapes and texture layers from the original design need to be organized into a simpler structure to work with.

1. Open the Existing Layered File

   Open the PSD containing the background, shapes, and paper texture groups built in the original still design. Turn the texture layers off temporarily — they should stay in place in the final animation while the shapes underneath do the actual moving.

2. Merge the Shapes into One Layer

   Duplicate the shapes group with Ctrl/Cmd + J, hide the original, and merge the duplicate down to a single layer with Ctrl/Cmd + E. Working from one merged layer makes selecting and moving individual shapes much simpler than juggling dozens of separate groups.

Keeping the Original Layers as a Safety Net

Hiding the original, un-merged shapes group rather than deleting it means the fully editable version — with every shape still on its own layer and mask — is still there if the flattened version needs to be rebuilt or adjusted differently later.

Setting Up a Two-Frame Animation

The simplest possible animation is just two frames toggling back and forth, which is exactly what this effect needs.

3. Create a Frame Animation

   Go to Window > Timeline and choose Create Frame Animation. Duplicate the merged shapes layer, then click the plus icon to add a second frame. Name the layers Frame 01 and Frame 02. Click frame 1 in the Timeline and make only Frame 01 visible, then click frame 2 and make only Frame 02 visible; clicking between the frames now flips the visibility for you.

4. Set the Frame Delay

   Hold Shift, select both frames, and set the delay to around one second — a slower, more subtle timing tends to look more polished than a fast, jumpy switch between frames.

Testing Different Delay Speeds

Trying a few different delay values — half a second, two-tenths of a second — before settling on one makes the difference obvious: too fast and the motion reads as jittery or glitchy, while a full second usually strikes a calmer, more deliberate balance for this kind of subtle shape animation.

Moving and Rotating Individual Shapes on the Second Frame

With two identical frames in place, the actual animation comes from changing just one of them.

5. Select and Nudge Each Shape

   On the second frame’s layer, use the Lasso tool to select one shape at a time, press V for the Move tool, and click and drag it to a new position. Every move happens on the Frame 02 layer. Deselect with Ctrl/Cmd + D and move on to the next shape.

6. Add Rotation for Variety

   For some shapes, use Ctrl/Cmd + T to add a slight rotation instead of, or in addition to, repositioning — a mix of small moves and small rotations across different shapes keeps the animation from feeling mechanically uniform.

Why Small Movements Work Better Than Large Ones

Because each shape was already cut out with its own irregular, hand-made edge, even a small shift or rotation reads clearly against the shapes around it. Subtle movement keeps the animation feeling calm and intentional, while large, dramatic repositioning tends to look more like a glitch than a deliberate design choice.

Bringing the Paper Texture Back on Top

The paper texture is what made the still version look printed, and it needs to come back into the animation without disrupting the shape movement underneath.

7. Enable the Texture on Both Frames

   Turn the texture group’s visibility on for both frame one and frame two. Because the texture layer itself isn’t changing between frames, it appears to stay perfectly still while the shapes underneath animate.

Animating the Texture Too, for a Different Effect

Duplicating the Textures group with Ctrl/Cmd + J, scaling the copy up and rotating it slightly, naming the groups Texture Frame 01 and Texture Frame 02, then showing Texture Frame 01 on frame one and Texture Frame 02 on frame two makes the texture shift subtly along with the shapes instead of staying static — producing a slightly more dynamic version that reads like a different print on each frame. This is the version Aaron prefers, and it is the one in the exported GIF.

Bonus: hit play in the Timeline, then press F for full screen. It is a big image, so the loop works as an animated title screen in a video.

Exporting the Animation as a GIF

With the two-frame animation complete, exporting it as a shareable, auto-looping file takes just a couple of settings.

9. Open Save for Web

   Go to File > Export > Save for Web. Set the format to GIF. The document is 2000 by 2000 pixels, which is pretty big for a GIF, so under Image Size change it to 800 by 800 to keep the file manageable for web and social use.

10. Set Looping and Preview

    Set the looping option to Forever so the animation repeats automatically once uploaded anywhere. Use the Preview button to check exactly how it plays in an actual web browser before saving the final file.

Why This Approach Works

The reason this animation works with just two frames is that Frame Animation only needs to show a difference between states, not calculate any motion in between — the illusion of movement comes entirely from the eye’s own perception of change, aided by a calm one-second delay between the frames and a genuinely irregular, hand-cut set of source shapes. That’s a much lower bar than a smoothly interpolated animation would require, and it’s exactly why a still composite built with clean layer separation, the same underlying skill covered in How to Change & Remove Backgrounds in Photoshop, translates so easily into animation once each element already lives on its own layer.

Final Thoughts

The real takeaway here is that any still composite built from cleanly separated layers is already most of the way to being animatable — the risograph shapes only needed a duplicate frame and a few small nudges to come alive. For anyone who wants to take a Photoshop-built animation even further, this two-part series on creating text and a gradient in Photoshop and then using After Effects to add a beautiful animation shows how the same layer-based thinking extends into a full motion graphics pipeline beyond what Photoshop’s Frame Animation alone can do.

Quick Reference: Keys, Menus and Settings

• Prepare the shapesTextures off; Cmd/Ctrl + J on the Shapes group, hide the original, Cmd/Ctrl + E to merge the copy
• Two framesWindow > Timeline > Create Frame Animation; Cmd/Ctrl + J, then the plus icon; Frame 01 and Frame 02, one visible per frame
• Frame delayShift-click both frames, set the time to 1.0 sec
• Move a shapeLasso around it, V and drag, Cmd/Ctrl + D to deselect
• Rotate a shapeCmd/Ctrl + T, a little rotation
• Play full screenPlay in the Timeline, then F
• Export the GIFFile > Export > Save for Web: GIF, 800 by 800, Looping Options: Forever, Preview

No AI, no generative credits.