Looking For Ideas

Question

I'm putting together a movie with approximately 50 PNG files that are all "head shots".  I plan to place a background depicting height, i.e. representing a lineup at a police station.  I would like for the heads to move across the screen, as thought the camera was panning 50 persons in a "lineup".
How can I do that?  Far too large a panoramic for me!!!

Answer 1

To maintain all aspects of the PSD, I'd Import as a Sequence. This will get you a Bin with each Layer separate, and not flattened. Just drag the Layers to different Video Tracks and all should be fine. Or, you can just do your Alpha Channel, Save Selection as a Layer Mask for your image (make sure to convert your Background Layer to a regular Layer, so you can apply a Layer Mask to it), and just let that give you full Transparency. Then, you can Import as Footage, allowing the Layers to be Flattened, but you'll have that Transparency around the suspects. I think that this is easier for what you wish to do.
Here would be my workflow in PS. New Image w/ Transparent Background. Add the suspects, arranged as you wish. I'd probably do the knockout in their individual images an just bring those knockout image into the New Image composite. This will give you the individual images sitting over a Transparent Background, so no additional work required. The Move Tool will allow you to align these individual Layers (each will Import to the New Image as a separate Layer). I'd also change the Layer names to match the names of the suspects, just to keep things simple.
Depending on how many "suspects" you have, you might want to do a very wide PSD (up to 4000 pixels), and then Keyframe the fixed Effect>Motion>Position. I do similar for long Roll Titles, where I end up with a PSD for 720 x up to 4000 pixels, and just Keyframe the Roll with Effect>Motion>Position, though working on the vertical, and not your horizontal.
Good luck,
Hunt