How to animate Photoshop or Illustrator artwork to your song

Your cover art, flyer or logo is already made in Photoshop or Illustrator. Keep its layers, and each one can move on its own, in time with the music.

Making it in Motiontone

1. 1

   Start

   Start from a blank canvas, and pick the size that matches your artwork. You can begin without an account.

2. 2

   Photoshop

   Drop a .psd file on the canvas, or choose it with the Image button. Each visible Photoshop layer becomes its own layer, and its groups stay groups.

3. 3

   Illustrator

   Drop an .ai file on the canvas, or choose it with the Image button. Shapes and gradients become editable shapes, grouped by your Illustrator layers. Live text, embedded pictures and some masks bring the artwork in as one image instead, and a message says what to change in Illustrator to keep the shapes, such as Type → Create Outlines for text.

4. 4

   SVG

   An SVG works too: open Shapes and choose Import SVG.

5. 5

   Song

   Upload the track. Motiontone finds its beat, and any property can move with it: a scale that pulses on every beat, or a glow that follows only the Bass, Mids or Highs. Trim the song to start at the part fans know best.

6. 6

   Motion

   Select a layer, open the Motion tab and click a preset from the Motion Gallery. For your own motion, add keyframes and drag them onto the beats in the timeline.

7. 7

   Motionbot

   Describe the motion you want and Motionbot, the built-in assistant, animates it. Every change it makes stays editable, keyframe by keyframe. Try "make the logo pulse on every beat".

8. 8

   Sizes

   Add artboards for an Instagram post (4:5), a story, reel or TikTok (9:16) and a square. They share one timeline, so every size moves together.

9. 9

   Export

   Export an MP4 for each size and post it.