Animated Static Effect
Skill level: Basic
Programs used: Photoshop 6, Image Ready 3

In this tutorial I'll show you a how to make animated static effects.

1. Create a new canvas with a black background. It doesn't really matter which size you use. For this tutorial, I've chosen 150 pixels x 150 pixels and 72 pixels/inch resolution.

2. Make a new layer . Select the line tool and draw a random line from left to right (or right to left). Keep making new layers and drawing random lines (it doesn't matter if how many layers and lines you have, I've done 9 random lines on mine):

3. Select the first layer and filter >> distort >> ripple. Use the settings :
size = small
amount = 70%

4. Repeat step 3 to all the layers. You can just press Ctrl+F on the layers and this will automatically apply the last filter you used for you.

5. Once again, on each of the layers, randomly change the opacity. You should have an image like this:

6. Switch to Image Ready.

7. Turn all the layers off except for the black background.

8. Depending on how many layers you had with the random lines, make about twice as many frames.

9. Go to the first frame, and pick a random line. Turn the visibility on for this line. Skip to the third frame, and pick another random line, turning the visibility on for this line. You get the idea :) Pick another frame and add another line. Do this until most of the frames have a line appearing somewhere and you're satisfied.

10. Save it as a .gif file and there it is. An animated static effect.

By playing around with it a bit you can have something like this: