These are the steps that I use to create a basic animated spiral within Adobe PhotoShop. The number of steps here may make appear the process of creating an animated spiral is a difficult task. Actually I think it is quite the contrary and after you've done it a few times its actually not that difficult at all. This tutorial is written so that individuals new to PhotoShop can understand it. More advanced users will likely breeze through some parts.

Lets get started:

Begin by creating a new document within PhotoShop. I usually start with a fairly large image size and its important the image is square. I have made this image 900x900. Ensure that you have guides turned on and place both horizontal and vertical guide such that they intersect at the exact center of the image. In this case I have place both at 450 respectively.

Next we need a shape that will become the basis of the spiral. The shape could be anything, a circle or a rectangle, I have experimented and found what works best for me is the rounded rectangle.

With the rounded rectangle tool selected, I have set the radius to a fairly large value of 500px. Experimentation is the theme here and I encourage you to try different values as the initial shape can have a dramatic effect on the finished spiral.

I have drawn my rounded rectangle by dragging my cursor from the extreme top of the image, beginning at 50px on the left to 850px on the right. All of these values can be experimented with, however it is important to bring the bottom of the rounded rectangle in line with the horizontal guide I placed earlier. This will ensure the spiral is symmetrical when it is animated later on.

Next we will start to morph the rounded rectangle into a spiral shape. Go to Filter > Distort > Twirl.

In order for the shape to be modified it needs to be changed into a rastorized shape, go ahead and click ok for this message box.

With the Twirl dialog box set the angle of the distortion. I have chosen 150 degrees which I have found works fairly well for me. This is going to cause the spiral to distort clockwise. If you wanted the spiral to distort counter clockwise use a negative value here, for example -150 degrees.

We have the beginnings of a spiral, well sort of, it still has a way to go. By pressing the CTRL F key combination the effect will be repeated and the shape will be distorted another 150 degrees. The reason I initially used the 150 degrees value is because I want to maintain a measure of control of how the final spiral will look. If I were to choose a large value perhaps 250, the initial shape would appear more spiral like however I might end up skipping past what I might consider the idea spiral shape. I have found even though it may take a few minutes longer, it is better to make small rather than large changes at a time.

Keep pressing the CTRL F key combination until you have a spiral shape you are happy with. Do not be concerned with the blob of shape material out at the edge, that will be removed shortly.

In the next part we will refine the spiral shape and start constructing the animation.