Animating with after effects

To make the gate move with in the outline, I used the program After Effects (AE) as I would be able to use the transform option to easily move part of the image, compared to Photoshop, in which I would have to move it ever so slightly higher in each frame.

Duplicating the image

I first imported the image into AE, adding it to the composition and duplicating the image. With the duplicated image, I used the pen tool to create a mask that would only show part of the bars from the gate. This would allow me to move the bars separately on the original image.

Using the pen tools to create a mask, isolating a part of the
image.

I then created another mask that was just black, to hide the bars on the original image, so this mask would grow in height, in sync with the gate bars mask moving with the position key points.

Gate moves.

I then made the gate zoom in, by increasing the size of the image using the scale transform points and fading the image by using the opacity point. I wanted to fade the image out as to transition well into the next part of the animation. 

Orginally I used the paint tool on AE to hide the bars in the background, in which I had to scroll across the timeline, open the layer and add the paint and then repeat the process. This was very time consuming and I kept thinking that there had to be an easier why, during the interim crit, I found that to solve this, I could use the pen tool as a mask and hide and grow along with the movement of the original animation. This made the animation run smoother and took less time than the paint tool method.