{"id":7629,"date":"2010-07-16T07:07:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-16T07:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.htmlgoodies.com\/uncategorized\/so-you-want-an-animated-gif-huh\/"},"modified":"2021-04-23T21:23:50","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T21:23:50","slug":"so-you-want-an-animated-gif-huh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.htmlgoodies.com\/design\/so-you-want-an-animated-gif-huh\/","title":{"rendered":"So, You Want An Animated .gif, Huh?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
First read this:<\/B> Versions change quickly and the interface shown here may not be in use when you grab the program for yourself. However, the basic concepts will always stay the same. Also – I mention the image editor PaintShop Pro Photo X2 below. Grab it here<\/A>.<\/I> Ah, the animated gif. Or as I call it, the anti-java<\/I> animation. The rotating thing above is an animated gif. It should be moving, at least. As far as I know, animated gifs will run on all levels of browsers. The reason is the way the animation is created. This is not something created by a CGI<\/A> or a JavaScript<\/A> effect. What is actually happening is that the browser is simply placing one gif after another into that same space. Your eye just perceives it as a fluid movement, kind of like an old flip book movie. If you’re interested in creating an animated banner, go here<\/A>. I know you’ve seen a flip book. It’s one of the books that have a little picture up in the right-hand corner of each page and if you flip the pages quickly enough it appears as if the little pictures are moving. It’s the same principle as a movie or video tape. A bunch of still pictures roll past rather quickly (24 a second for film, 30 a second for video tape) and your eye sees it as movement. Where do I get the pictures?<\/I> I don’t have a program that makes gifs!<\/I> When you create the gifs you need to follow a few guidelines. These aren’t my guidelines, either. These are the specs the gif Construction program requires: Here are a few tips…<\/B> Remember the clock animation I did above? I created a white square using PaintShop Pro. I then drew a circle in the middle of the square and saved it, at the 256 color level, as “clock.gif”. I was then able to bring that template up, draw a line to one o’clock, and save it under another name. Ditto for two o’clock, three o’clock, four o’clock, etc., etc., until I went the whole way around the dial. That way I was sure the circle would remain stable through the complete animation. With me still? 2. Do each of the animations on its own disc.<\/I> (You’ll thank me for this later.) 3. Make your gifs as small as you can.<\/I> 4. Make your gifs with the fewest number of bits possible.<\/I> The reasoning for #3 and #4 is obvious. Remember that the browser will load one gif after another giving the impression of movement. If the gifs are huge, it’s slow. If the gifs are small and made up of fewer bits, they will load faster and look better. First you’re going to need some gifs to animate. I shall give you four from my collection for you to use. These are four arrows, all the same size, all saved at the 256 color level. What we will make is a four-panel animation of an arrow spinning to the right, round and round. Dull yes, but good for your first shot at the process. Download all four and place them all in a directory. Do not change the names of the images. Also, don’t worry that the numbers appear to be out of order. I’ll fix that when we make the animation. My suggestion is to place them all in an empty directory like TEMP. It’ll just make it easier. <\/CENTER>Now all are downloaded. Let’s make the animation. Follow the instructions straightaway: If what you have is close to this, you’re ready to go. <\/P> Change those numbers to 30 and 30 and click OK. <\/P> Choose LOOP<\/B>. Poof! It should now say LOOP under the HEADER line. <\/P> <\/P> HEADER gif89a SCREEN 40×40 <\/P>
\n
\n
\nThe gif Compiler<\/H2>Before we go any further, you must first go and get an animated gif program. For this tutorial, we will be using the GIF Construction Set Professional<\/A> by Alchemy Mindworks Inc. It’s available for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, with solutions available also for Linux and Macintosh. It’s not free any longer, however, and costs a mere $24.99. There are also many other animated gif tools, such as:
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\nThe gifs<\/H2>Did you go and get the gif Construction Set yet? Did you install it on your computer? Okay, good. Now, on to the hard part. No, not the creation of the animation, but rather the pictures that you will animate.
\n
\n
You make them! (I wish you hadn’t said that, Joe.) Well, you could go out into the world of cyberspace and find them. People are now offering pics and animated gifs. But what fun would that be?
\n
Why not? I mentioned a few above as well as a program called PaintShop Pro<\/B>. It’s really easy to use and makes really nice pics out of nothing. It’s also a good program to run a scanner from and to manipulate the images you create. The best endorsement I could give is that it’s what I use to run my Logitech scanner. So go get it.
\n
\nMaking the Images<\/H2>You’re not going to send me away again, are you Joe? No. You have everything you need now. Plus you’ve probably filled a good 12 Megabytes of space on your hard drive. (You are<\/I> sure you want these animated gifs, aren’t you?)
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\nWhy?<\/H3>The easy answer is that the gif Construction program requires it. Actually, the reason is that you are literally creating a little movie frame by frame. All the frames must be the same size, they must all be in the same format, and all saved at the same color level.
\n
1. Create a template for your images.<\/I>
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\nMaking the Animated gif<\/H2>By the way, you may want to print this page now. It’ll make it so much easier to animate the gif if you have the instructions right in front of you.
\n
\n
\n
[Left Arrow<\/A>] [Right Arrow<\/A>] [Up Arrow<\/A>] [Down Arrow<\/A>]
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
(See, you’re doing the same thing again and again… control, image, control, image, control, image, etc., etc.)
\n
\n
LOOP
CONTROL
IMAGE ARROW1.gif 30X30,256
CONTROL
IMAGE ARROW3.gif 30X30,256
CONTROL
IMAGE ARROW2.gif 30X30,256
CONTROL
IMAGE ARROW4.gif 30X30,256
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n