How to Make Animated GIFs
So you want to make an animated GIF, but you don’t know how to do it. Creating a GIF file is one of the easiest ways to create computer animation. First, you need to learn more about what a GIF is and how you can animate this type of image file.
What Is A GIF?
Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF, is a popular form of image file. GIFs can be either static or animated, and they can support up to 256 colors. Animated GIFs work like a cartoon flipbook. When you draw images in a flipbook, you make a slight change on each successive image. When you quickly flip through the pages, it appears as if the image is in motion. In a similar fashion, graphic animation quickly cycles through successive GIF images to give the appearance of motion.
Drawing Images For An Animated GIF
To create an animated GIF, you’ll first need to create a series of images for the animation. The images can be anything you want them to be, but you should start off with something simple, such as a stick figure. For this example, try making the stick figure wave by moving its arm up and down. Create a series of images with the stick figure’s arm in a slightly different position. Each image will have to be exactly the same size. Since you are making only minor changes to each image, it’s a good idea to create a template image. Load the template, and make a slight change in the arm’s height. Save each successive image as its own file. Once you have a series of images completed, you’ll need a program that can create a GIF.
Creating An Animated GIF
A few programs are available for download that can be used to create animated GIF files. Some to choose from include GIF Construction Set, Easy GIF Animator and Active GIF Creator. These can be downloaded for a fee on the Web. You can also set your GIF in motion by using Photoshop. To do this, you’ll want to create a new file and build layers out of your images. Each layer should have one image. You can select Animate and set the frame rate between each image. Once complete, you’ll have to export the file by selecting Save For Web & Devices. Make sure to save it with the file extension GIF.
Animation Software Articles, Videos & HowTos
How does computer animation work? Computer animation is similar to regular animation, only it relies on a different method to make flat drawings come alive.
Animation software once fell entirely into the realm of those dedicated few with the soul of the artist and the geek fused into one obsessive whole. Animation software can help anyone, even a child, create 2D or 3D animation.
To make an animated GIF, you can turn to several free programs to capture short bursts of movement in files that won’t take up too much space on a Web page.
“I want to make a short animated cartoon.” If you have a good character and an interesting story, then you can produce a cartoon using several different methods.
To make Flash animations this simple tutorial will show you the basic principles needed.
If you want to create your own anime character, you can draw the character by hand, or several online programs let you pick and choose the anime features that you want.
Mindspark™ properties: