| need help with GIF animator 5 im using gif animator 5 to make my first avatar. i imported a pic to animate. the problem is that i don't know how to detach the object from the back ground. if i try to move the object you see the background move with it. the back ground is just a solid color. and there is just one object in the pic. so if any of you are familiar with that program, please help. thanx!!!
[text was edited by author 2003-01-31 05:22:54] |
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 RocksterPremium
join:2002-03-03
Brisbane AU | I'm going to assume that you mean Ulead Gif Animator 5 here. Hope it is!
Unfortunately, there is no way of separating the background from the object without a few slightly awkward steps. The biggest bonus I can see is that your background is a solid colour.
First thing to do is to blow up your photo (if it's small) so you can see more closely what you're working on. Use the magnifying glass on the left hand side with the + in it.
Next you need to select the colour that you want to get rid of. In the example I'm using it's a lovely bright red!
Best selection tool for this is the magic wand. (Fig. 1) If when you have magnified the graphic you see that the colour is solid and not 'pixellated' as I call it, you will have better success. This just means that it is all one colour and not lots of different varying shades.
Once you have clicked on the magic wand you have a few choices to make before you make your selection. Firstly up the top you will notice buttons named Similarity, Anti Aliasing and Connected pixels only. Similarity is the degree to which you will accept differences in colour. I have set mine to 50 as there are some differences in shades that I want to eliminate. If you have the same colour in your object as you do in your background, it's a good idea to select connected pixels only, but in this picture I don't so it's all systems go.
Next, click on the colour that you want to eliminate. If you have your Similarity selected properly, one click should select just about every bit of background apart from a few stray pixels. (Fig. 2)
Then after you've made your selection with the magic wand, go up to the 'Selection Options' button and click on 'Make Selection Area Transparent'. (Fig. 3) Then click back on the Selection Options button and select the 'None' option. This will leave you with just a few stray background pixels. Best way to eliminate these is by using the Eraser tool found in the left hand side tool bar. Click on this, set your shape to square (up the top) and size to 1. Then individually click on the background pixels left. (Fig. 4)
Make sure that you don't click on any pixels that may make the shape of the object look odd. To ensure this doesn't happen, keep reducing the size of the graphic to normal size by pressing the 1:1 button on the left-hand side toolbar and then enlarging the image to make minor adjustments.
When the file is finally reduced to normal size, your finished product should look fairly good. (Fig. 5) It is important however to eliminate all of the stray pixels, as they will show up on a dark background! |
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| yes i did mean ULEAD gif animator 5. and thank you sooo much. i think ill be able to get it now. when im done i will post my creation for all to see. thanx again!!! |
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| o.k. i was able to remove the background and i have made a lot of progress. but i am stuck again. do you know how to rotate the object? is it posible to select a pivit point on the object to rotate from? thankx for your help. |
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 CyberRagePremium,MVM
join:2001-03-21
Jasper, AL | reply to trax95008
What does the fifth button from the top in the right column do? The one beside the paint bucket. That looks like deform/transform type icon. You might be able to use it to stretch, shrink, distort, and rotate objects.
I don't have the software. I'm just guessing here.
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Prop your feet up at Southeast Chat |
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RocksterPremium
join:2002-03-03
Brisbane AU | reply to trax95008
Ahh, now that is a little more difficult to do.
When you mentioned pivot point I started thinking perspective tool, which doesn't come standard in Ulead.
If you just want to rotate, then it's quite easy using the Transform tool located in the left toolbar.
Then up top, select how many degrees you want to rotate the object and which direction you're rotating it. As soon as you press the direction button, it will rotate.
Bear in mind that not all pictures rotate as cleanly. Mostly there is some obvious blurring, but this cleans up when reduced to avatar size and a little bit of sharpening!
You may see that the object is now off centre and there are transparent gaps at the top and the bottom. Easy way to fix this is to use the Pick Tool top left of the left hand side toolbar. Select this and holding down the left mouse button, manually move the picture to where you want it to be.
Then to the Fill Tool. First of all select your fill colour by clicking on the eyedropper (lefthand toolbar) and either manually selecting the colour you want by clicking on the foreground colour (seen in white below) or by clicking on a colour in your object that you want to emulate. Then select the Fill Tool (lefthand toolbar again) and click on the bits you want to eliminate.
If you need to use perspective then you're going to need a perspective tool. Things like this come in the form of add-on filters. (Of which I have way too many stupid useless ones!)
If you meant rotate as in spin, let me know and I'll get the blueprints ready! |
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| reply to CyberRage
yes that one does let you transform, but it doesn't let you rotate. |
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| I am liking this tutorial. Please get the blueprints ready. What plugin do you need to do a 3D spin? That what I am assuming you are talking about.
Reply to Rockster.
[text was edited by author 2003-01-31 18:37:12] |
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RocksterPremium
join:2002-03-03
Brisbane AU | reply to trax95008
CyberRage has already done an excellent tutorial on spinning objects for Imageready. Basically the same principles apply with Ulead. However, Ulead does not have a perspective tool and therefore one has to resort to 'cheating' with filters!
There are free filters out there to add perspective, but they are messy for the most part and require endless patience; twiddling with slides and offsets. For what it's worth, you can try Balder Olrik's free perspective filter and see if you have more success than I did!
For a simple spin with no perspective (and therefore no way of telling which way the object is spinning), there are a few fairly straightforward steps.
Get your object. Make sure both the object and frame are highlighted. Copy the object by using the copy button.
Make new blank frames. Depending on how many you need for an entire spin. In this case I made 10 (extras can be deleted later). Use the Add Frame button located at the bottom.
Then you need to paste the object to the new frames. Use the Paste button located in the top toolbar. Click on an empty frame and paste the object into the empty frame. Do this for all empty frames.
Next is to start work! Highlight the second frame. You will notice that the corresponding object has a little 'eye' in one of the boxes. Highlight this object too. Double click on the object and an 'Object Properties' box with pop up. Click on the 'Position and Size' tab. You will notice a 'Width' option there, and that is what we want to change. To avoid changing the height, make sure the 'Keep aspect ratio' box is not checked. Reduce the width by whatever amount you like. The more reduction you use, the faster and jerkier the spin will be. If you reduce by small incrememts, the spin will be slower and smoother, but also you will be using more frames which will make the final product much harder to reduce to avatar size.
I like to reduce by an even number. I used 8 pixels here. That way it makes it easier to calculate the objects new position. To calculate the object's new position just divide the number of pixels you reduced the width by and divide that number by 2. Add that new number to the left position.
Keep going with all of the frames and corresponding objects in the same manner, doubling the first amount of pixels you used each time. In this case I reduced width by 8, 16, 24 and 32. the last object is only 8 pixels wide.
To complete the spin, reverse the procedure. You will then notice that you have transparent sides to your animation. To correct this, use the Eyedropper tool to select the colour you want to use and then the Fill tool to fill the transparencies. Delete the unused frames by right clicking on them and selecting delete. Your frames should look something like this:
Check to see how it animates by selecting the preview tab. It's probably going too fast. Change the timing by double clicking on each frame and adjusting the timing to your liking in the frame properties box.
Finished product should look something like this:
You will notice that the image mysteriously changed in the middle of this tutorial. That's because I realised that lines are a very good subject to spin! |
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| Thanks for spending the time on preparing that. I found it very helpful. |
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| reply to trax95008
yes thanks for all your help rockster. its too bad though that i cant get it to pivot in a specific spot. it looks like it will only pivot from the center. but i'll play around with it. this is my first project with this software.
in fact, its the first project of this kind. |
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| reply to trax95008
hey rockster one other thing. why is it that when i make a change to the frame in my work space, the change applies to all the other frames? for example, lets say i click on frame 20. then in my work space i rotate the object. after doing that, all the other frames rotate as well. there must be a setting somewhere that is causing that to happen. do you know how to fix it? |
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RocksterPremium
join:2002-03-03
Brisbane AU | reply to trax95008
I think that sounds like you've duplicated the frame rather than copying and pasting the image into an empty frame.
Believe me I'm still learning, but I've yet to find a use for the 'Duplicate Frame' button other than repeating part of an animation that you've already done. |
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| reply to trax95008
i figured out how to pivot from a specific point. you select transform then up toward the top there is a "method" i selected rotate then it puts a point in the middle of the frame. i just click and drag that point to where i want it. then it will rotate from that point. but i still have the problem of it applying to all the frames. |
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RocksterPremium
join:2002-03-03
Brisbane AU | reply to trax95008
Oh I didn't see the post about changing the pivot point. That's quite easy to do. Using the Transform Tool you'll notice another toolbar appear. There are two checkboxes under method. Use the one that I've circled in red. Next, position the cursor over the approximate centre of the image and you'll see a cross-hair appear. Click on that and physically drag it to the pivot point that you want. Then select your degrees and you're away! |
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RocksterPremium
join:2002-03-03
Brisbane AU | reply to trax95008
To apply it to all frames you have to apply it to each frame in turn. Click on the frame and the corresponding object (I'm assuming you're not working in layers here!). If you have the Transform tool active on the first frame then it should automatically be active on any other frame when you select it. Just press the rotate button again on the next frame and so on until it's all done. |
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| reply to trax95008
is it possible to have too many frames making the gif file to large? to use as an avatar i mean? what is the average size file? |
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| said by trax95008:
is it possible to have too many frames making the gif file to large? to use as an avatar i mean? what is the average size file?
Yes, but that goes with every program. It will depend on how well you downsize the animation under the 5K requirement. This will require you to resize, lower the color count, and chopping out frames if necessary.
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•·.·´¯`·.·•Meteor Dive•·.·´¯`·.·• |
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CyberRagePremium,MVM
join:2001-03-21
Jasper, AL
| reply to trax95008
There really isn't an easy answer to how many frames you can have. File size requirements for this site is 5K (5120 bytes) or less for animation. The best way I know to answer that question is to throw out some very general guides.
A solid background will produce a smaller file size MOST of the time so you can squeeze a few more frames in using a solid colored background. Not just a background that is filled in, use one solid color. Of the many color choices, white produces the smallest size. I don't know why. A transparent background is NOT considered a solid color background. Of course you can use any background you choose. I'm just pointing out how your choices can make a difference.
The more movement you have in each frame the larger the file size. More movement means larger portions of the image moving. If the whole scene is moving.... that is to say, if every pixel changes in each frame, you won't get very many frames to fit into 5K AND be able to use a lot of colors and image quality. If the movement is very subtle like a tiny flickering flame on a candle that is a small portion of the scene you can get a whole lot of frames to fit in 5K. I turned out an avatar last week or the week before with 55 frames using 28 colors and it was less than 5K. That is very rare. The movement was very subtle. Usually you will do good to get 20 frames in an animated avatar for this site. Maybe 13 when you first begin trying to make them. You learn a few tricks as you go.
The more colors used in the animation the larger the file size. The more complex shading and soft edge shadows, etc. the larger the file size. You can usually reduce the number of colors quite a bit without loosing much image quality. That's one of the tricks to getting a file size down.
The type and amount of dithering you use will have an affect on the file size. No dither produces a much smaller size.
So you can see, with all of those variables (and there are more and those are learned as you go) it difficult to state an average number of frames. Most of mine are less than 20 frames. Many are 12 frames or less. I rarely go beyond 30 frames.
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Prop your feet up at Southeast Chat
[text was edited by author 2003-02-01 17:24:36] |
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| CyberRage pretty much pointed out the entire scenario here  And it will also depend on the editor itself. In terms of movements in frames, CR mainly explained how the editor will collapse identical frames of the entire animation and/ or map out identical pixels once it's optimized. The file size will grow significantly if you told the editor to keep all the frames from merging with each other.
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•·.·´¯`·.·•Meteor Dive•·.·´¯`·.·• |
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