Software Used: Photo-Paint 9
You
can create some fun and amusing animations with your digital
camera photos. Some cameras have an option to take a sequence
of pictures at regular intervals which works well for these
types of animations, but all you really need is two or more
images taken from the same vantage point, with just some slight
changes in each image. It's not necessary, but using a tripod
helps to ensure the background elements are in the same position.
For this animation, I've used Corel Photo-Paint 9 and two images.
Here's how to do it.
1.) Open the two images in Photo-Paint. Since this is going to be a GIF animation, we can keep the file size down by cropping out unnecessary portions and scaling the size down.
2.) In order to ensure that the two frames are aligned, we'll combine them into one image before cropping and scaling. Select the first image and go to Mask > Select All, then Edit > Copy.
3.) Go to Edit > Paste > As New Document. A new document is created with the contents of the first image.
4.) Go to the second image, select all and copy... but this time select your new document and paste it as a new object. Edit > Paste > As New Object.
|
6.) Open the Object Docker by going to Window > Dockers > Objects and you'll see the two original images appear as Object 1 and Object 2. |
7.)
Select the 
crop tool and drag a box around the section of the image you
want to include in your animation.
8.) Adjust the crop area if necessary and then double click inside the box to crop the image.
9.) Next go to Image > Resample. Since the image is for the Web, the resolution should be 72 and the image should be fairly small to keep file size down.
Here'
my image after cropping and resampling. Anytime you resample
an image it introduces some blurriness. Let's run the unsharp
mask filter to sharpen it up some.
10.) In the object docker select object 1 and hide object 2 by clicking the eyeball icon.
11.) Go to effects > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Adjust the setting until you're happy with the preview. I used Percentage 100, Radius 2, Threshold 0.
12.) Next select object 2 in the docker and hide object 1.
13.) Go to Effects > Repeat > Repeat Unsharp Mask.
14.)
Now we're ready to make the movie. Go to Movie > Create from
Document.
15.) Display the movie docker by going to Window > Dockers > Movie.
The movie docker only shows one frame and it's empty.
16.)
Click the 
add frame button to add another frame.
17.)
Set the dialog box to insert 1 frame:
- After frame 1
- Copy
Current Frame
18.)
Now the Movie docker displays two frames, but they're both still
empty. That's because a movie only sees backgrounds and not
objects. Once you position your objects in each frame, they
must be combined with the background.
19.) Double click frame one in the movie docker to make sure it's active. Then go to the objects docker and select object 1.
20.) Go to Objects > Combine > Combine Objects with Background.
21.) Now double click frame 2 in the movie docker.
22.) Select object two in the Object docker and choose Objects > Combine > Combine Objects with Background.
23.)
Click the 
Play button on the movie docker to preview the animation. If
you need to adjust the timing, you can do so from the movie
docker.
24.) Once you're happy with the timing, you're ready to export the animation. You may want to first save your file to the default AVI format in case you want to edit the timing later.
25.) Go to File > Export. You have the option of exporting your movie as a GIF animation, an AVI video, or an MPEG Animation. I'm choosing GIF.
26.) When you save as a GIF the image must be converted to paletted color. You'll be presented with a dialog box where you can change the palette options. I used the following settings:
- Palette: Optimized
- Dithering: Ordered
- Dithering Intensity: 100%
- Colors: 64
You can preview the changes in each of your frames by going to the Batch tab in the Convert to Paletted dialog. Keep in mind that the less colors you use in your image, the smaller the file size will be.
27.) When you're happy with the palette settings, click OK. Now you'll see another dialog box with animation options. This is where you can adjust frame rate, color options, transparency, and looping. Make your changes and click the preview button to see the results.
Checking
the box "Save Difference Between Frames Only" can
help reduce the file size.
28.) Click OK and the GIF animation is saved.
Here it is, weighing in at 33.5 KB...
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Photo-Paint Tutorials from your Guide
Sue
Chastain
Your Guide to Graphics Software
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