In the Gimp Help section, user 2-ton requested some ideas about an animation for opening a card without using GAP. Although I don't do many non-GAP animation tutorials, I've decided to make a tutorial of it. Those of you familiar with GAP will likely be able to see how much more easily the repetitive parts of this tutorial could be eliminated using GAP.

Please note : this particular tutorial is probably not best for new users of Gimp. Although I have included screenshots and some explanations here and there, a lot of the material assumes that you have a good familiarity with Gimp already. Now on to the tutorial.



This is an example of what one can create via using this guide:



Page Turn Animation Tutorial (Without GAP)

Creating the Card Cover

1.) First begin with a 400x400 new image with a transparent background.



2.) From the left side of your image window ruler, drag a vertical guide line to the center of the screen (position 200).

3.)Then from your left side ruler, drag another vertical guide to position 380.

4.) From the top ruler, drag a horizontal guide to position 100 and then another horizontal guide to position 300.

4a.) You can also add guides by selecting:

Image | Guides | New Guide (for each guide you need to create)


Then in the dialog box that opens select whether you will be making a Vertical or Horizontal guide line and the position to place the guide. Vertical guides are to be placed at position 200 and 380. Place horizontal guides at positions 100 and 300.



5.) Add a New Transparent Layer to the image either from the New Layer button on the Layers Dialog window or by selecting:

Layer | New Layer

Accept the default settings for the New Layer and click OK.

6.) Select the Rectangle Select Tool and then starting at the intersection of the vertical guide at 200 and the top horizontal guide at 100, click and drag your selection tool down and the the right until you reach the bottom right corner, which is the intersection of vertical guide at 380 and horizontal guide at 300. The selection should snap to the bounding guidelines.

6a.) Fill that selection with the color that you will be using for your top page. In my example it will be a bluish green color:



7.) Leaving the rectangular selection active, select the Text Tool, adjust the settings for the tool according to your preferences, click somewhere inside the image window and type some text.

I made the text : To Someone Special

8 alternate.)You can align the text by hand if you like.

8.) To get a nice centered text, select the Align Tool

8a.) Click on the Text Layer inside of the Image window. You should now see an extra dot in each of the four corners of the Text Layer.

8b.) In the align tool settings window for Align Relative To, click on the drop down box and set that to Selection:



8c.) Then to center align the text over the selected area, click the two buttons highlighted in red as shown in the image above.

9.) Then do a Select None.

10.) Merge the Text layer down on to the New Layer by selecting the Text Layer in the Layers Dialog window and then right-click on it and selelct Merge Down from the menu that opens.

Visualizing The Animation

The animation will be 30 frames (I just arbitrarily made that value up, you can use however many frames you wish). I mentally divide the animation into four separate animations, although they will all be created from within the image.

The first animated part is the card opening from flat to a 90 degree angle with the surface of the page. In 3d view, the page would be standing straight up so that all one could see if staring straight down on it would be it's edge.

The second animated part will consist of the card opening fully from the 90 degree position. But the inside of the card will be a different color from the outside (white in the case of this example), so that additional 90 degree turn needs to be a separate layer from the first.

The third part of the animation is the card going from fully open back to the top of the card again being at a 90 degree angle from the flat part of the card. This will still use the white color.

Finally, the from the 90 degree mark to closing back up, we need to reuse the layer for the front part of the card.


First, we set up the layers

11.) With the New Layer selected in the Layers Dialog window, rename it to Cover.

12.) Duplicate the layer named Cover 8 times, to give a total of 9 equivalent copies of that layer.

13.) The top layer should be called Cover copy #7. Rename that layer to: Left Inside.

14.) Then in the Layers Dialog window, set the Alpha Channel Lock for the “Left Inside” layer (notice the image below). Make sure you see a check mark showing that the Alpha Lock has indeed been activated. This step is important and one that can be easily missed. If it is not done, your final result will not display correctly.



15.) Fill the Left Inside Layer with color white. (Because the Alpha Channel is set to Lock, this will cause the already filled in bluish green rectangle with text in it to be now filled just with the color white.) The transparent area around it will remain transparent.

16.) Then unset the Alpha Channel Lock by clicking on the little box beside Lock in the Layers Dialog window. Make sure that there is now no check mark in the box.

17.) Duplicate the Left Inside layer 14 additional times. The last copy will be named Left Inside copy#13 if this step was done correctly.

18.) Go back and select the layer named Cover copy #6.

19.) Duplicate Cover copy#6 one time.

20.) Drag Cover copy#7 to the top of the group of layers in the Layers Dialog window.

21.) Then duplicate Cover copy#7 an additional 6 times. The very top layer will be named Cover copy #13 if all went well.

If you count the various layers, we have essentially 15 Cover layers and 15 Left Inside layers. It's just that we had to position them as we did to make the animation work properly.

This then gives us the 30 layers for our animation plus one Transparent Background Layer. All of the layers are set up and ready for "animating".

Setting Up The Animated Layers with Map Object

22.) Go down and select the layer named Cover.

23.) With the Cover Layer selected, open the Map Object Filter by selecting:

Filters | Map | Map Object



23a.) In the Options tab, make sure you have activated the Transparent background setting as shown above. You will not need to change anything else in the Options, Lighting (you may wish to experiment with No Lighting rather than using default lighting), or Materials tabs for the remainder of the time for this animation.

24.) Then go to the Orientation Tab:



The value that you will be changing for each and every layer to create the animation will be the Y Rotation value.

25.) In the first instance you will leave the Y value at 0.

25a.) Explanations: You will have to change the value of Y for every one of the 30 layers by an increment of -12 degrees for the first 16 frames, going from zero to -180.0 degrees, and then by increments of +12 degrees for the remaining 14 frames.

If you wonder why I am using 12 degree increments, just take the total rotation of the front cover, which goes from 0 to -180 and back to zero, which is a total 360 degree rotation, and divide by the number of frames that we are using, which is 30. That gives 12 degrees per frame.

End Explanation

26.) So go ahead and click OK.

27.) In the Layers Dialog window select the next layer, which is named Cover copy.

28.) Again open the Map Object filter (Shift+Ctrl+F for reopening the most recent filter used), go to the Orientation tab and change the Y Rotation value to -12.0 (that's minus 12.0). Then click OK.

29.) Select the next layer up, Cover copy#1, open Map Object, and set the Y rotation value to -24.0

30.) Continue this process with the Map Object filter, incrementing each layer by -12.0 degrees (-36.0, -48.0, -60.0, -72.0, -84.0, -96.0, -108.0, -120.0, -132.0, -144.0, -156.0, -168.0, and -180.0 for the rest of the first 16 layers) all the way through Inside Left copy #6, which will be a Y rotation value of -180.0.

31.) Then reverse the process for the remaining layers. So Inside Left copy #7 will be a Y rotation value of -168.0

32.) The remaining Y rotation values for each successive layer would be -156.0, -144.0, -132.0, -120.0, -108.0, -96.0, -84.0, -72.0, -60.0, -48.0, -36.0, -24.0, and finally -12.0.

For those wondering why we don't end up back at zero, it's because we do when we go from frame 30 back to frame 1 again to start the whole animation over again.

Get Some Animation Scripts

33.) First, go to get these two scripts by saulgoode:

http://www.flashingtwelve.brickfilms.com/GIMP/Scripts/combine-bg.scm

http://www.flashingtwelve.brickfilms.com/GIMP/Scripts/Script-fu-2/anim-settings.scm

34.) Place or save these scripts into your Gimp scripts folder

35.) Refresh your scripts:

Filters | Script-Fu | Refresh scripts

These scripts will add new selections to the Animations section under Filters heading in Gimp.

Once the background is set up, I will refer to these scripts.

Setting Up The Background

36.) From your Layers dialog window, select the transparent Background layer.

37.) Shift+Click on the eyeball icon beside the Background Layer in the Layers Dialog window to turn off the visibility of all except the Background Layer.

38.) Fill the background layer with the color of your choice, I'm using the color blue.

39.) Using the Rectangular Select Tool, make the same selection as was done previously in step number 6, along the indicated guidelines mentioned above.

40.) Fill the selection with plain white color to create the bottom page of the card.

40a.) Feel free to add designs or text of your choosing for the inside of the card.

Explanation: That part of the card doesn't move in the animation, which is why we can let it be part of the background layer.

40b.) Make sure that you merge down the text and any other graphics layers that you want included in the Background Layer.



Caution: Be careful when adding graphics to images that are intended to become GIF animations. You only have 256 total colors to work with. Any more than that and you start seeing your animations looking sub-optimal.

Finalize The Animation

41.) Shift+Click on the eyeball icon for the Background Layer in your Layers Dialog window to make all layers visible again.

42.) Select:

Filters | Animation | Combine with background (that comes from the newly installed animation scripts)

Explanation:This script allows you to avoid the work of manually creating a copy of the Background Layer for each of the animation layers. Normally, if doing this manually, you would place each copy of the Background layer below each of the animation layers and then merge each animation layer on to one of the background layer copies. The script does this for you.

43.) Then delete the Background Layer.

44.) Finally, try out your animation by selecting:

Filters | Animation | Playback

44a.) The animation should play well, but we need to have it delayed when the card is completely closed and when it is fully opened.

45.) Let's first set the delay settings for each frame. Select:

Filters | Animation | Settings

45a.) You can try using the default delay value of 100ms per frame and leave the Mode value at Keep.


46.) Once the script adds the timing delay value to each frame, you can go back and manually edit the timing value for the first frame and the 16th frame. I set those two frames each to 1500ms from the default 100ms setting.

46b.) Explanation: The first frame is when the card is completely closed and the 16th frame is when it is completely open. That is the reason the delay for those two frames is adjusted. It makes it easier for the person viewing the animation to read the card. Plus a delay is a bit easier on the eyes for this animation, vs it constantly opening and closing with no delay.

47.) Go back and play your animation again. It now has a nice delay.

48.) I usually like to apply the optimize function:

Filters | Animation | Optimize (for Gif)

Not everyone likes using that function/filter. It is intended to help the resulting file size be as small as possible, but it doesn't always work out that way. And sometimes the appearance of your animation is less than optimal after applying that filter. So that is something you will have to decide on.

49.) Finally save your file as an animated gif file (some_file.gif).

49a.) Remember to select Save As Animation from the Export dialog window that opens, otherwise Gimp will just Flatten all your layers into one layer and save it as a static Gif image rather than as a multilayered Gif animation.

Thank you for checking out this tutorial.

excellent tut... thank ccbarr

EDIT still a bit of patience and other replies will be restored

Very nice tutorial, ccbarr. This is much easier and faster than doing it with the perspective tool. The lighting tool washed out the color and I need to work with that.



Here is one with the lighting turned off completely. I may experiment a bit more with the lighting.

wow, i never knew gimp could do that?!

: O

O,

Glad you found the tutorial useful, and thank you for trying it out. Your cards turned out really nice.



Yes regarding lighting, you can tone down the lighting setting strength and perhaps that will reduce the amount of grey you get as you turn and open the card. Although, personally, I like the card that you did using no light. Using no light also allows you to use more colors in your card since you don't have to worry about the animated shadow effect as the card turns to open and close.

Thanks to anyone else trying this out, and if you have any questions or problems following the tutorial, feel free to ask for help.

For those of you really into animation, you can also add animations to the card itself. Having a card open and close is cool and fun to do, but imagine a card that when it opens, has an animated object or scene in it. Or consider having more than one page open in your card. Naturally, all of this is better accomplished with GAP. As the more complex your animations are, the easier it is to make it happen using GAP. However, for those of you allergic to GAP, doing it all manually is possible (just loads and loads more work ) But yeah, your imagination is the limit when it comes to being even more creative with such a card

Holy cow, an animation within the card???? That would be really fun but I think I'd go crazy trying to figure that one out!

PhotoComix,

Thanks for the honor of moving this to the Official Gimp Tutorial section.

This took a few hours to put together. It is made using GAP. I would not want to think about doing it without GAP. That said, it can be done without GAP. GAP helps by automagically taking care of repetitive things that take a lot of time to do manually.

First to dispense with the legalities. The photograph used on the front of the opening and closing card is a Creative Commons licensed image entitled "Umbrella Man" from Flickr user mysza at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mysza/. It was originally licensed under the Attribution-Only license.

I have also licensed the animated GIF image under the most recent Attribution-only Creative Commons license. Licensing information is at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/ The animated GIF image itself is hosted at http://www.archive.org/details/OpenAndCloseAnimatedGif

For the animated rain on the front page image, I used fencepost's Animated Rain tutorial. I also used the ideas from a photoshop tutorial to make the rainbow image. I made the animated portion of the rainbow image, but the static image itself comes from ideas used in that tutorial and applied in Gimp using my own custom Gimp brush.

The rainbow animation is done using an animated layermask.

Just thought I would post this as an example of having such a animated card with animations inside it as well.

I can only imagine the hours it took to put together. When you mentioned animated images in the front and inside pages I was staggered after I thought about it for awhile. I was thinking if you had a 3-layered animation, you'd have to duplicate each layer at least 5 times for a proper time for the animation to show then move all those layers to their proper places. *groan*

You've got me thinking about an animated layer mask. That should be somewhat easier to make. Make it in GAP, of course. I like the idea about using a mask. Going to have to bring out the drawing board and ponder it awhile.

EDIT LATER:

Made a mask for this. I used the Paths tool to stroke with a 19 white Paintbrush along the path. Merged the white line to a black bg. Added the image as a Layer mask. Made a 20x20 grid and set it to view and snap to grid.

Duplicated the layers (ran out of layers so had to duplicate more). Then selected View Layer Mask and used the rectangle selection tool to select rectangles and fill with black, moving along the grid, to the last (bottom) mask was all black.

Since I made it, I'm trying to think of a way to put it across the front of the card, then when the card opens all the way have it travel from the very left side of the card to somewhere on the right side.

Maybe a house on the front page and a different house on the inside page.

I hope I have time to get gap downloaded, running, and learned sometime after Christmas...the animated card is amazing!!!
O, you are so quick to learn new processes!!!

Wow, stunning tutorial. Really nifty result, and it's a cool, versatile technique. (:

Can somebody put this into a youtube video because i keep getting stuck at a point, EDIT: This time i got as far as the inside left and it went giant and back small when it closed any ideas....

On attempt 4 now

Thanks

iGimp

iGimp,

Can you be specific about what part of the tutorial you are having trouble with? It is a very detailed tutorial, and it requires that you do one step at a time. Miss a small detail, and you will have problems. I usually recommend people to do my tutorials S-L-O-W-L-Y. Most problems from following my tutorials come when someone misses a step, however, with that said, I am just as imperfect as anyone else, and I might have missed writing in a step also. That is why I ask if you can tell me the specific step you may be having a problem with. That way I can attempt to help you better. Thanks.

Im not sure what part im stuck on but when the card opens it the side that opens went bigger than it was meant to be and im not sure what i did wrong becasue it keeps happening

Thanks


iGimp

iGimp,

Can you post your result somewhere? Upload the animated GIF as it turns out and then post either the link to the image or the image itself here? I can't offer you specific help without seeing specific information. So posting your current result might help me to determine the problem.

Im sorry but i dont know how to upload a photo i think i use these but i dont know what to put in the middle Sorry

Try this http://picasaweb.google.com/nathanaelpo ... 3878285378

OK, I see the image, great.

Thanks i will try again its just that it happened 4 times and i went very slowly http://picasaweb.google.com/nathanaelpo ... 3878285378 try that

OK, I see the image, great.



If you look at this part of the tutorial:

First, we set up the layers

Let's go over that part S-L-O-W-L-Y

1.) First rename your New Layer to Cover

2.) Duplicate that layer 8 times

3.) Rename Cover Copy#7 to Left Inside

4.) Go the the Layers Dialog Window and look at it.

5.) Make sure you have selected the layer named Left Inside.

6.) Activate the Alpha Channel Lockin the Layers Dialog Window:



See the section in red above? Make sure you have a check in the box beside Lock. That will activate the Alpha Lock.

7.) Select the Foreground Color to be White.

8.) Select the Bucket Fill Tool. Make sure the Tool Options for the Bucket Fill tool are set to Fill Type: FG Color Affected Area: Fill Whole Selection

9.) Apply the Bucket Fill Tool to the Inside Left layer. This will cause the Blue portion with text to turn completely white.

10.) Deactivate the Alpha Channel Lock for Left Inside Layer. This means, go back and click on the little box beside Lock in the Layers Dialog window and make sure it is no longer checked.

11.) Duplicate Left Inside Layer 14 additional times.

12.) Select Cover Copy#6 and duplicate it once.

13.) Select Cover Copy#7 and drag it to the top of the layer stack in the Layers Dialog window.

14.) Duplicate Cover Copy#7 six additional times.

Continue on the the Map Object portion of the tutorial, which you seem to have done fine.

It appears that you did not set the Alpha Channel Lock when you went through the tutorial. I hope these steps help you to successfully complete the tutorial now.

Thank you so much i will just try this

Thanks I did this now i was wondering if somebody could tell me how to put an animated picture on the front cover

Thanks in advance

iGimp

iGimp,

Nicely done. I'm glad that helped you. Thanks very much for trying out the tutorial. It involves a lot, so I'm glad you remained persistent in trying to get it done.



As a helpful recommendation, look closely at the animation. It's looking like the cover of the card almost comes up and off of the card, leaving the animation appearing a little confusing. I downloaded the animated image and see that it has 32 layers. I don't know if you forgot to do some merging somewhere and perhaps also did not delete the background layer, that would account for the extra layers. If you take and delete the very bottom layer and the top layer, and then re-save it, the animation will play correctly.

You can also add a timing delay to the bottom layer (would be Frame 2 after removing the bottom layer) and the 16th layer (would be Frame 17). You could change the timing from 100ms to 1500ms. This would allow someone viewing the card to easily read the cover and the inside during those two delays.

As far as adding an animation to the front of the card, that really is another level of complexity, depending on how many frames the animation is. I'm glad to see that you are one up for the challenge though. I'm always glad to see people trying out using Gimp to create animations.

A simple 2 or 3 frame looping animation is easy to overlay on the various front frames of the opening and close card. More than that, and you start getting into math calculations to set the number of frames right for the overall animation. It can quickly get complex. Therefore, I won't get into how to add an animation to the card cover (or inside). Better that you have a good firm understanding of placing animations inside of animations to do that.

Anyhow, nice work and thanks again for trying the tutorial.



Edit: iGimp, if I might make a recommendation to you, you might look into finding some different free fonts online or some decorative images to add to your card. I use some free public domain clipart images at http://openclipart.org. There are also many Gimp brushes out there with cool designs that you can also use. If you do an internet search for Gimp Brushes, you will find a lot. Of course, Gimp can also use a lot of Photoshop brushes as well, so your choices are really huge. Just mentioning some ideas in case you want to add other elements to your animated card.

When I use the background overlay script, it creates a copy of the background and pastes over the top of the original cover, so when the animation is in playback the background layer shows throughout the entire playback. Did I miss something?

*SOLVED*

I was using background overlay not combine background. The scripts on my GIMP are not listed in the same area as noted on this tutorial. Mine are in Video-Animation.

I was trying to get this to flip on the x rotation for like a tent card, and it didn't work. Z rotation takes at midpoint so that is no go. Was wondering if anyone knew the parameters for getting the card to rotate upward.