[fencepost]

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create two simple "highlight" animations such as these below:



While you may recall my other tutorials on this same subject (Animated Flash Text in GIMP GAP) &
(New and Improved Animated Highlight - without GAP), this tutorial will require the use of my

Move Layer script which you can download here: FP's Move Layer Script

I also recommend you install these scripts:

Saulgoode's
Combine Background Script
Animation Settings Script

Insanity Prevails
Multi-Layer Action Scripts

1. Double-click the zip file and place the script in your GIMP scripts folder (ie...C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\scripts). Refresh your scripts and you're ready to go. The script can be located under the Filters > Animation > Move Layer...

2. Using the Text tool, add some text to a layer in GIMP. Here's what I've done (the font I'm using is called Star Jedi and can be downloaded here: http://www.dafont.com/star-jedi.font)



3. Now, that you've got your text, add a new, transparent layer above the text layer:



Your layers should look like this (disregard that my transparent layer is called "Background". The text layer is actually the background):



4. Set your foreground color to white and under the gradients tab, choose FG to Transparent, like so:



5. Next, set the Blend mode for the gradient to Bi-linear.



6. Using the gradient tool, place it on the transparent layer (somewhere near the green dot on my image) and, while holding down the Ctrl key (restricts the tool to a straight line), drag the tool to somewhere near the red dot. (This is our highlight layer). Note: the red and green dots will not be on your image. They are guides only.



7. Now, let's blur this layer a little bit. Go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur... Here's what I set mine to:



8. Now, let's make some magic! Go to Filters > Animation > Move Layer... and the following dialog will appear:



I won't cover all the possible options at this point (just the ones to make these animations).

A. Set you number of frames (I chose 10)
B. Under Move Layer Options, I chose Option 10 (Using current layer location as starting point). Using this setting, GIMP will automatically determine the layer's starting point and use it. You could choose another option, but humor me for the moment and follow along! :mrgreen:
C. For Layer Handle Placement, I chose Top left. I don't need GIMP to make any adjustments to where the layer is positioned as it will work fine with the Top left setting. However, I included some other options in the script for you to experiment with.
D. Since we're using Option 10 for the Move Layer Options, we don't need a starting X/Y coordinate. However, we do need to tell GIMP where the layer should stop. I figure that the left side of my layer will need to stop around the 340 X-coordinate. Since we're moving only horizontally, we leave the Y-coordinate at 0.
E. I've set the blend mode for the layer to Hard Light. Feel free to experiment with the blend modes/opacity settings.

This is all we need to set for the animation to work. Click OK

GIMP should add several layers to image. To finalize it for an animation, go to Filters > Animation > Combine Background (this is one of the scripts I recommended at the beginning). It will add a copy of each highlight layer to the background layer. In this case, the background layer is the text layer.

Once you've done that, delete your bottom background layer (this layer is no longer need). If you've done everything as I've stated, you should have a basic highlight animation. For giggles, I added a new background layer, filled it with black, and ran the Combine Background script again (deleting my black background layer after running the script) and I have this:



9.To complete the ping pong animation as shown above, in the move layer dialog, choose these settings:



Then, redo these steps:

GIMP should add several layers to image. To finalize it for an animation, go to Filters > Animation > Combine Background (this is one of the scripts I recommended at the beginning). It will add a copy of each highlight layer to the background layer. In this case, the background layer is the text layer.

Your animation should look something like so:



You can view your animation under Filters > Animation > Playback...

Save as an animated gif and you're ready to share it with the world! Enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions or encounter any problems.

Art

[PhotoComix]

Good as usual..moved as usual

Ideal complement for your script.

[fencepost]

PhotoComix said:

Good as usual..moved as usual

Thanks, "as usual"! :lol:

[PhotoComix]

well in my opinion quality is "as usual " for your tuts more then sufficient for the Official board

[fencepost]

PhotoComix said:

well in my opinion quality is "as usual " for your tuts more then sufficient for the Official board

I know. I was just thanking you as usual! :mrgreen:

[molly]

Fencepost,
loved your tutorial and it went very nicely to the end then I screwed up. Here is what I ended with. Can you tell by this what I did wrong. thanx

Edit: Woo Hoo I did it. Thanks Fencepost...

[inspectra]

I'm no expert on the techniques of this tutorial, but it seems only the highlight is showing up. Is the text hidden, or coloured black or anything? Probably not I suppose, but thought I might check. ;p

[molly]

thanks pixelated.
I think I have it now shown above. I did it from the beginning again so I must have missed something before.....

[fencepost]

Nice work, Molly! Thanks for trying it out. Was there anything particularly unclear?

[molly]

No. I think when I added the new black layer it went to the top and covered everything. The next time I tried it I made sure it was at the bottom....
I tried a colorful one here but I couldn't get the hi-lite to go all the way over to the S and I spoiled it by using Radial instead of what I was told, but I still love it :oops:
Thanx.

[2-ton]

Since I managed to do this, I like it, lol.

[fencepost]

Very nice, 2-ton! However, every party needs some "Ping Pong"! Try out the ping pong option. :mrgreen:

[2-ton]

OH well, after I uploaded to photobucket, I deleted from my computer. So I made another one using ping pong. I guess the delay in the "pong" part is because I made the ending part to far right.

[molly]

very nice 2-ton

[Oregonian]

Great jobs molly and 2-ton!!

molly said:

Molly, this one rocks!


Had to play with this as usual.

[2-ton]

LOL

[Silvertayl]

Hey Art another great tutorial that I would like to try.

I have downloaded the scripts, opened Gimp, refreshed scripts and the 'move layer' script-fu is not anywhere to be be found. I have done this twice and still no 'move layer'.

I'm using Gimp Portable. Am I doing something wrong?

Silvertayl

[molly]

@Silvertayl
My Move layer is in filters > animation about the 6th one down.

[fencepost]

Silvertayl said:

Hey Art another great tutorial that I would like to try.

I have downloaded the scripts, opened Gimp, refreshed scripts and the 'move layer' script-fu is not anywhere to be be found. I have done this twice and still no 'move layer'.

I'm using Gimp Portable. Am I doing something wrong?

Silvertayl

Not sure if GIMP Portable is causing the problem. Did you just copy/paste the script into your scripts folder or did you open it and then save? If you're using Windows, the Notepad/Wordpad programs don't play nicely when saving scripts, which is why I started putting them in zip files. Check your scripts folder and see if the Move Layer script has a different icon than your other scripts. If it does, delete it and try copying/pasting the script over. Otherwise, I'm don't know what's going on.

[Palaeric]

Awesomew nice but at the end when i let it play in my folder the text doesnt look like in gimp liek a bit other =( not thta good its pixeled i mean ... btu here it is =)