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Faded Transitions For GAP
By Sean-Michael
It's best that you try some of my other tutorials for GAP, but not absolutely necessary.
In this tutorial we will use two frames and fade then in and out overlapping each other.
[*] First step is to make a new folder for the many frames we will soon be working on. I called mine "FadedTransitionForGAP"
[*] Next you need to prepare your frames or if you all ready have, make sure they are in "RGB" color mode. In my example I made my two frames in the same image and then I saved them as "FramesToFade.XCF" When your ready save them in the new folder and move on to the next step.
**My 2 Frames**
[*] You will now need to make a Background Frame that you can use with the GAP to do your animation work, I'll explain.
Make a new image the same size as your frames that you want to animate, so New Image/350x19, filled with the color white. Save it in the folder you made for your animation with a name like this: "Name_00001.xcf". You can only change the "Name" part, the rest needs to stay the same. Mine is called "FadingFrames_00001.xcf"
Example
[*] Now you need to make some more frames to do the fading on... From the image Window like above Goto Video/Duplicate Frames... and you get a window like this,
[*] Add the same values I have in mine please :) Entering 29 will give us 30 total frames!
[*] Now open the ".XCF" image you have with the frames you want to animate, remimber I called mine "FramesToFade.XCF" and keep them open while you do your GAP project.
**Ready to Animate you frames?**
[*] From the Image Window select Video/Move Path... And you get a window like the one shown below, **Note that you will have to change some of your settings to the settings I have shown.**
**Let me first explain a few of the settings**
[*]A = These are the items that you have open in the Gimp that can be used for animation. "Have to have RGB color Mode to use"
[*]B = This is the setting that you use to tell Gimp's GAP how to use your animation Items "A", in this tutorial you want to set it to "NONE".
[*]C = This is the Opacity control setting...
[*]D = This is where you Add points, Delete points, Edit points.
[*]E = This is where you specify what frames you want to apply the animation to... Like from 10-22 or 5-30 or 1-30.
[*]F = This is the first button I use! This is for the Preview Window and applies the Animation Item "A" and what it will look like with the current settings "H" and "C".
[*]G = This is the preview slider you can use to to goto a different frame and preview the frames, mainly for alignment preview.
[*]H = This is the current point and also where you can modify where your Animation Item "A" is located on the Background frames...
**For this tutorial we won't be using this setting, it will display current points only**
You might already have the GAP Move Path Open if not...
[*] Open your Frames that you want to Animate, remember mine were called "FramesToFade.XCF".
[*] Now open your GAP frame and then open the GAP Move Path... "From the Image Window select Video/Move Path..." and set your setting to what I have above.
Ok, lets get started now!
[*] 1st point is like this...
A = The frame you want to show second in the animation...
B = Set to None
C = Opacity needs to be set to zero but you may want to do this after you click F because it will make the source layer not
show. If you click F, then set the opacity to 0, you will see the image disappear and it will be less confusing.
D = Nothing to do here yet...
E = This needs to be as I showed in the image above, From Frame 1 To Frame 30 LayerStack 0.
F = Click it to see the preview in the window. I do this First after opening MovePath.
G = Nothing to do here.
H = The only thing that will change in this is the Current Point # of # as we add points so "1 of 1"
[*] Ok if all is set right, "Opacity 0%" I want you to click the "Add Point" button in box "D", you'll notice the "Current Point" value changes to "2 of 2".
[*] This step is real easy, I want you to change the "Opacity" to "100%" and click the "Add Point" button in box "D" and you will notice the "Current Point" value changes to "3 of 3".
[*] This is also a easy and simple step, change the "Opacity" to "0%" and click the "Anim Preview" button and you will get a window that looks like this...
Enter the Values I have and click ok and you get two windows, one a playable window and you should have 30 frames of the image you used fade in and out on. If not there is something that you forgot.
[*] Close both windows "Without Saving" and pick from the next two steps...
If is wasn't right click the "Delete All Points" button in box "D" and start over.
If it was right click the "OK" button on the Move path window and move on to the Next step.
[*] Re~Open the Move path "From the Image Window select Video/Move Path... " and set everything like what I have in the Example but change a few settings... Differences are as follows...
A = The other frame you want Fading in the animation.
E = This is going to be set "From Frame 1 to Frame 14" We chose to leave frame 15 out because we want the first image to be full opacity in the final animation.
[*] Ok... Keep the Opacity "100%" and click the "Add Point" button in box "D" and notice the "Current Point" box "H" changes to "2 of 2"
"Keep in mind Current point means current point and you dont need to add it!"
[*] Set the "Opacity" box "C" to "0%" and click the "Anim Preview" and enter the Values I had above and when you preview you should have 14 frames with the image fading out. If not, you forgot something.
[*] Close both windows "Without Saving" and pick from the next two steps...
If is wasn't right, click the "Delete All Points" button in box "D" and start over.
If it was right. click the "OK" button on the Move path window and move on to the Next step.
[*] Re~Open the Move path "From the Image Window select Video/Move Path... " and set everything like what I have in the Example, but change a few settings... Differences are as follows...
A = Needs to be the second image you used, The one you used in the previous step.
E = "From Frame 16 To Frame 30"
[*] Set the opacity to "0%" box "C"... click "Add Point" in box "D"
[*] Set Opacity now to "100%" and click the "Anim Preview" button and set it to what I showed above. In the playable preview you should see your image fading in on 14 frames...?
[*] Close both windows "Without Saving" and pick from the next two steps...
If is wasnt right click the "Delete All Points" button in box "D" and start over.
If it was right, click the "OK" button on the Move path window and move on to the Next step...
[*] So now that you have two images on your animation and in this step you might be done. I'll show you another tool! It's cool!
From Background image Select Video/Playback... and you get the Playback tool. Play a little bit if you wish! After all you're almost done, right!?!:)
[*] From the Background image Select Video/VCR Navigator... and you get this:
With this tool you get to specify the frame rate in frames per second "FPS". I believe I chose 10 FPS. When you're done, close this tool and then, from the BackGround Image, select Video/Frames to Image... You'll get something close to this, maybe the Layer Basename will be different but you shouldn't worry, simply click "ok". and you'll get an image with 30 animated frames!
You have a frame per frame animation know which is great, however, the data size if Saved in this condition would be Huge!
You want to save some size... right? Especially for use on the web! First you need to convere the animation to "Indexed Color Mode" from the Image Window "Image/Mode/Indexed" and use the settings I have below...
Now from your new image select Filters/Animation/Optimize (For GIF). After a few moments you get a new image that may looks like it's missing stuff, but it isn't. it is only combining frames to cut down on data size! You can preview by selecting from new image Filters/Animation/Playback... and you get a preview.
If you want to change specific frame rate times, like I did with the example, this is a good time to do it, my example...
Save you image as .gif and enjoy!
Questions and comments are always welcome so do share your input and what you create!
lol
