[Beth]

okay thank you. I appreciate it...and you have a really good tutorial...I was beating my brain about GAP (and I've had GIMP over a year) and animation...but yours steps are easy to follow

[PhotoComix]

Quote

The problem you are having is that when you save as GIF there are only 256 colors available. Your three images have very different colors and a lot of them, which creates a problem. The GIMP has to map your image's millions of color to only 256, which invariably produces a grainy effect

More Gif quality is very very low

Same images if indexed in 256 colours but saved as Png (or even as not compressed jpg) would have look a bit "posterized" but much nicer
Problem is that PNG (as jpg ) doesn't handle animation...only option for animation is gif or some video format (but then it has no sense save a 3 frames ,or even a 30 frames ,animation as AVI, mpg or other video format...)

Note also that OPTIMIZE is a tricky word...to be a bit optimized ais the file SIZE but quality of image is greatly damaged by the process...this is not too visible if you don't change the position of the layers...but if you just reverse it, or you browse layer 1 by one, you can notice how much is downgraded

However there is not way out ...or gif (only solution for very short animation, avatar and animated sig) or Video format.

This is not a limit of Gimp or Gap but a general limit

[sbicknel]

Quote

okay thank you. I appreciate it...and you have a really good tutorial...I was beating my brain about GAP (and I've had GIMP over a year) and animation...but yours steps are easy to follow

Thanks.

[Yoshiki]

I don't get it. How do you change a picture to make the eyes move or his hand move? I have to draw it!? I can't do that there's no way.

[PhotoComix]

I took the example of the eyes...if you want the pupil to move you have to

1) have a layer with the eyes with no pupils (you can remove them with something as clone tools)
2) Have the pupils on their layer
3 ) duplicate that layers how much time is needed (more layers, more smooth animation but bigger file size)
4) read the tut again to see how to use Move Path to move the pupil layers

[mlh_94]

Hey could someone help me?? how can you make your phot look like a cartoon adn can u show me th steps plss thx!!!

[ace150]

Very great tut.

[Groene07]

Nice tutorial. :)

The one thing I'm having trouble figuring out though is how to set the source image. (Well I don't even know if I have to do this. What I want to do is make the animation ping pong. I have 11 frames and want it to reverse when it gets to the end of them. (Rather than turning the 11 frames into 21 frames.) Is the move path place the only place I can do this? I'm getting error messages for some reason ... )

thanks for the tutorial though. :D

[ccbarr]

Groene07,

The posting by sbicknel indeed was a very good and thorough overview of the Gimp Animation Package (GAP).

Regarding your questions about selecting your Source Image/Layer and achieving a Ping Pong effect, I will try to address both issues for you.

First, let's take a simple example, you have a plain white background image that you have saved in the appropriate form for GAP to use. That being of the form of some_image_000001.xcf. I usually name mine background_000001.xcf. First, you need to create the video frames. You would do this by running:

Video | Duplicate Frames

Your background_000001.xcf will be the first frame for your animation. In your case, you want a total of 21 frames. You already have one, so you need a total of 20 more. In the Duplicate Frames window that opens, you would leave From Frame and To Frame set to 1 (actually you can't adjust them when you only have one frame to begin with), and you would set N times to 20, the number of additional frames that you need.

Next, make sure that you have your animated GIF or whatever it is you want to place in those frames. You said that you have 11 frames. To avoid confusion, do you mean that you have 11 separate images saved in sequential number order? Or do you mean that you have one image with 11 total layers. In GAP terms, frames are separate images, and those separate images might have multiple layers.

What GAP does and can do is to take layers from one multilayered image and place them into separate frames. If you have a multilayered image that is composed of 11 layers, and those layers are such that if one played them back one at a time, it would make an animation, then your next step after doing the Duplicate Frames step above, is to make sure that you have that multilayered image open in Gimp. Make sure that the image is in RGB mode, otherwise GAP will not "see" it, since it needs images that are in RGB mode.

Then go to your background_000001.xcf image and select:

Video | Move Path

Now in your Source Image/Layer selection menu window, you should be able to select whichever layer of the 11 layer image that you wish. However, to get it to ping pong, please select the bottom layer of that image. The other aspect of the Move Path window that you will be concerned with is the Step Mode. For this instance, you will choose Ping Pong.

Assuming that you do not want to make any other modifications in the Move Path window, I recommend that you click on the Anim Preview button at the bottom of the page. There is always the temptation to just select OK and assume that you have everything set up OK. If you do, great, but if you don't, undoing things in GAP can be very problematic, and sometimes just impossible. That is why I always recommend previewing the animation ahead of time. That way, if you have made an error or overlooked something, you will see it in the preview and can correct it before you press that OK button.

If you are satisfied with your animation, close out the preview window and the little multilayered image that gets created for the preview and select Don't Save. Then return to the Move Path window and go ahead and click OK if you do not need to make any further adjustments.

There is a very good tutorial by Sean-Michael about placing an animated gif into an animation. If you look at the index sticky topic at the beginning of the Gimp Tutorials section, you will see a section of animation tutorials. You can find that one and more in that index.

Hope this helps some.

:)

[chiefgonebad]

i need some help. i tried creating a sprite animation using just gimp. i put every thing on seperate layers and put the time in each layers dialogue. then i played it back, but the previous frames wouldnt disappear. theyd just stay there for the rest of the animation making it look horrible. do you have any idea how to make the previous disappear when the next frame starts?

[Doc.cool]

1st: ARGH!!! THIS DESTROYED MY GIMP! IT MADE IT UGLY!!!! JUST....... ARGH!!!!( I downloaded the instalation pack by mistake and got a newer worse version, and i really hate it! I want my old back!

2nd: I didn't still understand how to install it! -.- That was very blurry!

[sbicknel]

What does "DESTROYED MY GIMP! IT MADE IT UGLY" mean? What "instalation pack" are you talking about? Finally, if you need installation help, you will need to supply more detail than "I didn't still understand how to install it". What OS are you using? What package are you trying to install? What steps did you perform? What error messages did that generate?

[PhotoComix]

Quote

1st: ARGH!!! THIS DESTROYED MY GIMP! IT MADE IT UGLY!!!! JUST....... ARGH!!!!( I downloaded the instalation pack by mistake and got a newer worse version, and i really hate it! I want my old back!

2nd: I didn't still understand how to install it! -.- That was very blurry!

:?: you still do not how install BUT first you somehow install something "downloaded by mistake" and after you come here to complain ?

weird attitude, if you want help forget loud screams in all capital letters,add screenshoots, details on your OS and links to whatever you wish to install

[Doc.cool]

Was just getting peoples eyes with the last message, so here is some details:

-I use Vista
-I had a version before (i am nut sure about date, but pretty) 17.9.08 I read wrong and used the newest installation package, and got a new [expletive deleted] version -.- This is how it looks:
-I can't in anyway get the *** **** ********* ***** ********** ****** GAP installed(The installation file is gone!)!Please help!

EDIT: This isn't even the newest, this is a bit older version.

[PhotoComix]

So your problem is mainly with Gimp right?

(After installed Gimp you may want reinstall GAP, but that is another topic )

Now you may get the release number clicking Help/About, then all 2.6 version have a similar lay out, what you want , older version as 2.4 or 2.2 ?

You may post a link for a image of the "old interface" that you want back , please?

Please DO NOT reply here, but start a new message on the Help board, since all this has nothing to do with the GAP Tutorial, and no much with GAP

PS Different layout may also be a side effect of new VISUALBLINDS or VISUALSTILES theme installed,(you know that Stardock stuff ...) or of some FIT_IN_1_Window_Only hack for GIMP

[ShnitzelKiller]

No mac version again?

[sbicknel]

Try this link: http://gimp.lisanet....e/Download.html . Doesn't have GAP, but Gimp is there.

[ShnitzelKiller]

I was talking about GAP, not gimp. Of course I know where to get gimp, and have already.

[PhotoComix]

you may ask here https://sourceforge....forum_id=761056 if somebody may compile for MAC

[SilentGIMP]

Sorry if this is old


Where is gap is their no gap?