Help
Setting Up The Text
1.) Open a New Image size 400x300px
2.) Click on the Text Tool button and select the URW Bookman L font. Select a size of 40px
3.) The word we will be animating will be "FOLLOW" With the Text Tool selected, click inside the Image Window anywhere and type the letter "F"(without the quotation marks).
4.) Get this Layer Alignment helper script: http://seul.org/~gru...lign-helper.scm
5.) Place that script in your gimp scripts folder. In GNU/Linux that would be in ~/.gimp-2.2/scripts. I am not sure where it would be found on other OSes.
6.) In the Main Gimp Window do:
Xtns | Script-Fu | Refresh Scripts
7.) Center the Text Layer. Use whatever method best suits you. If you are using the script from above, do:
Script-Fu | Layer Align | x Center
8.) Now with your Text layer centered, duplicate that layer three times. The reason we are duplicating it three times is because the word FOLLOW has four different letters. (A total of six letters, but only four are different) We already have the first one - F - so we need separate additional layers for the other three letters of this word. Including the background layer, there will be a total of 5 layers now. The duplicated "F" layers will be numbered F#1, F#2,and F#3.
9.) Make all layers invisible by clicking on the eye icon for each layer in the Layers dialog window, or click on the Background Layer eye icon while holding down Ctrl-Shift. Then just click the Background Layer's eye icon making everything invisible.
10.) Select Layer F#2 in the Layers dialog window to make it active. Make it visible by clicking on the eye icon for that layer:
11.) With the Text Tool selected, double click on that layer in the Image window. This will cause the Gimp Text Editor window to open:
Replace the F with the letter "O"(without the quotation marks), the click the Close button.
12.) Back to the Layers dialog window, click the eye icon for the new "O" Layer to make it invisible again. Select Layer F#1 to make it active. Click it's eye icon to make the layer visible. Again with the Text Tool selected, click inside the Image Window and change that letter F to an L. Then make layer F#1 invisible by clicking it's eye icon..
13.) Make layer F active. Click on the eye icon for that layer to make it visible. In your main Image window, again click on the layer and change the letter from F to W. You will now have a Layers dialog window with a Background layer and layers with letters F, O, L, and W.
14.) From the Main Gimp toolbox window, make a new image 400x300. Save this image to a working folder and name it background_000001.xcf.
The Animation Path
Note: In this section I show you how to make an animation path using Guide intersections. Very exacting. However, when you do your own text on a path animation, you may not necessarily wish to be exacting when making your path. In fact, I have included two example animations at the bottom of this tutorial that were made with paths that were made just from sight.
15.) Drag a Guide line from the ruler on the left side of background_000001.xcf and place it at 300. Drag another one and place it at 100. Then drag a Guide from the top ruler and place it at 100. We will use the guides to make a very simple animation path for our letters to follow. Your window will now look like this:
16.) Select the Path Tool. Maximize your background_000001.xcf window to add the path anchor points. Place a Path anchor point at position 0,300 (very lower left corner of the image). Place the next anchor point at 100,100, which is an intersection point for the two guides at the 100px vertical and horizontal guide. Next place an anchor point at 300,100. This is the interesection point for the vertical guide located at 300 and the horizontal guide located at 100. Finally, place an anchor point at 400,300, which is the lower right corner of background_000001.xcf. If you look in the Paths dialog window, you will see a simple path has been created. Rename that Path to CurvePath by double clicking on the path in the Paths dialog window and typing in the new name.
17.) Drag a new Guide line from the left side ruler of the background_000001.xcf window to 200. Then drag one more Guide line from the top ruler down to 50. Make sure the Path tool is selected. Make sure CurvePath is the selected path in the Paths dialog window. Then make the path visible by clicking on it's eye icon in the Paths dialog window.
18.) Click on the path in your background_000001.xcf image window. This will highlight the path and it's anchor points. Now click on the path at the guide intersection at 200,100. This is the point where the horizontal guide at 100 intersects the vertical guide at 200. Holding down your mouse button, drag the path up to the point at 200,50 (point where the horizontal guide at 50 intersects with the vertical guide located at 200). This will add a curve to the path:
The two small square boxes above the two upper anchor points can be used to further refine the curve. With the Path Tool still selected, grab the left box and move it to the right until the that dotted line becomes an extension of the upward sloping path line from the first anchor point up to that point. See the image below if that didn't make sense:
This adjusts the curve. Now take the handle on the right and move it left so that the horizontal line connected to it essentially extends the downward sloping line:
This creates a nice curved path for our text to follow.
Putting Everything Together
19.) In the background_000001.xcf window do:
Video | Duplicate Frames
In the window that pops up select 59 for N times then click OK.
20.) Now check in your Paths dialog window to make sure CurvePath is selected. Then do:
Video | Move Path
In the Move Path window make sure Instant Apply (A) is checked. For Source Image/Layer (B) make sure that you select the letter W from the drop down menu box. Just click on the little down arrow and select the W layer from the drop down list. We will be animating the word FOLLOW in opposite fashion. Meaning W first, then O, then the L's , then O, and finally F. The reason for doing this will become apparent later. Set Stepmode © to None. Handle (D) set to Center. From Frame (E) leave set to 1. To Frame (E) change that to 40. The entire animation will take place over 60 frames. Each letter must move along the path in the same number of frames. However, after the first letter, each following letter must be delayed with reference to the frame which it first appears in and also the frame that it finishes travelling the path. (We don't want all letters beginning and ending at the same frames, that would just make a bunch of letters all moving along the path bunched up together).
While Holding Down the SHIFT key click the Grab Path button (F). Then release the SHIFT key and click the Rotate Follow Button (G). Finally to preview your animated letter, click Anim Preview (H). In the window that opens select Exact Object on Frames. After previewing your first letter's animation, close out the preview and the little multilayer image that gets created and select Dont' Save. Back to the Move Path window, click OK to add the first letter to the animation frames.
21.) Once the Move Path tool has finished adding the first letter, return to background_000001.xcf. And again do:
Video | Move Path
It is very important that you follow these instructions in order. First check the Instant Apply box (A). Select the letter O layer for Source Image/Layer (B). Set Step Mode © to None. Handle (D) set to Center. Then change your From Frame to 5 and your To Frame to 44 (E).
In the previous Move Path that we did, letter W travelled the path from frame 1 through frame 40. A total of 40 frames. Since each letter must also travel the path over a total of 40 frames (so they all will move at the same speed), and since we need to delay each letter by some frames so they do not all appear on top of one another, I have arbitrarily chosen to make the delay between each letter 4 frames. (If you are thinking frame 5 to 44 is only 39 frames, please consider that it is frame 5 through 44 including frame 5, thus making it a total of 40 frames) When you do your own text along a path animation, you may wish to use a different delay. Different delays will produce different results.
Then hold down the SHIFT key and press the Grab Path button(F). Then release the SHIFT key and press the Rotate Follow button. Finally, if you wish, you can press the AnimPreview button (H). When the pop up window opens, select Exact Object on Frames, and press OK. A little preview window will open for you to play the little animation. Still not that exciting. Close out the preview and the little image that gets created and select Don't Save. (You will notice that when you run the animation preview that it only plays part of the animation. That is because you are only previewing each of the 40 frames that you are processing.) Returning to the Move Path window, click OK.
22.) Returning to background_000001.xcf when the Move Path tool finishes adding the previous lettter do:
Video | Move Path
Alter the settings in the order I have indicated above from A through H. A few points to emphasize: For Source Image/Layer choose the letter L layer. Remember that for step F, to hold down the SHIFT key while depressing the Grab Path button, and then to release the SHIFT key before depressing the Rotate Follow button (G). If you make a mistake and press the Grab Path button without holding down the SHIFT key, there is a fix for the problem. Just go back and hold down SHIFT and press the Grab Path button while doing so. You will have to always follow this by then pressing the Rotate Follow button (G).
This time the AnimPreview will show a little more of an interesting animation. Once you have previewed the animation, close out the preview and the little image that gets created and select Don't Save. Press OK in the Move Path window.
23.) Again back to background_000001.xcf and select:
Video | Move Path
As you can see, we are repeating a process over and over to make our final animation. The only difference that you will apply in each successive operation of the Move Path tool is selecting the appropriate layer letter from the Source Image/Layer drop down menu (we have L, O, and finally F remaining to do), and changing the From Frame and the To Frame values. I will provide the appropriate values for you to add for each time you run the Move Path tool.
This time you will naturally select the layer letter L that you selected previously. Your From Frame value will be 13 and your To Frame value will be 52. Dont' forget to hold down the SHIFT key when pressing the Grab Path button and release it before pressing the Rotate Follow button. Run an AnimPreview if you like once you made all your settings changes, following along with the same procedure that we did in previous steps.
24.) The next Move Path you will be selecting the letter O layer again. From Frame will be 17 and To Frame will be 56. Hopefully by now you are getting this repetitive procedure down.
25.) For the final Move Path you will choose layer letter F for the Source Image/Layer. From Frame will be 21 and To Frame will be 60. Your animation is looking pretty interesting by now. :-)
26.) OK, you have finished adding all the letters, thank goodness that is done. ;-) Now select:
Video | Frames to Image
In that window, you can accept the default values except for the section that is highlighted. Please change that value to 50ms. The reason is that will make the animation move at 20 frames per second. Then press OK. This will create a new image window. In that window, select:
Filters | Animation | Optimize (for GIF)
This will make yet another image window. In that window select:
File | SaveAs
Save your animation as text_path.gif and click Save. In the next window that opens, select:
Save As Animation
Then click Export.
In the following window that opens, accept the defaults and click OK. Your file will be created. Enjoy. :-)
Finally, you can have many things following a path for making an animation: text, objects, other looping animations.
Below are two other examples of text following a path animation using GAP.
