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Published: 2008-06-16 05:26:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 275; Favourites: 3; Downloads: 1
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The avi I made ([link] ) consists of 5 pictures or frames as they're called in animation. The more you have, the smoother the animation is. For example, it usually takes 8 pictures to make 2 eyes blink. To see the Wilt animation (on the right) go here: [link]1. Think of what you'd like to animate.
2. If it's more complicated than the above, you may want to sketch each frame beforehand so you know how many pics you'll have to draw, whether you do it traditionally or digitally.
3. For this (and other Paint animations), you'll draw out your first frame and save it. It's sometimes good to keep a few windows open so you can see what you did last. Depending on what you're animating, you might make slight changes to the first frame and keep going from there, or you might put a totally different pic in another frame like this:
4. The one I just mentioned is the easiest one to make since it only has three frames and all you have to do is put it in an animating program before saving it as a .gif. The one I did was also easy, but it took more steps. As I was saying before, to make something more complicated (or something like I did), you draw your first frame and save it. Name it something like Zeec 1, depending on what the subject is.
5. Make slight changes to the first frame, but don't save it! Instead, click Save As and name it the same thing with a 2 in the 1's place, etc.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you are ready to put it in an animator.
7. If you don't have money for a good animator, Google a free one like Microsoft Gif Animator. The one I have doesn't get installed so it goes away after you exit it. Whenever you want to use it, "install" it again, or find one that actually stays, lol.
8. Once you have an animator, insert your frames into it. I had to insert them starting with the last one and working backward with mine. Once you've done this, click the first frame and then the Image tab. Go down to the duration bar and put in a number. Do this with each frame. The higher the number, the slower each one will be. Either way, 24 frames equals 1 second in animation. Start with that number if you'd like.
9. After plugging in numbers, press the preview button. It will give you an example of how fast or slow your animation is, but don't think it's the real speed of the animation. Save what you have and go to your recent documents and open your animation in the Internet to see the actual speed. If it's not to your liking, plug in new numbers and try again. This can take a while sometimes.
P.S: All frames must be saved as gifs as well as the finished product. If you have an AVI to Gif converter, you can make your animation in Movie Maker.
I hope this tutorial helps anyone who ever wanted to know how to animate something (even if it's just blinking lights or eyes.) If you have any questions, ask away.
Zeec © My sister and I
Wilt © Craig McCracken
This version of Wilt © Me
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Comments: 12
me-duhhh [2008-07-26 02:27:57 +0000 UTC]
I must say, though, that this is pretty much the worst tool for doing this at all (and that's coming from the one who always uses it X_X ).
In fact, 24 frames does NOT always = 1 second of animation. If you want the framerate to be at standard broadcasting rate, then fine, but the very minimum needed was 12-15 (I think 15 is more accurate) to simulate motion.
[link] is a good example of how sucky a sprite movie is even with a ton of work. The method I used to use is inherently flawed an I will never again recommend it for large tasks.
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InvdrDana In reply to me-duhhh [2008-07-27 03:00:07 +0000 UTC]
What...Paint or the Gif Animator? Either way, they're both good for simple things.
What's wrong with doing it at the broadcasting rate? And if you were referring to the Zeec avi...I did start it off at 12 and continued from there. It was too slow in that range.
I've seen that twice already.
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me-duhhh In reply to InvdrDana [2008-07-27 03:35:44 +0000 UTC]
The way you recommend at broadcast rate would be nearly impossible for just 1 second.
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InvdrDana In reply to me-duhhh [2008-07-27 05:29:35 +0000 UTC]
I don't know too much when it comes to the technical stuff.
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me-duhhh In reply to InvdrDana [2008-07-27 05:47:01 +0000 UTC]
You'd have to make 24 paint frames (uhg) just to get 1 second, making it highly impractical (fingerbleed)
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InvdrDana In reply to me-duhhh [2008-07-27 05:56:17 +0000 UTC]
I know that much. For a small animation, however, 12-15 seconds for each picture duration can be too fast. It just depends though.
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Netbug009 [2008-06-16 07:39:53 +0000 UTC]
P.S. GIF editor drove me nuts. Ever tries the GIMP? It works much better.
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InvdrDana In reply to Netbug009 [2008-06-17 04:12:03 +0000 UTC]
They can make me crazy too. It'd be nice if I could use Movie Maker, but then I couldn't submit it.
But yeah, I have GIMP, but I didn't know it had an animating component.
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Netbug009 In reply to InvdrDana [2008-06-18 20:28:13 +0000 UTC]
Yeah, you can. Put each frame on a layer and go to the optimize for animation thing.
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Netbug009 [2008-06-16 07:39:12 +0000 UTC]
Nice! Though, I think it actually may take longer to open an eye then to close it in a blink, so you may want to move the second frame to the end. Maybe some people blink differently though.
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InvdrDana In reply to Netbug009 [2008-06-17 04:10:18 +0000 UTC]
Thanks. ^^ It looks okay in the animation though. My brother actually helped me a lot with the Wilt one since it was my first animation.
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