Before creating GIF animation it is important to have viewed many at the Best Animation site collection to stimulate some creativity and learn more about what is possible. There are numerous applications for creating GIF animations. Though Flash is more efficient once learned, it takes longer to learn and is among the more expensive applications to buy, even in comparison with the other Adobe software products. So, several approaches will be reviewed for those interested in exploring and learning the creation GIF animations. The basic procedure is the same for almost all GIF animation editing. Create a basic foreground and background design. The simplest is a single object over a layer of color. Once the foreground object is drawn, duplicate the frame and modify it slightly. Repeat the process of duplicating or creating new frames from scratch until the animation is complete. Save the file and upload to a Web site or insert into a Web page.
The Adobe Fireworks application is installed on all of the computers in our computer lab and at Hunter Library. View the YouTube screen movie below.
Next, direct Fireworks to open some GIF animations that were found and saved from elsewhere on the Web. Use Flash's "state" command just shown in the above videoclip to examine each of the frames and see what kinds of changes were made between the frame images. Look at as many as you can, then return to the Flash application and use some of the ideas that were discovered to improve your own animation.GIF Maker is one many online animated gif creators that do not provide drawing tools to create the animation frames, but do provide a way to assemble images created in some drawing editor. Use pixlr.com to create a drawing window of uniform size, and then create 9 more of the same size. Draw an image in the first box, then copy it to the second and change it slightly. Continue this process until done. You may not need all 10 or it may be necessary to create more. Save each image to a folder or convenient location such as the desktop. Need starter ideas? Make a list of a few of the motions you've seen since breakfast. This might range from a door opening and closing to a set of boxes that get restacked.
Use GIF Maker and see the videoclip below.
Other online options besides GIF Maker include GifMake (instructions) or Animine to set the timing for each image, then save as a GIF file. There is also Flipbook from Benetton Play, an online application, that will make series of pictures that create an animated GIF. With flipbooks, the timing interval is the same for all images in the sequence. Use the duplicate command to create a new frame with the results of the last frame, then make changes. Continue until ready to save and load to an online Web page.
The Amazing Kids site also has a fine list of animation tutorials, some of which are GIF focused: Amazing Animation Lessons on the Web
Chapter - Animation Composition Houghton Updated October 19, 2009