Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
The best way to learn about animated GIFs is to create one. Here's how to make twinkling
stars:
1.
In the Editor, set your foreground color to some shade of yellow and the back-
ground color to black
.
See
Choosing Colors
if you need help setting these colors.
2.
Create a new document
.
Press Ctrl+N/
⌘
-N. In the New dialog box, set the size to 200 pixels x 200 pixels,
choose RGB for the color mode, and then choose Background Color for the back-
ground contents. Finally, set the resolution to 72 ppi, and then click OK.
3.
Activate the Custom Shape tool (
The Custom Shape Tool
)
and choose a star
shape
.
In the Tool Options area, click the down arrow to the right of the Shape field to open
the Shapes panel. Then click the drop-down menu at the top of the panel and select
Nature. Double-click the Sun 2 shape, which is in the top row, second from the left.
4.
Draw some stars
.
Drag to draw one yellow star, and then, in the Tool Options area, click the “Add to
shape area” button (see
Figure 5-4
) before drawing four or five more stars. (This puts
all the stars on the same layer, which is important, since that way you won't have a
bunch of layers to merge.)
5.
Merge the star layer and the Background layer
.
Choose Layer→Merge Down. You now have one layer containing yellow stars on a
black background, like the bottom layer in
Figure 17-6
.
