Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Let's tackle an emoticon now that spins its eyes and appears
to be saying “Oh, wow!”
1.
Open emoticon.xar, press
CTRL
-
A
to select all, and then click
the Zoom To Drawing icon on the Standard Bar for a good
look at what you need to animate. Press
ESC
to deselect.
Open the Animation Frame Gallery and make sure the
2.
duration of the first frame is set to 0.2 seconds on the
Frame tab in the Animation Properties dialog box. Usually
0.1 or 0.2 seconds is good for GIF animations, taking into
account the Internet connection speed of most users and the
size of the GIF file. This duration basically plays frames
in real time with no pause. If you need to add a pause to
a specific GIF animation, anywhere from 0.5 seconds
to 2 seconds works. Anything longer and you bore your
audience. GIF animations are 100% bitmaps; therefore,
tweening of vectors isn't used, so you don't need to name
objects.
To begin, this emoticon needs a transparent
3.
background—everywhere outside the emoticon should
allow the forum's default page color to show through.
Click the Properties button on the Animation Frame
Gallery, and then click on the GIF Options tab.
Check the Make Background Transparent box if it's
4.
not already checked; the non-transparent areas of the
emoticon will blend to the page color.
Set the Number Of Colors In Palett
5.
e
to 32 and then click
the Preview Frame button on the Infobar. You do this to
save on exported file size. The GIF file format is capable
of 256 maximum unique colors. This emoticon doesn't
contain nearly this many colors, and
32 is a guess based on experience.
If the frame preview looks good,
32 was the lucky number. For tiny
emoticons, anywhere between 18
and 128 unique colors in its palette
usually works. Every frame is a new
bitmap in GIF animations so they
add up in saved file size; limiting
the palette to exclude unnecessary
colors is a wise first step. Click OK
to close Animation Properties.
Preview Frame
