How to make an animated gif
Making an animated gif is very easy. I have found that using powerpoint is one of the easiest
and quickest ways of making gifs. You will also need a gif animator. I use a very basic
animator called UnFreez. It is probably the easiest animator you will find. It is only about
19kb in size and there is no installation required. It just sits on your Desktop and is ready to
use. At school, you can find it on the School Portal, under Year 10, Student Applications.
Scroll down until you see Unfreez. Double click on it to open it.
If you want to use it at home, you can Download it free here: UnFreez
(http://www.gifstop.com/unfreez.exe)
Sample A
Part 1: Animating letters in a word.
Let’s start by making a simple word. Let's use your name, I will write "NAME".
Open Powerpoint.
Insert a text box on the first slide.
Select a font size of 24, select bold print, select the text color red.
Use the text box in powerpoint to make a N (The first letter in your name).
Right-click on the edge of the text box surrounding the N, and select
“Save as picture”.
Save it as a “gif” to your Desktop so it’s easy to find.
By default, it will be named “Picture1". Make sure you select “gif” where it says
“Save as type”.
N
Next, insert the letter A (The second letter in your name).
Make the second letter a different colour to the first letter.
If you want, you can even change the font and the size of the second letter.
Right-click on the edge of the text box surrounding the NA, and select “Save as
picture”. Save it to your Desktop as a “Picture2.gif”.
N
Insert the letter M (the third letter in your name). Change the colour, size and font
of the third letter.
Right-click on the edge of the text box and save it to your Desktop as Picture3.gif.
N M
Continue in this way until you have put all the letters of your name in the text box,
and saved each new addition as a gif to your desktop.
If your name has less than six letters, you will have to do either your name and your
middle name, or your name and last name.
The last gif you need to make is a blank gif to make the whole name disappear.
Otherwise the second to last letters will be the only letters that animate. Click on the
word NAME so that the text box shows around it. Delete the all the letters, but leave
the text box.
Right-click on the edge of the text box and save it to the Desktop as a gif. If the text
box disappears, click on "Edit" then "Undo", and it will reappear.
If you are at school, go to the portal. Click on the Year 10 tab, find Student
Applications on the right hand side of the screen, and find Unfreez.
Double click on Unfreez to open the UnFreez animator on your Desktop.
Find the gifs you have saved on your Desktop and drag each one into the window of
the Unfreez animator starting with Picture1.gif until you have all the gifs in the
animator.
You have to select the speed you want your animated gif to play by raising the
number on the Frame Delay. The higher the number, the slower it moves. For now,
select 25.
You can select the option to loop continuously or play once. For now, leave the box
checked to Loop animation.
Click on “Make Animated GIF”. Save it to your Desktop as “Animated (put your
name here without the brackets).gif”.
Find “Animated (put your name here without the brackets).giff” on your Desktop and
open it.
If you are happy with your animation, you have to save your finished gif to my
dropbox in your class folder.
Experiment with different pictures or word fonts. With a little practice, you will get
better and better.
Part 2: Animating pictures
Method 1: Drawing on the picture
Open All Programs, Accessories, Paint.
When in Paint, go to File, Open
Choose a picture you want to open in Paint
Use the drawing tools to add a small
Change to the picture
Go to File, Save As
Add a name you will associate with the picture into File Name
For the box Save as type, click the down arrow, and choose GIF (*.gif)
Now go back to your picture in Paint. Make another small change to your picture.
Go to File, Save As. Name your picture, and SAVE AS TYPE GIF.
Continue this process until you have made about ten changes to your picture, and saved
inbetween every minor change as a GIF.
Open Unfreez. Drag the sequence of GIFs into Unfreez. Set the time delay as 25, and
leave it as a looped gif.
Save your final Animated Gif in your Pictures or Desktop or where you will find it
again, with a name you will associate with the animation
Open a picture in Paint, as described above.
Click on the Freeform select tool.
Trace around a part of your picture.
Move that part up or down, sideways etc.
Fill in the white bits where you moved the bit, with black
Save your changed image as a GIF, as described above.
Continue making changes and saving as Gifs. Use Unfreez to create the Animated Gif.
Open a picture in Paint, as
described above.
Make sure you have selected the
picture
Click on Image
Choose different options like
Rotate, Stretch etc.
After every small change, save your
picture as a GIF
Use Unfreez to create your
Animated Gif, as described above.
Below is an example of a sequence of pictures I drew on (the eyes) and saved inbetween every
minor change as a GIF. The finished gif is on the wiki
http://ictyear7.wikispaces.com/Animated+Gifs