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GIMP ANIMATION EFFECTSAnimation: Images – Flying Text(captured during animation in the browser)IMAGES – PROMOTIONAL TEXT FLYING FROM A MONITORGIMP is all about IT (Images and Text)Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 1 of 18
DOWNLOADNG THE GAP ANIMATION PACKAGEBefore you begin this image animation, you will need todownload a free animation plugin for GIMP called GAP (GIMPAnimations Package). Instructions to download are included onthe Animations tab of the Web site.This will add a new Video menu item to the GIMP Menu Bar.ANIMATING AN IMAGECreating an animated image using the GAP tool consists of twoseparate image files – the images that animate and thebackground image.The final animation in this tutorial creates an image withpromotional text flying from a monitor.Open GIMP CREATING A BACKGROUND IMAGEStep 1: From the Menu Bar, select File New At the Create aNew Image dialog box, select 500 pixels for the Width: and 500pixels for the Height:. Click the sign to the right of AdvancedOptions and click the Fill with: down arrow and select white. Clickthe OK button.Step 2: In the new image window, from the Menu Bar, select File Save and save the blank image in a folder namedbackground frames as Background 000001.xcf.Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 2 of 18
Note: The name is important as GAP saves all animation files as Background 000001, Background 000002,Background 000003, etc. with a .xcf extension.Step 3: In the new Background.000001.xcf image window,from the Menu Bar, select Video Duplicate Frames In the Ntimes: text box, type the number of frames you want in theanimation (for this tutorial, I chose 50) and click the OK button.With the existing background image, you now have 51 frames inyour animation.Note: The number that you select for the N times: is really up to you. The more frames you select, the smoother theanimation but the larger the file size.At this point, you can check your background frames folderand you will see that you have 51 background files(Background 000001.xcf toBackground 000051.xcf).Once the animation is complete, you will be able to delete this folder and all of the background images. The animationitself will consist of only one .gif file.CREATING THE IMAGEStep 1: Download a flat screen monitor image. You can find oneat Clker.com http://www.clker.com/clipart-3658.htmlStep 2: From the background 000001.xcf screen, open thedownloaded file: monitor.png.It is important to open this in a separate canvas because of theway the GAP plugins work.Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 3 of 18
Step 3: In the original background000001.xcf screen, selectVideo Move PathMake sure the monitor.png is selected as the ‘SourceImage/Layer’, that ‘Stepmode’ is set to none, and the ‘Handle’ isset to center (it is easiest to have the image visually centered).Drag the cross hairs, with the monitor image centered behindthem, so the monitor is at the bottom of the image backgroundimage. You will need to use the ‘Scale and Modify’ tab to makethe monitor image a bit smaller, as it is rather large. Try 50%.Your Move Path screen will look like this:Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 4 of 18
Step 4: Now click the OK button to place the monitor image in thesame position on each of 51 background frames.Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 5 of 18
Step 5: You can now close the monitor image so it doesn’taccidentally get selected in the next steps.CREATING THE FIRST TEXT MESSAGE IMAGEStep 1: From the Menu bar, select File New and make a newcanvas 800 x 300 pixels with a transparent background.Step 2: Click the Text iconin the Toolbox and enter the text‘Special Offer’ with a font size of 75px and a font face of Sans Bold.Step 3: Use the Crop toolto crop the image around the text.ANIMATING THE TEXT MESSAGEStep 1: With the Background 000001.xcf image open,select Video Move Path to open the Move Path dialog box.Step 2: Make sure the text message you just typed is selected inthe ‘Source image/Layer’, ‘Stepmode’ is none, ‘Handle’ is center,and ‘Instant Apply’ is checked.Instant Apply will let you see the result of your selections.Step 3: Drag the text to the center of the monitor that is on thebackground image and then ‘Scale and Modify’ it to 20%. The textwill grow as the animation progresses.Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 6 of 18
The next step is very important because it determines how longeach text message appears in the animation. So we have todetermine how many frames our first text message to appear on.To do this, use the ‘From Frame” and the ‘To Frame’ sliders. WeImages: Flying TextAnimationPage 7 of 18
want this text to appear at the beginning, animate, and then fadeaway as a new text message appears.We know we have 51 frames. Let’s do a little math. We need todivide as many text messages as we have by the number offrames, and make adjustments for overlapping.Let’s put the first text message on frames 1 – 25, the second on 10– 35, and then the third from 25 – 51.You want to overlap so there isn’t any blank white spacebetween text animations. Basically the second step starts alittle before the first step has actually finished. Because thefirst and second steps have the same number of frames and thesame number of control points, this is okay because they moveat the exact same pace.The final begins a little later relatively so that it doesn’t overlap.It has more control points; therefore it does more things withinthe allotted frames, so it actually moves faster than the othersegments. Therefore it moves in the frame quicker, and willrun into the other text if you don’t give it a bigger cushion thanthe first two text blocks.Step 4: To animate the first text message, set the ‘From Frame’ to1 and the ‘To Frame’ to 25.Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 8 of 18
Step 5: What we do now will only move through the first 25frames. We can determine how the text animates over theseframes using the ‘Edit Controlpoints’ screens.Step 6: Set the initial control point by clicking the ‘Add Point’button. Now you can move the text to it next point and tell itwhat we want it to do. Click and drag the text to the verticalcenter of the white space above the monitor.Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 9 of 18
Step 7: Click the ‘Add Point’ button to set this new position as the‘control point’.Step 8: Drag the text off the screen at the top, change the‘Opacity’ level to 0 in the ‘Scale and Modify’ section, and then clickthe ‘Add Point’ button to complete the first text message’sanimation.Step 9: To preview the first text animation, click the ‘AnimPreview’ button. Click ‘Exact object on frames’. You will see thefirst 25 frames of the animation.If you want to redo this part, you can click Cancel and start over.To keep the animation, click the ‘OK’ button to add those framesto the animation.CREATING AND ANIMATING THE SECOND TEXT MESSAGENow we need to create a second text message, ‘Limited Time,’and animate it. It will work the same way as the first messageexcept that we start with Frame 10 and end on Frame 35.Step 1: First either close the first text canvas without saving ormodify it to the new text we want to use, “Limited Time!” as thetext message.Step 2: On the background000001.xcf screen, select Video Move Path Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 10 of 18
Step 3: The Screenshot above shows the 7 steps for the first partof the animation for the second text message:Step 4: The Screenshot below shows the next three steps:Move the text up, increase its size and have it rotate 360Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 11 of 18
degrees:Step 4: Click the ’Add Point’ button.Step 5: Drag the text message up and off the screen.Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 12 of 18
Step 6: Change the opacity to 0%Step 7: Click the ‘Add Point’ button for its final time.Step 8: Move the “Frame” slider out of the frames that the firsttext occupies. (past frame 25). Preview the animation. Redo orclick the ‘OK’ button to add Frames 10 – 35 to the previousanimation.CREATING AND ANIMATING THE SECOND TEXT MESSAGEStep 1: Modify the second text message to “Call Now!” and croparound the text.Step 2: In the background000001.xcf file, click Video Move Path Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 13 of 18
Repeat the steps you used for the previous two text messages.Steps 1-6 are shown in Screenshot above.Change the “From Frame” is set to 25 or 30 and the “To Frame” isset to the max, 51.Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 14 of 18
Because this section of the animation is a little different, we don’tstart at the next logical increment (we went from 1 to 25, thenfrom 10 to 35 before) we give it a little more space otherwise thissection will overlap a bit with the previous. Move the text up,make it bigger, and have it rotate a full time to 360, then click“Add Point”.Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 15 of 18
Let’s experiment a bit with this text.Step 1: Move the opacity to 0Step 2: Click “Add Point”Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 16 of 18
Step 3: Move the ‘Scale and Modify’’ back to 100Step 4: Click the ‘Add Point’ button.Step 5: Move the rotation to -360.Step 6: Click the ‘Add Point’ button.Step 7: ‘Scale and Modify’ to 100.Step 8: Click the ‘Add Point’.Step 9: ‘Scale and Modify’ to 50.Step 10: Click the ‘Add Point’ button.Step 11: ‘Scale and Modify’ to 100.Step 12: Click the ‘Add Point’ button.This will make the text message fade out then back in, do a doublebackward rotation, then grow, shrink and grow again.Step 13: Then click the ‘OK’ button.OPTIMIZING AND SAVING THE ANIMATIONStep 1: Select Video- Frames to Image, keep the defaults, andclick the ‘OK’ button.This will create a new untitled canvas.Step 2: Go to Filters- Animation- Optimize for Gif.Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 17 of 18
This will process the animation and bring up another untitledproject.Step 3: Save as Flying Text mm dd yy with a .gifextension in a folder named anim images.My advice is to put it somewhere other than where you saved thatfirst background 000001 canvas).Step 4: In the export file dialogue, choose “Save as Animation”then click Export and click the Save button.Step 5: Close all open windows.Step 6: Delete the background frames folder and itscontents.TEST THE GIF ANIMATIIONStep 1: Navigate to the\PortableApps\GIMP\Animation\anim images\folder.Step 2: Right click on the flying text mm dd yy.gif fileand select Open With Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.Images: Flying TextAnimationPage 18 of 18
This will add a new Video menu item to the GIMP Menu Bar. ANIMATING AN IMAGE Creating an animated image using the GAP tool consists of two separate image files - the images that animate and the background image. The final animation in this tutorial creates an image with promotional text flying from a monitor. Open GIMP
