Animation Shop tutorial 1

[rocket]

This thread is primarily for Vernalee. The thread can be deleted after copying. "Animation Shop" tutorial 1 The Animation I will start with is a simple one I made that will help you get used to the program. First off copy the 2 pics in this post and the animation and all further pics to a folder. To view the lesson open folder, right click on first pic and select "Windows Photo Viewer" or any program that will display photos like a slide show. What we hope to create

2 Pics used to create Animation, First pic is invisible but is their. Mouse over to find all.

[rocket]

Copy all pics to same folder! Notice red oval, top left corner. Click on Animation Wizard in YOUR program to follow lesson as we go if you so desire.

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Add the two images as shown one at a time. (click add image, select image, open, add image, select image, open; NEXT)

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Take note of all choices in this Box. For different things the choices will change. In the Effect Box, explore all the different choices for transitions. After selecting one and clicking OK, you can always use the curved BACK arrow top line of program to undo your choice.

Note the arrows in bottom corners of frames. These are to move forward or backwards in the animation.

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Once again, EXPLORE the 21 different effects.

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Preview Animation! Click to turn ON or OFF Preview. If timing needs to be adjusted for all frames. Click one one Frame, then Ctrl+A to select all, then right click any frame and select "Frame Properties." Select "Animation Properties" if you want to switch between Transparent and Opaque. If you POST on a white background Opaque is all you need. However it is harder to combine two Animations into one.

After running "Optimization Wizard" preview Animation again BEFORE "Saving As..." ( Back circle Arrow to undo ) You may need to play with the Optimization settings to get the look you can be satisified with. I use Best Image Quality Setting unless the file size is larger than 1000 kb. A large Animation will usually be under 500 kb. One of the last screens of the Optimizer will give you the file size.

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Additional Tips:

If you need further clarification, let me know. On the tool bar, if you mouse over, you will find other useful tools. Crop, Dropper (set color from a frame), Brush (I used this to draw hair on smiley), Eraser (make any part of Frame Transparent), Flood Fill ( change color to selected Palette color) Text (add any text to any frame) On left side is the Color Palette (works just like the text color palette on this forum) If your mouse has a center wheel this can be used by itself to magnify. If you play with the program a little bit, you will soon see that it is a very basic and simple program to use.

[Musky]

Great tutorial! I was fine until the second to the last step. The choice for "Animation frame" is grayed out?

[Musky]

Nevermind, I figured it out! Thanks! Still a little "choppy" but I'll keep playing with it!

Quick question, where do you come up with the "frames"? Can you generate them with Animation shop?

[rocket]

I use Jasc Paint Shop Pro (cheap program) for picture editing and in this case to make the blank pic. I use Digital Juice Fonts and "Juicer 3" to make the Text Pics. Not so cheap Fonts but the Juicer Program is Free. You can generate blank frames with Animation Shop of any size.(under "file" click new) To the Blank frames you can add only to the limit of your imagination any number of already made animations. Just copy and paste one frame at a time. And, Or one can add text with the basic text generator. With Paint Shop I have as a plugin "Super Blade Pro" by Flaming Pear (example below) but it is not nearly as versatile as the Juicer. With a plug-in for the Juicer that allows you to easily convert any DJ Font into an Apple LiveFont which can then be used in Apple Final Cut Studio. To expensive for me and I am a windows guy.

In your version of the above Animation, My guess would be that the Opaque option for one or both frames was selected as the Stained glass Effect does not blend with the Transparency. I may be very wrong however and you have caugh on to a trick I haven't seen yet.

[GrumpysWife]

Thank you. I'll work on that tomorrow.