(this sample gif is made from only one image edited in Picasa2 using different effects. Each time i made an effect i "saved as" and the went back to the effects and used the same effect a little more. Again I "saved as" until i had 9 frames.)


Gif Animations

There are many gif animation programs that are free on the web. Best thing to do is find one that you like and run with it. With Vista I’ve found that for $20 there is Easy Gif Animator. What's nice about this program is that it is compatible with Vista! that's right you heard me-- VISTA!

http://www.blumentals.net/egifan/ only 20$ here

http://www.soft32.com/download_5397.html for free trial you can only use 20 times so open the program wisely.

For mac there's graphic converter at:

Http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/11559

Here’s a fun one. This will change one pic to the next and is free!

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Multimedia_and_Graphics/Video_and_Animation_Tools/SmartMorph.html

After you have downloaded the software:

Edit photos with Picasa2 or photo editing program and place in numerical order.

Open Easy Gif Animator up and press Add images. Proceed to import your images by highlighting them and pressing "Open" and then click on Next>

Most gifs are set to play infinitely. So select Yes to play infinitely if you want.

For setting how long you would like each frame to be displayed. If you have 10 frames then I would place the frames at 25 or .25 seconds. (The smaller the number the faster the frame rate.)

Then hit next.

In the Next window I Resize to Fit.

Click on Next and then Finish.

The program will then import all you images. It may take a few minutes.

If you want you can go to animation properties tab or animation tab at the top and resize animation and change the percentage of the gif to make the image smaller. The smaller you image the smaller the file. Anything over 3mb will not work well. If you upload to Photobucket you can also resize there, too.

To save your Gif.

Go to file and save as. Name it and place it in the folder you want. Make sure the Save file type is set to GIF.

Press save and you are Done. Easy!

What about making a Gif out of your movies? There are programs out there that will allow you to do this. I have not found one yet. The problem that you can run into is that gifs need to be small files and you need specific software to compress large video files.

Remeber a gif is there to enhance the look of you page and not play your whole 2 minute video clip. The juxtaposition of 2 or more gifs next to each other may enhance your concept.

The more gif's and larger the file the slower it will take to load you page.