Create Animated GIFs With Fading Images Using GIMP! FREE!

Recently, a viewer wondered how to use Gimp (a free image editing software) to create animated GIFs with fading images.  In a previous tutorial, I had shown how to create one using Photoshop Elements 7.0.  The steps involved are somewhat similar, no matter which software is used.

The video above is my newest fading animated GIF tutorial, using one of the best pieces of free image editing software, GIMP!

Enjoy! (^.^)v  

How to Make Animated GIFs Using GIMP (FREE!)

In the comments on a previous tutorial, someone recently asked where to get Photoshop Elements 7.0 software to make animated GIFs.  While Photoshop Elements 7.0 is likely still available for purchase, I realize some may not want to purchase it just to make animated GIFs.

When I first became interested in making animated graphics for websites many years ago, I found GIMP.  It's very similar to Photoshop (in some ways, better!) but it's FREE!  Well, I guess that counts as one of the ways it's better!  haha!  So, I put together this tutorial in case others may want an alternative to costly software.

Until next time~~ (^.^)v  

GIF With Fading Images Tutorial & Other Interesting Tidbits

Not too long ago, a viewer asked how to make a GIF with images that fade into one another.  I think I've addressed it in this video.  Though I'm sure there are a few more ways the same result can be achieved.  It's been a while since I've made a fading GIF, so I may be a tad rusty.  In any case, I hope someone finds this tutorial useful.

As for the length of time it has taken me to post a video or to blog about anything at all . . .
Well, it's been one interesting start of a year, let's say!

I had high hopes this year.  With plans to start some new projects early on.  Sadly, illness and a few other surprises have put a kink in my scheme and knocked me off path.  (~.~)

No worries.  Back on track I go.

In the works are videos about the crazy workout I just started.  ~Oh my!~  Yes, I finished TurboFire and loved it.  I was on my 2nd or 3rd? round of it, when I decided to mix it up a bit.

The new workout is called Insanity.  Did I say this already?  Its name is quite fitting.  'Cause you pretty much have to be CRAZY to do this workout!  Which, I suppose, suits me fine. ha!  Now, if you think you're up for the challenge, you can find Insanity through my website:  www.beachbodycoach.com/SDCHAN
Browse my page, click on the Shop and find it there or just click this graphic!
      

Pretty much, I dare you!  hahaha!
Just kiddin'. I wouldn't want to be responsible for anyone getting hurt.  That being said, here's my Disclaimer:

If you should try any workout program that I recommend on this site, do so at your own risk!  I should probably add, see a doctor before doing the programs I mention on this site.  Make sure you can handle it.  Especially, Insanity.  Holy cow!  

More on this at a later date.

Okay, I'll move on.

I also hope to do more videos about the simple jewelry I've made.  It seems many of you are interested in how to make your own.  I'll be sure to put a few more jewelry tutorials out there.

Oh!  And animation tutorials!  I can't forget those, because they are some of my favorite.  Those videos are also the most time-consuming.  I'll do my best!

It's going to be a busy year.  Let's all make it a great one! \(^.^)/

Until next time~~^*^

 

 

How to Use Chroma Key in Vegas Movie Studio

For some reason, this short tutorial took days to complete!  That would be the reason you don't see many like it on my channel.  Still, I enjoy doing these kinds of videos and plan to do more in the future.

The tutorial shows how to use the chroma keyer plugin found in Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0.  At least, the way I use it.  Ha!

I don't have a chroma green backdrop, so I decided to create a simple animation and give it a green background.  Sort of a green screen simulation.

 I created the animation using Anime Studio Pro, which is a whole different tutorial in itself.  Yep, I've already made a tutorial for that one.

Here's the link to a 3-part series I did explaining switch layers, and whatnot, in Anime Studio Pro 6:
Switch Layer Tutorial

Okay, moving on to chroma keying.

Here's what it looks like after chroma keying.

This image contains 4 layers.  The girl animation, a photo of a tree, some clouds and a photo of the moon.  In that order.  The chroma key plugin was applied to the girl animation background, and then to the sky in the tree photo.  I could have used video in the layers instead of photos if I wanted.  Which would be pretty cool, too!  There are so many options.  I did manage to animate the moon using track motion.

My face in the sky was cut out with the Cookie Cutter plugin.  I changed the border of it to blue and chroma keyed that, too.  I was told the result was creepy ... not nearly as creepy as the junk that would have shown up in the background.  Haha!  Oh, the possibilities!

  

One thing to note, when applying any type of effect to media in Vegas, one needs to understand which option to choose between Media FX and Video Event FX.  My understanding is that selecting Media FX applies the chosen effect to the clip in every instance in which it appears, including in the Project Media bin.  If Video Event FX is chosen, only in that instance is the desired effect applied.  So, using Media FX  helps to save time if the media will be used repeatedly throughout the entire work.

I tried to keep the tutorial as simple as possible.  But, of course, there are a few slightly more complex elements I threw in toward the end.  I briefly brush over how to animate the moon, but didn't go into detail.  I may need to make another tutorial!

Until next time~~

 


  

How to Clean Up Background Audio Using the Free Audacity Editor

I thought I'd do a quick tutorial about audio editing.  Particularly, since I do quite a few voice-overs lately and need the audio to sound clean and nice.

I've used a few audio editors.  Some were supposed to be good stuff!  But, Audacity, impresses me with all the features it has.  And, it's free!

Awesome!

When I first came across the noise removal feature in Audacity, I thought it was magical.  I have been able to filter out all sorts of miscellaneous, extraneous and downright distracting background noise from my voice-over recordings.  I know there is other software that does this, but... did I mention Audacity is free?

Here's the link, if you want to get Audacity for yourself and see what I'm talking about.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Oh!  And here's my wee little tutorial.  There's loads more I could tell you about the software, though I'll leave it at this for now.

By the way, choose the HD option and turn up the sound to better hear the noise removal tool's skills. Which probably means it's best viewed on YouTube and not here. Ah well.

Enjoy!

How to Make an Animated GIF for Tumblr

I remember years ago, there was a wondrous place called MySpace. I know, it seems nearly defunct now, but at one time, it was the place to be. You could post photos, music playlists and animated GIFs. It seemed everyone was making those GIFs and putting them in their comments. I couldn't wait to figure out how to make them, too. There were, and still are, websites out there that help you make them for free. Just Google "animated gif maker" and you'll see what I mean. But the first ones I ever created were made using an old version Photoshop and Image Ready 2.0.

Now, we have Tumblr to post those still popular magical moving images. And now, I've got some slightly newer software, Photoshop Elements 7.0.

It has been quite some time since I made an animated GIF, since lately I've been animating with the likes of Anime Studio Pro 6 and DrawPlusX5. Though, after a little brushing up with Photoshop, I made a couple of them fairly easily.

It got me thinking, there might be others out there who've wondered how it's done, like I did back in the MySpace days. So, I made a video about it. Enjoy! (^.^)/

Oranges at Play

So, I was sitting at the table looking at the oranges that no one will eat. I guess they are just too cute.

There was little left to do, but document a moment of their day.

I used the Canon Vixia to take some still shots of the little guys at play. Then, found some music, "Silly Fun", Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Rounding it out with a few sound effects, www.flasherdot.org, www.soundjay.com and me using Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS)to create the "force" sound effect. All edited with Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0. At last, I've figured out how to make a wobbling "force" beam using Vegas. For me, this is a major accomplishment. Maybe I'll do a tutorial on it.

It would seem, I've got too much time on my hands. Perhaps, though it's possible this little exercise in stop motion animation might come in handy one day. In the meantime, I'll just keep honing my skills. It doesn't hurt that it's loads of fun!

Kaleidoscope Experiment II

Sometimes, it's just nice to hear some nice music and not see anything in particular whilst doing it. Not anything with a defined shape, that is. If music had shape, though, I imagine it would be a flowing morphing one. It would have color and on occasion, not.

I gathered some pics I'd taken last year, along with a few graphics I'd created, and dropped them on the PowerDirector8 timeline. There's a neat feature in the software for automatically creating pans, zooms and fades of still images. I clicked on that. Then, I applied the kaleidoscope effect. A few tweaks and it was time to finish editing on the Sony Vegas Movie Studio software.

The music, "Willow and the Light" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). It took me a long time to find a piece that felt right. This one seemed to suit. I think it reminded me of an epic video game I'd played a while ago. Loads of adventure that one had.

In the final edit, I cycled the vid twice, but applied a "light-ray" effect on the second cut. I could have done more with that, I thought it was pretty. Maybe next time.

Here you go~~

Simple Head Turn Animation Using Anime Studio Pro 6

In keeping with the whole tutorial theme of late, I thought I'd put together this truly simple little head turn animation.

Now, I'm not the best artist in the world, so a 2d character turning its head is a little tricky for me. There are several ways to animate the movement. The one I'm using is a switch layer technique.

All one need do is make a few different drawings of a character's pose. The layers the drawings are in are then dragged into a switch layer. That's where the magic happens. The switch layer. (*.-)

By advancing the timeline, and selecting different images in the switch layer along the way, the character comes alive.

It's good to have this stuff documented. I have a tendency to forget how to use some of my favorite software. Maybe these tutorials will keep me focused! Ha!

Test Drive: Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0

Yep, I've got some new software to test.

This one is Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0 . That was a mouthful!

Okay, I'm just learning how to use this software. It isn't quite as simple as my old movie editing stuff, Cyberlink PowerDirector. I still like the PowerDirector, by the way. It's fast. Really, fast! But, for certain, Vegas Movie Studio gives one a wee bit more control over some things. Or maybe, I should say, lots more control.

I scrapped together some pieces of video, then put some music I'd made on the LMMS software with it. It was a quick hack job, to be sure. Though, it was enough to get my feet wet with the program.

Problems I ran into, other than not knowing what in the world I was doing, were fairly minimal. A couple times, during rendering, some memory warnings popped up. These were false warnings, as my system is brand new and has more than enough RAM memory. I'd read about a fix for this issue, as it appears to be a somewhat common software issue. I attempted the fix, but ended up with a non-functioning program. After undoing the mess, and restarting the computer, I managed to render the vid and upload it straight to YouTube.

Here's the result of my efforts:


When I have more time, I'm sure my next vid will be stellar. Ha! I laugh, because I know a bit of spare time is elusive. Even so, I'll do my best to make a more entertaining creation!

Binding Points to Bones Part1: Placing Bones

Here it is, as promised. After two BSoD events and numerous other interruptions, I've managed to patch together this tutorial. Well, part 1, at least.



Basically, I've just drawn a shape, created a bone layer, put the shape in it, then placed some bones over the shape. Because the shape has points in it, I'll later be able to assign those points to any particular bone. The bones can then be moved to create movement in the shape.

The main thing to know about placing the bones, is that they are in the proper sequence. If you get one wonky and out of place, the whole animation will foul up. Still, with a little experimentation, you may choose to create a little oddness in your animation by "misplacing" the bone order. Or, even add bones outside of the image and manipulate it in other ways.

That's about it for this one. I'll get part 2 finished as soon as possible, lest the dreaded Blue Screen gets me!

The music for this vid is "Wallpaper" by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com.

Bones Layer Test- Anime Studio Pro 6

Recently, I revisited some old software that had been languishing on my laptop, Anime Studio Pro 6.

Now, I love this software, it's by far one of my favorite software purchases. But, I just haven't had much time to experiment with it. Still, every now and again, I revisit it and sort of re-learn it. Haha! I have to, since I can't retain the knowledge, for some reason. (O.o)

My latest lesson to myself has been using the bone layer function. With the bone layer, you can place a "skeleton" of sorts over an image you've drawn. Then by binding certain points in the drawing to the bones, you can animate the thing.

Pretty cool, huh?

I couldn't wait to give it a go, so I hurriedly scratched together a pic or two, admittedly they are out-of-proportion humanoids, but still. Then, I created a bone layer and drag a pic into it. I put some bones in there, and bound them up to parts of the picture using the "bind points" feature.

Here's the result of my quick work:


I particularly liked the light dancer in this one. I think I'll do a little more with that idea a bit later. The music was fun, too. The music, by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com, is called, "Cut and Run". He's got loads of nice stuff.

This little lesson seems ripe for a tutorial, so I'd better get busy making one.
(^.^)d

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Switch Layer Tutorial Part 3!

At last!

After much crashing of my ancient, fossil of a laptop (I'm petting it lovingly as I write this), and much gnashing o' what's left of my teeth, I've finished the final installment of the Switch Layer Tutorial Series. Yes, that should be bold font, as though it were being said in a grand way, though not loud and obnoxious, I hope.



Honestly, it was fun to do, though I'd rather have a bit more time for it. That, and maybe a touch more disk space. (O.o) A new laptop is in order. Though I've no idea what I really need. This will be in my thoughts for a while.

Now, on to other projects I suppose. I'm certain I've some sort of attention disorder. Of course, that topic is nothing new. Too bad I'm not focused on one subject long enough to make a living out of it! Ha!

Switch Layer Tutorial Part 2

As suspected, it took me all night, and, yep, there will be a part 3.



Should these vids prove un-useful to others, I know I'll get good use of them. Too many times have I learned how to do something with a piece of software, only to forget it all later!

It's just that I don't have loads of time to use the computer consistently. There's that, and the fact that my computer is completely full! Believe it or not, I've managed to use up nearly every byte. This despite putting lots of stuff on an external hard drive.

I'm really pushing for a new laptop. We'll see where that goes! Ha!

Now, onward to Part 3. But first, laundry~~~

Switch Layer Tutorial Part 1

Well, it took me all night, but it's done. Just part one, though. It'll likely take me another night to complete Part 2. I'm not sure, but there may even be a third one!

This video is probably best viewed full screen, since there are wee details that are hard to see on that tiny box.

Disclaimer: Nope. I'm not a pro animator, so don't go expecting any great shakes.

Just enjoy the vid and maybe get a touch interested in animating for kicks, like I do. :o) I also enjoy doing the voice overs. Puts my Blue Yeti to good use.

Now, what's going to be in Part 2? I think I'll try to keep it short, for one thing. I will create several layers of the mouth image, naming each layer for the sound the mouth shape will look like. Then, alter the images to fit the sound. After all that, the layers will be put into a switch layer. Yep, looks like a trilogy in the making. At least. (O.o)

G'nite!

Animation Dreams

The other day, I decided to dust off some old software I haven't used in quite some time. The software, Anime Studio Pro 6.

I don't know what made me do it. There's not much time to be had, what with living and all that. But, learning to create animation has been sort of a dream of mine.

It started years ago, when I first learned to do an animated GIF on an old piece of software. The name of it escapes me, though it was part of an earlier version Photoshop. ImageReady, or some such item. Nevertheless, Out there on the web somewhere, there are likely several of my early GIFs floating around. They aren't very good. Still, the experience was enjoyable.

Shortly after the episode of GIF love, came the earlier versions of DrawPlus. Now you're talkin'! Finally, real animation could be created and saved as movies. I still use DrawPlus from time to time. I can create some nifty SWF movies. The other day, just for fun, I created a small machine of some sort. If you like, you can look at it HERE. It's a wee little thing, complete with sound effects and a couple of buttons. On the webpage, you'll notice my scrawlings alongside the "machine". Yeah, I have way too much time on my hands.

So, the project was a bit time-consuming. I had to re-learn how to start and stop the sound effects, as well as, the animation of the different elements. Still working on that. I'm a tinkerer, to be sure, thus the whole process took far longer than it should have. Hopefully, I'll retain what I've learned and won't need to learn it all over again the next time! Pretty much the whole project grew from my curiosity about layering SWF files within and under an image.

My latest project took much less time than "Machine". However, I'm certain it could be improved. I'm not very good at this animation stuff. Though I guess it's okay since anything I know about it is self-taught and, well, it's not my day job. Haha!

The slightly technical part of it:
I used Anime Studio Pro 6 to create the animation. The mouth, eyes and eyebrows were animated using switch layers. A switch layer is a layer containing different interpretations of say, a mouth. The software can synchronize those images to music or other audio, such as speech, automatically. Basically, what needs to be done is, the mouth needs to be drawn in its various positions; opened, closed, wide open, etc. Those images are placed into a switch layer. The software sorts it out to a degree, matching it to the audio. Although, a bit of tweaking must be done. I really want to do a tutorial on this. I've seen other tutorials about it, which are pretty good, but seem show it a bit more complicated than it really is.

Anyway, the following video is the result of my latest "animation dream". The audio is me, reading a blog post. The music is "How It Begins" by Kevin MacLeod from incompetech.com. This short vid is a bit wild with the particle animated background, I realize. I had no idea it would turn out that way, since the particles were created using a script. The final four hour rendering of the movie differed slightly from what I saw whilst editing. Yep, four hours! That's why it is left as is. ;o)



***UPDATE***
I just found the "reduce particles" option for better rendering of the above video. Yippee! Here's the improved version.



Just for reference, the video below is an earlier attempt at animation using audio sync and switch layers.



There'll be more of this in the future.