I made screenshots of my progress. If you need them I will submit them. Otherwise, I'll save myself the effort of compressing each one to JPG with arrows pointing at the buttons.
1. Start by making a new document. set dimensions to 100 px, and background as white
2. a. Note the file window (currently untitled-1)
b. layers window (actually a tab)
c. animation window (actually a tab)
3. Create 3 new layers
4. Select layer 1 and draw a circle with the pencil tool (make sure you're using a non-white color). note that it appears on the animation window.
5. Select layer 2 and draw a square. Now select layer 3 and draw a triangle. Note that all are visible.
6. For the purposes of this tutorial, keep all layers visible (the eye icons by the layers; if they're there, the layer is visible). Look down at the animation window. create a new frame. Note that the first "frame" is duplicated.
7. Click on frame 1 again. clear visibility for layers 2 and 3. notice that this action is carried out onto frame 2.
8. Click on frame 2 and clear visibility for layer 1. add visibility to layer 2. (note: if you ever go back and do anything to layer visibility on frame 1, it will be duplicated on all subsequent frames)
9. Click on frame 2 and make a new frame. a second square will appear. clear visibility of layer 2 and add visibility to layer 3. you should now have three frames that, in this order, displays a circle, square, and triangle.
10. Preview the animation with the play button on the animation window. it will play in your file window and the animation window. you can set the loop to once or forever, and the time between frames (by default, it's 0 seconds) from pull down menus in the animation window. try changing it from 0 to .5 seconds
11. Refer to the file window. click on the optimized tab (to the right of the original tab). this is where you compress the image to your liking. you can do so by manual means, or through the "settings" pulldown menu that comes up on your optimize tab of the "optimize/info" window. ignore all this for now, you'll probably figure it out later.
12. Click on the file menu, click save, and choose a neat name for your new PSD. this is the file you'll open if you ever want to go back to edit it in its original form.
13. Click on the file menu, click save optimized as, then give your gif a cool name.
14. If you followed this tutorial correctly, you should end up with this image (or something similar, depending on if your shape-drawing skills are as uber as mine):
Play around with this, try having a different background, or no background. Try fading layer visibility on different frames, but remember: the more colors you use, the more crappy the damn thing will look on a high compression ratio (not to mention the size and the framerate slowdown you'll get).
If you're a nerd like me, you may want to learn how to use ImageReady to its full potential. It comes with practice, deep investigation into Photoshop manuals, and internet searching.
Last edited by unnamednewbie13 (2006-03-24 07:06:32)
