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In this Post, I'm presenting an animated userbar with an image of the European Union flag,

http://postimage.org/image/4pj4xgj9r/

Ani_MS_0_13sec_130unique_frames_255colors_OO_ED.gif

This is a frame-by-frame animation: 130 unique frames, 0.13 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 311 KB. The European Union flag, which is a 5-frame sub animation, scrolls vertically at a rate of 1px per frame. The letter "pulsations" stay in place for 1 frame before moving on to the next letter, so the display time for each pulsation is 0.13 sec.

I made the flag to be big horizontally to fill up the space better in the userbar. As a result, the height was large too.

(The size of the flag scrolling unit is 146x103px).

If I'd scrolled the flag up *and* down -- (a motion I normally use) -- the animation would have had well over 200 frames, with a tremendous amount of work to complete it. So, I just scrolled the flag up and out of the picture, completing one loop. As the animation starts on the next loop, the flag "reappears" at the bottom of the userbar and works its way up. A nice feature of this approach is the revealing of the pulsed "European Union !" commentary underneath the flag.

The background of the main animation is, in itself, a 2-frame sub animation which uses "lattice-type" scanlines in each frame. Frame 2 was made from Frame 1 by moving the scanline pattern to the left by 3px. As these frames alternate one after the other in the main animation, the illusion of motion is created.

Using the same "lower quality" animator settings which produced the very interesting background in the "Tool" animation -- (shown at the very bottom of my Post # 298) -- gives the following result, http://postimage.org/image/smbcouvkn/

Ani_UB_0_13sec_130unique_frames_255colors_SP_OD.gif

I really like the way the original background has been "uniformly abstracted".

Andthatsalltherewastoit.gif

Edited by larryb123456
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Here's one for the Chrysler automobile fans (and lightning freaks), http://postimage.org/image/f9gdzu5u3/

Ani_MS_0_10sec_132frames_112unique_255colors_OO.gif

This is a frame-by-frame animation: 132 total frames (112 unique), 0.10 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x20px, 263 KB. Each letter "pulsation" stays in place for 2 frames before moving on to the next letter, so the actual display time for each pulsation is 2x(0.10 sec)=0.20 sec. 10-frame sub animations are scrolled vertically -- (at a rate of 1 pixel per frame) -- on the left and right sides of the userbar.

The original resource GIF, 96x96px, had 10 frames with a 0.10 sec display time per frame. I modified it by first reducing the size proportionally to 87x87px and then by cropping 6px from the top and bottom -- (to focus more on the Pentastar logo) -- to arrive at an 87x75px image. I then added 3px wide gray horizontal borders at the top and bottom to arrive at the 87x81px images shown in the above animation. These borders are necessary to differentiate the scrolled sections from the black backgrounds on each end of the userbar.

The modified resource GIF -- (also with a 0.10 sec display time per frame) -- is shown below, http://postimage.org/image/v3zvn61ub/

modified_resource_GIF.gif

The 10 frames in the right side sub animation are shown below, http://postimage.org/image/qm2693taj/

right_side_10_frame_sub_animation.jpg

I made the left side sub animation by flipping horizontally the right side sub animation and assigning a frame number sequence of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I did this to increase visual interest, by making the left and right side lightning flashes different for each horizontal position. But, really, these subtle differences are hardly noticeable because of the rather fast scrolling rate and the fact that a large part of the lightning image is hidden behind the userbar's 18px tall interior.

I really liked the 0.10 sec display time per frame for the original and modified animated GIFs, for 2 reasons: the lightning flashes are very "energetic" at this rate; and 0.10 sec is a great display time per frame for vertical scrolling.

So, the 0.10 sec was "set in stone".

But letter pulsation test GIF animations for "Chrysler", "owner", and "driver" showed that 0.10 sec was too small a number, giving much too rapid pulsations. However, 0.20 sec was ideal, so I knew from the outset that I'd have to keep each letter "in place" for 2 successive frames to give an effective display time of 2x(0.10 sec)=0.20 sec for each pulsation.

As a final mention, I kept the diagonal scanlines in the Chrysler panel stationary -- (rather than moving them from frame to frame as I've done in other Posts) -- because there was already enough going on in the animation (IMO).

Andthatsalltherewastoit.gif

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"Genius unrefined resembles a flash of lightning, but wisdom is like the sun."

Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872), Austrian writer and poet

“Whenever there is a hard job to be done I assign it to a lazy man; he is sure to find an easy way of doing it.”

Walter Chrysler, founder of the Chrysler Corporation

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Edited by larryb123456
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I made two versions of this userbar, which expresses the "thank you" sentiment.

I made each userbar thinking that it might be a nice email attachment to send to a good friend.

http://postimage.org/image/fhi4sazkj/

Friend_0_14sec_88uniqueframes_255colors_OO_ED_33.gif

http://postimage.org/image/cl83n5hp7/

Mate_0_14sec_88unique_frames_255colors_OO_ED_322.gif

These are frame-by-frame animations, each having the same specs (except for the file size): 88 unique frames, 0.14 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px. 8-frame sub animations are scrolled vertically -- (at a rate of 1 pixel per frame) -- on the left and right sides of the userbars. Each letter "pulsation" stays in place for 1 frame before moving on to the next letter, so the display time for each pulsation is 0.14 sec.

As I've mentioned before, there are many, many websites that offer free animated GIFs.

My resource GIF for this project came from 123gifs.eu.

I liked this GIF because each feature was animated: the blinking eyes, the typed letters, the mouth, and the arms and hands. My animator analyzed this GIF as: 8 frames, 0.15 sec display time per frame, 90x60px, 7.5 KB. The 8 frames are shown below, http://postimage.org/image/72p1jr25n/

8_frames_of_resource_GIF.jpg

I was fortunately able to use this GIF at true width -- (I cropped 2px from the bottom) -- in constructing my userbars, because had I been forced to shrink it to accommodate the lettering in the middle of the userbars, some "blurriness" would have been introduced.

To make my animations, I simply painted over the letters in "Thanks", from frame to frame, and replaced them with "Danke" and "Merci", the well-known German and French versions of "Thanks". Because "Danke" and "Merci" have 1 less letter than "Thanks", they are visible for 3 frames out of 8 instead of 2 out of 8 (as shown in the above picture for "Thanks"). This fact results in "Danke" and "Merci" being a little more visible behind the userbar border as the typing images scroll up and down.

I made the right side scrolling unit in exactly the same manner as the left (except for replacing "Thanks" by "Merci", of course) and then assigning a frame sequence of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, 3 where the numbers refer to the frame numbers on the left side. This "frame-sequence staggering" action results in the left and right side images never being at the same point in the letter typing for a given horizontal position in the scrolling, as can be seen by examining the above picture.

I made a GIF which shows this frame-sequence staggering for the left and right side scrolling units, http://postimage.org/image/c0vloy153/

(Had I not staggered the frames, the images on the left and right sides of the userbars would have always been at the same point in the typing.)

frame_sequence_staggering.gif

If the typing images had scrolled up and down without any pauses, an 82-frame animation would have resulted. But, the total number of frames has to be an integer multiple of 8, the number of frames in the sub animation. (This integer is the number of loops of the sub animation for 1 loop of the main animation.) So I kept the scrolling units in place for 3 additional frames at each of the 2 transition points to bring the total number of frames to 88 [i.e., (82+3+3)=88], thereby satisfying the integer requirement. Recall that a transition point in the vertical scrolling is a point at which a scrolling unit stops before reversing direction in the scrolling.

The backgrounds are, in themselves, 2-frame animated GIFs. Each background uses diagonal scanlines with a 3px horizontal spacing. For each userbar, the second background frame was made from the first by shifting the scanline pattern 2px horizontally to the left. The illusion of motion is thereby created as the backgrounds alternate from frame to frame in the animation.

Andthatsalltherewastoit.gif

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God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?"

William A. Ward

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Edited by larryb123456
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  • 2 weeks later...

Here is an animated GIF I made for those of you who are romantically inclined. I thought it might be a nice email attachment to send to a loved one far away, http://postimage.org/image/tq4xv9k9p/

Ani_MS_0_15sec_77unique_frames_255colors_OO_ED_2.gif

This is a frame-by-frame animation: 77 unique frames, 0.15 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 253KB. 11-frame sub animations are scrolled vertically -- (at a rate of 1 pixel per frame) -- on each end of the userbar.

My resource GIF (i.e., starting point) came from 123gifs.eu, a great, free, animated GIF website.

I liked this animation because of the pretty colors and the "explosive dynamics". The text "I love you ... and miss you" in my animation above seemed to fit in with the hearts and tears in the resource GIF. Of course, my objective was to add to the resource GIF to come up with something even better or, at least, give it an added dimension.

My animator analyzed the resource GIF as: 11 frames, 0.10 sec display time per frame, 103x78px.

The 11 frames are shown below, http://postimage.org/image/x6r3kbp01/

11_frames_of_resource_GIF.jpg

It's clear that the frames needed to be reduced in size to be compatible with the userbar dimensions. I reduced the GIF, non-proportionately, to 90x50px (i.e., elongated it lengthwise) to meet my needs: the length worked out great for the userbar ends and the text, and the relatively small height gave an animation with relatively few frames. Also, I increased the display time per frame from 0.10 sec, that of the resource GIF, to 0.15 sec so that the hearts and tears could be seen better behind the userbar border as they scrolled up and down.

The 90x50px frames based on the resource GIF are on the left side of the userbar, since the tears (i.e., tear ducts) are next to the nose. These frames comprise the left side scrolling unit. (Recall that a scrolling unit consists of the frames of a sub animation linked so that they move as a unit. For a particular vertical position in the scrolling, the appropriate frame of the scrolling unit is copied and becomes the image in the main animation for that vertical position.) The 11 frames of the right side scrolling unit were made by flipping horizontally the left side scrolling unit and assigning the frame sequence 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, where the numbers refer to the frame numbers of the left side scrolling unit. This "frame staggering" insures that the images on the left and right sides of the userbar will always be different for any given vertical position in the scrolling, thereby increasing visual interest. This fact can be "deduced" by closely examining the frames in the above picture. But to make the fact more clear, I made an animation showing -- visually -- the effect of this frame staggering, http://postimage.org/image/dqh6l2qqt/

left_right_side_scrolling_units_GIF.gif

For this animation, the left and right side scrolling units were moved up and down together, so I had 22 (i.e., 11+11) Photoshop layers linked. As it turned out (i.e., determined by the scrolling unit height and the 17px interior height of the userbar), the animation would have had 66 frames with no pauses in the vertical motion. (A pause occurs when a scrolling unit stays in place at a vertical position for 2 or more frames.) The 66 total frames is a totally acceptable number with regard to the 11-frame sub animation (i.e., there would be 6 loops of the sub animation for 1 loop of the main animation). However, if there aren't a few pauses at the 2 transition points, an "abrupt-herky-jerky-ping-pong" motion occurs. (Recall that a transition point is the position at which the scrolling units stop before reversing direction in the vertical scrolling.) So, I kept the scrolling units in place (i.e., at the same vertical position) for 6 additional frames at one transition point and 5 additional frames at the other transition point, bringing the total number of frames to 77 [i.e., (66+6+5)=77], a number compatible with the 11-frame sub animation. The 2 transition points can be clearly seen in the first-presented animation in this Post, as the scrolling units go up and down indefinitely.

In many of my other Posts, I moved the background scanlines via a 2-frame sub animation. In this case, I couldn't do it because 77 is not an integer multiple of 2. Of course, I could have made a 7-frame background sub animation, but it would have made the image unnecessarily complex and it would have increased the file size appreciably.

I made "I love you ..." and "and miss you" disappear via opacity changes, as I've done in a number of earlier Posts. For each expression, I assigned 1 frame each for 90%, 80%, 70%, 60%, 50%, 40%, 30%, 20%, and 10% opacity, followed by 6 frames of only the ellipse-scanlines-(pink background) in the middle of the userbar.

The appearance of "I love you ..." and "and miss you" is straightforward, at 1 character per frame, and each completed expression stays visible for a total of 14 frames. For completeness in this Post, I'm showing how I made "I love you ..." appear -- (of course, it's the same approach for "and miss you") -- http://postimage.org/image/cwve10vp5/

Appearance_of_I_love_you.jpg

The entire phrase was first completed -- (I used the Outer Bevel style in the Bevel and Emboss effect) -- and then cropped, character by character, as shown. I added the text -- layer by layer -- on top of the left and right side images and the middle ellipse-scanlines-(pink background) and finished everything off by adding the border overlay, shown at the bottom of the above picture.

The central, text portion of the 77 frames are accounted for as follows:

10 frames for the appearance of "I love you .."

14 frames of "I love you ..."

9 frames for "I love you ..." to undergo the 90% to 10% opacity change

6 frames of just the ellipse-scanlines-(pink background)

9 frames for the appearance of "and miss yo"

14 frames of "and miss you"

9 frames for "and miss you" to undergo the 90% to 10% opacity change

6 frames of just the ellipse-scanlines-(pink background)

The above breakdown shows another reason why I wanted 77 total frames instead of 66. That is, the additional 11 frames allowed me to do more with the text.

Andthatsalltherewastoit.gif

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“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

Lao Tzu

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”

Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”

Robert Frost

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Edited by larryb123456
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  • 3 weeks later...

This animated GIF userbar is for MSFN members and visitors to the site who have billions of dollars -- (or even paltry millions) -- invested in Swiss bank accounts, http://postimage.org/image/4ie0imqgx/

Ani_MS_0_09sec_138unique_frames_255colors_OO_ED.gif

This is a frame-by-frame animation: 138 unique frames, 0.09 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 209 KB. A 5-frame animated GIF Swiss flag is scrolled vertically at a rate of 1 pixel per frame. Each "pulsation" on the letters in the word "Peace" stays in place for 3 frames before moving on to the next letter, so the display time for each of these pulsations is 3x(0.09sec)=0.27sec. For the sake of simplicity (i.e., image "purity"), I didn't use an ellipse layer in this userbar, and the background is a solid blue color, rather than a textured blue, which I would have normally employed.

This userbar is very similar to the European Union flag userbar shown in my Post # 316, but it has an added dimension in that 2 different lines of text are incorporated (i.e.,"I am proud ..." and "Swiss motto: ...").

In addition, I didn't use opacity changes to make each of these phrases disappear and appear, as I normally do. Each phrase is displayed for a certain number of frames, then the letters are pulsed, and then, at the end of the pulsing, the phrase simply and abruptly disappears for a while before the other phrase abruptly appears. Of course, this appearance/disappearance pattern is repeated indefinitely as the animation loops over and over.

All this may be clearly seen by watching the animation.

To be more precise, the 138 frames are accounted for as follows (my frame 1 occurs when the flag first enters the userbar interior in its upward motion):

27 frames to pulse "I am proud to be from Switzerland"

8 frames showing just the background where this lettering was

21 frames displaying non-pulsed "Swiss motto: ..."

30 frames to pulse "Swiss motto: one for all, all for one"

8 frames showing just the background where this lettering was

44 frames displaying non-pulsed "I am proud..." This is a rather large number of frames because it had to accommodate the 15 frames to pulse "Peace" and, after "Peace" was pulsed and it disappeared, I kept "I am proud..." displayed for an additional 12 frames to provide a pause before the flag started its vertical scrolling again and "I am proud..." became pulsed again.

I like the fact that "I am proud to be from Switzerland" is displayed for so many frames, because that is the main message in the userbar.

As a final note, the background of this animation is, in itself, a 2-frame animated GIF, as I've used in earlier Posts. Frame 1 has diagonal white scanlines with a 3px horizontal spacing. Frame 2 was made by moving Frame 1's scanlines to the left by 2px. As these 2 background Frames alternate from frame to frame in the main animation, the illusion of motion is created.

Andthatsalltherewastoit.gif

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"Switzerland" spelled backwards is "dnalreztiwS" and *NOT* "dnallerztiwS" !

larryb123456

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Edited by larryb123456
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  • 2 weeks later...

I was working on a userbar involving an animated chimp that I put in an oval, but because I liked it so much, I stopped work on the userbar to make the animations shown in this Post.

My resource GIF for the chimp was an 8-frame animation.

Frame 1 of this animation -- (reduced in size, Photoshop "sharpened", and cropped) -- is shown below, http://postimage.org/image/rg4oyez6l/

01_frame1_of_resource_GIF_reduced_cropped_sharpe.jpg

I cropped the chimp out of each of the 8 frames as a 56x48px oval (Photoshop "Clipping Paths"), added a 2px black stroke (i.e., outline) and then a 1px light gray stroke to wind up with an 8-frame 62x54px animation of the chimp in the double-stroked oval.

In the animations shown in this Post, I used 2 animated chimps in ovals. For the second oval/chimp animation, I flipped horizontally each frame in the first animation and "staggered" the frame sequence so that the 2 animations wouldn't be simple mirror images of each other. I linked and merged each corresponding pair of the images to wind up with an 8-frame animation involving 2 chimps in ovals, as shown in the animations below.

I made 2 different versions of the animations, and it was fun to think up captions to go with the chimp animations:

Version 1 has the caption "Are humans just chimps that can talk ??" and it is 183x96px in size.

With no letter "pulsations", it is 51 KB, as an 8-frame animation, http://postimage.org/image/nzb4nw89l/

Ani_Humans_Chimps_Talk_no_pulses_0_12sec_8unique.gif

and with letter pulsations, it is 292 KB, as a 48-frame animation, http://postimage.org/image/i1zhplbgh/

Ani_Humans_Chimps_Talk_with_pulses_0_12sec_48uni.gif

These 2 gentleman chimps have a firm grip on reality, realizing that humans are "superior" to chimps.

Version 2 (my favorite) has the caption "Are humans smarter than chimpanzees ??" and it is 162x96px in size.

With no letter pulsations, it is 50 KB, as an 8-frame animation, http://postimage.org/image/d6uym4frf/

Ani_Humans_Smarter_Chimps_no_pulses_0_12sec_8uni.gif

and with letter pulsations, it is 297 KB, as a 48-frame animation, http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/52/anihumanssmarterchimpsw.gif/

anihumanssmarterchimpsw.gif

These 2 gentleman chimps have overly-inflated egos, and they are out of touch with reality in feeling that they are smarter than humans.

These animations were simple (and fun) to make and I hope you enjoyed looking at them.

As a final note, it is interesting that the file sizes of the 48-frame animations (i.e., about 300 KB) are about 6 times that of the 8-frame animations (i.e., about 50 KB), especially since the 8-frame animations loop 6 times for 1 loop of the 48-frame animations.

Andthatsalltherewastoit.gif

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“Once I saw a chimpanzee gaze at a particularly beautiful sunset for a full 15 minutes, watching the changing colors [and then] retire to the forest without picking a pawpaw for supper.”

Adriaan Kortlandt

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Edited by larryb123456
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In my Post # 314, I presented the following 6-frame animated GIF, 31 KB, http://postimage.org/image/ggpiaghtj/

Ani_blue_OL_0_11sec_6frames_255colors_OO_ED_252x6.gif

In this Post, I'm simply "pulsing" the letters to get a second version, a 42-frame animation, 221 KB, http://postimage.org/image/3l3tnptcv/

Ani_blue_OL_w_pulses_0_11sec_42unique_frames_255c.gif

To me, the important thing about the pulses is that they be kept subtle to keep in line with the subtlety of the rest of the image. The outlines of the non-pulsed letters are a "bluish-purple" (r,g,b=171,172,254) with luminosity=200. To get the pulsation color, I took the color of the "bluish-purple" and brightened it a little by setting its luminosity=225 (r,g,b=225,223,255).

The 6-frame animation loops 7 times for one loop of the 42-frame animation. It's interesting that the file size of the 42-frame animation, 221 KB, is about 7 times the file size of the 6-frame animation, 31 KB.

Andthatsalltherewastoit.gif

Edited by larryb123456
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bphlpt asked me to modify his current MSFN signature, which is 75px tall, so that it would meet the size requirements of another forum he's on, 260x80px.

His MSFN signature is shown below, http://postimage.org/image/of0f1so1d/

bphlpt_MSFN_signature.jpg

Obviously, I had to reduce the width tremendously. A proportional reduction in size was out of the question, because the lettering would be a great deal smaller and very hard to read because of blurriness.

I wondered if the extra 5px in height (i.e., 75 to 80) would allow me to stack the code lines as they are with no reduction in size or other alteration. I made the lettering layout on bphlpt's present MSFN signature and I still had the .psd files, so I was able to crop out each individual phrase in <The Old Man/><coding/>since time<began/> and stack and center them to get the result shown below in his new 260x80px signature, http://postimage.org/image/517wesamr/

new_260x80px_signature.jpg

Notice how I moved the mushrooms over to the left to be closer to The Old Man's foot. This allowed the mushroom stem (on the left-most mushroom) to be clearly in view, a nice graphic element (IMO).

Edited by larryb123456
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Thanks, Tripredacus:

I definitely liked it, but I've seen it before, since that is what I see when I look in the mirror !!! (lol)

But seriously, I really liked the "Static Transition" and its use in this animation fits right in and really makes it good. My animator has a number of such transitions and I had previously thought that I wouldn't use any of them because they scream "CANNED ANIMATOR EFFECT". But I guess there is a time and place for everything. Most definitely after seeing this animation.

I think I'll make a similar animation of your MSFN Ravage avatar (when I can get to it).

It will start off with a big capital T, for Tripredacus, of course, -- (with text effects such as bevels, drop shadows, etc.) -- and maybe centered under that in smaller letters the word "Tripredacus".

This will be frame 1 and it will stay visible for a while.

Frame 1 will then dissolve into the "...please wait" and then the Ravage image and then the animator transition effect.

I think another phrase besides "...please wait" would be better.

Something like "...hold on a minute, Bozo".

Please tell me what phrase you'd like on the animation.

How big (i.e., pixel dimensions) would you want me to make it ?

Also, tell me a file size limitation if you want to use it on another forum.

Of course, if there isn't a file size restriction, I can put more stuff in the animation.

This will be a very simple animation to make.

Thanks

P.S. I noticed your new signature.

Edited by Tripredacus
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In my Post # 310, I presented the following userbar, http://postimage.org/image/74g2f5iqn/

Ani_0_11sec_60unique_frames_255colors_OO_ED_150_K.gif

At the time, I thought it looked OK. But on examining it at a later date, it became *crystal clear* that I had made a mistake: pulsing white letters with a harsh red outline was totally out of place with the soft "purplish-blue" colors in the rest of the userbar. So, I redid the userbar using the letter-pulsation colors in my Post # 322 to get the much better result shown below, http://postimage.org/image/qo1sk0809/

Ani_purple_pulses_0_11sec_60unique_frames_255col.gif

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“A man's errors are his portals of discovery.”

James Joyce

“If you don't make mistakes, you don't make anything.”

A Proverb quote

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”

John Powell

“The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.”

Dale Carnegie

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In my Post # 325, I mentioned that I'd like to make an animation for Tripredacus's MSFN "Ravage" avatar. So, I made an 89-frame (i.e., unique frames) GIF. To simplify the discussion, I used opacity changes to make things appear and disappear (as I've done in earlier Posts). The fire is a 4-frame animated GIF.

What I've presented below are the results of changing the file-saving options in my animator. This presentation, of course, addresses the issue of "image quality versus file size". One thing to note is the effect of reducing the number of colors in the animations.

The "labels" for the animations are for my benefit, to keep track of all this at a later date.

The important thing to notice is that the *top quality* animator settings are OO, ED shown in 01 immediately below.

These settings, with 255 colors, always give an image identical to that which I create in Photoshop.

As a point of reference regarding file size, the Flacko animation in Post # 324 has a "whopping" file size of 886 KB.

I made the Tripredacus avatar animation to be 150x150px, the maximum size for a Photo on MSFN. I felt that Flacko's image was too big and that the 100x100px maximum-size MSFN avatar was too small.

Tripredacus, I hope you like the animation and can use it someplace.

I kept the "title page" clean and simple with the T having a 1 pixel black stroke.

I investigated bevels, drop shadows, etc., but I didn't feel that they looked right.

As you can tell, I used your favorite colors, red, white, and black.

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01A_OO, ED, 255 colors, 610 KB

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/01A_OOED89frames255colors610KB.gif

01A_OOED89frames255colors610KB.gif

I reduced the pixel-dimension size of the GIF in my animator to see what the effect would be on the file size. The file size was reduced from 610 KB, in 01A above, to 313 KB, but the lettering became a little blurry in the process.

01A_100x100px, OO, ED, 255 colors, 313 KB

01A_100x100px_OOED89frames255colors313KB.gif

01B_OO, ED, 127 colors, 457 KB

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/01B_OOED89frames127colors457KB.gif

01B_OOED89frames127colors457KB.gif

01C_OO, ED, 63 colors, 468 KB (This is not a mistake. I repeated the file-saving process. It's strange that a GIF with 63 colors has a file size greater than one with 127 colors, as in 01B above.)

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/01C_OOED89frames63colors468KB.gif

01C_OOED89frames63colors468KB.gif

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03A_OO, NC, 255 colors, 610 KB

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/03A_OONC89frames255colors610KBKB.gif

03A_OONC89frames255colors610KBKB.gif

03B_OO, NC, 127 colors, 374 KB

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/03B_OONC89frames127colors374KB.gif

03B_OONC89frames127colors374KB.gif

03C_OO, NC, 63 colors, 366 KB

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/03C_OONC89frames63colors366KB.gif

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04A_SP, NC, 255 colors, 276 KB

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05A_SP, OD, 255 colors, 360 KB

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06A_BP, ED, 255 colors, 420 KB

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07A_OMC, ED, 255 colors, 635 KB

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07B_OMC, ED, 127 colors, 613 KB

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Andthatsalltherewastoit.gif

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Edited by larryb123456
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Nice job. I definately like the 100x100 one, mostly because the Ravage image isn't distorted. It may be an idea to refind where that picture came from instead of artificially inflating its resolution. I'll search around, I'm sure I can find it.

Here it is:

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3400/3603383893_3af4760d8b_o.jpg

This is the wrap-around cover of Dreamwave's Transformers #1, which (iirc) is a special cover.

Edited by Tripredacus
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@ Tripredacus:

Now what in the world do you expect me to do with the image in that link?

I took the image I used in my animation directly from your avatar and sharpened it a tad to remove the blurriness.

In my opinion, it looks much better.

I gave it my best shot, and I'm not going to "revisit" it, with all due respect.

I hate getting bogged down in needless (IMO) minutia (and minutiae also).

The main thing, Tripredacus, is that I can't read your mind to discern what exact "corrections" you want to make to Ravage.

After all, I'm not Carnac the Magnificent. (lol)

Please open the 100x100px GIF in your animator.

Better yet, use the animator I'm using, Jasc Animation Shop version 3.11, which you can download online from many web sites.

I say this because then you can see the frames and display times exactly as I made them.

There are just 2 frames where Ravage is displayed at opacity=100%.

The other frames involving Ravage deal with the fade in and fade out and they can be safely ignored in your "correction" to the 100x100px Ravage image. But, of course, you would have to have your new Ravage image *align perfectly* with the images in the fades, or else you would get an "image discontinuity" when viewing the animation.

The 2 Ravage frames at opacity=100% are labeled F:31 (i.e., frame31) with D:320 (i.e., display time = 3.2 sec) and F:72 (i.e., frame 72) with D:200 (i.e., display time = 2 sec).

So all you need to do is get one 100x100px Ravage image that suits you and replace frames 31 and 72 with that "perfect" JPEG.

I hope you don't think I'm "blowing you off", but I have many other projects I'm working on.

Sincerely,

Larry

Added in edit:

Recall that in my Post # 325 I asked you "How big (i.e., pixel dimensions) would you want me to make it ?" and you gave no response. If you had said 100x100px, maybe all this "present situation" could have been avoided.

Edited by larryb123456
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@ Tripredacus:

In my last Post, I said I didn't want to fool with the Ravage image. (See my comments at the end of this Post.)

But the blurry letters in the 100x100px GIF really bugged me, and I did my best to correct the blurriness so that you and I would have an animation that we would be proud to display anywhere, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/04_Tripredacusavatar_fixLOGOPleasewaitendure100x100px_OOED89frames255colors313KB.gif

04_Tripredacusavatar_fixLOGOPleasewaitendure100x100px_OOED89frames255colors313KB.gif

The major difference between this image and the 100x100px GIF presented in my last Post involves the word "Tripredacus" on the title page. At 7px tall, it stretched out to about 130px (if I remember correctly). A numeric transform to get it below 100px introduced blurriness. So, I did my best to correct it, pixel by pixel, by looking at the structure of the letters in the 150x150px image. My manipulations (i.e., drawing with the pencil) resulted in a bolder font -- (nothing wrong with that, IMO) -- but I did the very best I could. This took some time to do. The corrections to "please wait" and "endure!!" were easy by comparison.

I redid *completely* all the fade ins and fade outs of the 3 phrases. This required me to make 6 new JPEGs per phrase for a total of 18 JPEGs. Then I had to insert these good JPEGs into the animator, and that required replacing 33 out of the 89 frames.

So, I hope you like it.

I don't know about you, but I'd be proud to display it on forums or websites. Can you do me a big favor? Whenever you display it on a new website or forum, can you please send me the link? I'd enjoy seeing how the animation fits into the different "environments".

Comments about the Ravage image:

I don't think even the most die-hard Transformer freak would notice any difference in the appearance of Ravage. IMO, for someone to notice, they would have to have a strong background in Art or Graphics, like you. The way I see any differences in appearance can be explained like this: the differences can be explained by "lighting effects". In bright, harsh light Ravage will appear lighter and in a not-so-bright light, of course, he/she/it will appear darker. So, IMO, the Ravage image in the the animation is satisfactory. But, if you don't like the animation and don't want to use it, it makes absolutely no difference to me.

Added in edit:

It still bugs me that "please wait" and "endure!!" are not *perfect* in the animation. Please see the pixel letters in my Post # 332. These letters are 7px tall -- (as are those letters in the animation) -- and they look *great* with a 1px spacing between letters, as E N D U R E ! ! If you have plans to use the animation, I'd like to redo the 2 phrases with the fades. I think it would improve the animation 100%. There is no "law" that says you have to use the xenotron font throughout the animation. I think in the next couple of days, when I finish up some other stuff, I'll redo it accordingly, so that you (and I ) can see the improvement.

Have pity on me. It's hard being a perfectionist !!! (lol)

I just had a thought:

With my Photoshop 5.0, I'm a little limited in getting *crystal clear* letters at a small size, such as 7px, with the xenotron font. *All* the lettering in the 100x100px animation is 7px tall. "Tripredacus" is 91px long on a background colored (r,g,b=241,0,0). If you could get a better "Tripredacus" than mine, just put it on a "sliver" of this red background and Post it, and I could position it where it goes on the title page. The same with "please wait" and "endure!!" on the black backgrounds. By doing this, I could make the animation *perfect*. Of course, you can make these letters a pixel or two taller if that helps the clarity.

I do believe I'm getting OBSESSED with this rascal !!! (lol)

Edited by larryb123456
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