[larryb123456]

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/



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/



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



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/



and with letter pulsations, it is 297 KB, as a 48-frame animation, http://imageshack.us...terchimpsw.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.



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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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This post has been edited by larryb123456: 25 August 2012 - 12:49 PM

[larryb123456]

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



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/



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.

This post has been edited by larryb123456: 25 August 2012 - 12:48 PM

[larryb123456]

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/



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/



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).

This post has been edited by larryb123456: 01 August 2012 - 01:40 AM

[Tripredacus]

Found something you might like. Take a look at this:



Source

[larryb123456]

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.

This post has been edited by Tripredacus: 02 August 2012 - 08:21 AM

[larryb123456]

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



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/



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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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[larryb123456]

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.photobu...colors610KB.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
http://i1196.photobu...colors313KB.gif

01B_OO, ED, 127 colors, 457 KB
http://i1196.photobu...colors457KB.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.photobu...colors468KB.gif



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03A_OO, NC, 255 colors, 610 KB
http://i1196.photobu...lors610KBKB.gif



03B_OO, NC, 127 colors, 374 KB
http://i1196.photobu...colors374KB.gif



03C_OO, NC, 63 colors, 366 KB
http://i1196.photobu...colors366KB.gif



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04A_SP, NC, 255 colors, 276 KB
http://i1196.photobu...colors276KB.gif



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05A_SP, OD, 255 colors, 360 KB
http://i1196.photobu...colors360KB.gif



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06A_BP, ED, 255 colors, 420 KB
http://i1196.photobu...colors420KB.gif



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07A_OMC, ED, 255 colors, 635 KB
http://i1196.photobu...colors635KB.gif



07B_OMC, ED, 127 colors, 613 KB
http://i1196.photobu...colors613KB.gif



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This post has been edited by larryb123456: 25 August 2012 - 12:47 PM

[Tripredacus]

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.staticf...af4760d8b_o.jpg

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

This post has been edited by Tripredacus: 03 August 2012 - 09:19 AM

[larryb123456]

@ 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.

This post has been edited by larryb123456: 05 August 2012 - 11:04 AM

[larryb123456]

@ 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.photobu...colors313KB.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)

This post has been edited by larryb123456: 05 August 2012 - 11:49 PM

[larryb123456]

@ Tripredacus:

Before I decided on exactly what I wanted to do in making your Ravage animation, I spent some time gathering a bunch of resources.
One website had letters on a transparent background, animated in different ways.
One animation I liked was a 5-frame "sparkly T".
I saved each frame as a .psd file, so I could add a colored background.
A black background worked great.
A red background didn't work well, because it showed the outline of the "T", which was very ragged. (This ragged outline didn't show up on the black background.)
I prepared a "sparkly T" animated GIF for you -- (it only took about 15 minutes) -- http://i1196.photobu...orsOOED51KB.gif



Specs: 5 frames, 0.10 sec display time per frame, 60x55px, 255 colors, 5.1 KB.

I hope you like it and can use it someplace.

This post has been edited by larryb123456: 05 August 2012 - 01:11 PM

[larryb123456]

@ Tripredacus:

Since it didn't take long to do, I went ahead and made another version of the "Sparkly T" shown in my last Post, http://postimage.org/image/q3qeabl5f/



This is a frame-by-frame animation: 25 unique frames, 0.10 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 83x70px, 23 KB.

It was fortuitous that the pixel letter "Tripredacus" worked great in size with respect to the sparkly T in my last Post, so that I didn't have to re-size it. The colors of "Tripredacus" and the pulses were sampled from the "T".

In the 25 frames, the sparkly T 5-frame animated GIF loops 5 times. 11 frames are used to pulse "Tripredacus" and the remaining 14 frames serve as a "pause" so that sparkly T is not overshadowed by the Tripredacus letter pulsations. I made the pulsations very subtle, so that they would not overshadow the sparkles on sparkly T.

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

This post has been edited by larryb123456: 25 August 2012 - 12:46 PM

[Tripredacus]

Quote

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

It was my idea that the original image was in higher resolution than my current avatar, meaning that the original Ravage from that picture would be "larger" and better to use to make a larger image.

Quote

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.

I agree, I've noticed over the years that the Xenotron font doesn't work well at a small size. For most of my uses I have it fairly large... I don't know exactly what size I use since I haven't made any new images for at least 7 years now.

Quote

I prepared a "sparkly T" animated GIF for you

I like how this one looks (and the other one) ... I'll have to think of how to use it since I have to do some formatting changes soon. I'm thinking of something to replace an existing animation that fits nicely next to the w3C CSS badge... unless I rearrange how that is used. Either way, I may consider using the sparkly T as a favicon, since I don't have one of those.

This is the old one I made in Photoshop 5, over 10 years ago now! Wow that seems like a long time.

[larryb123456]

@ Tripredacus:

In my Post # 327, I made your animated Ravage avatar at 150x150px.
I also presented one version at 100x100px that was re-sized in my animator from the 150x150px size.
Unfortunately, this downsizing really blurred the lettering.
I wanted to correct this blurriness, but I made a *mistake in strategy*.
In my Post # 330, I took this 100x100px image with the blurred letters and tried to correct *that image*, with results that were not perfect.
Garbage in, garbage out !!!
I should have started from "scratch" at the 100x100px size to make a good image.

So, that's what I did to create the ABSOLUTELY PERFECT Ravage animated avatar presented below.
Notice how all the lettering (i.e., Tripredacus, please wait, and endure !!) is taller for a given letter width.
It should be clear that this allows for easier "correcting" of the output from the Photoshop Type Tool.

I've presented below 3 animations using the top quality settings in my animator for 255 colors, 127 colors, and 63 colors.

I've also presented the actual JPEGs used in the animation, at 100% opacity, for the Tripredacus title page, please wait, and endure !!

In case you're interested, my fade-outs occurred with an opacity-change sequence of 100%, 80%, 60%, 40%, 30%, and 20%. My fade-ins were simply the reverse of this sequence (i.e., 20%, 30%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%).

Here are the results:

255 colors, 316 KB, http://i1196.photobu...colors316KB.gif



127colors, 250 KB, http://i1196.photobu...colors250KB.gif



63 colors, 229 KB, http://i1196.photobu...colors229KB.gif



Tripredacus title page, 100% opacity, http://postimage.org/image/c334g9x51/



please wait, 100% opacity, http://postimage.org/image/8yfbds5a7/



endure !!, 100% opacity, http://postimage.org/image/a0ocpegu5/





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"The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light."
Matthew Arnold
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This post has been edited by larryb123456: 25 August 2012 - 12:46 PM

[larryb123456]

@ Tripredacus:

Just curious.

For the 15 frame, 88x31px animation you presented in your Post # 333, I'd guess that you had the bottom layer (i.e., white "Tripredacus.net" on a black background) and simply "overlayed" it with a "vibrating smokey black" animation that was on a transparent background.

Am I correct?

Or did you use some type of voodoo magic, the details of which you are not at liberty to discuss ?

[Tripredacus]

No I don't think I was using transparencies back then... It is simply white text on black background, maybe the "layer" is 1: background, 2:font. But the filter was applied to the letters only. I made multiple different attempts, then just stuck them all together. But it has been quite some time so I may be mistaken.

iirc it was my first attempt at animation. I had another one made as well, but that file is not as good (IMO) and probably saved on my Windows 98 PC. Probably the last time I used Photoshop 5 (it was the LE version that came with something I bought) before getting Fireworks 2 at college.

[larryb123456]

I was in the process of making some userbars in which I scroll animated GIFs -- (as I've done in my most recent Posts) -- when I came across a great JPEG of a smiling chimp.
The image was on a solid white background which was easy to remove with the Photoshop Magic Wand.
Scrolling static images, such as JPEGs, is very easy compared to scrolling animated GIFs, so I thought I'd take a little break and make the 2 userbars shown in this Post.
Notice how I used the xenotron font for the word "Smile". This is the font I used in making Tripredacus's animated Ravage avatar.
I figure the chimp is smiling full-blast like that because one of his jungle compatriot chimps told him a great joke about a banana.

First is an animation on a flowered background.
It's hard to recognize it as flowered, since I manipulated my resource image so much in order to have the word "Smile" on a light part of the background.
So, the background is more or less "abstract". IMO, nothing wrong with that.

http://postimage.org/image/jyjoihndj/



This is a frame-by-frame animation: 90 frames (80 unique), 0.07 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 185 KB. Chimp JPEGs are scrolled vertically -- at the rate of 1 pixel per frame -- on each end of the userbar.

I really like bold, simple colors, and purple is my favorite, so I made the second animation shown below:

http://postimage.org/image/wswpanlxh/



This is also a frame-by-frame animation: 90 unique frames, 0.07 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 363 KB. Chimp JPEGs are scrolled vertically -- at the rate of 1 pixel per frame -- on each end of the userbar. The background with the moving scanlines is a 2-frame animated GIF.
This background animation is what makes the file size of this GIF so much greater than that of the first-presented image in this Post.

Frame 1 of the background has blue diagonal scanlines with a 5px horizontal spacing. Frame 2 of the background was made from Frame 1 by moving Frame 1's scanlines to the left by 3px. When these 2 Frames alternate back and forth in the main animation, the illusion of motion is created, like this: http://postimage.org/image/wjku8iyp5/



Because I used letter pulsations that were dynamic and showed up well, I was able to scroll the chimps at a relatively fast rate (i.e., at a display time of 0.07 sec per frame). These are the type of energetic animations that I really like.

This post has been edited by larryb123456: 25 August 2012 - 12:45 PM

[larryb123456]

I made this userbar to honor the great Jamaican sprinter, Usain "Lightning" Bolt. A few hours ago, he won the gold medal in the 200 meters at the 2012 London Olympics. Earlier, he also won the gold medal in the 100 meters at these Olympics. He might win another gold medal in the upcoming 4x100 meters. He won gold in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He holds the world records in the 100m and 200m, setting them at the 2009 World Championships. Currently, then, he is the fastest man on earth.

http://postimage.org/image/6wif538y5/



This is a frame-by-frame animation: 78 unique frames, 0.06 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 126 KB. A 6-frame animated Jamaican flag GIF is scrolled on the left side of the userbar and a JPEG image of Usain Bolt is scrolled on the right side, both scrolled at a rate of 1 px per frame.

There were 2 main requirements in making this userbar:
1) The height of the 6-frame animated flag GIF scrolling unit has to be the same as that of the JPEG image of Usain Bolt. Recall that a GIF scrolling unit consists of all frames aligned and linked so that they scroll as a unit. At each vertical position in the scrolling, the appropriate GIF frame is copied (i.e., released from the scrolling unit) and becomes the image in the main animation for that vertical position.
2) The total number of frames in the main animation has to be an integer multiple of the number of frames in the scrolled sub animation. This integer multiple is the number of loops of the sub animation for 1 loop of the main animation. In this case, there are 78 frames in the main animation and 6 frames in the sub animation, (78/6)=13, and the integer requirement is satisfied.

Here is Bolt's famous trademark "Archer's Pose", which he assumes at all his races. He holds the pose for 20-30 sec and it's fun to watch him since he's quite a showman, http://postimage.org/image/xvc9bao01/





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Usain Bolt quotes:
"I was looking at myself and I'm like, 'that guy's fast.' "
"I've written history, pretty much."
"I'm now a legend. I'm also the greatest athlete to live."
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This post has been edited by larryb123456: 25 August 2012 - 12:44 PM

[larryb123456]

I was prompted to make the animated userbars shown below from watching the London Olympics with all the pretty flags and the athletes' pride in country.
As I mentioned before, I really like strong, simple, bold colors and nowhere else will you find them than on the flags of different nations.

All the userbars shown below are frame-by-frame.
The number of frames for each userbar is around 50, and the file size for each userbar is around 25 KB.
In each userbar: 1) the bright highlight on each flag is displayed for 0.07 sec; 2) each letter pulsation is displayed for 0.10 sec, since I had to increase the display time so that the pulsations could be seen better; 3) 255 colors are used; and 4) the image size is 350x20px.

In the presentation below, I have purposely left a lot of space between userbars so that each userbar can be seen more or less by itself and not be "visually interfered with" by its neighbor.

As a note, these types of animations are very, very simple to make, which explains the fact that I made so many of them.
The bright highlights on the flags were achieved by increasing the Photoshop Brightness, and the letter pulsations were achieved in the usual way, by coloring them in with the Pencil Tool.

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Eastern Europe

http://postimage.org/image/60yxklfgb/



From left to right on the userbar, the flags represent the following countries: Poland, Hungary, Romania, Russian Federation, Belarus, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Czech Republic.

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Western Europe

http://postimage.org/image/4fbat99qn/



From left to right on the userbar, the flags represent the following countries: The Netherlands, Liechtenstein, France, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Austria.

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Northern Europe

http://postimage.org/image/5uc08fbpp/



From left to right on the userbar, the flags represent the following countries: Norway, Lithuania, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, Great Britain, and Finland.

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Southern Europe, Version 1

http://postimage.org/image/tdi6kdwy1/



From left to right on the userbar, the flags represent the following countries: Albania, Malta, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Serbia.

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Southern Europe, Version 2

http://postimage.org/image/dxb1tavf3/



From left to right on the userbar, the flags represent the following countries: Italy, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Andorra, and Croatia.

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Africa

http://postimage.org/image/xb2scbx01/



From left to right on the userbar, the flags represent the following countries: Egypt, Congo, Algeria, Ethiopia, Angola, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.

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Asia

http://postimage.org/image/vgz1b8zv3/



From left to right on the userbar, the flags represent the following countries: Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Japan, and China.

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South America

http://postimage.org/image/ktv64y66z/



From left to right on the userbar, the flags represent the following countries: Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela, and Argentina.

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“Hats off! Along the street there comes A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, A flash of color beneath the sky: Hats off! The flag is passing by.”
Henry Holcomb Bennett

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”
Pierre de Coubertin
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This post has been edited by larryb123456: 14 August 2012 - 05:19 AM

[larryb123456]

@ Tripredacus:

I made a new version of your Ravage animated GIF avatar, using the "spiral effect" in my animator.
Flacko, in his animation shown in your Post # 324, also used a "canned" animator effect to achieve his result.

My new animated GIF is 100x100px, the size you prefer, and it has *perfect* lettering.

It has 250 frames and a whopping file size of 1.26 MB.
(But Flacko's animation also has a large file size of 886KB=0.886MB.)

Here it is, in all its glory, http://i1196.photobu...frames126MB.gif



If you would like to use something like this, but need a smaller file size, I can fiddle -- (and I play a mean fiddle......lol) -- with it to eliminate a few frames. Or maybe just using fewer colors might do the trick.

Just let me know.