User Guide Ulead Systems, Inc.
First English edition for GIF Animator version 5.05, September 2001. © 1992-2001 Ulead Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or storing in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form without the prior written permission of Ulead Systems, Inc.
Table of Contents Introducing Ulead GIF Animator ........................................................................................................... 4 Whats new ............................................................................................................................................ 6 Getting started ....................................................................................................................................... 8 Installation ................................
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Introducing Ulead GIF Animator Ulead GIF Animator is a powerful GIF animation tool for creating high impact animation for Web pages, presentations, and multimedia titles. From composition, editing, and applying special effects, you can do them all in GIF Animator. GIF Animator also gives you total control over optimization, allowing you to make animations compact and Web-ready while retaining excellent image quality.
INTRODUCING ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR While editing your animation project, viewing the results of your work is a snap with workspace previews or instant browser previews. Object-based editing GIF Animator, while primarily a post-production tool, does give you the capability to manipulate objects in True Color. With the various tools in the Tool Panel, you can add text objects as well as perform minor touch-ups and edits on image objects.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Whats new This version of GIF Animator offers significant improvements to the overall program interface and brings you a wide range of new features that give you increased flexibility when editing, optimizing, and outputting your animation projects. Moreover, the approach in creating an animation has been enhanced with greater efficiency.
WHAT’S NEW • • • Line spacing and baseline shift adjust the spacing between multiple lines of text. Gradient and texture fills provide multiple color and pattern fills for text. Add Neon or Split Text to be able to edit the individual characters. Improved banner text • • • Re-editable banner text lets you modify banner text effects and settings. Full typographic control enables character-level formatting, line spacing, and more.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Getting started It is easy to install GIF Animator. The Installation Wizard will guide you through the steps for completing the installation. Once you have GIF Animator up and running in your computer, start out by first customizing the program to best suit your needs. Installation To install GIF Animator: 1 Place the GIF Animator CD into your CD-ROM drive. 2 When the setup screen appears, follow the instructions to install GIF Animator onto your computer.
GETTING STARTED Customizing how you work Before you start creating your animation projects, select File: Preferences [F6] to customize GIF Animator and specify how you want to work with your animations. For instance, you can define a standard delay time for displaying frames in your animation, choose the Web browser to use when previewing your work, set up the number of undo levels, and more. Click the tabs in the Preferences dialog box to select the desired options.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE To use plug-in filters: • In the Plug-in Filters tab, select a check box. Next, click Browse to link GIF Animator to the plug-in folders of other programs (such as Ulead GIF-X.Plugin or Adobe Photoshop), and access that program’s plug-in filters. Then, you can apply the plug-in filters to your animation project from within GIF Animator.
GIF ANIMATOR AT A GLANCE GIF Animator at a glance Everything you need to build great animations is included in GIF Animator’s single, WYSIWYG interface. With its drag-and-drop capabilities and the power to import files from more than 30 different file formats, the sky is the limit to what GIF Animator can help you create. Introducing the interface At the heart of the GIF Animator interface is the workspace where you create and edit your animation.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Working modes in GIF Animator In GIF Animator, going through three different working modes - Edit, Optimize, and Preview - is essential to complete an animation. While creating an animation, click to switch between these three tabs in the workspace as needed. Each working mode provides you with a different set of tools to work on. The following sections describe how you can accomplish a GIF animation in different modes and introduce the tools available in each mode.
GIF ANIMATOR AT A GLANCE Optimize mode Optimize mode is where you can work on compressing and compacting your animations before saving them as animated GIF files. Optimize your animations to come up with good quality images yet with smaller file sizes for fast transmission on the Web. In Optimize mode, the workspace displays sideby-side before and after previews. It shows you the resulting file size after optimization and estimates the required download time for your animation.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE For current GIF Animator users While much of this program may already be familiar to users of GIF Animator, many of the menu commands and functions in this version have been changed in context and further enhanced. The table below is provided to assist users to easily migrate from previous versions to Ulead GIF Animator 5. In previous versions In Ulead GIF Animator 5 Saves only in animated GIF file format. Saves in a native file format (*.
TUTORIAL Tutorial When you create an animation, it is important to plan beforehand the sequence of ‘scenes’ before you actually start composing the contents of the animation. Also, make sure that you can get avail of all the objects that you need, or that you are capable of creating them. This short tutorial walks you through the steps on how to create an animation from start to finish. In each step, references to more detailed sections are provided in the manual.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Creating an animation project An animation is composed of ‘frames’ which are displayed sequentially to give the appearance of motion. GIF Animator lets you build your animation frame by frame. In each frame, you can add images and other types of objects (such as banner text), as well as insert portions of digitized videos. You can also insert the contents of an entire folder or a range of selected files by the drag-and-drop operation.
CREATING AN ANIMATION PROJECT Using the Animation Wizard The Animation Wizard provides a quick and easy way to create an animation project. It guides you step by step through the process of setting a canvas size, adding images (or video), up to customizing playback options for your animation. Use the buttons found at the bottom of the Animation Wizard window to move forward or backward through the steps. To use the Animation Wizard: 1 In the Startup Wizard, click Animation Wizard.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Starting out with an image, animation or video file GIF Animator supports a wide range of image, animation, and video file types which you can directly open in the program. When you open a media file, a new project will be created and the file contents will be added to the project. The canvas size will be based upon the original dimensions used by the media file. To open an image file as an object in a new project, select File: Open Image [Ctrl + O].
CREATING AN ANIMATION PROJECT Since animated GIFs are widely used in creating banner ads for Web pages, GIF Animator tries to provide you with preset canvas sizes that are ideal for use in banner ads.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Working with objects Since objects are the core of each animation frame, knowing how to create and control them is crucial for a successful animation. Adding image objects Once you have planned how your animation would be (such as size and object types), the next step is to insert objects into each frame of your animation project.
WORKING WITH OBJECTS To add image objects from a video file: 1 Select the frame where you want to add image objects in the Frame Panel. (For details on Frame Panel, see page 33.) 2 Select File: Add Video, or click the Add Video button. 3 Select the video file you want, and then click Open. Note: Unlike image files, only one video file can be inserted at a time. For details on insertion options, see page 18. Tip: Using a short video is recommended.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Transparency slider Click this button and then drag the slider for a quick transparency setting. Transparency Enter a higher value to increase the degree of transparency and vice versa. Insert a blank object Creates a new object based on the canvas size. You can use it as a background color or other imaging purposes. Duplicate selected objects Make an exact copy of the selected objects. Delete active object(s) Removes selected objects.
WORKING WITH OBJECTS Manipulating objects using the Tool Panel Tool Panel provides a series of tools for editing and viewing objects in your animation project. The following sections describe each tool in detail.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Notes: • In the Object Manager Panel, you can also directly click there to select objects. • As you select objects, the Object Manager Panel highlights the active objects in blue accordingly so you can also directly work on these objects in the Object Manager Panel. • To help you easily identify the currently selected object(s), the mouse cursor becomes black as you move the mouse over the selected object(s).
WORKING WITH OBJECTS Tips: • Frequently, you will want to make some of the GIF image transparent. To do so, simply create a selection area first. Then, select: Edit: Make Selection Area Transparent [Del] (or click the Selection Options button and then select Make Selection Area Transparent. • Making a selection area is usually for creating special effects (such as adding colors as detailed on page 27) on an existing object.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Zoom Tools While editing your animation, you may want to see it in greater detail or at a smaller size. These tools include Zoom In, Zoom Out, and Actual View Tools. Notes: • Zoom tools are always enabled for convenient editing, no matter which tool you’re currently using. • Zoom ratio is displayed at the top of the screen. • In addition to Tool Panel, on the keyboard press [+] for zoom-in, or [-] for zoom-out.
WORKING WITH OBJECTS Tips: • A fast way of editing the text object in Ulead PhotoImpact 6 is to select Edit: Favorite Image Editor - Ulead PhotoImpact 6. See page 30 for details. • Saving the animation project as a UFO file is also recommended. So, you can create more versatile text effects in Ulead PhotoImpact (6) later. Once you’re done, save it as a UFO file again. Then, open the UFO file in GIF Animator to continue your animation work.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Eraser Tool Eraser Tool allows you to directly remove parts (colors) of an image object. You can also decide the degree of transparency in the erased area, making an interesting overlapping effects (especially when there are other objects in the workspace). Like Paintbrush Tool, Eraser Tool has similar Attribute Toolbar. So, you can apply the same painting technique to erasing colors. Once you’re done, trim the object again to optimize its size.
WORKING WITH OBJECTS Eyedropper Tool Eyedropper Tool lets you precisely select a foreground or background color in the workspace. So, later you can use the color in Paintbrush or Fill Tool. To select a color with the eyedropper: 1 Click Eyedropper Tool in the Tool Panel 2 Move the mouse over the spot containing the color you want and click it to select a new foreground color. Instead, rightclicking it selects a new background color. 3 The color you selected is displayed in the Tool Panel immediately.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE animation frame and the color selected will replace the existing foreground color. The Eyedropper Tool can also be used to find out the exact RGB and HSB values of a color. Then, enter these values in the Ulead Color Picker dialog box to change the background color. Ulead Color Picker dialog box Editing objects in other image editors During object editing, sometimes you might need another image editor such as Ulead PhotoImpact 6 to create more advanced effects.
WORKING WITH OBJECTS Separating the shadow from an object A shadow can be separated from its attached object, and thus becomes a stand-alone object so you can have more control of it. This also allows you to edit both the object and the shadow as individual objects in your animation. To do so, select Object: Split Shadow while an object with a shadow is selected. (You can also right-click the object and select Split Shadow.) Managing multiple objects Animations created using GIF Animator are object-based.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Distributing objects This command automatically spreads selected objects in a frame to its succeeding frames. Each selected object will then be inserted into a frame. This command is particularly useful when there are multiple objects in a frame, and you want to spread them evenly into other existing or new frames. To distribute objects to frames: 1 Select the frame where you want to start distributing objects in the Frame Panel. (For details on Frame Panel, see page 33.
WORKING WITH FRAMES Working with frames An animation project comprises a number of frames, and each frame contains several objects. The whole animation is produced in a way based on the variation in frame changes. Therefore, GIF Animator provides a storyboard-like Frame Panel that helps you visually organize all the frames in a chronological sequence. In the Frame Panel, you can precisely control each frame’s attributes, or even add special effects like tweening.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE • • To change the sequence of frames, use the navigation controls or directly drag them within the Frame Panel. Right-clicking a frame pops up a menu for quick access to frame-related commands. Removing frames In the course of the animation, each frame must be “removed” from the screen once it has been displayed. The removal method affects the overall appearance of the animation - some Web browsers, however, don’t support all the removal methods available.
WORKING WITH FRAMES Tweening Tweening adds or updates frames between two key frames so the first key frame can gradually “evolve” into the second frame. All newly added in-between frames serve as the transitional frames during tweening. To do tweening between two frames: 1 Select the object(s) you want to tween in the workspace or in the Object Manager Panel. 2 In the end key frame, determine the end attributes of the object you want to tween.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Banner Text Over the past few years, banner ads have been considered an effective and inexpensive way of online advertisement in the Internet world. There are several ways to create striking banner ads, one of which is to have animated text. Ulead’s GIF Animator lets you easily do this with the banner text feature.
BANNER TEXT To apply effects: 1 In the Effect tab, select from the lists how you want your banner text to enter and exit the scene. 2 Enter the number of Frames to set how long you want each effect to take place in the scene. To set playback options: 1 In the Frame Control tab, enter the Delay time to set the amount of time in which you want each frame to remain on the screen before switching to the next frame. 2 Enter Key frame delay to specify the interval time between the move-in and move-out effect.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Using Plug-in filters GIF Animator lets you apply wild plug-in effects directly to the frames in your animation project rather than having to open each frame in an outside editor to apply effects there. You can apply the effect to a single frame or to a range of selected frames. To load plug-ins into GIF Animator: 1 Select File: Preferences. 2 Click the Plug-in Filters tab to bring it to the foreground. 3 Select a check box.
USING VIDEO F/X Using Video F/X Video F/X is a collection of special filters for GIF Animator. Borrowed from Ulead’s awardwinning digital video software, MediaStudio Pro and VideoStudio, they are professional level video transition and filter effects. Each effect automatically creates a string of new frames once it is applied, so it’s usually best to have only one or two frames at most in your project animation when using the effect.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE To apply a Video F/X filter effect: 1 Select the starting frame where you want to apply the video filter. 2 Click the Video F/X menu and select a type of video filter. For example, you can select Camera Lens: ColorShift. This creates a gradual color change across your image or selected area. 3 In the Apply Filter dialog box, type the number of frames you want to create for the effect. (These are the frames that will be added to your animation project.
OPTIMIZING YOUR ANIMATION Optimizing your animation In the time where the download duration of Web pages are of utmost importance, creating quality animations with small file sizes are of great concern. A constant headache for Web designers, this burdensome problem is solved by GIF Animator. With GIF Animator, striking a balance between the quality and size of an animated GIF file is easily achieved with the tools available.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE • Compress by Size - This compression method in GIF Animator allows you to determine the desired target file size for the animated GIF file or assign a compression ratio to use when optimizing the animation. Compress by Size • Attribute Toolbar - There are several compression options also available on the Attribute Toolbar such as Dither and Lossy. The Attribute Toolbar also plays host to various commands that let you work better in optimizing your animations.
OPTIMIZING YOUR ANIMATION Optimization process Depending on the need of your GIF animations (for example, file size, appearance and other qualities), the optimization process can greatly vary. In GIF Animator, the Attribute Toolbar in the Optimize mode offers plenty of optimization options. All options here are arranged and displayed based on the complexity level, starting from the left (Preset, the most basic) of the Attribute Bar all the way to the right (Color Palette, the most advanced).
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Tips on dither • • Set dither at 100 to get the best color gradient result for photo-realistic images. Setting it at 0 works best for line-arts images. However, higher values increase the file size. The Auto-remove garbage pixels button should be always enabled (pressed) when dithering. This not only removes many unnecessary pixels, but generates the GIF at a smaller size.
PREVIEWING YOUR WORK Previewing your work Previewing is a way of checking how your work will really look in a browser. This lets you see whether your animation project has turned out the way you planned. GIF Animator provides a quick and simple way to check your masterpiece. In the Edit mode The best thing about the Edit mode is that you can edit and preview your work on the same workspace.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE In the Preview mode The Preview Mode is where you can check your work and to give an idea on how your animation will appear when viewed in a Web browser. However, when you switch to this mode, the editing tools and some menu options will be unavailable at this point. To preview using the Preview mode: 1 Click the Preview mode tab. 2 Press [Esc] or click the Edit mode tab to return to the workspace. Note: Make sure that you have Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.
SAVING & EXPORTING Saving & exporting Once you are done with creating and editing your animation, you will undoubtedly want to save it. GIF Animator provides several output methods to meet your specific needs. You can save your work as an animated GIF file, or save the frames of the animation individually, or even output it as digital movie file. In addition, GIF Animator also gives you an option of exporting your work as a stand-alone executable file.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE To save as separated image files: 1 Select File: Save As - Image Frames. The Save As dialog box opens. 2 Locate the folder to which you want to save the file, then enter the base name of the image sequence. (All images will have this name plus a sequence number.) 3 Select an image type to save. JPEG, at a smaller size compared to PNG, is suitable for a photo-realistic image. Yet, choosing PNG produces a lossless image quality during compression.
SAVING & EXPORTING 4 Enter a subject or description for the file (this information will only be available to you when working with the file in selected video editors). 5 Click Options. The Video Save Options dialog box opens.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Sharing your animation Sometimes you may want to open and edit your animation with other applications. In this case, you need to save it using a format which the other programs can read. The process of saving a file in such manner is referred to as “exporting” the animation. GIF Animator’s Export function lets you convert your work in three ways - as HTML file, as an active desktop item, or a stand-alone packaged animation.
SAVING & EXPORTING To export as a Packaged Animation: 1 Select File: Export - As Animation Package (EXE). 2 Select a Message box style from the list of those provided (or select the None option to forego this). This creates a virtual notepad or greeting card in which to play your message and animation. You can set the size of the message box by selecting the Custom dimensions in Pixels. 3 Click Import Style when you want to add other graphics from your computer to the Message box style .
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Index Editor The Index Editor provides advanced customization features (especially for detailed pixel editing) for the current animation project in GIF Animator or an existing GIF file. The Index Editor is particularly useful for experienced GIF users who require more control over the GIF file size, precise pixel editing, removing redundant pixels, and other GIF attributes.
INDEX EDITOR For the current animation project, select File: Save As - GIF File. Then, select the Open in Index Editor option and enter a file name. Next, click the Save button. The current animation project will be saved using this file name, and the Index Editor opens. Notes: • In the Optimize mode, you cannot edit the Color Palette when viewing the Local Palette. You can only edit the Local Palette in the Index Editor. • Undo is not supported in palette editing.
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Appendix: GIF color palettes In a GIF animation file, all images in each frame together contain an index table that defines the number of colors within the frame and exactly which colors each index represents. Every color in the maximum 256-color ‘spectrum’ has its own unique identification, which is stored in the image’s color index (the color palette). In GIF files, each color in the index needs 3 or 4 bytes of data to define it (depending on how it was originally stored).
SHORTCUTS Shortcuts Command Shortcut File Menu Command Shortcut Edit Menu New Open Image Ctrl+N Ctrl+O Undo Redo Ctrl+Z Ctrl+Y Save (As UGA File) Save As GIF File Ctrl+S Ctrl+Shift+S Cut Copy Ctrl+X Ctrl+C Save As Image Frames Add Image Optimization Wizard Ctrl+E Ins F11 Copy Merged Paste Make Selection Area Shift+Ctrl+C Ctrl+V Batch Process Export As HTML File Ctrl+B Ctrl+Alt+S Transparent Canvas Size Del Ctrl+G Preferences F6 Crop Canvas Ctrl+R View Menu Object Menu Actual Vie
ULEAD GIF ANIMATOR USER GUIDE Index A Active Desktop Item 50 Animation 18 Animation Wizard 4, 16, 17 B Background color 29, 52 Banner text 36 Browser 10, 46 C Canvas size 18 Color Palette 41, 44, 53, 54 Crop 19, 25 Customizing 9 D Delay 9, 37, 39 Dither 44 E Edit mode 12, 45 Effects 37 Eraser Tool 28 Exporting 47 Eyedropper Tool 29 F Fill Tool 28 Flash 47, 49 Foreground color 27, 28, 29, 52, 53 Frame Panel 33 Frames 33, 34 Frames - distributing 37 Frames - flattening 31 Frames - removing 34 Frames - tweeni
