A Guided Tour
of Microsoft GIF Animator
Updated February
14, 1997
Microsoft®
GIF Animator is the fast and easy way to create and customize animations
for your Web sites. This guided tour shows you how easy it is to create
an animation from scratch. You will see how you can work in tandem with
Microsoft® Image Composer to get the animation you want.
Getting Started
- Install and open
Microsoft Image Composer and Microsoft GIF Animator. Arrange the programs
like you see in the figurebelow.
- Download the image
"sunflower.tif"
Customize sprites
- Insert
the image with shape — called a sprite — "sunflower.tif"
into Microsoft Image Composer. For more information on sprites, visit the
WHAT? section of the Microsoft Image Composer Web site.
- Size it
to approximately the size of a frame in Microsoft GIF Animator.
- Duplicate
the sprite three times by selecting the Duplicate icon on the main Microsoft
Image Composer menu bar.
- Place the
four sprites below each other. You will now rotate each sprite separately
and slightly differently to create the illusion of movement. Click the
Arrange tool from the toolbox.
- Select
the 2nd sprite and Click Rotate once to rotate the sprite 90 degrees.
- Select
the 3rd sprite and click Rotate twice to rotate the sprite 180 degrees.
- Select
the 4th sprite and click Rotate three times to rotate the sprite
270 degrees.
- Now you will add
an art effect to each sprite as well. Click the Art Effect tool
on the toolbox.
- Click the
Paint pull-down menu item.
- Click the
Spatter effect.
- Make sure
that the Spray Radius is set to 19.
- Click the
2nd sprite and apply the Spatter effect with the Opacity set to
25.
- Click the
3rd sprite and apply the Spatter effect with the Opacity set to
60.
- Click the
4th sprite and apply the Spatter effect with the Opacity set to
100.
Drag-and-drop
directly into Microsoft GIF Animator
You can drag-and-drop
sprites directly back and forth between the two programs to get the look
you want.
- Select
the 1st sprite. Drag it over to the 1st frame in Microsoft GIF Animator.
- Repeat
this process for the other three sprites.
Customize your
animations
Microsoft GIF Animator's three property sheets allow you to control how
your animations will look and play.
- Select
all the sprites by clicking the Select All button on the main Microsoft
GIF Animator menu bar (the 9th button across).
When you select all, a blue border will appear around your sprites.
- Click the
Animation property sheet.
- Click the
Looping option to make your animation loop.
- Click the
Images property sheet in order to begin setting options.
- Click the
Transparency option to make the backgrounds of your sprites transparent.
- Click the
Undraw Method option and select Restore Background from the menu. This
makes your animation more fluid by restoring the background between frames.
- Increase
the Duration selection to 12 (the units are in milliseconds).
Preview
You can easily
preview your animation in-line so see what it will look like on a Web browser.
Simply click the Preview arrow on the far right of the main Microsoft GIF
Animator menu bar.
Now that you are done, you can save your animation as a .gif file and use
it on a Web site. You can also drag your sprites back into Microsoft Image
Composer and continue to customize them there.
Summary
Congratulations! You have successfully completed the guided tour of Microsoft
GIF Animator. In the tour, you have seen how easy it is to create and customize
animations for your Web sites. And you have seen how Microsoft GIF Animator
and Microsoft Image Composer work together to allow you to make your Web
site come alive with motion!
GIF
Animator
Overview
| Guided Tour | FAQ
| Samples
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