Mark_S
April 15th 2005, 12:58 PM
This isn't the eaqsiest method, but it covers two very important criterea. #1 its free. #2 it will work on Windows based PC's that you don't have admin privilages on (ie you can't install your own programs)
Here are the minimum requirements.
Microsoft Paintbrush
Access to the dos prompt
splitgif.exe and mergegif.exe available here http://www.let.rug.nl/~kleiweg/gif/gif.html (not my website)
Not mandatory, but close to it: Access to here http://www.gifworks.com/index.html (not my website)
Okay, if you don't know animated gifs are really a bunch of individual pictures (or frames) played like a cartoon. (much like those old animations you made in a notebook while you should have been listening to your teacher) Anyway the short version is this:
make your frames in Paintbrush (save them as gifs)
merge them with mergegif
load the new (now animated gif) into the gifworks website
reduce the colors (and the size of the file) it must be less than 10k for a smilie
save the new image
use however you wish
Now we will visit each step in the process
#1 Making your frames. I often find it easiest to start with an existing gif or animated gif (why reinvent the wheel). If your starting point is animated, then use gifsplit.exe to break it into individual frames. You'll notice that the frames are named filename00X.gif The number at the end is the order in which your frames will be merged so keep that in mind. I usually use the ancient BASIC line number technique of saving frames in increments of 10 (ie 0010, 0020, 0030) so its much easier to add something later on.
#2 Okay so now you have a directory of frames named whatever0010.gif ... whatever00x0.gif. Now its time to merge them. run mergegif.exe it will give you a list of comprehensive (if not a bit cryptic options) Here is the basics mergegif -x -l0 -filestobemerged0*.gif >newanimatedgifname.gif x=the delay in miliseconds between each frame (a good number to start with is -10 or -15) the second - is a -l(lowercase L) 0 This specifies the number of loops. generally you want to set this to 0 for loop the animation infinately. At this point you should be able to view your new animation with your windows media player or even your webrowser. You'll probably want to go back and tweak invidual frames, delay, etc. Just keep tweeking and merging.
#3 Clean up time. Head over to gifworks, and upload your new animation. First thing I'd do is reduce the colors (its under optimize) and transparify under the edit menu. Reducing colors is important for custom smilies because they must be under 10k in size and less colors == more frames. Transparify is important to those annoying people (like Xavier :wink: who use silly skins (like midnight) Anyway flip rotate, resize and have fun. Once you're done, just "right click" on the image save it to your desktop, and upload it into Tweb.
BTW. Save those individual frames. When you reduce colors, it also modifies the gif in such a way that you will not be able to split it back into anything useful. (you'll see what I mean)
Hope this all helps and let me know if you run into any snags, I'll be happy to help.
Mark
Here are the minimum requirements.
Microsoft Paintbrush
Access to the dos prompt
splitgif.exe and mergegif.exe available here http://www.let.rug.nl/~kleiweg/gif/gif.html (not my website)
Not mandatory, but close to it: Access to here http://www.gifworks.com/index.html (not my website)
Okay, if you don't know animated gifs are really a bunch of individual pictures (or frames) played like a cartoon. (much like those old animations you made in a notebook while you should have been listening to your teacher) Anyway the short version is this:
make your frames in Paintbrush (save them as gifs)
merge them with mergegif
load the new (now animated gif) into the gifworks website
reduce the colors (and the size of the file) it must be less than 10k for a smilie
save the new image
use however you wish
Now we will visit each step in the process
#1 Making your frames. I often find it easiest to start with an existing gif or animated gif (why reinvent the wheel). If your starting point is animated, then use gifsplit.exe to break it into individual frames. You'll notice that the frames are named filename00X.gif The number at the end is the order in which your frames will be merged so keep that in mind. I usually use the ancient BASIC line number technique of saving frames in increments of 10 (ie 0010, 0020, 0030) so its much easier to add something later on.
#2 Okay so now you have a directory of frames named whatever0010.gif ... whatever00x0.gif. Now its time to merge them. run mergegif.exe it will give you a list of comprehensive (if not a bit cryptic options) Here is the basics mergegif -x -l0 -filestobemerged0*.gif >newanimatedgifname.gif x=the delay in miliseconds between each frame (a good number to start with is -10 or -15) the second - is a -l(lowercase L) 0 This specifies the number of loops. generally you want to set this to 0 for loop the animation infinately. At this point you should be able to view your new animation with your windows media player or even your webrowser. You'll probably want to go back and tweak invidual frames, delay, etc. Just keep tweeking and merging.
#3 Clean up time. Head over to gifworks, and upload your new animation. First thing I'd do is reduce the colors (its under optimize) and transparify under the edit menu. Reducing colors is important for custom smilies because they must be under 10k in size and less colors == more frames. Transparify is important to those annoying people (like Xavier :wink: who use silly skins (like midnight) Anyway flip rotate, resize and have fun. Once you're done, just "right click" on the image save it to your desktop, and upload it into Tweb.
BTW. Save those individual frames. When you reduce colors, it also modifies the gif in such a way that you will not be able to split it back into anything useful. (you'll see what I mean)
Hope this all helps and let me know if you run into any snags, I'll be happy to help.
Mark