How To Animate Your Avatar

[Jim Clark]

How to make your Avatar switch pictures. The inspiration for this came from the floating rivet avatar. I liked it a lot and thought it was cool so I deconstructed it to see how it was done . I then realized that the board would let you do animated GIF’s. My tool of choice is GIF Construction Set Professional. You can get a evaluation copy version from Alchemy Mindworks. http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/alchemy.html

1.You will need to down size your pictures to apx. 105 X 70 pixels 256 colors. I use Photo Shop 6.0 to do this. Save as GIF.

2.Crank up GIF Construction Pro and use the Animation Wizard for your first one. After you are complete upload as a custom Avatar to the forum. This program has a lot of features so you can do a lot. The board has a file size limit on the Avatar file so you may run up against that wall.

3.Let everyone know the tricks you come up with, have fun.

[Andy R]

I intentionally set the thumbnail size @ www.airstreamphotos.com to be compatible with the avatar. The following instructions are only valid if the photos you are uploading are .gif files! If they are .jpg or .jpeg, you will need to wait until someone can post an online conversion tool before you can follow this process.

Follow these steps:
1. Upload the images you want to use.

2. Next go to your gallery by either using the link from your Member Control Panel or from the "Photo" button below any post you have made.

3. Right click on the thumbnails you want to use and save them in a folder on your computer. Remember which folder you saved them in so you can upload them in the next step.

4. Go to GifWorks.com and use "Method 2". Upload the first thumbanil you want to display.

5. Follow the directions to create an animated gif then save the new animated image to your hardrive.

6. From your Edit Options select "Change Avatar and upload your new animated .gif.

That's it!!!

Somethings to think about. Each image/rotation you add increases the final animated image file size. The larger everyone's Avatar is the slower the page will load. Try and keep your Avatars to less than 5 images or frames for sure! Less if possible...

Please post your feedback on this thread. If you all find any other online tools that are good, post them here also!

[Scotti]

it sz I dont have oermission whats the deal?

[mkeith54]

For those who need a free file conveter and viewer click here http://www.ryansimmons.com/users/irfanview/ this is a freeware program that does it all and does it well.

mike

[Jim Clark]

I just tried Andy's method for a animated .gif. It seems to be exactly what he states, it will animate one thumbnail, which must converted to aGIF before upload. If you want to flip between thumbnails you will have to use the method in the first post. I did not spend a lot of time at Gifworks so it may contain a way which I haven't discovered yet.

Here is what you can do.
Create your own special effects with any GIF -- even animated ones! Resize it, colorize it, optimize it, and jazzercise it -- then save it and take it with you. You name it and you can do it! If you have any feature suggestions let us know.

[Rog0525]

A very simple animator can be downloaded from this site (it is freeware and the file size is only 19.5 KB).
http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/[/URL]

You simply drag and drop your gif images to the screen, select the frame delay, then click the "Make Animated GIF" button

[Jim Clark]

Originally posted by Rog0525
A very simple animator can be downloaded from this site (it is freeware and the file size is only 19.5 KB).
http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/[/URL]

You simply drag and drop your gif images to the screen, select the frame delay, then click the "Make Animated GIF" button

This sounds geat, thanks.UnFREEz 2.1

UnFREEz is a high-speed Windows application that will take any number of images, saved as separate GIF files, and create a single animated GIF from those images. What makes this program unique from its competitors? First and foremost, UnFREEz is freeware, which means you may use it forever without paying a cent or feeling the slightest bit guilty. Secondly, UnFREEz is incredibly tiny, meaning you don't have to spend forever downloading an extremely bloated piece of software. Finally, it is so easy to use. Just drag and drop some GIF files from Explorer, set the frame delay time, and hit Make Animated GIF. UnFREEz will take care of the rest, including automatic interlacing and transparency detection. So download UnFREEz now and try it out for yourself! If you like it, keep it; it's free! This program is written in non-MFC Win32 C++, and should not need any additional files to run.