Help with making New Animated Sig ; )

[malice19]

Am looking to make a Sig for a mate that has Animation on it, and its not as easy as i remember, when i last did it @ college...

I have his Sig as the background and then the Animated Gif image that i need to add over /on top of the sig... But its not working.... that is the Gif will only past the one frame? RAAAA

I am trying to do all this with Animation Shop 3 and already getting ready to Smash

Can any one recommend different software that they have used to do this job? or can any one post a guide on how to do this...

Also would be Nice to see some Animated sigs that any of you have done to see how creative some people are with there skills of making a Animated sig

Thanks 4 all Posts

[htid]

I guess Adobe ImageReady could do it. You can make animated gifs with it, although i have never made a sig, myself.

[awm]

Another related sig making question, sorry to jump into your thread, but it'll proably be a question for the same sorts of people.

The question: I've seen a lot of people with similar looking sigs that are narrow bands that say things like "Firefox user" or "Nvidia owner", often staked 3-4 high and sometimes animated, where do you get those?

[Lee H]

The question: I've seen a lot of people with similar looking sigs that are narrow bands that say things like "Firefox user" or "Nvidia owner", often staked 3-4 high and sometimes animated, where do you get those?

Try looking at http://www.userbars.net/ for these

[MasterFlash]

Ive only used Image ready for gifs, do you have photoshop? It comes with Image ready and its dead easy to use

[axis09]

i use Corel graphics suite, corel photopaints gif creation is superb

[malice19]

Ive only used Image ready for gifs, do you have photoshop? It comes with Image ready and its dead easy to use

Humm yeah i do have photoshop but have just started learing how to use it..

[htid]

Ok, lets try. Open photoshop, go "file > jump to > imageready".

Firstly, Open your sig picture, and go "Image > Image Size" and see how many pixels wide and high it is. Remember them or write them down or something.

Now open the animated gif file you have, then at the bottom you will see the Animation thing. If you press play it should play the gif you opened. Go on "Image > Canvas Size" and change the width and height to the size of the sig (assuming the sig is bigger than the animation that will be over the top) It will make a blank (white and grey checkered area = nothing there) area. Make sure you are back at frame one, and make a new layer (to do this, look at the layers palette on the right (by default) (if its not there go "window > layers) and at the bottom of it you will see an f, a grey square with a white circle, a folder, a piece of paper with the corner folded, and a a bin. Click the piece of paper and then drag this new layer down the stack, so its below "layer 1" (ie its at the bottom of the stack). Now go back on the open the background sig you have (i assume that doesnt move/isnt animated) and press ctrl-A (to select it). Go back on the gif file and make sure you are on the blank new layer, and ctrl-v. Press play and you *should* have what you want Now, "file > save optimised as" and save it with the name you want (obviously ) If any of that is unclear ask, ill help best i can! If anyone knows a better/quicker way, say

[malice19]

Ok, lets try. Open photoshop, go "file > jump to > imageready".

Firstly, Open your sig picture, and go "Image > Image Size" and see how many pixels wide and high it is. Remember them or write them down or something.

Now open the animated gif file you have, then at the bottom you will see the Animation thing. If you press play it should play the gif you opened. Go on "Image > Canvas Size" and change the width and height to the size of the sig (assuming the sig is bigger than the animation that will be over the top) It will make a blank (white and grey checkered area = nothing there) area. Make sure you are back at frame one, and make a new layer (to do this, look at the layers palette on the right (by default) (if its not there go "window > layers) and at the bottom of it you will see an f, a grey square with a white circle, a folder, a piece of paper with the corner folded, and a a bin. Click the piece of paper and then drag this new layer down the stack, so its below "layer 1" (ie its at the bottom of the stack). Now go back on the open the background sig you have (i assume that doesnt move/isnt animated) and press ctrl-A (to select it). Go back on the gif file and make sure you are on the blank new layer, and ctrl-v. Press play and you *should* have what you want Now, "file > save optimised as" and save it with the name you want (obviously ) If any of that is unclear ask, ill help best i can! If anyone knows a better/quicker way, say

Thanks Alot Mate, will give it a go when i get back tonight
Thanks for taking the time

[awm]

Thanks Lee

[malice19]

Thanks Alot Mate, will give it a go when i get back tonight
Thanks for taking the time

htid Mate you’re a Star

Your notes were Great and did the job, just how I wanted it

How did you learn how to do this as I am really interested in learning about this software and all its features that it can do... Mite be a trip back to College me thinks?

Thought I would show you what you helped me make...

Thanks Again

[malice19]

Thanks 2 every one else for all Posts and help

[htid]

htid Mate you’re a Star

Your notes were Great and did the job, just how I wanted it

How did you learn how to do this as I am really interested in learning about this software and all its features that it can do... Mite be a trip back to College me thinks?

Thought I would show you what you helped me make...

Thanks Again

Cool I thought you couldnt get it to work? I guess you edited your post since i read about half an hour ago Was thinking what to write, come to tell you and you've got it working so congrats!

I learned to do it through trial and error....well, just trial really as what i thought would work, did. I do compter animation at uni so we learnt it in the first year (not this exact thing, but just based on my knowledge of how ps and ir work i guessed). I guess there are lots of tutorials out there if you want to learn tho

*edit* woohoo and im beating you by 1 post now

[malice19]

Cool I thought you couldnt get it to work? I guess you edited your post since i read about half an hour ago Was thinking what to write, come to tell you and you've got it working so congrats!

I learned to do it through trial and error....well, just trial really as what i thought would work, did. I do compter animation at uni so we learnt it in the first year (not this exact thing, but just based on my knowledge of how ps and ir work i guessed). I guess there are lots of tutorials out there if you want to learn tho

*edit* woohoo and im beating you by 1 post now

Yeah though i had not saved it correctly, but it was my Zone Alarm Firewall stopping it from playing...

[malice19]

Cool I thought you couldnt get it to work? I guess you edited your post since i read about half an hour ago Was thinking what to write, come to tell you and you've got it working so congrats!

I learned to do it through trial and error....well, just trial really as what i thought would work, did. I do compter animation at uni so we learnt it in the first year (not this exact thing, but just based on my knowledge of how ps and ir work i guessed). I guess there are lots of tutorials out there if you want to learn tho

*edit* woohoo and im beating you by 1 post now

Htid mate, 1 more question if i may?

When using image ready and then go to save the Gif by going to save Optimise as.... the Quality in the Gif goes down? is there any way of saving it in original Quality?

Original Quality


Optimised


Thanks Again mate

[htid]

Hmmm, ive just dragged your "original quality" pic into IR and saved optimised and it stayed the same quality :-S maybe the settings you have are differnt. On the right in the "optimize" toolbox, the settings i have are:

Settings: GIF 128 dithered
GIF
Lossy: 0
Selective
Colours: 128
Diffusion
Dither: 88%

Set your settings to that and see what happens then. Hope this works!