Creating .png animations
Wednesday, July 10, 2002 by vitixme | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
I am new to Desktopx and would like to try my hand at making some objects for myself. I have noticed that all of the animations for objects seem to be in .png format. After many hours searching the web for help and info, I have yet to figure out how to create them. Can anyone tell me which programs I should be looking at? I have Corel Draw 8. Any URLs with usefull info on this topic would also be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Thanks!
werewolf
Reply #3 Wednesday, July 10, 2002 11:07 AM
Reply #3 Wednesday, July 10, 2002 11:07 AM
I just dl'd anyutil and it only processes .bmp and .png files
Lecrayon
Reply #4 Wednesday, July 10, 2002 3:15 PM
Reply #4 Wednesday, July 10, 2002 3:15 PM
duh you are right werewolf...But there must be a few gif animator programs around that can convert gifs to png images...try to look at webattack.com or zdnet
moshi
Reply #5 Wednesday, July 10, 2002 4:17 PM
Reply #5 Wednesday, July 10, 2002 4:17 PM
does PNG really support animations? i don´t think so. i guess these "animations" are just PNGs that are tiled to show the frames of the animation.
so i think every image editor that can handle PNGs should be good for that.
so i think every image editor that can handle PNGs should be good for that.
moshi
Reply #6 Wednesday, July 10, 2002 4:18 PM
Reply #6 Wednesday, July 10, 2002 4:18 PM
show the frames of the animation from left to right to be more exact.
digitaljames
Reply #7 Wednesday, July 10, 2002 11:11 PM
Reply #7 Wednesday, July 10, 2002 11:11 PM
Shamelessly stolen from my friend Deadzombie over at Neowin...
Create a new image in Photoshop, 128 pixels high by 768 pixels wide. This will give you 6 animation frames 128x128 (768/128 = 6). Make certain the background is transparent.
Set your guides and grids to 128 pixels, 8 subdivisions. Show grid.
You'll need 6 images for each animation section. for a zoomer I start with 48x48 on the left and increase the size each frame to the right.
From left to right the image sizes I use are 48, 64, 72, 96, 112, 128. You can use Gif Movie Gear or iconXP to export .psd files of an icons images sizes.
Using your align tools, align all the images within your selected ares, and save for the web as a 24bit .png with transparency enabled.
Right click on an Object and choose properties. Under the appearance dialog in properties you will see several different states (mouse over, mouse away, show...) most zoomers have only 3 states, although I have made a few zoomers with 16 different animation states before...the point is, you will see the image file for each state...browse to your new .png and load it. Make cetain it is applied to each appearance state.
Also make certain that under the animation tab you have the correct number of frames listed (6). Some people use 4 frames, others 5. I've seen animations with 50 frames before. Yikes!
Just remember to adjust the settings for each animation state or you'll get some strange effects.
Hope this helped.
Visual link here. http://www.neowin.net/bboard/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35499
Create a new image in Photoshop, 128 pixels high by 768 pixels wide. This will give you 6 animation frames 128x128 (768/128 = 6). Make certain the background is transparent.
Set your guides and grids to 128 pixels, 8 subdivisions. Show grid.
You'll need 6 images for each animation section. for a zoomer I start with 48x48 on the left and increase the size each frame to the right.
From left to right the image sizes I use are 48, 64, 72, 96, 112, 128. You can use Gif Movie Gear or iconXP to export .psd files of an icons images sizes.
Using your align tools, align all the images within your selected ares, and save for the web as a 24bit .png with transparency enabled.
Right click on an Object and choose properties. Under the appearance dialog in properties you will see several different states (mouse over, mouse away, show...) most zoomers have only 3 states, although I have made a few zoomers with 16 different animation states before...the point is, you will see the image file for each state...browse to your new .png and load it. Make cetain it is applied to each appearance state.
Also make certain that under the animation tab you have the correct number of frames listed (6). Some people use 4 frames, others 5. I've seen animations with 50 frames before. Yikes!
Just remember to adjust the settings for each animation state or you'll get some strange effects.
Hope this helped.
Visual link here. http://www.neowin.net/bboard/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35499
vitixme
Reply #8 Thursday, July 11, 2002 12:40 PM
Reply #8 Thursday, July 11, 2002 12:40 PM
Thank you digitaljames and Deadzombie. Your advice helps tremendously. One problem though. I am using Draw 8.0 and Photo-Panint. Not really keen on spending the money on Photoshop. I have tried several techniques to export .png's without the white background with no luck. I mask my object, make transparent all background and even delete background. When exporting I always get the same, "Image will be merged with background", even when there is no background to merge with! Any advice from those familiar with Corel would be greatly appreciated. I have followed directions from a number of forum posts related to this subject, but none of them seem to work.
Thanks again from a Hapless Graphics Newbie!
Thanks again from a Hapless Graphics Newbie!
werewolf
Reply #9 Thursday, July 11, 2002 1:03 PM
Reply #9 Thursday, July 11, 2002 1:03 PM
Paint Shop Pro does .png's well. There is a trial version at www.jasc.com. You could try it out just to see. It's also reasonably priced.
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Reply #1 Wednesday, July 10, 2002 5:52 AM