Creating animated GIF files

It's easy to create animated GIF files
. You create the animation as a series of separate frames
, edit the properties of each frame in the Frame Gallery and then just export the animation.

To create an animated GIF you must open the document as Animated. Refer to Creating new documents for details of how to do this.

To create an animated GIF

1. Open the Frame Gallery by choosing Frame Gallery on the Utilities menu. For a new document the Frame Gallery shows a single frame.

2. Draw what you want to appear in this first frame.

3. In the Frame Gallery click New to create the next frame.

4. Set the Background and Overlay flags as required.

5. Create the objects you want to appear in this frame.

6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until you have built up the sequence of frames.

7. Set the delay for each frame by right-clicking on each bitmap in the gallery and selecting Properties.

8. Before saving the Animated GIF you can preview either a single frame or the complete animation. Click Preview to open the Preview window.

9. To save out the animation, choose Export Animated GIF from the File menu.

Movies (not working in this version)

Creating Animated GIFs

Tips

You can create frames in any order then use the Frame Gallery to arrange them in the correct order.

To hide a frame (not make it part of the animation) right-click on the frame to display a pop-up menu. Deselect Show Frame on the menu. There’s a similar option on the Frame tab of the Properties dialog box (click Properties on the Frame Gallery).

Instead of creating a new frame you can also copy any of the existing frames by clicking Copy in the Frame Gallery. This is useful where you want a moving object in the animation. Copy the frame, move the object slightly, repeat this operation until you have built up the complete animated sequence.

To create a Transparent Animated GIF (the background is transparent), select Make background transparent on the Animation tab of the Properties dialog box (click Properties on the Frame Gallery).

You may want part of an object at the edge of the Animated GIF. You can use Intersect (on the Combine Shapes submenu of the Arrange menu) to cut objects.

To select objects in multiple frames select All Visible and All Editable in the Frame Gallery.

To make the final animation a specific size: Select All Visible and All Editable; select all objects; and then use the Selector Tool to set the size. You can then export the animated GIF.

If an object uses a named color
and you want to change that color part way though the animation, click Make Local to Frame on the Color Editor. This creates a new named color local to that frame. See Color Editor - advanced operations for details.

Some programs do not support animated GIF files. For example versions of Netscape before Version 2 and Internet Explorer before version 3.

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Related Topics

Frame Gallery

Bitmap Gallery

Animated GIF files