8.5.

8.5.2 Creating
Animated GIFs
(Photoshop,
ImageReady)
 8.5.2 Creating Animated GIFs (Photoshop,
ImageReady)

Creating simple motion

You’ll start by animating the construction of a text logo, using a multilayered
Photoshop image.

Using layers to create animation frames

In this part of the lesson, you’ll adjust the position and opacity of layers in an
image to create the starting and ending frames of an animation sequence.
1. Start ImageReady.
2. Choose File > Open, and open the file Logo1.psd from the 8_5_2.
The logo consists of four different components that reside on separate layers.
3. If the Layers palette is not showing, choose Window > Show Layers to
display it.
In the Layers palette, notice that all the layers are currently visible. Visible
layers appear with an eye icon ( ) in the palette.

To define an animation, you use the Layers palette in conjunction with the
Animation palette. The Animation palette lets you add new frames, update
existing frames, change the order of frames, and preview the animation.
4. If the Animation palette is not showing, choose Window > Show Animation
to display it.

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 The Animation palette opens with a single default frame that reflects the current
state of the image. The frame is selected (outlined with a border), indicating that
you can change its content by editing the image.
You’ll compose animation frames that show the letters of the logo appearing and
moving into their final position from different areas. The current image state
reflects how you want the logo to appear at the end of the animation.
5. In the Animation palette, click the Duplicate Current Frame button ( ) to
create a new animation frame.

Each new frame you add starts as a duplicate of the preceding frame. Now you’ll
show the components of the logo text in different starting positions.
6. In the Layers palette, select the J layer.

7. With frame 2 selected in the Animation palette, select the move tool ( ).
Hold down Shift to constrain the movement, and in the image, drag the “J” to
the left, repositioning it at the left edge of the image. In the Layers palette,
reduce the opacity of the J layer to 20%.

Copyright  2002, Adobe Systems, Inc. Fundamentals of Web Design 1.2—Lab 8.5.2 1-3
 8. In the Layers palette, select the S layer.
9. In the image, press Shift as you drag the “S” to the right edge of the image.
10. In the Layers palette, reduce the opacity of the S layer to 20%.
11. Use the procedures you’ve learned in steps 7 through 10 to select, move, and
change the opacity of the bar layer and the U layer as follows:
• Move the bar to the upper edge of the image, and reduce the opacity to 20%.
• Move the “U” to the lower edge of the image, and reduce the opacity to 20%.

In the Animation palette, notice that frame 2 has updated to reflect the current
image state. To make frame 2 the starting state of your animation, you’ll switch
the order of the two frames.
12. In the Animation palette, drag frame 2 to the left, releasing the mouse when
the black bar appears to the left of frame 1.

13. Choose File > Save to save your work.

Tweening the position and opacity of layers

To finish the animation sequence, you’ll add frames that represent transitional
image states between the two existing frames. When you change the position,

1-4 Fundamentals of Web Design 1.2—-Lab 8.5.2 Copyright  2002, Adobe Systems, Inc.
 opacity, or effects of any layer between two animation frames, you can instruct
ImageReady to tween, or automatically create intermediate frames.
1. In the Animation palette, make sure that frame 1 is selected, click the
triangle in the upper right corner of the palette ( ) to bring up the palette
menu, and choose Tween.
You can vary just selected layers in the selected frames, or you can vary all
layers in the selection.
2. In the Tween dialog box, select All Layers, Position, and Opacity. (You can
also select Effects to vary the settings of layer effects evenly between the
beginning and ending frames. You won’t choose this option here.)
3. Choose Tween with Next Frame to add frames between the selected frame
and the following frame. Enter 4 in the Frames to Add text box. Click OK.
ImageReady creates four new transitional frames based on the opacity and
position settings of the layers in the original two frames.

4. At the lower left of the Animation palette, position the pointer on the
inverted triangle and press to display the Select Looping Options pop-up
menu. Then choose Once from the menu that appears.
5. In the Animation palette, click the Play button ( ) to preview your
animation in ImageReady.

Preserving transparency and optimizing animations

Next you’ll optimize the image in GIF format with background transparency and
preview your animation in a Web browser. Remember that only the GIF format
supports animated images.
1. In the Optimize palette, choose GIF for the format, Perceptual for the palette,
and then choose the number of colors. (We chose 256.)
2. Choose Show Options from the palette menu or click the Show Options
button on the Optimize tab to display all of the options.

Copyright  2002, Adobe Systems, Inc. Fundamentals of Web Design 1.2—Lab 8.5.2 1-5
 3. Select Transparency to preserve the background transparency of the original
image, and choose White from the matte menu.
An easy way to set the color to white is to click the Default Colors icon, and
then choose Background Color from the Matte pop-up menu in the Optimize
palette.
4. From the Animation palette menu, choose Select All Frames. Then right-
click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) one of the frames to display the
Disposal Method context menu.
5. Make sure that the Automatic option is selected.
The disposal options (Restore to Background ( ) and Automatic) clear the
selected frame before the next frame is played, eliminating the danger of
displaying remnant pixels from the previous frame. The Do Not Dispose ( )
option retains the frames. The Automatic option is suitable for most animations.
This option selects a disposal method based on the presence or absence of
transparency in the next frame and discards the selected frame if the next frame
contains layer transparency.
Now you’ll set options to optimize the animation.
6. Choose Optimize Animation from the Animation palette menu.
In addition to the optimization tasks applied to standard GIF files, several other
tasks are performed for animated GIF files. If you optimize the animated GIF
using an adaptive, perceptual, or selective palette, ImageReady generates a
palette for the file based on all of the frames in the animation. A special
dithering technique is applied to ensure that dither patterns are consistent across
all frames, to prevent flickering during playback. Also, frames are optimized so
that only areas that change from frame to frame are included, greatly reducing
the file size of the animated GIF. As a result, ImageReady requires more time to
optimize an animated GIF than to optimize a standard GIF.
7. Choose Optimize by Bounding Box to direct ImageReady to crop each frame
to preserve only the area that has changed from the preceding frame.
Animation files created using this option are smaller but are incompatible
with GIF editors, which do not support the option. (This option is selected by
default and is recommended.)
8. Choose Optimize by Redundant Pixel Removal to make all pixels in a frame
that are unchanged from the preceding frame transparent. (This option is
selected by default and is recommended.) Click OK.
When you choose the Redundant Pixel Removal option, the Disposal Method
must be set to Automatic, as in step 5.
9. In the image window, click the Optimized tab to build the optimized image.
Then click the 2-Up tab to compare the original image on the left with the
optimized image on the right.
Notice the Optimized file size in the image information box at the bottom of the
document window. Adding animation frames to an image also adds to the file
size.
To reduce the file size of your animated GIF images, experiment with different
palette and color settings.

1-6 Fundamentals of Web Design 1.2—-Lab 8.5.2 Copyright  2002, Adobe Systems, Inc.
 For complete information, see “Optimizing Images for the Web” in
Photoshop 6.0 online Help.

10. Choose File > Preview In, and choose a browser application from the
submenu. This command plays back an animation accurately, according to
the timing you’ve set.

Note To use the Preview In command, you must have a browser application installed
on your system. For more information, see “Previewing an image in a browser” in
Photoshop 6.0 online Help.

11. Return to the ImageReady application.

12. Choose File > Save Optimized As, name the image Logo1.gif, and click
Save.

Copyright  2002, Adobe Systems, Inc. Fundamentals of Web Design 1.2—Lab 8.5.2 1-7