Ulead GIF ANIMATOR 4.0 User manual

GIF Animator

USER GUIDE

First English edition for GIF Animator 4.0, September 1999

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,

or storing in a retrieval system, or translating into any language in any form without

the express written permission of Ulead Systems, Inc.

Software license

The software described in this document is furnished under a License Agreement which is

included with the product. This Agreement specifies the permitted and prohibited uses of the

product.

Licenses and trademarks

Ulead Systems, Inc., the Ulead logo, Ulead GIF Animator, VideoStudio and MediaStudio Pro

are trademarks of Ulead Systems, Inc. All other product names and any registered and unreg-

istered trademarks mentioned in this manual are used for identification purposes only and

remain the exclusive property of their respective owners.

Sample files

Files provided as samples on the program CD-ROM can be used for personal

demonstrations, productions and presentations. No rights are granted for commercial repro-

duction or redistribution of any sample files.

UnitedStatesHeadquarters:

Ulead Systems, Inc., 970 W. 190th Street, Torrance, CA 90502, USA

InternationalHeadquarters:

Ulead Systems, Inc., 10F #45 Tung Hsing Rd., Taipei 110, Taiwan

For more information on our products, please visit our website or send e-mail to INFO@ULEAD.COM.

www.ulead.com

Welcome to GIF Animator 4

What’s new in this version 6

Getting started 7

GIF Animator at a glance 8

Customizing how you work 9

Creating a new animation 10

Working with the Layer pane 11

Editing image layers 12

Duplicating image layers

Cropping and resampling images

Retouching image layers

Merging image layers

Other editing tools

Working with layer attributes 17

Global Information layer

Positioning images in the Workspace

Setting an image layer’s transparency

Removingimagelayers

Other image layer attributes

Using plug-in filters 22

UsingvideoF/X 23

Saving GIF images 24

Exporting image layers

Appendix I: About GIF animation 28

Appendix II: GIF color palettes 29

Appendix III: Creating compact animations 30

Appendix IV: Glossary 31

Table of Contents

WelcometoGIFAnimator

Welcome to Ulead GIF Animator, the industry standard for GIF animation. From its drag-and-

drop simplicity to its numerous customization options, GIF Animator takes all the hard work

out of building web-animations while giving you room to flex your creative muscles. Its built-

in, top-notch optimization engine makes your animation compact and web-ready in seconds

while retaining its overall quality. And, when you’re ready to embed them in your web pages,

GIF Animator generates all the necessary HTML code for you.

The Animation Wizard walks you through the creative process in three quick and easy steps. When you’re

finished, run the Optimization Wizard to make your animation as compact as possible for faster download

times on the Internet.

GIF Animator’s intuitive layout makes working with

animations a snap. The Layer pane lists each image

layer in the animation, either as thumbnails or as a

list, and the Workspace allows you to adjust and

position image layers. You can also work with multiple

image layers simultaneously. Its mode structure allows

you to switch between composition, editing, optimiza-

tion and preview tasks quickly and easily.

GIF Animator, while primarily a post-production tool, does give you the capability to work on

image layers directly within the program. You can perform minor touch-ups and edits right on

an image layer, rather than having to open it in an outside image editor.

Edit mode lets you add, remove and adjust the pixels in each image layer. It can help you clean up the

residue from bad scans, or adjust the color and lines that you want to emphasize on an object. The Edit

toolbar also contains tools for manipulating your image layers. The Crop tool pares away excess portions

of an image and the Resample tool resizes your animation, just to name a couple.

Additionally, GIF Animator supports APS 32-bit plug-ins: any plug-in that you can use in PhotoImpact,

Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro can now be used directly within GIF Animator for enhancing image layers.

GIF Animator comes with more than 30 custom video filters and effects, borrowed from Ulead’s award-

winning MediaStudio Pro, and is also capable of both importing and exporting video files.

What’s new in this version*

This version of GIF Animator contains some significant improvements and additions to the last

version, including:

New work modes – An improved user

interface lets you do your layout, edits and

touch-ups all directly within the main pro-

gram window. The work modes are: Com-

pose, Edit, Optimize, and Preview. Intuitively

placed tabs let you switch modes instantly

while you create your animations.

Improved optimization – A new algorithm

makes your animated GIF files even smaller

than before, and easy-to-access optimization

presets in Optimize mode make optimizing

your files a snap. Once you create and save a

preset, you no longer have to concern

yourself will all the different optimization

options. Simply click the Optimize button and

GIF Animator does the rest.

Batch Process your web site – If you have

an entire web site of animated GIF files that

you want to optimize, then GIF Animator is

the solution for you. With Batch Process, you

can run every animated GIF file through the

GIF Animator optimization engine and see the

results in seconds. Smaller files mean faster

loading web sites.

More Special F/X – Added special effects

expand your creative potential while design-

ing animations. The new effects include

Neon, Gradient, and Marquee banner text,

among others.

The Batch Process dialog box

The four work modes in GIF Animator: Compose,

Edit, Optimize and Preview.

The Optimize mode settings and the Advanced

optimization presets in GIF Animator.

* See the GIF Animator online Help for a complete

list of new features.

Getting started

Once you’ve installed GIF Animator, take a

moment to register online. Just point your

web browser to the Ulead web site (HTTP://

WWW.ULEAD.COM). Becoming a registered user

entitles you to product and information

updates, as well as technical support if you

encounter any problems with the GIF

Animator program.

To run the GIF Animator program:

•Click the Start Menu and then click the GIF Animator icon from the Programs:

Ulead WebUtilities - GIF Animator subfolder.

Note:

If you get stuck at any time when using GIF Animator, you can always use the online

help.Simplyclick the Help: Contents menucommandtoopen it. You can also visitthetutorials

onour web site to learn more tips& tricks by clickingthe Help: Tutorialsmenu command.

To install GIF Animator:

1 Place the GIF Animator CD into your CD-

ROM drive.

2 When the setup screen appears, follow the

instructions to install GIF Animator onto

your computer.

Note:

If the setup screen doesn’t appear

automatically, click the Start button on your

Windows task bar and then click the Run

command. When the Run dialog box opens,

enter

D:\setup.exe

and click OK (

where D

the letter of your CD-ROM drive).

GIF Animator at a glance

Everything you need to build great animations is included in GIF Animator’s single, what-you-

see-is-what-you-get interface. With its drag-and-drop capabilities and the power to import files

from more than 30 different file formats, the sky’s the limit to what GIF Animator can help

you create.

Attribute toolbarStandard toolbar

Layer pane WorkspacePalette toolbar

Mode tabs

Edit toolbar

Customizing how you work

With the Preferences dialog box, GIF Animator lets you customize how you work. For

example, you can define how images are converted from high color formats down to the basic

GIF color palette of 256 colors, append a personalized comment to each animation, and set up

the number of undo levels available while working. The Preferences dialog box can be opened

by clicking the File: Preferences menu command.

Important Preferences options:

•On the General tab, create a custom color

index for the Global Palette - you can build

this palette based on the first imported

image, or use a pre-defined palette of

‘browser-safe’ colors. You can also use a

previously saved color palette file. Gener-

ally speaking, the first option (Use the

palette of the first layer image) offers

the most flexibility.

•Because all palettes, including the Global

Palette and all Local Palettes, can only

contain a maximum of 256 colors, you

should select the Automatically expand

Global Palette option on the General tab

in order to fill the Global Palette with as

many colors as possible from imported

images. This frees up space in each of the

Local Palettes for storing colors specific to

image layers, making the GIF smaller.

• On the Image Layer tab, select the Show

Preview Image dialog box option to

manually build the color palette of each

image layer as it’s imported. If you want

GIF Animator to do this automatically,

deselect this option and then set the default

Palette conversion options for each

imported image layer.

Creating a new animation

Getting started with GIF Animator is a snap. All animations consist of a series of ‘stacked’

images, with each image being a single ‘frame’ in the animation. You can build frames (called

layers in GIF Animator) by inserting individual images manually or by inserting portions of

digitized videos. You can also insert the contents of an entire folder or a range of selected files.

To create a new animation:

1 Click the Layer: Add Images menu

command or the Add Images button on

the Standard toolbar. The Add Images

dialog box opens.

2 Browse for the images you want to add

and select them.

3 Click OK. The images are added in

alphanumerical order to the Layer pane.

Tip:Youcan also add imagestoGIF Animator

bydragging them from the Windows Explorer

anddroppingthemdirectly into the program.

To import video frames:

1 Click the Layer: Add Video menu

command or the Add Video button on the

Standard toolbar. The Add Video dialog

box opens.

2 Browse for the video file from which you

want to extract a sequence.

3 In the Add Video Dialog box, click the

Duration button and then use the Mark-

in and Mark-out buttons to select the

sequence. Click OK when you’re done to

close the dialog box.

4 Click OK to insert the sequence.

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