Adobe Photoshop CS2 On Demand [Electronic resources]

Creating an Animated GIF in ImageReady

There are many ways to make things move on a Web page; however, one of the most Internet compatible ways is the animated GIF. The original designation, GIF89a, gives you an idea of how long this format has been around. You can create an animated GIF directly in Photoshop, but if you prefer using ImageReady, you can use it too. The steps are similar, but not the same. If you use ImageReady to create an animation, you may still need Photoshop, which has more drawing tools to create each image, or frame, of the animation.

Create a GIF from Scratch in ImageReady

Open ImageReady.

Click the

File menu, and then click

New .

Enter a name in the Name box.

Even if you name the file in the New dialog box, you will still have to save the file.

Click the

Size list arrow, and then select from the available presets, or enter in a customized width and height.

Click

White, Background Color , or

Transparent options to determine the contents of the first layer (animated GIF files work best using the Transparent option).

Click

OK .

Select the

Optimize palette, click the

Format list arrow, and then click

GIF .

Create the first image for the animated GIF, or click the

Edit In Photoshop button on the toolbox to move the new document into Photoshop.

Since Photoshop has more drawing tools, moving into Photoshop to create the animation image is a good idea.

Press Ctrl+J (Win) or (Mac) to create a copy of your first animation in a separate layer.

Modify the second image (animations are essentially the same image, modified slightly between each animation frame or, in this case each layer).

Repeat steps 9 and 10 until you have enough cells for the animation.

If you created the animation layers in Photoshop, click the

Edit in ImageReady Jump button.

Click the

Window menu, and then click

Animation .

Click the

Animation Options button, and then click

Make Frames From The Layers .

Click the

Play button to view your first animation.

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