Clouseau said:
i have to assume you figured this out, judging by your avatar... care to explain?
i know how to make an avatar out of a single still picture, but i'm also interested in just creating general .gif avatars where it flips from one picture to another to another...
any tips would be appreciated...
Okay, I'll give you the run down...
What you need:
-Adobe ImageReady
-Ulead Video Studio
-Virtual Dub
Note: These are just the programs I use. If you like something else better, use it.
1.) Still avatars
-Just resize the image
2.) Slide-show avatar
-Create a folder that contains the images you want in your slide show.
-In ImageReady, select
File->Import folder as frames and choose the folder your images are in.
-Now the images should be in the animation tool bar in ImageReady as frames
-Simply duplicate the frames of each image until the desired length of time per image is reached.
-Adjust the colors, size, etc.
-Click
File-> Save Optimised(spelling?)
As...
-Save and your done!
3.) Movie Clip Avatars
-Using the program called "Virtual Dub" (just do a Google search), open a movie clip or other video file
-Set the point where you want the avatar to begin and the point where you want it to stop on the slider bar
-Make sure you have an empty folder on your computer
-Select
File -> Save image sequence
-choose the folder where you want the images to be saved
-The frames will be saved as images to this folder
-Now go into your folder and delete some of the images. Not all of the frames are needed. They just take up extra space. You may need to go back and do this several times before you are done.
-Once you have done this, go into ImageReady and select
File -> Import folder as frames.
-You will see the movie or video clip frames from your folder in the animation toolbar
-Adjust the colors, size, etc.
-If needed, delete more frames that are not crucial to the clip
-Select
File -> Save Optimised As...
-Save and your done!
4.)Zooming and Panning Avatars
-Open the image you want to pan or zoom in Ulead Video Studio
-Select
Pan and Zoom and click "Customize"
-Mess with the zoom and pan stuff till you get it how you want it
-Click the "Share" Tab
-Click "Create Video File"
-Click Custom
-Save it as .avi
-Now open Virtual Dub
-Select your .avi file
-Do the same process as described above and choose your start and stop points
-Save it as an image sequence
-Like before, edit out unneeded frames
-Import the folder as frames in ImageReady
-Adjust colors, size, etc.
-Delete more frames if needed
-Make sure to save it as optimised.
-Once you've saved, your done!
^I hope this has helped. Good luck
