Animated PT-425 GIF

[SnowRidge]

Moss, how did you make your animated PT-425 GIF? I need to learn how to do that.

 

[pequeajim]

An animated .gif (pronounced giff of you like Christmas, or jiff of you like peanut butter) is just a series of single .gifs tied together into a mini slide show. Several paint programs will allow you to do this, or you can download some free .gif animation programs that work really well.

This one's cool...

http://www.gifworks.com/


or you can buy one

http://www.blumentals.net/egifan/

http://www.ulead.com/ga/runme.htm

It's fun to play with...

 

[Spiffy]

I'm far from an artist but it is fun.

<font color="red"> I guess attachments don't run continuous play. </font>

 

[MossRoad]

Weeeelllll..... I used Microsoft Paint(comes with all versions of windows), Paint Shop Pro 7 and a sub-program called Animation Shop 3.

First, I took a side picture of my PT425 with no attachments and saved it as a BMP format file.

I then used MS Paint to color over the PT425 picture with simple colors, the ones in the 16bit pallet.

I then used Paint Shop pro to crop it to the dimensions that I wanted. After I had that main picture looking like I wanted it, I saved it as file#1. Then I hand drew the first attachment and deleted the tractor and saved that as file#2. Then I recalled file#1, hand drew the second attachment, deleted the tractor and saved it as file #3 and continued with this process for all the attachments. That way, all the attechments line up with the quick attach plate on the tractor.

Once I had all the files, or frames, for the animation completed, I again used Paint Shop Pro to resize all of the files to the size that you see in my signature. By doing it this way, I was able to draw them in a relatively large screen, where the edges can be rough and inaccurate. Once I shrink them, those imperfections aren't that noticable. If you ever look at it real close, you can see the engine inside the screened engine cover and even the Power Trac decal on the engine cover. You can also see the gaps in the main joint between the front and rear halves of the unit just under the driver's seat, and most of the linkages, with the exception of the steering cylinders and the link from the Q.A plate to the arm. Either I forgot those or they dropped out in the shrink.

Then I used the Animation Shop 3 to make the frames into an animated .GIF file. I chose the delay between changes and chose to repeat it indefinately, or loop.

There are some other settings that you can do in those programs to make things more interesting, like making the background transparent so the thing will float over whatever ackground it is on. I chose white, I beleive, so it looks like it is in a white rectangle and I chose a thin border around it.

Hope this helps. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[MossRoad]

So if I take a picture of, say, a cat...
(see attached)

 

[MossRoad]

And then put red dots in its eyes and save that as cat2.
(see attached)

 

[MossRoad]

And then use the animation program to combine them with a delay of 30/100ths of a second and tell it to loop and save it as animation.gif, we get the end result
(see attached).

 

[MossRoad]

Looks like he heard a can of cat food open! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Spiffy]

How did you get the attachment to repeat?!

The one I threw together played fine in irfan-view, but only wants to run once here.

BTW, I used almost exactly the same programs as you. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
Also, that's the valve I have on order [though it looked much better before I butchered it for a lame attempt at an animation /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif ].

 

[Highridge]

Look what I made! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

This is fun!

p.s. does anyone know how to make it bigger?