Will you please teach us how to make a moving avatar?
Ok, I’m pretty new at this, but I don’t mind sharing:
To animate anything, from an emoticon on up to an avatar, first get an image processing program package such as Photoshop with ImageReady. You’ll use the first one to progressively alter layers which contain elements of or copies of an image, and then you’ll export the whole image into Photoshop’s sister program, ImageReady, to convert this into frames for animation, set the timing of each frame, and then save the whole thing as an animated GIF.
I’ll let other posters suggest other programs which might be cheaper or better, but this is what I use.
Now, let’s take an image we want to animate, like this: 
To keep it simple, I’ll make this a tiny, 2-step animation with a new flag, here: 
I pasted that onto my smiley guy, and shrank the image to fit the flag area. Next, I copied the layer so I have two identical pics of the smiley with the SA flag; then in only one of those layers, I pulled the flag and arm down a notch, and brushed one eye to wink, like this: 
Saving this as a working copy in .psd format, which preserves layers, I then exported it to ImageReady using Photoshop’s File > Edit in ImageReady command.
There, both layers were active in both animation frames, which is not what I want. I went to frame one at the bottom (in the animation window), selected it, and then went up to the layers window, and hid the top layer. Then I went to frame two and hid the bottom layer. Now each frame shows only one of the two layers, so as the frames toggle, the layers will alternate.
Finally, I saved optimized, and here’s the result: 
While viewed in ImageReady, it looks perfect, but upon saving and then opening in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer or uploading via ImageShack to here, the colors in the flag suddenly got screwed up at the last second, though. It occured in the optimization process with dithering to 256 colors, custom palette. To solve this, I found an Optimization Window, and changed the preset to No Dither. Result: 
Anyway, that’s the basic principle: create frames that vary only slightly from one to the next, and then string them together to be played consecutively, just like frames of a cartoon or a movie. To do an avatar, just do the same thing but with a larger pic, up to 150 pixels wide in the case of Forumosa!
Here are some pics ideal for animating, which will be relatively easy:
For this one, try just shifting the hues of each frame one notch, so that the whole thing appears to change color smoothly.
Here, make him blink.
For this one, you could try moving the shock around, having it vanish and reappear, etc., to get an electric shock effect.
Here, make the hair wiggle, etc., as if she’s flying.
Or play with your own pics, and show us what you get!
Thanks Dragonbones. I will try to follow your method. I have tried to do it on my own in the following way:
- I created an image using PowerPoint.
- I made small changes in successive frames.
- I saved all the images as gif pictures.
- I strung them together using windows moviemaker.
- I saved it as a video clip. (it’s on youtube)
- I tried to upload it to Imageshack.
- Imageshack doesn’t upload window moviemaker files.
Can you “Save As” and change the file format?
I tried, but there is only one option: wmv (I think)
What you need is something that can animate gif files. That is the only format that can be used as an image on a webpage, and can be animated. I don’t know where you can find a gif animator, I spent 5 seconds on google and sourceforge and didn’t come up with anything free.
It maybe possible to convert movie files to gif files, but one limitation of gif files is that they can only use 256 colours while movies are unlimited. Your gunslinging avatar seemed to work ok and I presume it was made that way, but it will need converting. If you want to make your own animated handdrawn avatar, you need something that can take a series of gifs and turn them into one animated gif.
Go to www.download.com and search for “gif animator” there’s a few there, but they’re not all free, they may be trial versions.
That’s what ImageReady is, of course. 
Not free, 'tho.
[quote=“Big Fluffy Matthew”]What you need is something that can animate gif files. That is the only format that can be used as an image on a webpage, and can be animated. I don’t know where you can find a gif animator, I spent 5 seconds on google and sourceforge and didn’t come up with anything free.
It maybe possible to convert movie files to gif files, but one limitation of gif files is that they can only use 256 colours while movies are unlimited. Your gunslinging avatar seemed to work ok and I presume it was made that way, but it will need converting. If you want to make your own animated handdrawn avatar, you need something that can take a series of gifs and turn them into one animated gif.
Go to www.download.com and search for “gif animator” there’s a few there, but they’re not all free, they may be trial versions.[/quote]
freedownloadscenter.com/Sear … mator.html
What do you think about these?
They list:
[quote]IconCool GIF Animator 5.2.60605
Shareware $29.95 10-Oct-2006 16050K
IconCool GIF Animator is a professional and easy-to-use GIF animation software tool. It can create animated GIF banners, buttons and any other pictures for your web sites easily. IconCool GIF Animator can export animation in animated AVI and MPEG.
Easy GIF Animator 3.4
Shareware $19.85 4-May-2006 1205K
Easy GIF Animator is powerful yet very easy to use software for creating and editing animated GIF images. You can create animated pictures, banners and buttons in a snap, add stunning visual effects, reduce filesize and prepare animation for the web.
Flex GIF Animator 5.02
Shareware $39.95 13-Feb-2006 2700K
Create GIF, Flash,Quicktime movie and self-play congratulation animations with Real-time 3D effects. It has a built-in Windows trick banner maker, screen capturer, morpher, and nature image matting tool.
Advanced GIF Animator 2.23
Shareware $35 24-Jan-2006 4569K
A powerful tool for creating animated GIF images, banners, buttons, and even movies. Built-in image editor, palette optimization, image size reduction, and multi-language support available.
CoffeeCup GIF Animator 7.5
Shareware $34 10-Nov-2005 2348K
CoffeeCup GIF Animator allows you to create or edit Animated GIFs for your Web pages easily. Just open the software and it guides you through making great Animated GIFs in just a few simple steps. It’s so easy … anyone can do it. [/quote]
I’ve never used any, so the next step would be to Google individually for reviews. Jia1you2!
So AAF, show us your homework!
My dog ate it. I suppose you won’t fall for that one. I downloaded some software that makes it easy to create a gif animated avatar, but it failed to work. I think there some file missing on my pc to get it done.