Expert: Amy - 12/11/2006

Question

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The text above is a follow-up to ...

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The text above is a follow-up to ...

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I'd be grateful if you could tell me how to move an animation from one onscreen image to another without losing its movement.  I want to design a Christmas card with several concurrent animations.
Thanks
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I have a follow-up thought. Is there a reason that you can't just compile/arrange the animations in one htm file?

Or do they have to interact?

-Amy

Thanks for the prompt reply.  Having spent a frustrating couple of weeks with Animation Workshop and Gif Construction I've now trying Illustrator.  My difficulty at the moment is moving a pasted animation within an image.  I can move each frame easily enough, but can't place it in exactly the same new position as the others.  I'm sure there's an easy answer to this, but I haven't found it yet.
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Ah - okay.

I see the issue. You are pasting frames into Illustrator from another application and want them to line up exactly.

If the animations frames are all the same size, you could use the Align commands (Window>Show Align) to get them all in the same spot.  Or you could use the transform (Window > Show Transform) palette to do this by giving each frame the same X and Y starting point.

But I suspect, since you sound like you would have already tried the obvious, that the frames are not all the same size because the background is transparent...

In that case, you could draw a 1-pixel frame around them in the parent application and then copy and paste them, align them, then make a clipping path to get rid of that outline.

Or, you could paste each frame onto a new/separate layer and make each layer slightly transparent (using Transparency Window) so that you can see the layer underneath and line the image up visually.

Well, I've only had one cup of coffee, so I hope I understood the problem correctly.

I've only done a few very simple animations with Image Ready... and I have a question for you.  Does the version of Illustrator you're working with support animation via Export? I still open the ai document in PhotoShop and jump back to Image Ready. If you have PhotoShop, I'd suggest working between that and Image Ready, it's easier.

Reply
Many thanks for your advice.  I find that I can import one gif on to another accurately enough by using guides, though doing it frame by frame seems rather a long process.  I can jump between Photoshop and ImageReady but I find that when I do so, or when I optimise my animation or open it with Outlook Express the colour of the imported images changes to that of the original gif.  In my version of ImageReady one cannot save an un-optimised animation without converting it to psd, which then cannot be opened by Outlook Express or Firefox.

Is there a way round this?

Michael


Answer
Well Michael, I'm no ImageReady expert but it sounds like you really need to optimize that animation and save it as a gif, right?

Your "reverting color" problem and inability to Save OPtimized as a gif sound like you've got a couple issues.

In Image Ready, in Window>Optimization, make sure you have GIF optimization chosen, not JPEG. The level depends on your subject matter/number of colors/desired file size, etc.

Then, in Window>Animation, click on the frames and make sure that the disposal method is set to Auto (do this by right clicking on each frame in the Animation window).

Then Save Optimized as a gif.

If you would like to send me the file to look at, that'd be fine!  AmyLynPace@yahoo.com is my addy.

Talk to you later
Amy