Icon tutorials... is there an animator in the house?

[timepiececlock]

I seem to have acquired Adobe ImageReady 3.0 with my pirated Photoshop 6 stuff.

You can use ImageReady to make animated .gif icons, yes?

I'd like to know how. If anyone has done a step by step tutorial of how to use ImageReady, I'd love to see it. I was totally confused by it.

Comments

[spicedrum.livejournal.com]

try the memories in icon_tutorial

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

thanks!

I remember when...

[crushw-eyeliner.livejournal.com]

Okay, image ready looks intimidating, but once you start it up and start messing around, it's really not that difficult.

To make an animated gif, you have to have a PSD file to start with, because you'll be working with layers.

in image ready, make sure that you have window/Animation checkmarked, and that'll give you the animation menu. You'll see the animation menu on your document space say Animation/Image Map/Slice.

Now your PSD file is important, because you build the animation in adobe photoshop first, and then animate using Adobe Image Ready.

For a simple example - take the BOOB icon I just made today. I created the icon with all the text on it, flattened it, and then the animated part - "FUCK YOU CBS" which fades out, I created three different text layers. I arranged them from fading order and then saved the document as a layered psd.

Then I opened the psd using Image Ready, and that gave me two windows - one which is the PSD menu and then the animation menu. You'll see a frame in the Animation menu, and it corresponds to what you're seeing in the psd menu, that is, the layered image with whatever you have hidden or revealed. To make the animation, you go to the animation menu's bottom bar and there's a series of buttons. The button that looks like a page with a bent corner creates a duplicate of a frame. Click on it, and now you're looking at two frames. Then you go to your psd file, and then hide or reveal whatever layer you need. Continue making new frames and correspond with the psd until your animation is complete (now you can play with the 'vcr' buttons and the frame delay option that's at the bottom of each frame. (Just mouse over the bottom of the frames and it'll show "Selects frame delay time" and enter in a number)

Tweak the frame delay time until you like it.

Then optimize your psd file - the psd menu should have original/optimized/2 up/4 up on tabs above your psd file. They represent the different qualities you can save the file into a gif for fastest loading time/loss of quality, etc. Generally, your simple text animation icons should be no more than 2-5 k, but if you're doing complicated fade ins and outs, they could be 25k and up.

Play around with that.

Then to make the psd file into a gif - go to FILE/SAVE OPTIMIZED AS...a gif.

I hope this helped you out a little bit.

Re: I remember when...

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Sugoi! Cool! You are so frelling awesome! Thank you!

Your instructs are clear and understandable... it suddenly makes sense!

I have a question though. I saved it as a gif file, but then altered it and tried to save as it again, this time typing in a different name, so it would have both. But instead it just rewrote over the older one. and the new name didn't even show up.