Ulead GIF ANIMATOR 4.0 User Manual

GIF Animator

USER GUIDE

a

First English edition for GIF Animator 4.0, September 1999
© 1996-99 Ulead Systems, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
or storing in a retrieval system, or translating into any language in any form without
the express written permission of Ulead Systems, Inc.

Software license

The software described in this document is furnished under a License Agreement which is
included with the product. This Agreement specifies the permitted and prohibited uses of the
product.

Licenses and trademarks

ICI Library © 1991–1992 C-Cube Microsystems.

Ulead Systems, Inc., the Ulead logo, Ulead GIF Animator, VideoStudio and MediaStudio Pro
are trademarks of Ulead Systems, Inc. All other product names and any registered and unreg­istered trademarks mentioned in this manual are used for identification purposes only and
remain the exclusive property of their respective owners.

Sample files

Files provided as samples on the program CD-ROM can be used for personal
demonstrations, productions and presentations. No rights are granted for commercial repro­duction or redistribution of any sample files.

United States Headquarters:

Ulead Systems, Inc., 970 W. 190th Street, Torrance, CA 90502, USA

International Headquarters:

Ulead Systems, Inc., 10F #45 Tung Hsing Rd., Taipei 110, Taiwan
For more information on our products, please visit our website or send e-mail to

[e-mail].

www.ulead.com

Welcome to GIF Animator 4
What’s new in this version 6
Getting started 7
GIF Animator at a glance 8
Customizing how you work 9
Creating a new animation 10
Working with the Layer pane 11
Editing image layers 12

Duplicating image layers

12

Cropping and resampling images

13

Retouching image layers

14

Merging image layers

15

Other editing tools

16

Working with layer attributes 17

Global Information layer

17

Positioning images in the Workspace

18

Setting an image layer’s transparency

19

Removing image layers

20

Other image layer attributes

21

Using plug-in filters 22
Using video F/X 23
Saving GIF images 24

Exporting image layers

25

Appendix I: About GIF animation 28
Appendix II: GIF color palettes 29
Appendix III: Creating compact animations 30
Appendix IV: Glossary 31

Table of Contents

4

Welcome to GIF Animator

Welcome to Ulead GIF Animator, the industry standard for GIF animation. From its drag-and­drop simplicity to its numerous customization options, GIF Animator takes all the hard work
out of building web-animations while giving you room to flex your creative muscles. Its built­in, top-notch optimization engine makes your animation compact and web-ready in seconds
while retaining its overall quality. And, when you’re ready to embed them in your web pages,
GIF Animator generates all the necessary HTML code for you.

The Animation Wizard walks you through the creative process in three quick and easy steps. When you’re
finished, run the Optimization Wizard to make your animation as compact as possible for faster download
times on the Internet.

GIF Animator’s intuitive layout makes working with
animations a snap. The Layer pane lists each image
layer in the animation, either as thumbnails or as a
list, and the Workspace allows you to adjust and
position image layers. You can also work with multiple
image layers simultaneously . Its mode structure allows
you to switch between composition, editing, optimiza­tion and preview tasks quickly and easily .

5

GIF Animator, while primarily a post-production tool, does give you the capability to work on
image layers directly within the program. You can perform minor touch-ups and edits right on
an image layer, rather than having to open it in an outside image editor.

Edit mode lets you add, remove and adjust the pixels in each image layer. It can help you clean up the
residue from bad scans, or adjust the color and lines that you want to emphasize on an object. The Edit
toolbar also contains tools for manipulating your image layers. The Crop tool pares away excess portions
of an image and the Resample tool resizes your animation, just to name a couple.

Additionally , GIF Animator supports APS 32-bit plug-ins: any plug-in that you can use in PhotoImpact,
Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro can now be used directly within GIF Animator for enhancing image layers.
GIF Animator comes with more than 30 custom video filters and effects, borrowed from Ulead’s award­winning MediaStudio Pro, and is also capable of both importing and exporting video files.

6

What’s new in this version*

This version of GIF Animator contains some significant improvements and additions to the last
version, including:

New work modes – An improved user
interface lets you do your layout, edits and
touch-ups all directly within the main pro­gram window. The work modes are: Com­pose, Edit, Optimize, and Preview. Intuitively
placed tabs let you switch modes instantly
while you create your animations.

Improved optimization – A new algorithm
makes your animated GIF files even smaller
than before, and easy-to-access optimization
presets in Optimize mode make optimizing
your files a snap. Once you create and save a
preset, you no longer have to concern
yourself will all the different optimization
options. Simply click the Optimize button and
GIF Animator does the rest.

Batch Process your web site – If you have
an entire web site of animated GIF files that
you want to optimize, then GIF Animator is
the solution for you. With Batch Process, you
can run every animated GIF file through the
GIF Animator optimization engine and see the
results in seconds. Smaller files mean faster
loading web sites.

More Special F/X – Added special effects
expand your creative potential while design­ing animations. The new effects include
Neon, Gradient, and Marquee banner text,
among others.

The Batch Process dialog box

The four work modes in GIF Animator: Compose,
Edit, Optimize and Preview.

The Optimize mode settings and the Advanced
optimization presets in GIF Animator.

* See the GIF Animator online Help for a complete
list of new features.

7

Getting started

Once you’ve installed GIF Animator, take a
moment to register online. Just point your
web browser to the Ulead web site (

HTTP://

WWW.ULEAD.COM). Becoming a registered user

entitles you to product and information
updates, as well as technical support if you
encounter any problems with the GIF
Animator program.

To run the GIF Animator program:

• Click the Start Menu and then click the GIF Animator icon from the Programs:

Ulead W ebUtilities - GIF Animator subfolder .

Note: If you get stuck at any time when using GIF Animator, you can always use the online
help. Simply click the Help: Contents menu command to open it. Y ou can also visit the tutorials
on our web site to learn more tips & tricks by clicking the Help: Tutorials menu command.

To install GIF Animator:

1 Place the GIF Animator CD into your CD-

ROM drive.

2 When the setup screen appears, follow the

instructions to install GIF Animator onto
your computer.

Note:

If the setup screen doesn’t appear
automatically , click the Start button on your
Windows task bar and then click the Run
command. When the Run dialog box opens,
enter

D:\setup.exe

and click OK (

where D

is

the letter of your CD-ROM drive).

8

GIF Animator at a glance

Everything you need to build great animations is included in GIF Animator’s single, what-you­see-is-what-you-get interface. With its drag-and-drop capabilities and the power to import files
from more than 30 different file formats, the sky’s the limit to what GIF Animator can help
you create.

Attribute toolbarStandard toolbar

Layer pane WorkspacePalette toolbar

Mode tabs

Edit toolbar

9

Customizing how you work

With the Preferences dialog box, GIF Animator lets you customize how you work. For
example, you can define how images are converted from high color formats down to the basic
GIF color palette of 256 colors, append a personalized comment to each animation, and set up
the number of undo levels available while working. The Preferences dialog box can be opened
by clicking the File: Preferences menu command.

Important Preferences options:

• On the General tab, create a custom color

index for the Global Palette - you can build
this palette based on the first imported
image, or use a pre-defined palette of
‘browser-safe’ colors. You can also use a
previously saved color palette file. Gener­ally speaking, the first option (Use the
palette of the first layer image) offers
the most flexibility .

• Because all palettes, including the Global

Palette and all Local Palettes, can only
contain a maximum of 256 colors, you
should select the Automatically expand
Global Palette option on the General tab
in order to fill the Global Palette with as
many colors as possible from imported
images. This frees up space in each of the
Local Palettes for storing colors specific to
image layers, making the GIF smaller.

• On the Image Layer tab, select the Show
Preview Image dialog box option to
manually build the color palette of each
image layer as it’s imported. If you want
GIF Animator to do this automatically,
deselect this option and then set the default
Palette conversion options for each
imported image layer .

10

Creating a new animation

Getting started with GIF Animator is a snap. All animations consist of a series of ‘stacked’
images, with each image being a single ‘frame’ in the animation. You can build frames (called
layers in GIF Animator) by inserting individual images manually or by inserting portions of
digitized videos. You can also insert the contents of an entire folder or a range of selected files.

To create a new animation:

1 Click the Layer: Add Images menu

command or the Add Images button on
the Standard toolbar. The Add Images
dialog box opens.

2 Browse for the images you want to add

and select them.

3 Click OK. The images are added in

alphanumerical order to the Layer pane.

Tip: Y ou can also add images to GIF Animator
by dragging them from the Windows Explorer
and dropping them directly into the program.

To import video frames:

1 Click the Layer: Add Video menu

command or the Add Video button on the
Standard toolbar. The Add Video dialog
box opens.

2 Browse for the video file from which you

want to extract a sequence.

3 In the Add Video Dialog box, click the

Duration button and then use the Mark-
in and Mark-out buttons to select the

sequence. Click OK when you’re done to
close the dialog box.

4 Click OK to insert the sequence.