Luv U Animation Tutorial

Luv U Animation
in PhotoImpact-X3

Sher'd Memories Tutorials

Software: PhotoImpact X3
This will work for earlier versions of PI
but some tools may be in different locations

Skill Level: Beginner/Advanced

You will be using:
*A picture of someone or something you love
*A conversation heart graphic from conversation heart zip file
Thank you About.com

This tutorial is designed to teach you how to make a turnpage animation in PhotoImpact.

*Note RC=right click

If you are doing this for the Beginners Workshop

use one of the heart stamps provided for your turnpage

use the same settings indicated in the tutorial

your finished size must be 150x150 pixels

tell which frame delay speed that you used

put your watermark on the base image

Importing the conversation hearts
picture tube into PI

It is very easy to import a Picture Tube from Paint Shop Pro or similar programs into your Stamp Tool.

Note:PI will only open picture tubes with the .tub extention. The newer tubes cannot be opened in PI.

Open your conversation heart zip file and save it to your My Stamps folder that you created earlier in the workshop.
If you need a refresher....Creating & Adding Stamps

Select your stamp tool. Select the drop down menu next to the apple. Select Import Picture Tube. Go to your My Stamps folder and find the scconvh-psp folder that you added earlier. Double click that folder then double click the sc-convhearts.

That's all there is to it. Your 10 conversation stamps are neatly tucked away and ready to use.

Creating the layout
for your animation

Base Image---Select the image of the person or thing you love. If it is not a perfect square, use your crop tool and crop a perfect square from your image. (Watching the numbers on your attribute bar will help you do this.)

Adjust>Resize>150x150pixels.

You will probably need to slightly sharpen your image after re-sizing.
Photo>Sharpen and then select the thumbnail that works best for your image.

This is the time to add your watermark.

Turnpage image---Open a new canvas 150x150 pixels. Select your stamp tool and stamp one of the conversation hearts onto your canvas.

The stamp will be a bit big so with the heart selected...
adjust>resize>80% and then place the heart slightly off center to the bottom right.
Let's add a tiny shadow to the heart. RC>Shadow>select first shadow>2 on the top two settings>OK
Now a little border
RC>Merge all>RC>All>RC>Border changing the settings as shown to the right>OK
RC>convert to object>RC>Shadow>first shadow>3 on the top two settings>OK
Next let's make a copy
RC>Merge all>RC>Copy
Finally we'll paste
Go back to your Base Image and for the last time
RC>Paste>Align>Center Both

Now you should have something similar to the image on the bottom right with your base image tucked neatly behind.

Animating the image

Making sure that the turnpage layer is selected on your image, go to...

Effect>Creative>Animation Studio>Effect Turnpage

With the Basic Tab selected tic
Type=Corn, Mode=Reverse, Corner=Far right as shown in the top image to the right.

All PI Animation is defaulted to 10 frames. In this project we will be selecting frames 5 and 10 to adjust the animation.

The middle image to the right will help you get familiar with the buttons you will use to make your animation.

Click the Play animation button. You will see that it stops at Current frame 10 with the turnpage open. We are going to have some fun and close the page again.
To do that, we need to adjust frames 5 and 10.

Highlight the Current frame number (it will be 10 if you just ran the animation) and change it to 5
Click the Assign as key frame (+ sign).
The Key frame marker will now be blue(1.)indicating this as the active frame.
Notice that the picture has the turnpage flap in the middle.

Let's test our animation on a continuous loop

Select the Loop button(2.)
Now Play animation

That's looking better, but we need to get frame 5 to show the turnpage at the top of the image.

Hover your mouse over the green square (3.) in the middle of your image until you see the four white arrows. (This might be hard to see, but it is there. Keep hovering on the line between the two red squares until you see the arrows.)
Click and drag your turnpage to the top left corner (4.) as shown in the inserted image.

You can test your animation anywhere along the way to see how things are progressing. Click the Stop animation button to continue on in your adjustments.

Bringing the Turnpage Back Down

In order to make the turnpage close we need to adjust frame 10.

Highlight the last Key frame number (10)
Hover to get the white arrows in the middle like before and drag the page all the way down to the bottom right

Now that you have adjusted frames 5 and 10, give your animation a try. Pretty cool...isn't it???

Just so you know that it's there...take a peek at the Advanced Tab. There are other adjustments available, but we will save those for another time.

Saving Your Animation

The last step is saving your animation. These files can be quite big. We can reduce the size by adjusting a few settings.
The terms to the right will help you understand why you are changing the settings.

Click on the Save button in the bottom right corner. The save menu, like the image on the right, will pop up.
Browse to the desired folder and name your animation as you choose, but add.10.
These files can be very large so we'll adjust the Colors to 156 and Interlace NOT selected to get them it a bit smaller.
Be sure that 10 is in the Frame delay and that Transparent background is NOT selected and keep the other settings as default.
I find that 10/100 sec. is a bit fast so let's compare 2 more speeds.

Follow the save steps 2 more times, but change the number on the file name to .20 and .30 and change the Frame delay to 20 and then 30.
This way you can compare the speed of the animation and pick the one you like best.

Saving GIF Animation Options

COLORS The maximum number of colors the color palette can contain to display images. Higher values tend to increase file size, but lower values may degrade the quality.
INFINITE LOOP Creates a continuous animation. Clear it and enter a number in the adjacent box to define a limited duration.
FRAME DELAY TIME How long a frame will be displayed, in hundredths of a second, before switching to the next one.
TRANSPARENT BACKGROUND Creates empty, transparent spaces between images when the animation is played in a Web browser.
DITHER Allows GIF Animator to compensate for colors not found in the palette. It then simulates missing colors by mixing combinations of existing colors in the area that the original color occupied.
INTERLACE Allows the image layer to open gradually as it downloads, simulating a 'fade-in' effect. This however may increase file size a little.

Viewing Your Animation

Once you have saved your animation, you will not be able to view it in PhotoImpact. The easiest way to compare the speed would be Composing or Creating New Mail in Outlook Express or Windows Mail and Insert>Picture putting all three side by side.
If you would like to view just one of the animations at a time, it is quicker to open in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer or Windows Media Player.

Reminder...If you are doing this for the Beginner's Workshop, choose your favorite of the 3 speeds and post it to your BW forum. Make sure you tell which Frame delay time you are using.

The following animations show some different interpretations of the same layout.
Spouses, friends, children, pets, nature and food are just a few possibilities. Let your imagination run wild!
A big thank you to all the friends that contributed their beautiful designs.

Suzie	Bear	Pittie Rescue
Wendy	Nature Girl	Pamela
To find out more about the VAA Community click the button above.	Sparrow	To find out more about the BW click the button above.