Animated Snow Tutorial!
HOW TO MAKE ANIMATED SNOW PICS
How to go from
Here:
to here:
Complete with dummy proof pictures.
Programs Needed: Sqirlz Water reflections and (optional) Photoshop
Notes: Sqirlz water reflections is a fee program which I will show you where to download, and the use of photoshop is optional, but it is preferred. Also, Im using windows…I can’t promise everything will work on a mac.
Step One: Download Squirlz Water Reflections for free from http://www.tucows.com/preview/382027
This is a lovely little program that can do all sorts of water related animations including snow, rain, waves, and ripples.
And go ahead and install it.
(Note, this is a clean download. Your computer might give you a virus warning, but just ignore it. )
Step 2: Now that you have squirlz downloaded and installed lets get started! Now lets go ahead and open the icon we want to put a snow animation on. Squirlz always blows them up huge, so just go to view show 100% and now it should be normal size.
Step 3: Hit that thing that looks like a ‘Y’ on the top toolbar and select “Rain/Snow” only. And then hit OK.
Step 4:
Hit the button to the left of the one that looks like a Y.
Check the box that says “snow” and then adjust the arrows to the values I have shown here. The big red arrow at the bottom is the direction you want the snow to fall in. So if you want your snow to fall at an angle or straight down, adjust that arrow as wanted.
Note: You can play with the adjustments here if want and get different sorts of snow. But in this example, these are the values I used.
If you want to preview your icon now, hit the yellow arrow up top that says “rain/snow only”
Hit the red x up in the top right once you have the settings to your liking.
Note: Sometimes Squirlz glitches on me and plays back the animation faster than it should. So if yours does this too, just ignore it…it will still save properly.
Step 5
Go up to “Animate” and then “Period”
Now, as you might know, LJ has a size limit on icons. And the size of an icon depends on three things, the number of frames, and how many colors are in it, and the actual pixel size of the pic itself.
If you don’t have photoshop You want an icon that’s under 40kb. So input 4. You can play around with the number of frames until you get to as close to 40kb as you can without going over(I’ll show you how to check the size in step 7)….but on average 4 frames is almost always the magic number that works. You might be able get away with more frames…or you might need less than that. But 4 almost always works. Hit “Ok” once you’re done.
If you do have photoshp:Input 8 frames. And hit OK.
Step 6:
Hit the button that says “Gif” Select “rain/snow only” and hit ‘Ok”
Give it a name and hit save.
Now a thing should pop up that asks for a frame rate.
If you have photoshop: Leave the number at 15 and hit Ok
If you don’t have photoshop 15 might be okay for you, but sometimes once the icon is saved and uploaded it speeds up. So try 20 or 25 and hit Ok.
Step 7: Check the size of the icon.
Go to it in the folder, select it and see what the size says at the bottom.
If you have photoshop: Don’t worry about the size. You can ignore this step.
If you don’t have photoshopThis size should be under 40 kb. If its not, go back to step 5 and input a smaller number under “period” If the size is under 40, congrats you’re done! You can ignore the rest of this tutorial. You *should* be able to upload this icon to LJ. If you find the animation of the icon to be too fast once you upload it, go back to step 6 and under frame rate, give it a higher number.
Step 8: (For photoshop people only)
Now, I have Photoshop CS5 . Which is very new and shiny version of photoshop. If you have an older version of photoshop, I can’t promise all the steps are going to be the same. But they should be similar…
If you have gimp. I can’t help you. I know nothing about gimp. You can probably do something similar to this…but if so…I have no idea how to do it.
Okay…back to the tutorial. Go ahead and open Photoshop and open the icon you just created in Squirlz.
Up at the top go to “window” and then hit “animation”
Now the frames of the animation should open up at the bottom of the screen.
Hold down your control button on your keyboard (ctrl) and select all the frames at the bottom of the screen. Once you do that, hit one the little arrows next to the 0.06
Now set the delay to .15 and hit Ok.
(note, you can play around with this setting to get either a slower animation or a faster one. But this is the setting I like)
Step 9: Now holding down the control button again, select every other frame. Once you do that, hit the little trash can icon and yes, delete those frames.
Now go ahead and preview your icon using the little play button.
And if its all to your liking, we can go on. If you don’t like the speed of the animation, go back to step 8 and adjust the delay to a different number.
Step 10: Now its time to save it!
Go up to “file” and “save for web and devices”
Now this should pop up. Up at the top right you can adjust your colors. The more colors, the better quality your icon will be. But it will also be a bigger size. So give it the max amount of colors you can while still staying under the 40 kb limit for LJ. (You can see the size in the bottom left corner)
Note: Actually….you really don’t want an icon bigger than 37kb. Sometime the file size gets slightly bigger once you upload the icon to the internet. So its its good to have a little bit of breathing room on it.
Also, file size is affected by two things, number of colors and number of frames. So if you want more colors, give it less frames… or if you’re already are at a max for colors and you’re still well below the 40kb mark, you can go back it give it more frames than 4 if you want.
Once again, you can preview the icon using the little play button in the bottom right corner. If its all to your liking, go ahead and save it. AND YOU’RE DONE!
Any questions? Ill try to help out as I can.
How to go from
Here:
to here:
Complete with dummy proof pictures.
Programs Needed: Sqirlz Water reflections and (optional) Photoshop
Notes: Sqirlz water reflections is a fee program which I will show you where to download, and the use of photoshop is optional, but it is preferred. Also, Im using windows…I can’t promise everything will work on a mac.
Step One: Download Squirlz Water Reflections for free from http://www.tucows.com/preview/382027
This is a lovely little program that can do all sorts of water related animations including snow, rain, waves, and ripples.
And go ahead and install it.
(Note, this is a clean download. Your computer might give you a virus warning, but just ignore it. )
Step 2: Now that you have squirlz downloaded and installed lets get started! Now lets go ahead and open the icon we want to put a snow animation on. Squirlz always blows them up huge, so just go to view show 100% and now it should be normal size.
Step 3: Hit that thing that looks like a ‘Y’ on the top toolbar and select “Rain/Snow” only. And then hit OK.
Step 4:
Hit the button to the left of the one that looks like a Y.
Check the box that says “snow” and then adjust the arrows to the values I have shown here. The big red arrow at the bottom is the direction you want the snow to fall in. So if you want your snow to fall at an angle or straight down, adjust that arrow as wanted.
Note: You can play with the adjustments here if want and get different sorts of snow. But in this example, these are the values I used.
If you want to preview your icon now, hit the yellow arrow up top that says “rain/snow only”
Hit the red x up in the top right once you have the settings to your liking.
Note: Sometimes Squirlz glitches on me and plays back the animation faster than it should. So if yours does this too, just ignore it…it will still save properly.
Step 5
Go up to “Animate” and then “Period”
Now, as you might know, LJ has a size limit on icons. And the size of an icon depends on three things, the number of frames, and how many colors are in it, and the actual pixel size of the pic itself.
If you don’t have photoshop You want an icon that’s under 40kb. So input 4. You can play around with the number of frames until you get to as close to 40kb as you can without going over(I’ll show you how to check the size in step 7)….but on average 4 frames is almost always the magic number that works. You might be able get away with more frames…or you might need less than that. But 4 almost always works. Hit “Ok” once you’re done.
If you do have photoshp:Input 8 frames. And hit OK.
Step 6:
Hit the button that says “Gif” Select “rain/snow only” and hit ‘Ok”
Give it a name and hit save.
Now a thing should pop up that asks for a frame rate.
If you have photoshop: Leave the number at 15 and hit Ok
If you don’t have photoshop 15 might be okay for you, but sometimes once the icon is saved and uploaded it speeds up. So try 20 or 25 and hit Ok.
Step 7: Check the size of the icon.
Go to it in the folder, select it and see what the size says at the bottom.
If you have photoshop: Don’t worry about the size. You can ignore this step.
If you don’t have photoshopThis size should be under 40 kb. If its not, go back to step 5 and input a smaller number under “period” If the size is under 40, congrats you’re done! You can ignore the rest of this tutorial. You *should* be able to upload this icon to LJ. If you find the animation of the icon to be too fast once you upload it, go back to step 6 and under frame rate, give it a higher number.
Step 8: (For photoshop people only)
Now, I have Photoshop CS5 . Which is very new and shiny version of photoshop. If you have an older version of photoshop, I can’t promise all the steps are going to be the same. But they should be similar…
If you have gimp. I can’t help you. I know nothing about gimp. You can probably do something similar to this…but if so…I have no idea how to do it.
Okay…back to the tutorial. Go ahead and open Photoshop and open the icon you just created in Squirlz.
Up at the top go to “window” and then hit “animation”
Now the frames of the animation should open up at the bottom of the screen.
Hold down your control button on your keyboard (ctrl) and select all the frames at the bottom of the screen. Once you do that, hit one the little arrows next to the 0.06
Now set the delay to .15 and hit Ok.
(note, you can play around with this setting to get either a slower animation or a faster one. But this is the setting I like)
Step 9: Now holding down the control button again, select every other frame. Once you do that, hit the little trash can icon and yes, delete those frames.
Now go ahead and preview your icon using the little play button.
And if its all to your liking, we can go on. If you don’t like the speed of the animation, go back to step 8 and adjust the delay to a different number.
Step 10: Now its time to save it!
Go up to “file” and “save for web and devices”
Now this should pop up. Up at the top right you can adjust your colors. The more colors, the better quality your icon will be. But it will also be a bigger size. So give it the max amount of colors you can while still staying under the 40 kb limit for LJ. (You can see the size in the bottom left corner)
Note: Actually….you really don’t want an icon bigger than 37kb. Sometime the file size gets slightly bigger once you upload the icon to the internet. So its its good to have a little bit of breathing room on it.
Also, file size is affected by two things, number of colors and number of frames. So if you want more colors, give it less frames… or if you’re already are at a max for colors and you’re still well below the 40kb mark, you can go back it give it more frames than 4 if you want.
Once again, you can preview the icon using the little play button in the bottom right corner. If its all to your liking, go ahead and save it. AND YOU’RE DONE!
Any questions? Ill try to help out as I can.