Animated Text Tutorial for irishlullaby
She wanted to know how the text was done for this icon:
(credit to secretsmile90)
Starting from these two basic screencaps. Ten & Donna
Program: GIMP (I used 2.6)
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
In order to try to recreate the effect in the above icon, I opened the original .gif in GIMP. I found that there were four layers, with various timings, from 300 ms (milliseconds) up to 2200 ms:
In that pic, I had deselected the "eye" icon beside each layer until I was only looking at the bottom layer.
Next, I cropped, colored and resized the first frame by using a three layer technique, and then brightened the color with curves:
You can play around with the curve until the brightness, contrast and color are to your preference. :)
Mine is a little brighter and browner than the original was (sorry about that). The crop is also not exactly the same as the original, since there isn't as much space above his head in the screencap I used.
I also saved the file as a .png, because you tend to get a better quality.
I then cropped, colored and resized the other screencap to match the top frame of the original, following the same steps as before.
Time to add text.
First, open a new 100x100 file. Then use Open as layers to open the two frames of Ten and Donna:
This gives you both files as layers and an extra background layer.
Delete the Background layer (click on it, then the trashcan at the bottom), then reorder the layers with Ten on the bottom and Donna at the top. The first frame in the sequence always goes at the bottom.
Duplicate Ten two times, by clicking the Duplicate button at the bottom. One frame will contain the word "SILENCE!!" and the one above will add "I KILL U!"
Next, click the Font Tool, and then the Tool Options Dialog on the left. Even though I don't know which font was used in the original, I selected Gill Sans Ultra Bold Condensed. Then I changed the color to white:
Then I deselected the "eye" icon until only the bottom two layers were visible.
I clicked the icon with the Text Tool selected and typed "SILENCE!!" It didn't seem right, so I changed the font to Gill Sans MT and raised the font size to 19:
It's still not the right one, but I'm going to use it for now. :)
The text could stand to pop just a little more. An easy way to do that is to duplicate the text layer, change the color of the copy (I used black), move it below the text layer, then use the arrows on your keyboard to move the copied layer down a pixel or two.
Merge the two layers together by right-clicking on the top of the two text layers and selecting Merge Down.
We need to angle the text next. Click the Rotate Tool then click the text and swivel it:
Click Rotate to set it. If you want to move the layer, you can use the Move Tool, making sure the text layer is selected.
Duplicate the text layer and put one above the third layer from the bottom, and one above the second layer from the bottom. Make sure to reselect the eye icon on the third layer from the bottom. Merge Down each text layer.
Do the same with "I KILL U!" I used font size 17 and I adjusted the letter spacing to -1.0:
Notice that the placement of the text is a bit different, due to the crop not having enough space.
Now add "!!" to Donna's layer, following the same steps. No need to duplicate hers, unless you want a pause before the exclamation marks. I raised the font size to 26, and kept the letter spacing at 0.0.
Now you should have a four layer image, with text merged into the top three:
But there's more! If you saved this as a .gif now, it would spin through each layer at 100 ms a frame. You need a couple more steps to slow down the speed.
First, Optimize for GIF:
This will open a new file to the side. Continue working on this one instead. You can save the other just in case, as an .xcf file, and close it.
Now look at the layers of the new file:
The two middle layers are mostly transparent, except for the text. This lowers the file size.
Also notice the (100ms) beside each frame name. Double click the layer name, and change the number to 300, 400, 700 and 2200, to match the original file, and press enter to set each frame rate:
Now it's time to check your .gif. Go to Filters-->Animation-->Playback to check it.
If everything plays at the speed you want, save the file as a .gif. Select Save As Animation-->Export.
Click OK on the next screen -- the defaults should be correct.
Now you have a 16.8K file - which is well under the 40K limit. No adjustments should be necessary (as is needed in video icons).
There you have it! Please ask for clarification if anything was confusing! I'm happy to explain or adjust. :)
(credit to secretsmile90)
Starting from these two basic screencaps. Ten & Donna
Program: GIMP (I used 2.6)
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
In order to try to recreate the effect in the above icon, I opened the original .gif in GIMP. I found that there were four layers, with various timings, from 300 ms (milliseconds) up to 2200 ms:
In that pic, I had deselected the "eye" icon beside each layer until I was only looking at the bottom layer.
Next, I cropped, colored and resized the first frame by using a three layer technique, and then brightened the color with curves:
You can play around with the curve until the brightness, contrast and color are to your preference. :)
Mine is a little brighter and browner than the original was (sorry about that). The crop is also not exactly the same as the original, since there isn't as much space above his head in the screencap I used.
I also saved the file as a .png, because you tend to get a better quality.
I then cropped, colored and resized the other screencap to match the top frame of the original, following the same steps as before.
Time to add text.
First, open a new 100x100 file. Then use Open as layers to open the two frames of Ten and Donna:
This gives you both files as layers and an extra background layer.
Delete the Background layer (click on it, then the trashcan at the bottom), then reorder the layers with Ten on the bottom and Donna at the top. The first frame in the sequence always goes at the bottom.
Duplicate Ten two times, by clicking the Duplicate button at the bottom. One frame will contain the word "SILENCE!!" and the one above will add "I KILL U!"
Next, click the Font Tool, and then the Tool Options Dialog on the left. Even though I don't know which font was used in the original, I selected Gill Sans Ultra Bold Condensed. Then I changed the color to white:
Then I deselected the "eye" icon until only the bottom two layers were visible.
I clicked the icon with the Text Tool selected and typed "SILENCE!!" It didn't seem right, so I changed the font to Gill Sans MT and raised the font size to 19:
It's still not the right one, but I'm going to use it for now. :)
The text could stand to pop just a little more. An easy way to do that is to duplicate the text layer, change the color of the copy (I used black), move it below the text layer, then use the arrows on your keyboard to move the copied layer down a pixel or two.
Merge the two layers together by right-clicking on the top of the two text layers and selecting Merge Down.
We need to angle the text next. Click the Rotate Tool then click the text and swivel it:
Click Rotate to set it. If you want to move the layer, you can use the Move Tool, making sure the text layer is selected.
Duplicate the text layer and put one above the third layer from the bottom, and one above the second layer from the bottom. Make sure to reselect the eye icon on the third layer from the bottom. Merge Down each text layer.
Do the same with "I KILL U!" I used font size 17 and I adjusted the letter spacing to -1.0:
Notice that the placement of the text is a bit different, due to the crop not having enough space.
Now add "!!" to Donna's layer, following the same steps. No need to duplicate hers, unless you want a pause before the exclamation marks. I raised the font size to 26, and kept the letter spacing at 0.0.
Now you should have a four layer image, with text merged into the top three:
But there's more! If you saved this as a .gif now, it would spin through each layer at 100 ms a frame. You need a couple more steps to slow down the speed.
First, Optimize for GIF:
This will open a new file to the side. Continue working on this one instead. You can save the other just in case, as an .xcf file, and close it.
Now look at the layers of the new file:
The two middle layers are mostly transparent, except for the text. This lowers the file size.
Also notice the (100ms) beside each frame name. Double click the layer name, and change the number to 300, 400, 700 and 2200, to match the original file, and press enter to set each frame rate:
Now it's time to check your .gif. Go to Filters-->Animation-->Playback to check it.
If everything plays at the speed you want, save the file as a .gif. Select Save As Animation-->Export.
Click OK on the next screen -- the defaults should be correct.
Now you have a 16.8K file - which is well under the 40K limit. No adjustments should be necessary (as is needed in video icons).
There you have it! Please ask for clarification if anything was confusing! I'm happy to explain or adjust. :)