Animating moving lines over an image - Graphics

halo effects wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> I'm kinda at my wit's end with trying to get this to work. I feel
> reasonably comfortable with Photoshop and After Effects, but I feel
> like an idiot with GIMP.
>
> Here's what I'm trying to do:
>
> I have an image, and for only a select portion of that image (just
> within a certain shape area) I want to have vertical bars that scroll
> one way or another (for now just left-to-right would be great). I want
> to creat a 4 or 5 frame animation of this that is repeatable, and
> output it as an animated GIF file.
>
> I've tried several things now, mostly involving the alpha channel, and
> nothing seems to be working at all. Clearly I'm a GIMP newbie, but if
> someone would be kind enough to share their vast knowlege and help me
> out with a method for accomplishing this, I'd appreciate it.
>
> Right now, this is just a test to see if it accomplishes my goal. If
> the test is succesfull, in future I may want to create images with some
> areas of vertical lines moving left, and other areas of vertical lines
> moving right.
>
> thanks in advance,
> -HE

Another challenge.....tackled !! It took about 5 minutes to figure this out
but a couple of tries and voila !

Here's what I did.

I created an image which was just some black blobs on a white background.
Then I created a green line above that. That lines disappears and another
green line one inch to the right appears. Then the second line disappears
and a third line one inch to the right of that appears. And finally that
line disappears and a forth line one inch to the right of that appears. I
saved as a gif file with a 500 millisecond delay and viewed it in
Konqueror. It worked as expected.

Here's HOW I did it. A little non-intuitive but it was making the first
line disappear that led to the solution.

1. Create the stationary image on the 'bottom' layer
I started with a white background and drew some black blobs that looked like
legs and feet. You can make whatever you want.

2. Create a second layer and select 'transparency' as the layer type.
On that second layer draw a vertical line.

3. Duplicate the first 'bottom' layer and place it above the second layer.
This will cover the first line.

4. create a fourth (transparent) layer above the third layer. Temporarily
turn of the visibility of the third layer so you can see the second layer
above the first layer. (i.e. you can see where the first vertical line
is).Now draw the second vertical line where you want it.

(To toggle the visibility of a layer on/off use the layers dialog and click
on the eyeball to the left of the layer you are trying to affect)

5. Duplicate the first layer again and place it on the top layer.

6. Create another transparent layer above that. Turn off the visibility of
the third and fifth layer so you can see the two lines in layers two and
four above the bottom layer. Draw the third line on this sixth layer.

7. Duplicate layer one and move to the top layer.

8. Create the final (transparent) layer and move to the top. Turn off the
visibility of layers 2, 4 and 6. With the 3 lines you created visible
above the bottom layer draw the fourth and final vertical line.

9. Turn on the visibility of all layers. Go to -> Filters -> animation ->
playback. In the new playback window that appears Hit the PLAY button.

10. Go back to the original image window and save the file with a '.gif'
file extension. In the dialog that appears select 'save as animation' and
modify the time delay if you want. I used 500 milliseconds and applied to
all layers.

Hope you can understand this little tutorial. Let me know if you have
problems. So, in order to make an image with 4 (green) vertical bars move
from left to right I needed a total of 8 layers. 4 are identical of which
3 are duplicates of the 'bottom' layer. The other 4 layers are the 4
vertical lines, each one in apart.

Give it a try. It took me about 5 or 6 minutes to do it.

Michael Soibelman wrote:

> halo effects wrote:
>
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> I'm kinda at my wit's end with trying to get this to work. I feel
>> reasonably comfortable with Photoshop and After Effects, but I feel
>> like an idiot with GIMP.
>>
>> Here's what I'm trying to do:
>>
>> I have an image, and for only a select portion of that image (just
>> within a certain shape area) I want to have vertical bars that scroll
>> one way or another (for now just left-to-right would be great). I want
>> to creat a 4 or 5 frame animation of this that is repeatable, and
>> output it as an animated GIF file.
>>
>> I've tried several things now, mostly involving the alpha channel, and
>> nothing seems to be working at all. Clearly I'm a GIMP newbie, but if
>> someone would be kind enough to share their vast knowlege and help me
>> out with a method for accomplishing this, I'd appreciate it.
>>
>> Right now, this is just a test to see if it accomplishes my goal. If
>> the test is succesfull, in future I may want to create images with some
>> areas of vertical lines moving left, and other areas of vertical lines
>> moving right.
>>
>> thanks in advance,
>> -HE
>
> Another challenge.....tackled !! It took about 5 minutes to figure this
> out but a couple of tries and voila !
>
> Here's what I did.
>
> I created an image which was just some black blobs on a white background.
> Then I created a green line above that. That lines disappears and another
> green line one inch to the right appears. Then the second line disappears
> and a third line one inch to the right of that appears. And finally that
> line disappears and a forth line one inch to the right of that appears. I
> saved as a gif file with a 500 millisecond delay and viewed it in
> Konqueror. It worked as expected.
>
> Here's HOW I did it. A little non-intuitive but it was making the first
> line disappear that led to the solution.
>
> 1. Create the stationary image on the 'bottom' layer
> I started with a white background and drew some black blobs that looked
> like
> legs and feet. You can make whatever you want.
>
> 2. Create a second layer and select 'transparency' as the layer type.
> On that second layer draw a vertical line.
>
> 3. Duplicate the first 'bottom' layer and place it above the second layer.
> This will cover the first line.
>
> 4. create a fourth (transparent) layer above the third layer. Temporarily
> turn of the visibility of the third layer so you can see the second layer
> above the first layer. (i.e. you can see where the first vertical line
> is).Now draw the second vertical line where you want it.
>
> (To toggle the visibility of a layer on/off use the layers dialog and
> click on the eyeball to the left of the layer you are trying to affect)
>
> 5. Duplicate the first layer again and place it on the top layer.
>
> 6. Create another transparent layer above that. Turn off the visibility
> of the third and fifth layer so you can see the two lines in layers two
> and
> four above the bottom layer. Draw the third line on this sixth layer.
>
> 7. Duplicate layer one and move to the top layer.
>
> 8. Create the final (transparent) layer and move to the top. Turn off the
> visibility of layers 2, 4 and 6. With the 3 lines you created visible
> above the bottom layer draw the fourth and final vertical line.
>
> 9. Turn on the visibility of all layers. Go to -> Filters -> animation ->
> playback. In the new playback window that appears Hit the PLAY button.
>
> 10. Go back to the original image window and save the file with a '.gif'
> file extension. In the dialog that appears select 'save as animation' and
> modify the time delay if you want. I used 500 milliseconds and applied to
> all layers.
>
> Hope you can understand this little tutorial. Let me know if you have
> problems. So, in order to make an image with 4 (green) vertical bars move
> from left to right I needed a total of 8 layers. 4 are identical of which
> 3 are duplicates of the 'bottom' layer. The other 4 layers are the 4
> vertical lines, each one in apart.

Should be one 'inch' apart.
>
> Give it a try. It took me about 5 or 6 minutes to do it.

To clarify the layers:

Layer one is the bottom layer. The base image over which the vertical lines
move.
Layer two is the first vertical line
Layer three is a duplicate of layer one
Layer four is the second vertical line
Layer five is a duplicate of layer one
Layer six is the third vertical line
Layer seven is a duplicate of layer one
Layer eight is the fourth vertical line.

Michael Soibelman wrote:

> Michael Soibelman wrote:
>
>> halo effects wrote:
>>
>>> Hi folks,
>>>
>>> I'm kinda at my wit's end with trying to get this to work. I feel
>>> reasonably comfortable with Photoshop and After Effects, but I feel
>>> like an idiot with GIMP.
>>>
>>> Here's what I'm trying to do:
>>>
>>> I have an image, and for only a select portion of that image (just
>>> within a certain shape area) I want to have vertical bars that scroll
>>> one way or another (for now just left-to-right would be great). I want
>>> to creat a 4 or 5 frame animation of this that is repeatable, and
>>> output it as an animated GIF file.
>>>
>>> I've tried several things now, mostly involving the alpha channel, and
>>> nothing seems to be working at all. Clearly I'm a GIMP newbie, but if
>>> someone would be kind enough to share their vast knowlege and help me
>>> out with a method for accomplishing this, I'd appreciate it.
>>>
>>> Right now, this is just a test to see if it accomplishes my goal. If
>>> the test is succesfull, in future I may want to create images with some
>>> areas of vertical lines moving left, and other areas of vertical lines
>>> moving right.
>>>
>>> thanks in advance,
>>> -HE
>>
>> Another challenge.....tackled !! It took about 5 minutes to figure this
>> out but a couple of tries and voila !
>>
>> Here's what I did.
>>
>> I created an image which was just some black blobs on a white background.
>> Then I created a green line above that. That lines disappears and another
>> green line one inch to the right appears. Then the second line
>> disappears
>> and a third line one inch to the right of that appears. And finally that
>> line disappears and a forth line one inch to the right of that appears.
>> I saved as a gif file with a 500 millisecond delay and viewed it in
>> Konqueror. It worked as expected.
>>
>> Here's HOW I did it. A little non-intuitive but it was making the first
>> line disappear that led to the solution.
>>
>> 1. Create the stationary image on the 'bottom' layer
>> I started with a white background and drew some black blobs that looked
>> like
>> legs and feet. You can make whatever you want.
>>
>> 2. Create a second layer and select 'transparency' as the layer type.
>> On that second layer draw a vertical line.
>>
>> 3. Duplicate the first 'bottom' layer and place it above the second
>> layer. This will cover the first line.
>>
>> 4. create a fourth (transparent) layer above the third layer.
>> Temporarily turn of the visibility of the third layer so you can see the
>> second layer
>> above the first layer. (i.e. you can see where the first vertical line
>> is).Now draw the second vertical line where you want it.
>>
>> (To toggle the visibility of a layer on/off use the layers dialog and
>> click on the eyeball to the left of the layer you are trying to affect)
>>
>> 5. Duplicate the first layer again and place it on the top layer.
>>
>> 6. Create another transparent layer above that. Turn off the visibility
>> of the third and fifth layer so you can see the two lines in layers two
>> and
>> four above the bottom layer. Draw the third line on this sixth layer.
>>
>> 7. Duplicate layer one and move to the top layer.
>>
>> 8. Create the final (transparent) layer and move to the top. Turn off
>> the
>> visibility of layers 2, 4 and 6. With the 3 lines you created visible
>> above the bottom layer draw the fourth and final vertical line.
>>
>> 9. Turn on the visibility of all layers. Go to -> Filters -> animation
>> ->
>> playback. In the new playback window that appears Hit the PLAY button.
>>
>> 10. Go back to the original image window and save the file with a '.gif'
>> file extension. In the dialog that appears select 'save as animation'
>> and
>> modify the time delay if you want. I used 500 milliseconds and applied
>> to all layers.
>>
>> Hope you can understand this little tutorial. Let me know if you have
>> problems. So, in order to make an image with 4 (green) vertical bars
>> move
>> from left to right I needed a total of 8 layers. 4 are identical of
>> which
>> 3 are duplicates of the 'bottom' layer. The other 4 layers are the 4
>> vertical lines, each one in apart.
>
> Should be one 'inch' apart.
>>
>> Give it a try. It took me about 5 or 6 minutes to do it.
>
> To clarify the layers:
>
> Layer one is the bottom layer. The base image over which the vertical
> lines move.
> Layer two is the first vertical line
> Layer three is a duplicate of layer one
> Layer four is the second vertical line
> Layer five is a duplicate of layer one
> Layer six is the third vertical line
> Layer seven is a duplicate of layer one
> Layer eight is the fourth vertical line.

Well, I ate dinner and looked at my simple animation. I realized that the
problem with this method is that, for a moment the line disappears. This
is when the intermediate layer covers the previous layer. So I tried again
and figured out a better method where this does not occur. And it also
takes only half the layers. Better...with less ! So here goes my second,
better method.

0. Create your base image. This is the bottom layer of our (your)
animation. If, for instance, you don't want any line for the first image
and then 4 verticals lines appear in sequence from left to right do the
following.

1. Make 4 duplicates of this layer for a total of 5 layers. Again, assuming
you're not familiar with the Gimp, use the layers dialog menu. Right click
on the first layer and choose 'duplicate layer' from the drop-down menu.

2. Since we're going to start with no line we'll just leave the bottom layer
as is. In the layers dialog menu click on the eyeball to the left of the
top 3 layers, which, in our case, are layers 3, 4 & 5, to turn off the
layer visibility. Left click on layer 2 to select it for editing. Now,
draw the vertical line on layer two.

3. Left click the eyeball (invisible , since we made it so) next to layer 3
to turn visibility back on. Make sure the layer is selected by clicking on
it. Draw the second vertical line on this (3rd) layer.

4. Left click to select layer 4 and click the eyeball to turn on visibilty.
Draw the third vertical line.

5. Left click to select the 5th layer and turn on visibility. Draw the 4th
vertical line.

6. Preview using -> filters -> animation -> playback.

7. In main editor window (not animation preview window !) save image
with '.gif' file extension. Save as animation....Preview in konqueror.

This is much shorter, easier and better effect. You can seee that this is
rather simple once you've done it a couple of times.

P.S. Thanks for the question. Now I know how to do this. There are other
programs with more advanced animation capabilities but for most purposes
this will do just fine.

Again, let me know if you can do this. This second method is much better
than the first.