This section describes using the Animation panel you use to add animation to GIF files. A GIF animation is a single file made of up a series of individual still images and the timing information needed to animate them. Like an old-fashioned flip book, viewing these still images in sequence gives the impression of motion.
There are two things to keep in mind when creating animations. First, be sure you select colors that will work well on a variety of monitors, platforms, and browsers. Second, create animations that compress well, so that you can make the file as small as possible. Your viewers will never see your animations if they take too long to download.
An animation can consist of layers and objects you've drawn in e-Picture or images you've imported from other applications. For more information on importing files, see Importing documents.
In e-Picture, you use individual frames to indicate the state of the layer or objects at a specific time. For example, a layer may be visible or invisible in one or more frames, or its opacity may change. Objects can also be visible or invisible. In addition, objects can change position, size, or orientation. Once you have created the objects and layers you want to include in the animation, you use the Animation panel to define the animation frames.
The change in the opacity, size, position, or orientation takes places in a smooth transition as the animation moves from frame to frame. For example, if you position an object in the upper left corner (or even off the canvas) for the first frame, and place it in the lower-right corner in frame 15, the object moves gradually from the upper left to the lower right when you play the fifteen frames.
In e-Picture you animate an image using the document window, the Layers panel, the Objects panel, and the Animation panel.
To display the Animation panel:
Each layer or object in a frame has specific properties such as opacity, visibility, size, or location. These properties are listed in the Animation panel.
To display or hide the properties of layers or objects:
When you're creating an animation you may want to move quickly from one frame to another in the Animation panel. You can move from frame to frame by clicking individual frames or by using the commands in the Animation menu.
To move to a specific frame, do one of the following:
To move to the next or previous frame, do one of the following:
To move to the beginning or end of the animation, do one of the following:
Click the frame number in the Animation panel.
By default, the Animation panel contains 1 frame. Each animation file can contain up to 6000 frames.
1 Select the frames you want to delete.
2 Choose Animation> Delete Frames.
When creating an animation you may find that you want to repeat certain sections, move a series of frames, or replace one sequence of frames with another. To do this, you use the commands in the Edit menu.
1 Select the frames you want to copy.
1 Select the frame after which you want to paste the frames.
A keyframe is a frame is which an change takes place (represented by a small key icon in the frame). Keys are automatically added to a frame for an individual layer or object when you change a property in that frame.
When you add keyframes to an animation, the state of every layer or object in the animation is interpolated at that point (based on the existing key frames). A key is added in the frame for every object or layer in the animation.
For example, if a layer has an opacity of 100% in frame 1 and 0% at frame 10, and an object is positioned in the far left in frame 1 and the far right in frame 10, adding a keyframe in frame 5 would display the layer at 50% opacity and the object in the middle of the image in frame.
To add keyframes to an existing frame:
1 Select the frame in the Animation panel.
2 Choose Animation> Add Keys to Frame.
To delete a keyframe from a frame:
1 Select the frame in the Animation panel that contains the keys.
2 Click Delete in the Animation panel or choose Animation> Delete Keys From Frame.
1 Select the frame in the Animation panel <<position TBD>>.
2 Choose Animation> Insert Key Frames. A new frame is added with keys for every object.
A layer can be visible or invisible or can have varying degrees of opacity. You set the properties for the layer in the Layers panel.
To make a layer visible or invisible:
1 Select the frame where the layer is to be visible or hidden.
2 Select the layer in the Layers panel.
3 Click to turn the eye icon in the first column on or off. The layer stays hidden or visible until you select another frame and turn the eye icon on or off.
1 Select the frame in which you want the opacity to change.
2 Select the layer in the Layers panel.
3 Type a value in the Opacity box or click the triangle and drag the slider.
Like layers, individual objects can be visible or invisible in one or more frames. To create the animation, you change the position, the size, or the orientation in a specific frame. When the animation is played, these different positions and sizes make the object appear to move.
To change the position of an object:
1 Select the frame for the new position.
2 Click the arrow tool and select the object.
To change the size of an object:
1 Select the frame for the new size.
2 Click the arrow tool and select the object.
3 Click on a box in the selection border. The arrows turns into a double-headed arrow.
4 Drag to increase or decrease the size.
Note: To resize keeping the same proportions, Shift-click on a box.
To change the orientation of the object:
1 Select the frame for the new orientation.
2 Click the arrow tool and select the object.
3 Click anywhere on the selection border except on a box. The arrows turns into the rotate cursor.
To make an object visible or invisible:
1 Select the frame where the object to be visible or hidden.
2 Select the object in the Object Panel.
3 Click to turn the eye icon in the first column on or off. The object stays hidden or visible until you select another frame and turn the eye icon on or off.
When you preview an animation, all the other windows are hidden. When you play the animation, all other windows remain open.
1 Select the frame where you want to begin playing.
2 Click Play in the control panel or choose Animation> Play.