Technical data

80 Preparing Web Graphics
Producing Web Animations
Animation creates an illusion of motion or change by displaying a series
of still pictures, rapidly enough to fool the eye—or more accurately, the
brain. With PhotoPlus, it’s easy to create and edit images with multiple
frames, then export them as animated GIFs that a Web browser can play
back. You use exactly the same tools and interface as for creating
standard, multi-layer PhotoPlus images, with an extra tab window that
includes all the additional controls you need to set up frames, add
special effects, and preview the animation. Once you’re satisfied, use
the Export Optimizer to output to the .GIF file format.
The .GIF format is what makes Web animation possible, for a couple
of reasons. First, it’s universally supported by Web browsers. Second,
it’s a multi-part format, capable of encoding not just one image but
multiple images in the same file. A GIF animation player or Web
browser can display these images in sequence, in accordance with
certain settings (looping, frame delay, etc.) included in the file. The
result—it moves!
PhotoPlus gives you the choice of either creating your animations from
scratch, then exporting to .GIF, or starting out by importing a .GIF
animation and then editing it. Either way, once PhotoPlus detects an
animation file, it switches on the Animation tab. If the image file is
new, you’ll see a single, blank frame, labeled “Frame 1.” If you’ve
imported an animation, the tab displays each frame separately.
Animation files can have one layer, or many (see below), but all their
layers are standard (transparent) layers; there’s no Background layer. (If
you need to brush up on the concept of layers, see Chapter 5.)
Layers and frames
Animations are defined by the Animation tab working together with
the Layer Manager tab. Let’s look at a little animated GIF of a
rotating spiral.
q Open the file SWIRL1.GIF in the PhotoPlus PROJECTS folder.
When the image opens, the Animation tab appears.