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How To: Create an Animation
Animations consist of a series of images (called frames), which are displayed in succession to give the illusion of movement.
Use the File/Open function to load an existing AVI animation file (you can also use other animation formats like FLC and GIF in the PRO version). To create a new animated file, use the File/New function, and mark the Make New Image an Animation box.
We recommend that you select as small a sized animation as possible. This is because larger animations quickly consume disk space and because some larger animations do not play back well, since a great deal of material must continually be read from the disk. If you have a large area, consider making several small animated files, and then placing them at different locations on the screen, using a static image as a background.
Using the Animation Editor, create a series of images using normal painting tools. Animations are contained in an editing screen which differs slightly from the editing screen used for other images. Click here for an overview of the Animation editing window.
Use the Duplicate button (the small button containing blue circles) to make copies of frames. You can alter the copied frame slightly to give the illusion of movement when the sequence is played. To import images from other animations, or to rearrange the order of the frames, use the Merge button (the yellow diamond icon).
Tech Tip: You can also save animation sequences as BMP film strips by specifying a .BMP format file extension when you use Save As to save the image. This places the frames into sequential order on either a horizontal or vertical single image. This format is used in various programming languages and to change the animations in some programs such as Internet Explorer. Since the frames are saved as a single image, you cannot reopen the saved image as individual frames.
Click here for an explanation of the Animation Editor's controls.
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