[Merystic]

Hi! I've seen some interest in animation on this forum, so maybe someone out there in Sijun cyberspace can lend me some tips in regards to it.

Animation right now is a hobby for me, but one day it may be more of a career. That's beside the point...my problem is that the software I have (or at least the extent to which I know how to use it) really limits me to .gif animation and and .avi animation which is basically the same but about 5 times as big. Here is what I would like advice and tips on:

Is there away to composite sound along with a .gif animation?

Is there a way to animate and save it as .mov with or without sound, if so what software?

Generally, what file type is ideal for saving animations?

Sorry if I sound like an amateur in this realm--I am. It's just a hobby for me right now and I want to learn more. Besides this, any comments and advice would be much appreciated. The animations I've made thus far typically never run more than a minute or two. Can anyone throw me some hints?
Thanks guys!
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"Dreams are necessary to life." --Anais Nin

[AndyT]

I bet there'll be a lot more helpful replies
I don't know if you are inspired by the eatpoo animations
http://www.eatpoo.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8239
http://www.eatpoo.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7818
Guess you know them already.

You ever thought about using flash? There's sound in flash movies. You would be able to show them online. Gif and sound? I don't think that's possible.
But flash might be close to gif + sound.

You can create avi files? I know Adobe Premiere from University. It's really expensive but you could import avi files there and export to a lot of different formats. Personally I think mov sucks but that's only because my computer used to crash when I tried to view mov-files.

I don't know how powerful Virtual Dub is as far as sound is concerned.
You might want to look into that!???
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[Ian Jones]

For more animation possibilites check out Adobe After FX at: www.adobe.com

After FX does animation, compositing... its like photoshop with a timeline! I love it, great fun and you can really get a lot out of the program. IT is a somewhat strange workin environment to start with but it begins to make sense after a little while. It also lets you save in multiple formats with or without sound, has some sound effect / channel / reverb / fading etc...

As AndyT said Flash could also be a very useful tool, certainly a fast one. Check out www.synj.net for examples from a Flash based animation artist.

[AliasMoze]

Gif and sound? No. But why would you want to anyway?

If you're interested in smaller files sizes, go with Flash. In case you've been under a rock and haven't heard of Flash, check it out. It's the best thing going for web animation, works with vectors rather than bitmaps (smaller downloads), and is a damn nice animation package with a good price. Plus, Flash (whose format is .swf) is a web standard; it uses a browser plugin for its player, but everybody has the player.

And for inspiration, check out the flash stuff on Synj's site (and if you're rich, make a Paypal donation to him). Happy journey. Hope this helps.

[Merystic]

Hey, thanks for the replies!
It sounds to me like Flash might be the way to go, even if the price was a little terrifying (I'm poor like a snake) But anyway, I might give it a shot. Synj's site was impressive! Or at least, what I was able to see of it. A couple of the flash movies wouldn't load properly for some reason (?), but what I saw of it was delightful. Anyone else have that problem? But anyway, thanks for the links! I'm hoping Flash is worth it, I'll probably give it a try the first time I get some $$.
Thanks again!
_________________
Stay Frosty!

"Dreams are necessary to life." --Anais Nin

[starfish]

"Is there away to composite sound along with a .gif animation?"

yes and no, the gif format can't do sound. but, if you have a gif
animation that you want to add sound to, read on =)

"Is there a way to animate and save it as .mov with or without sound, if so what software?"

there sure is =)
to add sound to a gif animation and then save it out to a .mov file
you just use quicktime for all tasks.
open up your quicktime application and choose File > Open Movie,
find the animated gif on your hard drive and watch the lil preview.
when you've found the correct one just press Convert button and
the animated gif will now be playable in your quicktime proggy =)

the cool thing is that your animated gif is now treated just like any
movie clip, which means that you can add sounds, music, transitions,
etc etc to it. you can even edit in more animated gifs to extend your
"short film" =)

now. the really cool thing is that quicktime supports formats like
flash, which means you can make nice flash menus, animations,
etc. etc and use them into your quicktime projects as well =D

when you have your animation the way you like it you just press
File > Export, give it a nice name and press Save.

That's all there is to it =)

ohh, and maybe the best thing of all...
you can get the Pro version, which let you be creative, for $29.99
at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/.
Quicktime Pro has great tools for compositing, editing and exporting
to nice small format for the web.
check it out!

best wishes!


*scuttles off to talk to the pillow*

[paws_of_gt]

[Merystic]

Hey, thanks for the replies!

starfish - Wow!! That sounds like exactly what I need to do, with the .mov format. Is it possible to do as you said without purchasing the pro version or should I go ahead and get it? I don't mind buying it of course, it sounds like a great deal if it works! The quicktime player I have now does not have a file > export feature but I have the free version from their website. That would be wonderful if I could go that route! I'm too poor to try Flash just yet but I'm working on it. Thanks a lot for the tip!

paws - Yeah, I have PSP and all that Jasc software, but it doesn't seem to offer any features that allow sound. I wasn't aware that animation shop 3 could do it, maybe I should go look around it (I don't use it that often)? Seems like the file formats there were limiting, but it's good to hear that what I'm attempting is at least possible and has been attempted by others. Thanks for the tips, I'll check out stickman's site too if I can find it.
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Stay Frosty!

"Dreams are necessary to life." --Anais Nin

[insane007]

animation? talk to me my friend.
[email protected] for msn.
108098534 for ICQ.