Experts help needed......no it's not about feathers ; )

[RAMWolff44]

That was the problem. Funny, you get so involved in what you are creating and the smallest thing can go wrong and you don't know where or what is causing it. Takes another person to see it sometimes. Thanks so much [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Maya, as always, wonderful, and made me laugh [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[dalel]

&nbsp
I tried making an animated gif in Xara X, and it is very easy!

Can you do tweening with Xara X?

Dale

My first Xara X animation:
http://www.eyesitewebdesign.com/eek.gif

Why, I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I’m not myself, you know...
- Lewis Carroll

[toograffic]

Dale,
I haven't found a true 'tween' function like there is in flash, but there is a way to use the blend tool to get perfect transitions from one frame to the next, when using simple shapes (haven't tried it with complex drawings yet!):

1. Open a new drawing.

2. Create first stage of image

3. Create final stage of image

4. Use the blend tool (F7) and create a blend with the number of steps equal to the number of frames you'll need in your animation. Give plenty of room between your first and last image so that each step is seperate from the ones around it.

5. Convert to editable shapes (Ctrl/Shift/S) and ungroup (Ctrl U)

6.Open a new animation.

7.In first frame, copy and paste the first image you created.

8. Create a new frame, and copy and paste the second step of the blend in it.

9. Continue creating frames and copying blend steps into them until each step of your blend is in it's own frame.

10. Export your animation, and share it here with us!

I use Xara for creating animated banners (no bright flashing colors, except in my example, or monkeys to hit!) and it really makes it simple to get the transitions smooth.

Hope this helps!


<font size=3 color="#0055ff" face="Tahoma">Gary V.</font>

<font size="-2" face="Verdana" color="red">The more I learn, the more ignorant I feel.</font>

[Old Dog]

I wasn't making light of your situation, I just couldn't resist, what with all the work you've been doing on the feathers, I thought you needed a little humor! I'm glad the problem is solved. Don't you hate it when something like that happens? I've had similar happen to me before and it's so frustrating! Then you find out that you had some button clicked that shouldn't have been!

Maya, your talents just don't end. Great animation and imagination. Like so many other's, I've never even opened an animation. Looks like I'm going to have to now. You make it look so easy.

Gary V., great tip and instructions. Thanks for sharing that. I've got to play around with animations now!

While we're on the subject of problems, I've had something happen every once in a while, that may be something like RAMWolff's problem. Sometimes when I've created a shape and filled it with a gradiant fill and transparency, every new shape I create after that opens with the same fill and transparency settings, only in black, not the color of the original shape's color. Is there something I've not re-set and not known it?

Glad everything's working again RAMWolff,

Jack

[Crow Haven]

Great Dale [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] ! It's fun! Great tut. also Gary V.! I didn't know those things either, and it will certainly make smoothing out frames easier (I copied all your instructions [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] !). Thanks RAMWolff and Jack--yes, you ought to try it out too [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] !

---As The Crow Flies---
Maya

[Crow Haven]

animations...you can use photos modified for the images as well as drawn ones...as I did here with a crow photo I had made, and then used Xara to cut it out, choose the colors, and make waddle in a funny walk...very easy too!

---As The Crow Strolls---
Maya

[Crow Haven]

a silly frog. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

---As The Crow Hops---
Maya

[Crow Haven]

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
---As The Crow Flies!---
Maya

[RAMWolff44]

Or just plain, Happy St. Patty's Day to ya Boyos and lil Darlins [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Thanks Jack for the kind words, I too have similar problems like that as well. I think XaraX is set up, so if you are working on a project that requires you to have the same type of fill, transparent or not, it just does that on ALL new objects created. I wish there was a way to turn that off. If I create a square with a linear shading, all the other new shapes have that linear shading applied, gets a bit bothersome sometimes. Perhaps there is a fix for it or maybe they will have that straightened out in the next release.

Hmmmmm, that's been over a year, maybe we are getting closer to a version 2.0. It would be nice, I think many of us are ready for some fixes and improvments.

Have a great day [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[dalel]

&nbsp
It is so easy to tween in Photoshop(ImageReady) when making animated gifs, and saves a ton of time, by only having to make the first and last frame for many effects. On the other hand, I like the ability to put together my own animated gifs, and gain a better understanding of the process.

I copied your instructions and will try them out when I get the chance.

Also, I LOVE that Xara X will import any animated gif, and break it up into separate frames. I didn't know that could be done once an animated gif was created. Cool!

Happy St. Patty's day! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Maya, you're an animation maniac! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
I downloaded "Sneezy", and may try to make the animation do some different stuff for the fun of it.

Dale

Why, I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I’m not myself, you know...
- Lewis Carroll

[This message was edited by Dale Landry on March 16, 2002 at 10:23.]