Noob - Achieve the coin affect

[nadger]

Hi all

well like many who end up here i was looking for a way to make our football club logo spin like they do on sky sports and came across this spinning coin thread.

Thanks to the excellent tut zipped up on the first page i've succeeded in producing something along the lines of what i wanted, but i have a few issues im hoping you'll be able to suggest fixes for.

I am completely new to xara software and im a complete nooby with anything much more intricate than resizing photo's in paint.net etc, but im a try'er, so i'll have a crack at most stuff before begging for help.

My first question is how do i make it spin smoothly? in xara my logo spins extremely smoothly but once exported as a an animated gif it become slighlty jerky and every cycle or two it freezes half way through for a split second. I dont have any time delays set and have tried several of the spinning animations provided with the software, but to no avail.

i'll try to load it here...

any other suggestions you think will improve it are very welcome also.

sorry one other thing, pls could someone tell me how to make the "surround" or background smaller? by this i mean i need the spinning logo to reach pretty much to the sides of the background due to where on our website i need to put it. if i havn't explained this bit very well pls let me know and i'll try to explain differently. thanks

[simsmj]

Your spinning coin displays fine in the post, Nadger. And welcome to the forum.

As to your secondary request, In the main screen you can set the frame size of your animation, but changing this usually resizes the image as it defaults to Fit to Width. In the fontsize field, change this to a particular fontsize, say 150pt, and the image will stay a fixed size. Changing the screen frame now lets you adjust the edges of the frame as closely as you like to the image.

When you export the animation, the dialogue box lets you choose the current window size, or crop to the image itself.

Mike

[nadger]

hi thanks for the welcome, i've been playing around a bit and feel i've improved the look of my logo but i cannot get the second issue resolved despite following your instructions.

anymore ideas or pls could you explain a little more and treat me as a complete beginner (just in case you've missed something out that you thought was elementary) because history shows if there is something sooo simple that its not worth mentioning, then im the person who will miss it out!! LOL

thanks
neil

[Soquili]

Hi Neil,

Click the Window menu then click Frame size... Or simply use Alt+R.

Set the size width and height of the frame (area in which your text or other objects will appear).

Select Current Window Size in the Export Options.

[nadger]

thanks Bill that worked a treat. i did say if there's something that could be missed i would find it

unfortunately although your info has done exactly what i was asking for, this resizing hasnt helped with the position im trying to put the gif on our website due to the css template we've used, when i get the spinning logo on to the correct position it messes up the menu bar, i think its because of the way the various items are layered up over the banner im trying to put the logo on.

After some logical thinking im convinced my next move would be to work out how to make our complete banner become the background of my spinning logo, therefore allowing me to replace our current jpeg banner with a shiny new .gif banner complete with spinning logo already incorporated, rather than attempting to layer my spinning logo over the jpeg in dreamweaver?

if it helps to explain here is our site w*w.nhgfc.co.uk

the "still" club logo on the left of the top banner is where i want to put the spinning logo instead,

My question now then is this... in xara the logo is always centered in the frame, but as our banner is 960x140, is there a way to use this banner as the textured background (i know how to do this bit) but then move the spinning logo over to the left of the background, in order to replace the still logo??

i realise i'll need to remove the still image eventually as it will always be revealed during the spinning.

sorry for all the questions btw, i do learn quickly so please bear with me if you can

thanks
neil

[nadger]

LOL

i found it while you were sleeping Bill

hold ALT and drag to desired position. god i love this software!!

[Soquili]

Glad you have it sorted Neil.

When you place your banner as a background texture you will notice that Xara3D will tile the image. You may need to work with the banner a bit by adding a suitable background. A little trial and error and you should be able to have the background texture display as you wish.

[nadger]

the banner we currently use is 960x140, so i set the frame to the same size, repositioned my spiining logo over the original and set the background texture to use my original banner, the effect is pretty much there, although i will need to remake the banner without a logo for my background, so when the new one spins the background will look correct all the way along.

My biggest concern at this point is the size the new file has reached.. 3.17mb. does that sound correct or is there something i could do to reduce it. Im no expert but im pretty sure loading a banner of that size will slow down the web page loading somewhat?

what on earth are you doing up at this time btw

[Soquili]

Neil it is 7:44 AM my local time. GMT - 6 hours.

The increased length and width will increase file size. So will number of frames.

You can try reducing the number of frames and adjust the frames per second to achieve a smooth animation.

Try using fewer colours with dithering to prevent banding in the gradient around the lettering.

In the end you may have to work with a separate banner and animated gif to achieve a fast load time for the site.

A 3.17MB banner plus animation is too large for a broadband connection. If some of your visitors are on dial-up connection they will not wait around for the banner to load.

[nadger]

hmmm thought so, thanks for confirming this as it saves me wasting time getting it right only to find it wont load. I'll get on to the lad who sorted out the basic site template and ask him if he can set me up so i can just put my logo where i want it. Im sure he can, but i know i cant!

I have been trying to achieve an effect on the main faces of the logo similar to the ones used on sky sports, instead of the logo's being "flat faced" the ones they use have a convex face on both sides. I did alter the original gif image in this way before importing it into xara for the face texture but xara doesnt display it, instead it reverts back to the flat faced effect. is this something thats achieveable using xara3d or is it beyond the realms of the program?