I'm glad you're playing with Xara's animation features, Steve. I don't see much of that anymore here. And I'm really pleased if my animations inspired your work.

I think the size problem -- besides the gradient -- has to do with the fact that everything is moving. The character is moving; the background is moving; the grass is moving; etc. Which means each frame must be completely different from the one before.

I think the trick of GIF animation is to keep as much static as you can get away with. I use the word "trick", because you have to create the illusion that there's lots of stuff going on. There's no magic way to do this. You just have to think really carefully about what you move and what you don't.

For instance, if you look at my alien/outhouse animation, you'll see that the only movements are from the alien, the outhouse door, and the spaceship. And these are all tiny tiny objects. The large objects -- the scenery -- is static.

http://www.asan.com/users/mgeduld/an...nimation2.html

Of course, you can do away with all these problems by learning Flash. The learning curve can be a little steep, but if you take the time, you can make amazing (and long) movies like this one: http://atomicamerican.com/nosepilot/18/real.html (click the language of your choice to see the whole movie; turn your speakers on!). I wish I had the skill to make this. The guy who did make it used Illustrator and imported into Flash. I almost bought him a copy of Xara as a gift.

Marcus Geduld
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