9 replies to this topic

[Meraple]

These new HAWKEN forums bestowed upon us by the new Developers allow for the use of .GIFs as avatars/profile pictures.

I won't be talking about using Photoshop for .GIF production since there are plenty of tutorials out there.

I've searched for a bit on Google and free options that are actually good seem to be lacking.

 

Current known limitations for using a .GIF as avatar:

Spoiler

- Maximum file size of 100KB

- Maximum 125x125 pixels

They can be applied as your avatar in the same way normal pictures can.

 

A free, online picture-to-gif converter/editor that doesn't decrease quality:

Spoiler

Do not just use some random .GIF converter/editor.

I'd reccomend gifmaker.me for compiling one from seperate image files.

Reason being that most of them add alot of noise and decrease quality, or even add a watermark to your work.

An increase in noise only adds to file size due to more colors - decreased quality is always bad.

The site I reccomended in this section doesn't add a watermark either, and it's free to use.

If you're used to those bad sites, you'll most likely notice a decrease in file size using this one,

while retaining the quality of the original images.*

 

Usage should be obvious once you get there - you can rearrange the order in which the frames get shown,

the delay between following frames, canvas size, and a few other things.

 

*Sometimes the web application seems to bug out and puts a white outline on the final result - try again if so.

 

 

My current forum avatar has been compiled through that website:

Spoiler

Forum format, 58,1 KB - 125x125:

 

Original format, 166KB - 270x270:

 

 

I decided to make this because I couldn't find one for these specific forums.

I honestly don't know a whole lot about this at all other than what I wrote above, but it should be enough.

Suggestions/constructive criticism would be appreciated.

Edited by (KDR) Meraple, 24 May 2015 - 03:12 AM.

[Lioot]

Awesome, now I can make my profile picture look even more ceebs

[Dawn_of_Ash]

Wow, mine took awhile. O_o Although I still have some sort of glitch where the background has a bit of a...outline when the gif loops. I don't suppose you know how fix that, Meraple?

[Meraple]

Wow, mine took awhile. O_o Although I still have some sort of glitch where the background has a bit of a...outline when the gif loops. I don't suppose you know how fix that, Meraple?

That one frame could be smaller than the rest, resulting in it showing a white outline to fill up the empty space.

Either that or it got bugged - give it another try, perhaps?

 

It's very fast for me, but then I've 120mb/s internet.

 

 

 

EDIT: I've Photoshop with which it's possible to create .GIFs as well.

If the above doesn't work you anyone could send me the individual image files and I'll make it through there.

Just tell me the order in which the frames have to be shown and it should be fine.

Edited by (KDR) Meraple, 24 May 2015 - 03:05 AM.

[Dawn_of_Ash]

That one frame could be smaller than the rest, resulting in it showing a white outline to fill up the empty space.

Either that or it got bugged - give it another try, perhaps?

 

It's very fast for me, but then I've 120mb/s internet.

 

Okay, thanks for the advice. :D Got it. So do you like it?

 

Also, a massive super thanks for sharing the website. It helped a ton. I also found another way to do it if people are looking for it - although it is very tedious.

Edited by Dawn_of_Ash, 24 May 2015 - 03:05 AM.

[Meraple]

Okay, thanks for the advice. :D Got it. So do you like it?

It's certainly alot fancier than my own. :P

 

 

Also, a massive super thanks for sharing the website. It helped a ton. I also found another way to do it if people are looking for it - although it is very tedious.

Feel free to provide any means of creating .GIF files in a usable format for these forums.

If you want I'll edit it into the OP and give credit at the corresponding section you wrote.

(Although I'll probably include a seperate shoutout section with the names of the people who contributed.)

Edited by (KDR) Meraple, 24 May 2015 - 03:09 AM.

[Dawn_of_Ash]

Well, my gif was one that was entirely made on the internet - I had no hand in creating any part of the animation. Problem was, that it had a resolution of around 1200 x 750 and was a good 1384 KB large. I'm not sure if it'd be easier to reduce the resolution (which would therefor decrease the size) with photoshop, but I don't have it on this computer so I had to decrease the size to 125 x 125 in GIMP 2.8 (http://www.gimp.org/downloads/). Not the best program for animating, but it still has the foundations to make it work - gives the person layers per picture for the animation.

 

Maybe I'm just incompetent, but I decided to firstly link all "layers" together so that they all change if I were to make one change (you would find it as an empty box next to the eye in the layers window.). After that, I just used the box select tool to select everything and used the scale tool to decrease the size of everything (if you do not have a square GIF before this, you might want to select what you want to keep in a selection box and crop it by clicking "crop to selection" under the "images" tab), before decreasing the scale to 125 x 125 pixels. There may be blank space around it, but just selection box everything in it once more and crop it once more - it should remove it.

 

Now is the tedious part. I had clicked "file - new" and changed the resolution to the image's resolution and manually dragged each layer into that new "image", before saving them. The one I've got right now has 20 different images in it, so I had to do that 20 times. ^^;  Then I just put them into the GIF converter above and, with a little changing, got this.

 

It does sound complicated - I do have some practice in GIMP so that helped a lot.

 

On a side note, I'd be willing to make some GIF avatars for people when I get more time as I can already see how people can get a bit overwhelmed with that boatload of text I just poured out. Except I can only manipulate what has already been created, rather than create, so if anyone wants some GIFs to be resized and stuff, I'd be happy to oblige - although it may be a bit until I get some free time.

[Meraple]

That sounds awfully overcomplicated.

I personally use Paint.NET for things like these, and sometimes Photoshop when the former doesn't have enough options.

The first is also free without a time limit.

 

If all of the images you use are of the same size, this should be extremely easy using either.

Here's how to for the former:

1. Simply open one of them in the program, and then drag the rest in - click on "Add Layer" to add them all in seperate layers atop of the original.

If the image you want isn't ontop you can simply drag them around very easily at the lower right corner.

2. Then press S or select the Rectangular Selection Tool* at the left side of your screen, and select whatever part of the image you want cropped. (This affects all layers in the currently selected file.)

The option for cropping is in Image > Crop To Selection at the upper left.

This can also be done with the Canvas Size tool in the same tab.

3. Afterwards, if you still need to resize it, click on yet again the same tab, and then on Resize. (This affects all layers too.)

4. Save them all in seperate image files and you should be good to go.

If you copied something, the canvas of the new file will automatically default to the size of whatever you copied.

This means the tedious part you described will be alot easier.

 

*There's multiple options for that specific tool at the upper left of the screen - these options are Add, Subtract, Intersect and Invert.

 

It should be pretty much the same for Photoshop, except the names of the tools/options are possibly different.

Edited by (KDR) Meraple, 24 May 2015 - 04:58 AM.

[SparkyJJC]

THIS PLEASES ME GREATLY

[FiveHorse]

Wow thanks for posting this, the link to the Gif maker is most appreciated