Making animated GIFs...

[seawasp]

A while back I posted about this topic and was told that Photoshop Elements was able to do so; unfortunately, it can only do it in a limited sense (i.e., if I make a buttload of layers and put the specific changes I want on EACH LAYER I'll get it. But as far as I can tell, what I *can't* do is put, say, three or four frames and have it automatically do a transition between them, generating the frames automagically.

The OLD version of Photoshop I had *could* do that ... or rather, had a companion program which could. However, that version doesn't work with my version of OS X.

So is there a freeware or at least cheapware program for Macs that anyone out there would recommend for making animated GIFs? I want to use this for things like icons and Project Wonderful ad graphics. Maybe iMovie could do it, but I suspect that if it CAN that would be something like using a bazooka to hunt flies.

Comments

[muirecan.livejournal.com]

This looks like one. http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/235

This one says it is freeware. http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/7387

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

When I asked this question, people suggested GIMP, which is ... okay if the delay between frames is constant or you're modifying an existing GIF that has the delays you want. What you do is have each frame as a separate layer, save as GIF, and tell it to convert the layers to an animated GIF (instead of merging them).

Listen up future animators....

[ancientone.livejournal.com]

get over to alchemymindworks and down load animator professional 3. thats just the ticket. I've been making animated gifs for years, and yes, you do have to make certain layers, but not necessary oodles.

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

I've done that. I've played around with GIMP quite a bit, though I still don't know far more about the program than I do know.

You're right, though, you have to set a constant delay between frames if you want to do it the easy way. You can set the delay for each frame independently, but it's a pain the ass to do it that way.