Animate Your Personal Avatar

Dakka member jetjetex asked for help with animating his avatar. I have tried lots of ways to get some example animations into my forum posts but their are limits on Dakka for posting images and it seems the best way round that is for me to make an article. (This way I can upload the images I need, edit them as required etc. It also means more accomplished artists can add to the article). So here goes:

Jetjetex, I hope you don't mind me using your avatar as my example.

I have copied your avatar, then made more copies in a graphics editor (e.g. Paint), each with small changes. These changes are small so as to keep the illusion of movement not looking too jerky. The more images the longer the animation but 3 or 4 images is probably fine for a personal avatar, (Avatar the movie it aint!)

Try copying the pictures above and "flipping" quickly between the images in a picture viewer or graphics editor to see the animation effect. By editing the same picture you ensure the image size stays constant. If you use photos or other images you create yourself in a graphics program make sure you keep the "frame" size (number of pixels used) constant throughout the animation.

I then used this website http://gickr.com/ to upload the images and make a .gif animation e.g.

This website is free and from there you can download your animation to your home pc in the .gif format, paste the weblink in forums etc. or experiment further using your own pictures. Handily the site makes a 120 pixel size perfect for an avatar. Once you are happy with your animation upload it as your avatar to your dakka "profile". It should be animated on your profile page. Now check your forum posts, they should all be changed to match.

Hope this helps.