Da House Graphic Tutorials

Adobe ImageReady - frames continued

ADDING FRAMES, LAYERS and ANIMATION 

Adding frames and layers is easy. Getting them to do what you want, however, takes some practice. One important thing to remember is that adding or duplicating a frame means the new frame will be the old frame repeated. In other words, the new frame will contain exactly the same stuff as the first. 

To add/duplicate a frame:

• on the animation palette click the tiny button that looks like a piece of dog-eared paper

This automatically duplicates the preceding frame, or the one you selected for duplication, meaning this new frame looks exactly like the other one. Now comes the tricky part. *g*

In order to create or add "movement" to your images, you need to create new layers for each separate position in the animation. For example, take a look at this screen shot. You'll notice how frame 1 is linked to layer 1, meaning this is the first position of movement. You can tell the two are linked because when frame 1 is selected the "eye" is visible next to layer 1 on the layers palette. Notice how both frame 1 and layer 1 are highlighted. This shows that frame 1 and layer 1 are currently active.

Now take a look at another screen shot showing how to add a new layer. Clicking the tiny arrow at the top right of the layers palette opens the layers properties menu. Here you find features such as add new layers, set layer options, and other commands.

HINT: To avoid having movement from another layer, or another image from another layer, show up in a frame where you don't want it, when selecting your frames and layers ALWAYS select the frames FIRST. For example, if you want to work on frame 1 that is linked to layer 1, first select the frame then select the layer. Doing this in the opposite results in layers being linked to frames where they shouldn't be, meaning all your positioning will be totally off. 

Here's another screen shot of how the actively linked layers and frames make a difference in movement. It's difficult to tell by these images, but if you look closely you can see where the movement of the cat differs slightly from frame to frame. The position of each object or image in a frame and/or layer totally depends on you and how you want your animation to act. You can make each movement slight, or you can make them drastic. Slight movement results in smoother animation.  However, achieving this smoothness means more frames and more layers, larger file sizes and slower d/load times when the ani-file is finally u/loaded to the Internet. In the end, the choice is up to the animator.

COPY and PASTE

You can easily add another image, either a totally different one or a copy of the original, to a new frame by using the COPY and PASTE commands. This is useful if you were creating an animation between two different characters, whose scene in the animation differed in each frame, such as in a conversation. Each frame would then show a different character with perhaps a cartoon balloon filled with text over their head to indicate that conversation between the two was taking place. Or you could use this type of format to display a logo or message whose scene changes with each frame.

Take a look at this example. In this screen shot you'll see an animation with 2 frames and 2 layers. Frame 1 is linked to layer 1, and frame 2 is linked to layer 2. The image variables have been set to play "forever", with a 1 second "lapse" between each frame. 

This is how that same animation looks when viewed in a web browser.

In order to COPY and PASTE an image into a frame:

• open the first image
• open the image you want to copy
• choose SELECT, ALL on the main toolbar
• choose EDIT, COPY or COPY MERGED

- next make sure the first image is active; you can do this by either minimizing the copied image or closing it altogether.

- on the LAYERS palette click the tiny "arrow" at the top right corner; this opens up a small menu. Choose NEW LAYER. Another dialogue box opens where you can choose to give the layer a name. For now just accept the default.

• with our new layer active, choose EDIT, PASTE from the main toolbar

However, if you want the pasted image to be "separate" from the image in the first frame, you must de-link it from layer 1 by clicking the "eye" on the layers palette next to layer 1. What happens when you PASTE into a layer is that new layer containing the new image becomes "linked" to all other frames and layers, meaning the image you just pasted will appear throughout the entire animation. This is okay if this is what you want. But there will be times, such as when you want the image in an entirely different position, when you don't need or don't want those layers linked to all the frames. Select the frame you want to de-link, then select the corresponding layer and click the "eye" on the left. 

Last revised February 28, 2002

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