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Using Objects to Compose an Animation (Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4)

In the past, web animations were composed by creating the frames first in an image editor, saving them individually as image files, and then assembling all the images together into an animation sequence. Since there was no easy way to edit the frames, you were often required to start all over again when you want to change the "story" of your animation.

Now with GIF Animator 5, it's never too late to change anything — even after you've completed your animation. You need to make everything an individual object from the beginning - from the background color to the characters in the animation.

Here's an example.

This tutorial shows you how to use objects to create this sample animation. Here, you will learn how to get objects from another application then use GIF Animator's Tool Panel to create more objects.

1. Open a new project by clicking New on the Standard Toolbar. Set the canvas size to 100 x 100 pixels and select Solid color background object (the default color is white - click the color square if you want to have another background color). Then click OK. The background color is added as an object in the workspace.

2. Now you will need some objects for this animation project. Launch PhotoImpact Pro, opening an empty canvas.

3. In the new file that opens, place all your objects. You can find the objects you need in PhotoImpact Pro's Component Designer - a paintbrush and some footprints. (If you have PhotoImpact Pro and you wish to use these objects, click here to download. Then, open the downloaded UFO file and copy the objects to the temp file.)

NOTE: Component Designer is a feature within PhotoImpact Pro that helps you create web components.

4. When all objects are placed in the temp file, select File: Save in the image editor.

5. As soon as you save your temp file, GIF Animator prompts you to "update your temp file from the image editor." Click Yes to bring all the objects onto the GIF Animator workspace.

(Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4)

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