I've been searching the web for the last hour or so for a program that I can create an animated avatar in. I want my little simpsons character to do a fish eye blink every 6 seconds or so. I know how to animate as it's been one of my hobbies for years. I've done several animations , including graphic 3d, 2d, and stop motion. All I need is a program that is 1. Free of course 2. Has frames to draw my work in the size of an avatar. 3. In GIF format. If you guys have any tips let me know. I may even start making animated avatars for people who request them if the program is doable. EDIT: My animation is finished (the guy above blinks every few seconds), however, it will not let me have it as my avatar. A message shows up saying "you may not upload animated images". I'm questioning whether or not it is possible to do however because of the fact that I've seen other animated avatars. Possibly only mods can do it. I have sent a message to shock theta, and I'm waiting for a response. In the meantime, I've been looking for people who have animated avatars. Here's some I found. ForgeHub Halo Forums - View Profile: Poztar ForgeHub Halo Forums - View Profile: Fbu
Sry that I can't help you much, but I wanted to say nice Simpsonish avatar. I believe that there are some sites that you can look off from google, but besides that, idk,
I think that there is a free program called GifBuilder, but I am unsure if it works on Windows. Google it and you should find out. You cant draw your frames in the program. But you just need to draw them in something like GIMP etc. and save them as PIXT files then drag them into the frame window and organise. I'm sure you can find more in-depth tutorials about changing the speed and whether it loops or not. Anyway, hope this helps. Writing from Pefkos, Rhodes, Monsat Masha.
I use GiMP for that, the only problem is backgrounds and transparency don't work to well for it. Try searching up GiMP, unless you've already tried that, then I suggest talking to this guy.
Just make frames in a picture editing program (photoshop/gimp/paint/paint.net) and save them in .gif format. I recomend using UnFREEz, a free gif animator, I only used it once but its good. Hope that helps.
Thankyou for the comments. I will look into some of these. I tried Ulead Gif animator, but i could not seem to import my picture correctly. I even followed several tutorials, but everytime the frame was just solid blue. Unfreez seems to be a nice one, but it says that my images have to be in GIF format already, which I don't know if they are. I'll check that one out. I tried gif builder too, but it was pretty hard to work with. There was no fps button, so I had to individually turn each picture to a set amount of time, and copy and paste a few times. Then when I thought i had it, it played backwards instead of forwards. I haven't tried GIMP. I saw it, but I think it cost money or I couldn't find the tutorial for it, so I didn't try it. I'll check it again. Btw, I'm giving you all plus rep.
If Ulead isn't working for you, I can only assume you're doing something wrong. 1. Click the open folder to open your initial image and to set the size of your canvas. 2. Click the button to create as many blank frames as you need. 3. After selecting each individual blank frame, click the button to insert your image of choice into the blank frame. If you try this and it still doesn't work, or if this is what you were doing before when it didn't work, I'm afraid I can't diagnose the problem.
In the tutorial i had, it told me to use the wizard. It asked me the size of my canvas and I said 100x100. Then it asked me if I wanted to import a picture or video. I clicked on picture. I browsed and found my avatar. I clicked on it and it showed up as like avatar1 or something like that in the text box. Then i clicked ok. The tutorial said my avatar would be in the canvas box. It wasn't. I tried several pictures, but it seemed to only make a blue box. I then tried what you described here, by importing it through the open folder, and it still showed up as a blue box. Maybe my avatar was not in the correct format for the program. Btw. I tried that freez program now, and I imported all my pictures but when I told it to create gif, it said that my pictures were not in the right format. I also checked up on that guy turbo mentioned. He is using a program called pivot. I actually have it, and have made several animations with it. The problem is, is that you can't import pictures with that program. It is basically only for stick figures or very complex line drawing. You have to draw it with your pencil and move it around inbetween frames to animate it. EDIT: I finally got it animated. I used the microsoft gif animator, but now it won't let me upload it as my avatar. I get a message telling me that I can't upload animated images. I've seen people with animated avatars though. Maybe only mods can.