It’s animation time!
Feeling more confident with GIMP, I decided to research whether this application could be used for the animations I want to make.
I’m working on a very simple concept, so I don’t need anything fancy here.
This video tutorial gave some brief but specific instructions on how I might use GIMP to create a simple animation:
I also watched this one, which offers some step by step creative instruction around building layers for the purpose of animation. (It was better than the first video). Key information about how to save a file as a GIF can be found at 9:26 (and he really identifies the specifics and detail in how to save this file and what to watch for).
What I found is that each video gave me a different set of tools, and ultimately would lead me to a different skill in creating an animation.
I decided to create a test animation.
One of the first things I found was I was having trouble with text editing. I’d used text before, but only as one text layer on my file. And for this purpose I am duplicating the layers and then adding to each layer (kind of like cells in traditional animation). But I was struggling with how I was editing the text in a few different ways, including ending up with multiple layers that I didn’t want.
I read this document online.
What I Learned
It is much harder (for me) to READ about how to do something with screen shots and a written description, opposed to watching a video. I could barely focus and follow this written explanation.
It took a lot of problem solving and I rewatched a couple sections of videos up to 10 times, but I finally created the ‘foundation’ for a GIF.
However…. still lots of mistakes!
I couldn’t export it properly because of a few errors. Watched some more videos, did some troubleshooting – but eventually felt I’d hit a wall and will need to start over with a new project to see if I can avoid errors along the way (and learn a few more tools around combining backgrounds to layers).
So for this week – I’ve got a video of my animation (not a proper GIF yet)…but we are on our way.
The struggles I’m feeling with learning this tricky set of skills is really teaching me a lot about patience, perseverance, and reminding me what kids go through when learning things that don’t come easy. A very good reminder.
Next week…..Lets see if we can actually get a GIF!