Make an Animation in Gimp

Suppose you have pent up artistic energies waiting to get get out, and you are interested in animation. "What program can I get that's free, simple, and fun, and that I can do lousy little animations on?", you ask. Well, Gimp is your answer!

Steps

  1. Start a new project by going to File>New.
  2. Make sure the new project's color space is RGB. If you plan it to be in color, and that it's filled with white if you just want an animation of your figure, set it as transparency if you want a background.
  3. Draw the first frame of your animation. To just learn it all, put a simple figure, like a stickman, or something similar.
  4. Open the Layer dialog, Windows> Dockable Dialogs> Layers.
  5. Duplicate the layer of your first frame. It will now be called background copy, and be first in the ordering. Set it's opacity down from 100 to the 40's to 60's.
  6. Not seeing any difference in the picture yet? Try drawing a line. It is fainter because the opacity of the layer is not 100.
  7. This way, you can see what the preceding frame was like, and make lines that are distinguishable from the original lines, to draw the next frame.
  8. When you've drawn the new frame, put it's opacity back to 100 percent, then make a new layer and continue to make all the frames you need to complete your animation.
  9. Save as Animated Gif, and set the delay for each frame. (Filters > Animation > Playback...)
  10. Or, select and copy the first frame, Go File>New, paste it in, click the anchor button in the layer dialog, and save it a frame 1, continue for each frame. When all the frames are there own separate image, put them together in some video editing software.

Tips

  • If you have the frames set with transparency, except for the figure you drew in, and want a background in it, then go and first make the background in a new layer, to make this easier, make the new layer for the background the only visible layer. It is smartest to draw the background first, then to plot your characters around on it, then to have to make the background work with the random moving of your character.
    • Duplicate your background as many times needed to have one for every frame. Move the first frame of your animation to the top of the layer dialog box. Put on of the background layers right beneath it, then, selecting the character layer, go to layer > Merge Down. The two layers will become one, and your character will be in a background. Repeat till all the frames have a background
  • If you want to be lazy, you can select the figure in your first frame with rectangle select tool, copy it, then paste it on the new layer, and move it a bit to move it across the frame. When you paste it and have it in the right place, be sure to click the picture of the anchor at the bottom of the layer dialog box, it will anchor your floating selection you pasted.
  • Rename your frames, name then the number the frame is in the animation.

Things You'll Need

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

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