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Author Topic: Does anyone know how to edit .gifs? (request)  (Read 1088 times)

Immortal-D

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Does anyone know how to edit .gifs? (request)
« on: April 16, 2018, 08:45:53 pm »

As you can see here, I am still wearing my santa cap.  Since Chicago still has ~4 inches of snow, this is fine, but it won't last.  Here is my original, year-round GIR;



I thought it would be nice to get some non-santa variation.  If there are any Bay12 artists willing to make me some new hats or suitably dwarven gear, I will love you long time.  And if you happen to be in Chicago, treat you to the best pizza in the world.

dragdeler

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Re: Does anyone know how to edit .gifs? (request)
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2018, 11:40:33 am »

Chicago still has ~4 inches of snow


What? But that's way south from my latitude, also I'm 500m higher and even tough our vegetation isn't florishing as it is in the valleys, winter has become inconceivable, despite all the farmer wisdom of multiple linguistic zones pointing in the other direction.
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deathpunch578

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Re: Does anyone know how to edit .gifs? (request)
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2018, 12:46:42 pm »

Chicago still has ~4 inches of snow


What? But that's way south from my latitude, also I'm 500m higher and even tough our vegetation isn't florishing as it is in the valleys, winter has become inconceivable, despite all the farmer wisdom of multiple linguistic zones pointing in the other direction.
let me tell you dude, Illinois is fucking weird when it comes to the weather (it can be 50 degrees in the morning but by noon its 30 degrees)

so .gif files are just like animations (every frame is a picture), to do what you're asking for you need to use a program to edit every frame of the .gif, it isn't very hard but it will take a lot of time. it will be very hard to find someone that will do this for free (very few people enjoy exposure bucks) so it would be easier to pay someone to do this or to do it your self.
« Last Edit: April 17, 2018, 03:45:46 pm by deathpunch578 »
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Starver

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Re: Does anyone know how to edit .gifs? (request)
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2018, 01:01:36 pm »

I know how to edit gifs (I'd use GIMP, personaly) but I'm not really an artist as such. Got any images of hats (any size, any resolution, any quality) that you'd particularly like twisting and affixing that I might use as inspiration?

(Can't actually do this while I'm on the road, but if nobody has already helped you before the weekend I might have time on a desktop to skew and stretch and resize a few pixels.  Or make a splined path duplicate of the necessary outline and detail which I can work with to create a style-compatible bit of headware with suitable Stroke Path operations. So PTWing for now, and maybe encouring others with pointers. And knowing that there are probably plenty of people for whom no encoursgement is necessary, just a rebump of the thread before it gets left too far down the Unread Posts list. One way or other, I hope I can help.)

PPE: Well, given what Deathpunch says, I suppose that's right too. Not averse to doing it pro bono myself, but still can't do it right this minute and I imagine others around here will have better artifice for the project than me, and maybe ought to show off their talents properly rather than have a scab like me muscle in on the scene.
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Immortal-D

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Re: Does anyone know how to edit .gifs? (request)
« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2018, 09:49:24 pm »

Hunh, I didn't realize the process was quite so involved.  Guess I need to start reading up on how to do this proper.  Starver, if you wanted to take a crack at it; I was thinking classic holiday items like 'american flag hat' and 'pumpkin mask', though a suitably dwarfy helm like the skyrim classic would be cool too.  Mostly just looking for some variation to spread throughout the year (maybe some glow sticks or a rave hat).  Welp, I'm off to read about .gif editing.

Starver

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Re: Does anyone know how to edit .gifs? (request)
« Reply #5 on: April 17, 2018, 10:44:54 pm »

The way the binary .GIF format stores the image data is somewhat involved, as with almost any image format and certainly any image format that can store multiple layers/frames/overlays, and I won't send you off to learn the fine details of extension blocks and the compression method. It won't helo you ag all

But GIMP and (probably, not that I have used any recent version of it) Photoshop lets you edit such layers, with their transparency and such, so you are left with little more than being arty with the on-screen artwork to get to grips with.

The most awkward thing is that a GIF that is optimised for transitiions may only have the very first image in the sequence as recognisably an image, with subsequent frames(/layers) being just the differences in the pixels fhat change, transparent in all those that don't. To back-form to the 'unoptimised' version, just hide all but the first two frames (first frame the full picture, second frame the overlay that changes things), copy all that is 'visible', paste that over frame 2 to make it explicitly everything, unhide frame 3 (overlays changes to the frame 2 situation), copy all visible, past onto 3.  Or there's an actual "unoptimise" filter in GIMP that does this for yiu, but I don't think I've ever used it myself...

Then 'simply' edit each layer for new details (however you want it...  I find that apt use of one or more separate image 'projects' can help organise anything you want pasting onto the working-project's frames (familiarity and practice and a bit of patience help, of which I have usually have two, but it's not actual magic).

If it's an animated GIF that you are editing, you probably don't need to do anything else when exporting to the new image (each time you want to see what your latest edit just did, perhaps) but you can probably tweak the timings if you want, and it should be obvious how.

Once you're reasonably happy, save as-is (for when you want to come back and edit it a bit more) then re-optimise if you care about the file-size (or even if you don't, it's still good practice to) by the inbuilt capability of the editor (as with unoptimising, it's under Filter/Animation on the version of GIMP that I'm most familiar with).


I encourage everyone to try doing something like this, in an idle moment. It can be fun if it's not work, and if you find out that you aren't too discombobulated by the process then maybe (one day, if not immediately) if it does becomd part of your work then it is still fun rather than a horribly forced learning process to a tight deadline,.  :P. If you don't immediately understand it, then having no work pressure or immediate need to press on with it might help you ease into it.


(Also, this is one of few forums where I haven't gotten around to making myself an avatar, often an aniGif where that's allowed. More for want of any great inspiration or decisiveness, than anything else. Also I'd need to choose a decent third-parry host to upload it to and then point at.)


If I get time at the weekend, back home (or wherever I find myself with enough time and a handy machind to work on), I will have a look at what you want. (And then I'd need to look for that hosting site, as well, so maybe I'll even satisfy my own lack, if I have extra spare moments.)
« Last Edit: April 17, 2018, 10:49:02 pm by Starver »
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Araph

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Re: Does anyone know how to edit .gifs? (request)
« Reply #6 on: April 17, 2018, 10:56:37 pm »

I encourage everyone to try doing something like this, in an idle moment. It can be fun if it's not work, and if you find out that you aren't too discombobulated by the process then maybe (one day, if not immediately) if it does becomd part of your work then it is still fun rather than a horribly forced learning process to a tight deadline,.  :P. If you don't immediately understand it, then having no work pressure or immediate need to press on with it might help you ease into it.
You also might find that what you learn can come in handy in unexpected areas - you never know when you may suddenly need to edit a picture, fix a botched photo, make a logo, or whatever else, but if you're already familiar with GIMP from tinkering around with GIFs, you'll be able to pick up that other skill quickly. Then that leads into you learning another random tangentially-related thing, and another, and so on until suddenly you find yourself with a bunch of cool skills that you never really expected.

I'd recommend checking out a few tutorials on making GIFs in GIMP - this one and this one seem like pretty good starting points.
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