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Wednesday, November 22, 2017

How to make simple animated banner in GIF with GIMP

We'll make simple animated banner using images and text. And we'll add border to background. 

If you have ready images/pictures/photos you can start from step 25.
To compress GIF file start from step 28.

0. Prepare images that you want to use for making banner. Look at the image dimension. Right click on image and from drop down menu click on Properties. 



Then choose tab Details and write down dimensions. Click X to close image. 


You will need it for the size of the document in the Gimp. All pictures should be of the same dimensions.

1. Click File then New or on your keyboard (press CTRL and N at the same time). 



2. Type dimensions from previous step and click OK button.






3. From top menu, click File then Save As or press (CTRL, Shift and S) to save the file.



4. Type the name for your banner  with extension .xcf or click plus sign next to Select File Type (By extension) and click on GIMP XCF Image then click on Save button. Choose folder on your computer where you want to save the file. Click Save button.



5. From top menu, click File then Open as Layers or (press CTRL, ALT and O) to open images for banner.

Find images on your computer, click on the first image you want to open (left mouse click), then press CTRL button on keyboard and click on second image you want to open. Repeat this for all images, then click Open button. In the other words, your supposed to have pressed CTRL button all time, while selecting images.




6. Click on eye next to every image except background to hide it, so we can add some text. Click on the background layer to select it.


7. On the right side of Gimp window, click tab Tool Options,


and choose Font, Size, Color, etc.,  for your text. 

8. With background layer selected (in blue), from Toolbox choose Text Tool or press letter T on keyboard. Left-mouse-click and pull to the right to make the text box. Type the text you want. If you want to change the color or font select the whole text.  




8a. To center text - move mouse to the first left line of text box until you get another line, then left-click-mouse and pull to the left edge of your background; 



place 2nd line on the left edge. Repeat this step for the right side. Select the text and from tab Tool Options for Justify: click Centered (3rd from the left). 



From Toolbox choose Move Tool or press letter M on keyboard, click on the text and center it from top to bottom. 



9. Rename the background layer to, for example, bg. Double click on the text "Background" to select it for renaming and type "bg", then press Enter. 



10. Duplicate bg layer. Right click on the layer and from drop down menu click Duplicate Layer.




11. Rename "bg copy" layer to "bg 2".


12. Now duplicate text layer. Right click on the layer and from drop down menu click Duplicate Layer.




13. Rename the text layer to, for example, "text 1".



14. Duplicate bg and text 1 layers for the next banner text. Rename them, for example, to bg 2 and text 2 and so on. Move text layer up so ends above bg layer. 

15. Merge down text layer "text 1" with background layer "bg", so we can use it as one image for animated banner.  Select "text 1" layer then right click on it and from drop down menu choose Merge Down. Now you have 2 layers - text and image. 





 16. Repeat steps from 9. to 15. for all texts and images for banner.




We'll add border to the background

17. From top menu click File and from drop down menu click All or (press CTRL and A) to select whole background. 



18. From top menu, click on Select and from drop down menu click Border - Border Selection window will open. 



19. In Border Selection window, add thickness in px for border and click OK button. 





20. From the bottom menu, click down arrow next to 100%, and choose, for example, 200% from drop down menu, to zoom in image so you can easier fill it with color.



21. From the Toolbox on the right side, click on Bucket Fill Tool or (press Shift and B). Click on tab FG/BG Color (FG = Foreground color, BG = Background color), to choose the foreground color for border. 



22. On tab FG/BG Color, there are few option to choose color. I picked color Wheel. 




23. Your background layer "bg" is selected (in blue), you have active selection and with Bucket Fill Tool selected in Toolbox, click in selection to fill it with chosen color. 





24. From top menu, click Select and from drop down menu click None or (press CTRL, Shift and A) to deselect. 



I added border to every second background. When adding background to the next bg layer, make sure to turn off visibility of other bg layers, by clicking eye next to every layer.



Make animated GIF from ready images/pictures/photos 

25. Turn on visibility of all layers by clicking eye next to every layer. 



You can do this in two ways. 

26. Option 1 (make animated GIF from ready images/pictures/photos) - on every layer add in brackets how many seconds you want between two images. In this example, I used 4 seconds, so we'll type as millisecond (ms). So, at the of the name of the layer, for example, "bg" layer, type "(4000 ms)" = bg (4000 ms).




26a. From top menu click Filters and from drop down menu click Animation; from drop down Animation menu click Playback. Animation Playback window will open.





26c. Click Play button to see you banner. 




Update: Sunday, October 3rd, 2021.
I realized that I didn't show the saving, for option 1 :)

26d. If you are satisfied with your banner, it's time so save it. Press CTRL+SHIFT+E to export/save it. In the Name field type the name of your banner with the extension gif. In this example, extra-help-extra-discount.gif. Also, find a folder where you want to save your banner. Click on the Export button. Uncheck the GIF comment option. Check  "As animation" box. In "Animated GIF Options" check "Loop forever" box and in "Delay between frames where unspecified" type the number of ms. In this example from update, 4500. In the previous example, 4000. Now, click on Export button, to save it.   


Go to the folder where you saved your banner and double click on it or press Enter, to open it. 

End of update.

27. Option 2 (make animated GIF from ready images/pictures/photos) - from top menu click File and from drop down menu click Export or (press CTRL and E) to save your banner as animation. Export Image window will open.




27a. In Export Image window, choose the name for your banner with the extension .gif. Then choose folder where you want to save/export you banner and click on Export button. Export Image as GIF window will open.




27b. In Export Image as GIF window, uncheck GIF comment under GIF Options (if checked), then check Ad animation option. If you want you banner to play again after it is finished - check box next to Loop Forever under Animated GIF options. In Delay between frames where unspecified option choose how many seconds you want between two images, in this example, 4000. Click Export button. 



27c. Go to folder where you saved you banner and double click on it to see it. 



Compressing GIF file

28. In address bar of your browser type http://gifcompressor.com/.  Press Enter.



29. Click Upload Files button to upload your banner for compression. Open window will open.



30. Find your banner, click on it to select it and click Open button. Wait until your file is uploaded and compressed





31. Then click Download button to save it on your computer.





And why you should compress images, you can in article "Why It’s Important to Compress Images?"



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