GIF Animator - Fading text between colors

[stenhousechuck]

I am trying to do a simple animation that fades text between two colors, like this:

http://www.stenhouse.com/ads/0380ctANI2.gif

I was able to do it in Easy GIF Animator by importing two images (one with blue text and one with red) as two frames and then applying a fade transition effect to the entire frame. This works well but Easy GIF Animator's optimizer is poor and the program hangs often. I'm forced to use a separate program to optimize the finished image size.

Can someone suggest an easy way to do this in Ulead GIF Animator? I tried tweening two frames (1st frame with blue text, 2nd with red) but for some reason the inserted frames have changes to other areas--slight contrast/brightness changes to non-text elements. I want the effect to only be applied to the text. I also tried Add Banner Text but that only fades in & out and not between colors. I'm thinking I need to create 2 separate objects just for the text that's changing--one blue and one red--and then apply the tween to those while keeping the rest of the image as a 3rd background object. Can anyone explain how to do this, or suggest an easier way to accomplish this type of animation starting with one static image (perhaps using a different GIF animation program)?

Thanks,
Chuck

[VikingAnimations]

Tweening is the way to do it, you just have to get the settings right...

I'm thinking I need to create 2 separate objects just for the text that's changing--one blue and one red--and then apply the tween to those while keeping the rest of the image as a 3rd background object.

This is indeed what you need to do. Here's how:

Frame 1 has the red text, frame 2 has the blue... both have the background image. In the Object Manager, click to select the red text, then Ctrl-click to also select the blue. Leave the background image unselected (but it should be visible in both).

Select Frame 1 in the Frame Panel. Click the Tween button, and use these settings:

On the Frame tab, you will have start in frame 1, end in frame 2, and have it insert the number of frames desired. (The more the better for the look you're going for, with a frame delay of from 8 to 12.)

On the Objects tab, select Currently Selected Objects, and check only Transparency. Use the preview and tweak as needed.



That's it!