Where to find animated graphics to use as overlays

secookie · Post by **secookie** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 10:47 pm

Not sure if this is the right place to ask that question - not sure where else to try.

I'm after some animated graphics to "walk" along the bottom of a slideshow I'm doing. Cartoon marching band type of thing of just cartoon characters or similar walking so that they fill the bottom inch or so of the slideshow and walk from one side to the other. Obviously I may have to put the graphic in a few times to fill the time of the show but this would be fine.

Any suggestions where to find something - I've tried googla and yahoo to no avail.

Many thanks in advance.

Simon

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 11:37 pm

If you have Microsoft Office, you can use the Microsoft Office clipart browser to download free clipart:

http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/res ... y=marching

These are animated GIF files, which UVS will accept. You pan across the image to create the sensation of movement, render that to another video file, and use it as a video overlay.

BrianCee · Post by **BrianCee** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:08 am

There are also a lot of free GIF animations available here :-
http://www.ulead.com/download/freeanima ... wnload.htm

And another very good source of animated gifs is :-
http://www.animationfactory.com/

..

welchb · Post by **welchb** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 1:11 pm

THoff wrote:If you have Microsoft Office, you can use the Microsoft Office clipart browser to download free clipart:

http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/res ... y=marching

These are animated GIF files, which UVS will accept. You pan across the image to create the sensation of movement, render that to another video file, and use it as a video overlay.

Thoff ---< Can you explain a little more what you meant by this please ?

"You pan across..." etc... could you give a few simple steps

Thanks

B

nt88498 · Post by **nt88498** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 1:18 pm

so VS9 can recognize .gif files? how do you make them move. say if the .gif character is jumping up and down how do you make it do that in VS9 in the bottom corner of the screen. I don't understand what was said about panning the video and overlaying it either?

can someone explain the process of how to use a .gif file as an overlay and how to make the rest transparent?

Thanks!

MikeGunter · Post by **MikeGunter** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 3:36 pm

Hi,

GIF animations can be made by any number of graphic programs. I have PhotoShop and PhotoImpact - either are fine. PhotoImpact is a bit easier and has more usuable features.

Paint ShopPro and other programs do this, too.

GIF files can only have 256 colors. Transparency is a function in authoring of "painting" transparency.

Pan and Scan allows the use to zoom in/out on images for the *Ken Burns* effect.

Mike

MikeGunter · Post by **MikeGunter** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 3:41 pm

Hi,

GIF animations can be made by any number of graphic programs. I have PhotoShop and PhotoImpact - either are fine. PhotoImpact is a bit easier and has more usuable features.

Paint ShopPro and other programs do this, too.

GIF files can only have 256 colors. Transparency is a function in authoring of "painting" transparency.

Pan and Scan allows the use to zoom in/out on images for the *Ken Burns* effect.

Mike

nt88498 · Post by **nt88498** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 3:54 pm

I don't want to make a gif file, I just want to be able to use one (or whatever is similar) as an overlay in VS9.

Can you directly import gif files into VS9, put it in the overlay track and resize it to fix the bottom corner of the screen, AND it still have movement?

Or do I have to do something to it in C3D Production Studio to be able to use the MOVING gif file?

Just curious.

Susan

MikeGunter · Post by **MikeGunter** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 4:35 pm

nt88498 wrote:

Can you directly import gif files into VS9, put it in the overlay track and resize it to fix the bottom corner of the screen, AND it still have movement?

Or do I have to do something to it in C3D Production Studio to be able to use the MOVING gif file?

Hi,

Yes, but how it will look may not anwser your needs.

It sounds like you'd like to have an animated *bug* that sort of watermarks your video. A gif might work, but most gif files that are *found* are typically fairly small, and all gifs have only 256 colors.

C3D PS is a better tool to make the bug and animate it using either the project or a exported 32bit file with alpha channel.

Making the gif to video output size, and placing the content in the area you want it works better, too.

Mike

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 7:52 pm

"You pan across..." etc... could you give a few simple steps

Sorry I missed the follow-up question in this thread, I must have glanced over it.

For this technique to work, you'll need at least UVS 8 -- earlier versions do not have Pan & Zoom.

You would insert the graphic of your choice into your project, and set the duration to however long you want the "walk across the screen to be". Then use the Pan & Zoom feature to pan across the animated image from the opposite side, and with no zoom, i.e. if you want the character to walk left to right, pan from right to left in a straight line.

You can render that sequence into a new video file, and use it as an overlay on top of your video.