Recently, I've been asked how to make an animated avatar and have had several requests that I make one. I will do this from time to time, but I have decided to explain how to make an animated avatar of your very own!

*It is a good idea to familiarize yourself with making non-animated avatars--see http://www.hpana.com/forums/topic_view.cfm?tid=6562--before trying your hand at an animated one*

The first thing you'll need is a program. If you don't know how to make an animated avatar, chances are you don't have a program. You can get a free 15-day trial of the Ulead GIF animator, which otherwise costs $44.95, at http://www.download.com/3001-2186-5422267.html. It may take awhile to download, depending on your internet connection.

Once you have downloaded and installed the animator, it's time to get started. If you've never worked with an animator before, it's probably a good idea to start out with the basics; simply flashing a few pictures. Here is how to go about doing this.

1) Double-click the Ulead GIF Animator icon on your desktop.

2) From the window that pops up, choose your dimensions to be 100 x 100, which is the standard avatar size.

3) Now it's time to add your images. Go to "File," hit "Add image" and choose from your computer the image you wish to use. When it shows up on the box in the middle of the screen, it probably won't fit perfectly in the square. Right click on the picture, hit "properties" and fiddle around with the dimensions and position until it more or less fits inside the square.

4) Add another picture! Hit the "insert frame" button near the bottom of the screen, which looks like a little square. Click on the empty frame (you should see a whitish box in the middle of the screen again), go to "File" and "Add image" again. Repeat this sequence until you have all the pictures you want.

*The frame that you are editing is the one in the middle of the screen. All the others are lined up along the bottom of the screen in the order in which they will flash*

5) Set your animation times. The default is set for each image to flash for 1/10 a second, which is way too fast. To slow it down, double click a frame at the bottom of the screen. In the window that pops up, choose the length of time you want the picture to flash for. 80 is generally a good number. Repeat for all your frames. To add different transformations between pictures, go to the transformation menu at the top of the screen and choose the transformation you want. I usually don’t use these because I don’t like them, but that doesn’t mean you can’t!

6) Save your animation as a gif file, upload to an image storage site (if you don't have one, http://www.walagata.com and http://www.photobucket.com are two popular ones), put the link in your profile, and show it off on hpana!

When you’re comfortable with making an avatar that just has pictures, try adding text, objects, whatever! Eventually you’ll feel at one with your Ulead GIF Animator (Wow… that was quite possibly the cheesiest way to end…)

Edit: Re-reading the above, I have noticed some things that could be a little clearer--once I am able to use the animator on my computer again, I will clear this up. Thanks :)