plz HELP with making animated GIF

[FlwrGrl731]

I am about to throw my 'puter in the lake!!!

All I wanted to do was make a ~quick~ blinkie with my furbabies on it. 2 hours later and i am still fighting with it. I am using the tute and having problems.
I made a stack of pix in PS. I took it over to Image Ready. I have the 3 sections, the animation, the layers stack and the layer itself.

I clicked and made the second box on the animation. each time I move the layer I want as my second pix in the layers window, it changes both pictures in the animation box to the same picture. One time I got my title (layer 1) and my cat (layer 2) but when I went to add my dog (layer 3) it switched EVERYTHING to the dog. Now I cant get 2 seprate images at all. no matter how many animation boxes i make, it fills everything with the same picture.
What am i doing wrong. it must be something simple that I am just not getting here. I feel as if i have tried everything, but obviously i havnt or it would work...

Gurrrr! :mad: It is driving me nuts, and I am usually so computer savvy. :confused:

Help Please!!!

thanks
>^..^< Mel

[Emma]

Deep breath...in...out...in...out...okay, now stop laughing! This is serious, let's get to work. :D

The great thing about Image Ready is that you can use those animation frames to move objects around, fade them, etc, without having to make a new layer. You just have to click off the Eye icon in the layers palette for what you want showing in that frame.

So you can have 3 layers, one of each pet. In the Animation Palette you click New Frame and it shows the same thing as in the first frame. You click the Eye icon OFF for what you don't want showing, and ON for what you do want, in the Layers Palette.

Also, in the Layers Palette you can lower opacity on a layer and it affects ONLY that animation frame, NOTHING else! You can use the Move Tool and move the object, so you can have the photos fading in or out, sliding in and out, etc, with only those 3 layers. Does that make sense? It's all about the Eye icon and where that layers settings are for that frame only.

So make the new frame, then go adjust your layers palette Eye, opacity, and Move Tool, then make a new frame and repeat unti lyour blinkie is done.

Have fun! And let us know if you have any other questions. It's NEVER fast the first time, you're learning a new program. However, it WILL get faster!

[FlwrGrl731]

Thanks Emma. I took some notes on your post to put in my PS notebook.

Believe me, when i have more questions, i'll be asking. :)

I had some lunch and read the advanced tute, before reading your reply.

So there i am, eating my veggie corn dogs (too bad i was out of mustard) and I had a lightbulb moment and figured the thing out about clicking the eyeball. And it worked. Wa~hoo!!! :D There it is! Duh, So simple!

I got it, and I even faded the pix into each other. Now, I think i have to do it all over again, because the resolution is way too low.

But now that I've "wasted" half the day, id better get something done around the house before my future DH gets home, wondering what I did all day...

Thanks again! :)

>^..^< Mel

[Emma]

ah, see, frustration ALWAYS bad. Slow down, reflection, try again ALWAYS good!

Great blinkie! Love the fading. And now that you know how, you can make as many as you want!