Animated Gif Porthole And How I Made It

Because of Xara X, this relatively sophisticated animated gif was fairly easy to create. It shows how Xara X enables you to take any graphic you've created and go back at a later date and turn it into a animated gif. This one didn't start out as an animation - I created the porthole graphic for this page to demonstrate Xara X's ability to apply transparency effects to vector illustrations.

To create sailboat movement that wasn't excessively fast or jumpy, I had to balance the number of frames with how long they get displayed. Xara X gives you the tools necessary to achieve that balance easily. This animation has 20 frames - which is quite a few. All the frames except the first are displayed for 1/5th of a second. The first frame displays for two seconds - it doesn't have the sailboat in it so it gives a bit of a pause before the boat sails past again. The animation was set to loop endlessly. I think the pause adds a touch of sophistication that you don't usually see in animated gifs.

With 20 frames I had to be very careful not to end up with an unacceptably large file size. To keep it down to its 20k file size I had to adjust the number of colors used. The more colors you use, the better looking the animation - but also the larger the file size. Xara X makes it easy to try various possibilities. I find its ability to provide a browser preview, complete with detailed analysis, particularly useful. The analysis tells me about the image size, its color pallet and how long it will take to download at various modem speeds.

Most animated gifs are created using bitmap-based graphics programs. In those programs if you want to change your animation - it really is like starting over. By comparison Xara X is a quantum leap forward in flexibility. Everything in the Xara X animation remains fully editable - and it can be edited with ease. Make the sailboat blue? - No problem! Make the sailboat go the other direction? - No problem! Change the color of the sunset and make the brass less shiny? - Read my lips! No problem!

The flexibility and speed of Xara X makes it a superior production tool. Not only is it inexpensive, fast, easy to learn and powerful, it is just plain fun to use. You can't say that about very many graphics programs regardless of cost. Most are frustratingly difficult, painfully unforgiving, and mind-numbingly slow. Try the free trial download offered by Xara Ltd. (details on my other pages about Xara X) and you'll discover for yourself the difference well designed software can make. You'll rediscover how much fun you can have creating something when the "tools" don't get in your way of having a great time.

Return to the page on using transparencies ...
or Jump to my page on creating animations with Xara X...