After I first posted a blog titled "Animated Blogging" last April, I continued over the following months to receive requests asking about the process I use to create the slide shows like the one pictured above. With the advent of the new ActiveRain Photo Blogger group, tools for enhancing blogs for Photo Blogger devotees becomes even more of an interest.
The process I use is rather straight forward and simple to use, when using Paint Shop Pro with it's Animation Shop "wizard" function. The screen captures below will walk you through it.
Open the Paint Shop Pro program. Go to "File," scroll down and select "Run Animation Shop." When Animation Shop comes up, go to "File" and select Animation Wizard. Your first screen will come up which looks like the following. For the animation illustrated at the top of this page, I used photos all of the same size: 640 pixels wide, and a 480 pixels height. After you have input your size dimensions, hit "next."
When I do these animations, I generally select "Transparent" for my background color, and then hit "Next."
The following screen capture demonstrates the way I usually fill in the selections. I then hit "Next."
When reaching the following screen I select "Yes,repeat the animation indefinitely" so that it repeats. I also choose 300/100ths of a second (equates to 3 seconds) for each picture to display. Remember to multiply the number of seconds you wish to display each picture by 100 to get the timing you desire. Then hit "Next."
The following screen will allow you to add the images you wish to have as part of your animation. You select these files from your hard-drive, etc. Once you have selected all desired images, you hit "Next."
When you see the following screen, you are nearing the end of the process. Select "Finish."
Once the Animation Wizard has completed the building of your animation, you will see a series of frames as viewed below.
Once you see your frames as above, you can hit the little button indicated by the red arrow on your tool box. This will allow you to preview your animation.
To save your animation, hit "Save As" and the following screen comes up. I prefer to select "Better Image Quality" and then hit "Next"
After hitting "Next" the program begins the "optimization" process, and when complete provides you with the "optimization" results. I then select "Finish". Paint Shop Pro will save your animation as a "gif" file.
Once the animation file is complete, it will be important to upload the file to a web domain, and not directly upload it to ActiveRain. The reason for this, is that the animation will remain static and not slide from picture to picture otherwise.
When adding the animation file to your ActiveRain blog, click on the "insert picture" button, but rather than the "upload" option, select the URL or web address for the animation file instead.
*Note from Myrl: There are other slide show tools out there that I haven't yet explored myself, but produce wonderful results. I highly recommend that if you have an interest in Photo Blogging or Photo Slide Shows that you join the ActiveRain Photo Blogger group.
Debi - Yes you can adjust the time each frame stays on the screen! For the purpose of the above animation I selected 300th of a second (which is actually 3 seconds:-) You can see in this frame of the tutorial, it allows you to select a time of your choice.
Hi Myrl, I like this slide show option because it is very clean looking without any of the promotional stuff that come with some web based services. Thanks for sharing!
Silvia - I have liked the appearance of them too - especially when they are uploaded to a domain of your own. However, for those not having a domain, they can always upload to photobucket like Fred did.
Chris - Let us know your outcome.
Tony and Darcy - I hope you give it a try and share your outcome.
Debra - Give it a try. I think you will find it is easy as you work your way through the steps. And the outcome is pretty rewarding.
Toula - Glad you continue to enjoy. . .Have a great day!
Fred - You get an "A" for following the instructions and experiencing success. PaintShop Pro automatically saves the animations as "gif" files. GIF files aren't as high resolution as .jpgs are, but I think the animations give good enough quality in most instances. And the file size is generally smaller with gif files, which makes them more web friendly, taking less time to load.
I wanted to thank you for producing this slide show tutorial for our group. I am so appreciative of all your wonderful efforts for the group. I meant to get here a bit sooner so I could also announce, which I will do in a separate post, that you have accepted the position along with Mike Hendren to be Moderators for theActiveRainPhotoBlogger Group.
This is super information!!!!! I am bookmarking the page and it will take me many, many times to try and get this to work for me. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!
Jennifer - Thank you for your kind words. . .They are always appreciated!
William - When I learned that you had come up with the Photo Blogger Group idea, I felt it would fulfill a great need here on ActiveRain. Once you actually founded the group, and asked that I assist in moderating, I saw it as a wonderful opportunity to participate in a grand adventure. Thank you so much for asking me!
Sharon - I suspect you will be very surprised, once you try, that it is easier to accomplish than you may think. . .Good luck!
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Excellent tutorial, Myrl! Can you adjust the amount of time each frame stays on the screen?
Debi