Here's my final GIF! Had to make it tiny to play on the blog, but the video one will still be 1920x1080.

Final GIFs!

Despite drawing those ghosts, I have actually been doing work! I like what I have here with both of these. I liked the original movement of Cameron and Laura, so I kept them normal. It wouldn't be too hard to make more of those creatures, but I really like them mixed in with the people. Not sure how I want the whole color to look. I like the middle one, but I'd really appreciate some feedback!

Unrelated to the current project-- but I can't stop making these wiggly ghosts!!!

Here are some test GIFs taken from video shot Tuesday.

I really like the first one, but I might keep fooling around with the video footage.

A possible color palette for our GIFS. It needs to be monochromatic with red. Various values of red would be best so shapes blocked out in red don't look flat. This definitely could use some tweaking, but it's a start.

I made some GIFs out of video footage I had and messed around a bit. The first one has a lot of frames, as many as it was in the original video clip. The second loops from beginning to end and has some color adjustments on individual frames. The only way I know how to loop it from beginning to end is to copy all the frames and arrange them in reverse order. It's very time consuming and I have yet to figure out an easier way. The last one is really funky and it flashes a lot, so don't stare at it too long!!!

GIF Tutorial

I'm going to show you step by step how to make a GIF from video.
I first saved the Mario video Heather sent out in an email, but you can use any video file. 

Open Photoshop and go to File >Import >Video Frames to Layers...

Once you select the video you'd like to use, this box will open up. Select the part of the video you'd like to use in your GIF. It is best to choose a small section as it will be a smaller size file. Also, it's a good idea to click the box for "Limit to every 2 frames". This will also make the file smaller and easier to edit.

You want to have the Timeline tab open (which you can open from Window > Timeline) to look at all your frames. From here you can readjust the duration on each frame.

You can Shift select multiple frames and click the small down arrow to change it to a set time or choose Other... and put in your own time. 1.0 is long while 0.05 is very short. I'm going to keep them at their preset delay, which is 0.04.

I'm going to make the size of the image smaller because it's rather bulky the way it is now. Go to Image >Image Size. I'm going to change the width to 600 pixels, keeping the same proportions. Now that it's smaller and easier to deal with, I'm going to save it as is.

First of all, save this as a regular Photoshop PSD file. You might want to edit some things later, and it's always good to have a back up. Next, you want to hit File >Save for Web. This window will pop up in Photoshop. It gives you a bunch of information about this file that might seem overwhelming to you right now. The most important thing here is the Animation Looping Options. Make sure it is set for "Forever". Then you can hit Save... and name it whatever you like.

This is the GIF as is. I didn't mess with the layers or add any new content.

Now it's time for part two: adding drawings on top of the GIF!

I've got my PSD file open with layers and timeline still on. I've made a new layer (which I titled "new") and drew a blue line. You can draw or add whatever you like to this GIF. I want to draw this blue line going over several of the frames so it looks like it's moving along with the GIF, so I'm going to make a new layer over every frame I want to add it to. I always make a new layer, just in case I mess up and can't fix the layer back to its original state.

As you can see, in the timeline, the new layer has shown up as it's own frame. We don't want that, but we don't need to worry about that right now. If you want to see your drawing from the previous layer, simply adjust the opacity of the image in between or click the eye to turn off visibility.

Now I've gone and drawn a bunch of blue lines and merged them to the layer I wanted them to be on. NOTE! Make sure visibility is on when you merge down, or else you might merge to the wrong layer! Now the timeline and the animation of the GIF gets a little wonky when you edit the layers like this. To fix this and to be safe, I select all the frames in the timeline with Shift + select and hit the trashcan icon. DO NOT delete your layers, only the frames in the timeline! You're going to be left with one single frame. After that, you want to go to the small drop down box in the upper right corner of the timeline tab and select "Make Frames From Layers".

Now that all those are new frames, they have been set to 0 seconds as their delay. We want to change that back to 0.04 seconds like our first GIF. Shift + select all the frames in the timeline and click the small down arrow next to the delay time. Since 0.04 seconds isn't in the preset list, you will want to click "Other..." and type in 0.04. You can preview the animation in the timeline or change the duration of the frames as you like.

It's time to get the GIF onto the web, so just like before, you want to go to File >Save for Web and hit Save. Make sure the animation loop is on Forever!

It's not even that easy to notice, but I did draw a few frames of a blue squiggly line in here. You probably want to save this file as it's own PSD as well if you want to go back and edit it again. It's never too safe to save more than one version!!!

GIF Thumbnails

I thought it'd be a good idea to put my few thumbnails together into an actual GIF! I really like my "staring/watched" idea on the bus. The shadow figures I would animate, probably in Photoshop over video footage. The eyes will open and close with eyelids, not just flash like I have here. It would probably be good to have people sit around me as place-holders for the shadows. I'm really excited to be making some really scared face during the few seconds that I have, even though I didn't illustrate one.

I've been thinking about what I want to do with my GIF, and I figured I might be able to animate something nicely around the idea of "being watched/stared at". I would really like to get video footage/background of somewhere off-campus. I first thought about a COTA bus, but I'm not sure if that would go over well with the driver. I think I'd like to be wearing something flashy and eye-catching to emphasize the staring. Making this a humorous little clip would be awesome if possible!

Also, I found this neat GIF today:

I'm not totally sure what I want to put into my GIF. I have plenty of phobias and situations that I find uncomfortable, but I'm not sure what I want to reveal about myself. Kind an uncomfortable process, haha!

Information about me for my fellow group members:

• My email is aerne.1@go.ccad.edu
• I'm an Animation Major
• I'm the Art Director 
• Color schemes I am interested in are really monotone or black and white. Muted tones or lack of color may show fear more easily.

My classes (not including Design 4 Media) cover most of the days of Monday through Thursday, specifically: 

     9:45AM to 3:30PM on Mondays and Wednesdays

     12:30PM to 6:15PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I am usually open on the weekend, but I like to have Friday for myself. 

I do like collecting silly GIFs, but I've never really looked into them as a serious art form past little icons and pixels...but this one artist I came across over the summer does beautiful animated pixel art. Here are some of my favorite pieces:

All art by http://waneella.tumblr.com/

Project Pipeline: GIFs

For the pipeline project, I decided to join Heather's group in making a video or mosaic of gifs. I figured I ought to show what kind of GIFs I have done recently. The first one is an idle animation of a creature I designed based off an existing monster in 'Motorcity'. Following that, a small character portrait from the same show. 

These two GIFs below were created in ToonBoom. The first was a quick animation "doodle" self-portrait. The second is a small version of my walk cycle outlines for my Animation I class. I was very happy with my work and wanted to show it off, but a video isn't the best way with a very short looping animation.

And of course, some lovely GIFs of me that I made for fun. Totally silly faces used to test the ability of my webcam and Photoshop.

I was thinking more about the pipeline project and I realized whatever I come up with probably won't be picked, but I should at least type my ideas out on my own blog.
It would be really neat to do something Halloween themed or something of the horror genre in a video or animation. I'm fascinated with anything scary, having seen tons of films and video games along with reading short stories and "creepypastas".
I'd love to do a short film or animation based off one of H. P. Lovecraft's works. His "Call of Cthulu" and "Winged Death" are two of my favorite stories. It might be really interesting to do the latter story in a modern setting as a short film.
I'm not going to lie, I'm quite frightened for this next project. Working with a bunch of people on something I don't really know will be quite scary.

I'm not really sure what to do for the pipeline project. It's a bit overwhelming. I was thinking a short film or a quick animation would be a great project for the amount of time and people we will have. ...Just not sure what about. I think I'll post some drawings and some influential artists to get the creative juices flowing.