What program do I use? And what do I need? I'm clueless.

Here is a tutorial I swiped from another board. I use ImageReady but you can also use JASC Animation Shop. It all works just as good.

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Tools:

-JASC Animation Shop
-Snag It 7


FIRST:
-Open up your MEDIA PLAYER (I use WINDOWS Media Player) and turn your VIDEO ACCELERATION to NONE:

** TOOLS>>OPTIONS>>PERFORMANCE TAB>>Go down to VIDEO ACCELERATION and pull the thing to NONE


SECOND:
Then Open up SNAGIT 7 - http://www.techsmith.com and follow THESE directions:

* Click the CAPTURE TAB >> GO to CAPTURE SETTINGS>> THEN:

-MODE >> VIDEO>> then INPUT>> FIXED REGION>> then click the "..." and for WIDTH put in 365 and for HEIGHT put in 250

- Next go to OUTPUT >> FILE >> PREVIEW WINDOW >> then click the "..." and under VIDEO OPTIONS >> check AUTO CONFIGURE... under FILE NAME >> click ASK FOR FILE NAME >> and under OUTPUT just pick what folder u want the AVI file to be in >>> under FILTER >> Click NONE ...Under OPTIONS make sure the microphone IS NOT selected.

Then Click SAVE PROFILE!



Now to the ANIMATION...

-After you set up the two programs, follow these directions:

1. Open up your MEDIA PLAYER (I suggest WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER) and select the movie you want to have as your AVI.

2. Now Open up SnagIT 7 to capture the portion(s) of the video you want in the animation

...now I do this because opening a MPEG is in Animation SHOP is RIDICULOUS when u just want a few frames...so capping the parts u want to an AVI file(which u can also open in animation shop) makes this shit very EASY and less time consuming...especially if u have a slow ass old PC ...

3. After you capped all of your clips, u just go right ahead and open them up in the Animation Shop and just start CUTTING and Pasting the frames as u want them to play in the .GIF.

4. Now after u get through cutting and pasting, go to ANIMATION>> RESIZE>> and resize it to about 150 or whatever you see fit for your own tastes... RESIZE >> click PIXEL SIZE>> and type in the width you want (the height is automatically accounted for).

5. Now u wanna go to EDIT>> SELECT ALL to select all of the frames >>then you wanna go to ANIMATION >> CULL ANIMATION>> and type in 5 ( you do this so the Animation will NOT be so HUGE once u save it.

6. Now go to ANIMATION >> FRAME PROPERTIES >> and you want slow down the animation a little bit so that it is NOT going too fast...I suggest u play with the numbers to see how fast or slow u want it to go.

7. Now to check to see how the Animation will play, go to VIEW>> then ANIMATION.

8. After you are satisfied with the Animation, go to FILE>> SAVE AS and you will save the file type as a .GIF... and MAKE SURE you save it to the HIGHEST QUALITY POSSIBLE...(that's why I CULL the animation so it's not too big, but u still have the best QUALITY possible.)

Those Image Ready come with Photoshop.....................Or can you get it alone

Those Image Ready come with Photoshop.....................Or can you get it alone