The Yak Shack Forum

Okay, everyone suddenly has really cool HP avatars, and I still have the snake from the CoS.  I would love a moving Marauder's map or something of the sort.  Can someone tell me how to get one?  Thanks!!!

heres one made by Luluhime

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v185/luluhime/mapicon.gif)

If you want a different scene to the one in the icon above, just say and I'll make it  ;)

Awesome work Amy  ;D

Thanks Roz  :) :)

I love my shiny new avi.

Amys a genius ;D

I love mine to, look at my baby go ;)

Would you mind?  I like what kbmum has, with the movement, and think a nice close up of the map with the people moving would be neat.  Is that even possible though?

Thanks!

Sure! I'll start it now  ;) ;)

Waits with bated breath to see the next creation ;D

It would be cool for someone to have one with Harry's parents in a picture frame too :) we mustn't forget Lilly and James

Isn't that Kbmum's :-\

lol yeh just saw that - but I had more of a sorcerers idea in mind :(

Well, here it is... ;)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v185/luluhime/dumbledorepacingicon.gif)

The only thing I will say is that, because the icons are limited to only 80 x 80 pixels and the footprints are so small, it was hard to try and make it clear in the icon. This was the best I could do! :) ;)

Where harry sees them in the mirror?

what really sucks is that at work, where I am right now, I can't see any movement on the avatars at all.  So please let me know how I move it to photobucket to use as my avatar.  I do like it, but want to see it is action!!!  I might want one that is just one phot instead of two, but again, I need to see this one in action first.  I appreciate all you have done for me!!!

Is there a way to get my avatar I have currently moving?  With the snake moving on the mat? Hmmmmm.

Hmmm I'm not sure why your browser doesn't allow you to view GIFs  :-\

To upload the picture to your own photobucket, go to your PB account and then click just above the input box where it says 'Add pictures from URL' then enter this url into the box:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v185/luluhime/dumbledorepacingicon.gif

 :) :)

As for making your current icon move, then only way I could do that is to have a seperate picture for each frame of movement, which I highly doubt you have. Either that, or I have to draw each frame from scratch in order to animate it, which will take days  :P

I don't suppose you have any Buffy avatars on the go??...... ;D ;D

lol, I don't but if you want one I don't mind doing it...although saying that I don't own any buffy dvds or have any video files of it on my computer. I will scan the interweb to see if I can find any short clips I could use, if not then if you have any video files, could you send them to me?  ;) :)

Isn't the snake from CoS?

Hmmm, i haven't got anything on the pc, but i have dvd's. Is it something a complete spanner (ie me!) can manage?

OH MY GOD!! I've think I've just had the dumbest moment of my life  :P Everytime I looked at that picture, I thought it was a random pic of a snake. Now that you've mentioned it I can tell the exact scene that it came from.  :-[ :-[

-hides-

Do you have a DVD rom? (are you able to play dvds on your computer?)

Don't worry its only because it was mentioned somewhere I hadn't put two and two together before either.

lol! I still feel silly, it's sooooo obvious to me now  :P :)

Yup! Can do! PS i wont tell anyone!! ;D

In that case, rns91294 I can animate your current icon.  ;D

One of the reasons I normally have a small animated scene on top of another picture is because it makes the file size smaller so I can upload it. If I made a GIF using the average 40 frames, but make it a full 80 x 80 pixels, it would probably be to big (file size wise) to upload to photobucket  ;) :)

Thats it detention of Harry Potter watching :P

Brilliant!! Do you know how to screen cap frames?

(btw what program do you use to play dvds on your computer?)

lmao, that's fine by me  ;D

Err, no i don't, and its Dell media experiance! Guess what make of pc i have!

Yup, it is from CoS!!!  I also have one frmo the snake from the SS.  My avatar with the snaKE is actually a close up of the scene (kbmum helped me with that).  I love snakes so I thought it appropriate for me.  If you can get one like that, that would be cool too.  I am going to photobucket for the Map picture.

BTW, my computer at work sucks ;)

Thanks luluhime.  Couldn't have done any of this without you!!

ooo erm, lets see...dell by any chance? lol  :P :P

You'll have to try something for me...somewhere on your keyboard (normally near the top right) should be a button that says 'Print Screen' Now usually, if you press that, it will take a screen shot of your entire desktop and copy it to the clipboard. When you are playing the dvd, try pausing it, press the button and then going straight into ms paint and pasting it. Save the image, then stop the dvd, discard the picture in paint, and then reopen the image. I'm probably confusing you, but alot of programs (quicktime, windows media player, interactual player etc...) will not allow you to screen cap a dvd, so what happens, when you re-open the image file, the part where the film was will show up as a black screen. If this happens then you're stuffed basically, unless you download a program which will screen cap the movie for you. If you re-open the image file and the movie image still shows, then all is well. Let me know how you get on  :)

No problem  ;) I'll make a snake one for you, but it's getting late here now so icon making will be left untill tomorrow  ;D ;)

Mwwwwhhaahhaaa!! It works!! ;D
Scratch that! it dosent work!! ;D ::)

YAY!!! ok, find a scene you want animated and pause it at the beggining of it. screen cap that image and save it. Then, if you can, step forward 3 frames and then screen cap that image and so on every 3 frames. Most of the GIFs I make require anywhere from 25 - 45 frames, but just take as many as you want  ;D


edit

DOH!!! >.<

Hmmm, not sure if it works or not! I'll have another go tomorrow when my brain works! Thanks for your help!!! ;D

Dow do you make your own avatar?

A moving one, or a still one?

A moving one...

ok, this is how I do it....

First of all I take screen caps from the dvd of all the frames I want in the GIF. This can be anywhere from 20 - 50 frames for a short animation. To do this I use Power DVD (as it can screen cap the movie for you) and adobe photoshop. I then paste each image on top of each other, so it becomes a kind of 'sandwich' of images. You could do this in ms paint, but you would have to save each image seperatly, whereas adobe PS with save it as one file with many layers. Once I have all the frames I need, I crop the image file down to remove unwanted parts of the scene and then touch up each frame, by making it sharper, brighter etc... I then use adobe Imageready which is a program especially designed for making GIFs.

I can open the file that I saved in adobe PS and start to build the GIF. It gets hard to explain, but basically I choose the image I want to show out of the 'sandwich' of screen caps for each frame of the GIF. After that, it's just a case of resizing the whole thing to make it smaller, then adding a background image to finish it.

I'm not very good at explaining things, so I'm sorry if I've confused you. There are more simple ways of doing it, but it takes alot longer... :P ;)

Thanks, but I guess I'll just find some on the internet, to offense.

lol, okies

Wow, Luluhime, look what you've done to us!  Moving icons everywhere!  It all looks great.  I can't believe you can make them so quickly. :)

I usually change my avatars after a month or two, but I think I'll be keeping this one for a lot longer!

 I hardly ever change mine so having a cool one helps ::)

I made a couple of CoS snake icons:

Without a picture:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v185/luluhime/cossnake.gif)

With a picture:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v185/luluhime/cossnake2.gif)

 :)

Those look great!  Sara will be very happy. :D

Wow!!!  I am so excited!!!  Of course, I am back at work and can't see them in action at the moment, but they look great standing still even!!  I am saving them to photobucket now.  You are the best!!!!

Help!!  I am confused now.  Which pic do I use?  The map?  Or one of the snakes, and if so, which one!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!!

The map is a nice change of pace.  You could use it for a while, then switch to the snake, then back again. :)

Aren't we a funky forum now ;D

lol! I'm sure it's just a fad :P ;)

Not a fad, just fab :)

Ok I have checked and have all the bits I need (I think).  First question though; after I have screen dumped do I paste each frame into Adobe PS? Or do I have to go through paint?

 :o

I hope it's a Pinky and the Brain one Sharon!!!

What else could it be????????  

Just a few glitches at the moment.  P and the B is not on DVD, I can't get the screen dump to work and I don't understand layering.  Other than that everything should go swimmingly :D

Although Pinky may bite the dust in favour of a Starbug (just got lastest DVD and it is brilliant ;D)

Both very good options (what a relief!!!)

Is that Red Dwarf starbug or an other thing I have never heard of?

I have put the buckbeak avi on an other forum I'm on twice the fun ;D

Yep a Dwarfer Starbug.

New question.  I have done the frame capture but when I put each one in PS they keep starting new documents, instead of one document with lots of layers.  Sorry to be a pain but I will be the happiest person you could imagine if I manage this (with lots of help of course ;D)

Ok, when you screen cap the first frame, go into adobe PS and click new. Hopefully it will already show the correct dimensions for your screen cap, but be sure to make it transparent (rather than a white background) it will say this at the bottom of the dialog box. When the canvas appears go to edit > paste. You will have your first layer. Then creat a new layer on the same canvas. Go to Window > layers and select it just to make sure you have the layers box showing. On the layers box click the icon at the bottom of it, 2nd in from the right (the square looking one next to the bin).That will create a new transparent layer. Take your next screen cap of the clip, go back into adobe and paste it. Hopefully that will paste it right on top of the previous picture. Then repeat the process. Remember when you save it, to save it as a PSD file, or you will loose the layers  ;) ;D

You are an absolute star ;D

I now have a five frame Lister bobbing on my desktop.

Next job doing a 50 frame one and getting it on the Yak Shack.  Oh, then take over the world (mustn't forget that ;))

Of course!!  ;D

Luluhime thank you x 2000000000 :D

You are an excellent teacher.  I never thought in a million years I would be able to do this.  Happy in the extreme  ;D ;D ;D

This first attempt isn't anywhere near as good as yours but I am just amazed I managed anything!

Last question (for today anyway ;)).  Why are yours all crisp and clear and mine is a bit fuzzy?

Lol we just need the music now  ;D

Don't.  I can't get the song out of my head at the moment.  I kept playing it on the DVD whilst I was doing the Avatar.  

I was right; Luluhime has the patience of a saint as they take sooooo long.  I now not only know all the words but could probably do the dance, except the bit where Cat does a high kick.  Wow that is really a high kick :D

And even worse, Roz has told me it was brought out as a single, so I am now on a quest to find that.  Ahhhhhhhh

At the risk of sounding stupid(er than usual :P) where is your avatar from Sharon?

I wish I could pretend it was something dead clever that I found but I just followed Luluhime instructions :D

This particular bit is from Red Dwarf Season II DVD, the uncut Tongue Tied extra.

Trouble is now all the Pinky and the Brain comments look out of place.  I love Red Dwarf but at heart I am a P and the B girl  ;D

As soon as I can get hold of some Animaniacs on DVD I will be ready to take over the World (again ;))

Hurrah for taking over the world ;)

I love the Anamaniacs! There was a period that I could sing the entire theme song... it drove my parents insane and I loved it ;D

Looking back - I would have strangled myself if I were them ;)

Have you got the CD's?  There are two available with all the main songs.

You can sing along with Slappy Squirrel or name every US state and its capital.  Plus even better it comes with full lyrics.

As you probably have guessed these get played a lot in my house ;D


This sounds like an episode of last seasons Charmed :D

Unfortunately I can also (in my head) hear tongue tied I was a BIG dwarf fan back then.

Umm I sure I had TT one cassette somewhere :-\

Hehe!!

My GIF s are clear, only because I apply a bunch of effects to each frame. Most of the time I correct the colour as when I screen cap a video, the picture is a bit too bright and slightly blueish. Once I've corrected the colour I make the frames the size I want, and then apply the sharpen filter. This just makes the whole thing alot clearer  ;)

Btw, that's brilliant for you first attempt!!!  ;D ;)

I think this is where I went wrong.  I resized the image then just used the auto correct on the enhance menu.  I also think I was a little ambitious.  First one I tried had 82 frames!

You will now have to pretend it is tomorrow cos I have another question ;)

When you capture the frame then paste it was you having problems with paste part.  Sometimes I was having to capture a frame 7 or 8 times before it would paste.  This is probably just my PC but I was curious :D

By the way thank you, thank you and thank you again ;D ;D ;D

When I screen cap something using the 'print screen' button, I normally press it, like 10 times just so I know it has copied it to the clipboard (for some reason, it doesn't always do it  ???) Also, always make sure you have made a new layer. If you were to paste on a layer that already had a screen cap on it, I find that it will paste the previous cap on top of it.


No problem  ;) ;D ;D