Create a simple animation

This tutorial focusses on two ways of making animated GIFs. Both use GIMP. The first method is using image layers and the second uses an additional GIMP animation package called GAP.

There are two basic steps to create an animated GIF:

1 - create frames using your favourite drawing program
2 - animate them using GIF animation software

Here are few tips to bear in mind:

Remember to save your images in a GIF format (when saving your image, click on "save as" and chose gif). It's not a bad idea to add numbers to the names of your images, to reflect the order in which you intend to have them appear when animated.
All the images you want to use to create your animation must be of exactly the same size! The best way is to save your first image under different names/numbers as many times as you want and then make changes to each of them individually. That way you can easily preserve not only the same size but also make sure that other elements (such as background), that are supposed to stay still when animated, will behave accordingly.
Make your GIF images as small as possible. Remember that the browser will load one GIF after another and if the GIFs are huge it will process them very slowly and your animation wont look as good as it could.

When you have a few images it is time to animate them.

Animation using GIMP GAP

This method is a little bit more advanced and requires some familiarity with GIMP - however it is more powerful and can be also use to create more sophisticated animations.

GAP allows you to create and edit fairly complicated videos in various formats - but that's for really advanced users. It is a tool for creating much smoother GIF animations with much less effort than would be needed is you were using the GIMP layers method. So if you need to create very complex GIF animation that might have more than ten frames, or even more than a hundred, GAP is a useful tool for you.

Open your first frame
Open it as usual from "file" and then "open" - you will have to change its format into XCF and GAP is pretty particular about names too. You canuse whatever name you want AS LONG AS at the end you add 000001. Otherwise GAP wont recognise the format and will display an error. Make some more frames by going to "Image" and then "Video" and "Duplicate Frames". You don't have to repeat the process, just chose the number of duplicates under "N times" in the dialogue box.
Go to your first image and try and make it move using the "move path" function.
We will start from zooming out your image so it appears to fly away from the observer and then combine that with opacity increase. For the first animation point try the following parameters: x:157, y:74, width:200, height:200, opacity:20 (those are just example values that might be different for your image). Keep the rest default.
Now add a new animation point by clicking on the "add point" button. Notice how the status above the button changed to current key: [ 2 of 2 ]. Now change the width, height and opacity back to 100%.
You can check the result on any animation point by navigating to it (using next and previous or other buttons) and clicking on the "update preview" button. You can also preview the whole animation using the "anim preview". This will create a new layered image and it takes a while.
Navigating your images
Go to "video" "VCR navigator" to navigate your images easily, that way you can check how they look. To control display time (duration) of your frames, go to "framerate".
Save your animation
To save the animation as GIF, apply the "video" "frames to image" function.

Animation using GIMP GAP

This method is a little bit more advanced and requires some familiarity with GIMP - however it is more powerful and can be also use to create more sophisticated animations.

Open your first frame
Open it as usual from "file" and then "open" - you will have to change its format into XCF and GAP is pretty particular about names too. You can use whatever name you want as long as you add 000001 at the end of the file name. Otherwise GAP wont recognise the format and will display an error. Make some more frames by going to "Image" and then "Video" and "Duplicate Frames". You don't have to repeat the process, just chose the number of duplicates under "N times" in the dialogue box.
Go to your first image and try and make it move using the "move path" function.
We will start by zooming out your image so it appears to fly away from the observer and then combine that with opacity increase. For the first animation point try the following parameters: x:157, y:74, width:200, height:200, opacity:20 (those are just example values that might be different for your image). Keep the rest default.
Now add a new animation point by clicking on the "add point" button. Notice how the status above the button changed to current key: [ 2 of 2 ]. Now change the width, height and opacity back to 100%.
You can check the result on any animation point by navigating to it (using next and previous or other buttons) and clicking on the "update preview" button. You can also preview the whole animation using the "anim preview". This will create a new layered image and it takes a while.
Navigating your images
Go to "video" "VCR navigator" to navigate your images easily, that way you can check how they look. To control display time (duration) of your frames, go to "framerate".
Save your animation
To save the animation as GIF, apply the "video" "frames to image" function.

Animation using GIMP layers

Open GIMP
Open your first picture
From the file pull down "open" the first of your gif images.
Add a new layer to your picture
When you see your picture, chose "layer" from the top menu bar and then "create new layer" - give the new layer a name (“frame2” would be good) make sure you have the "Layers and Channels" window open (if you're not sure you can see it, click ctrl + L)
To open your second image and add it as a new layer to the first image:
Open your second GIF - when it's visible chose "edit" and then "copy" from the top menu bar.
Go to your image 1, then chose “edit” and then "paste", now you will see in your “layer and channels” window something called "Floating selection (Pasted layer)" click on it and then right click your mouse or hold ctrl to see the pop-up menu and chose "anchor layer". This means that your floating selection becomes frame 2. Now you have an image with two layers. At this point it might be a good idea to rename your first layer, which is called "background " by default. How about “frame1” - why not?
Add more and more frames!
Now we have two layers - called frame1 and frame2. Let's add other images in the same way. First add a layer to your first pictures.
Remember - "layers" then "new layer". Then give it a name: 'frame 3. Open your third GIF picture and again “edit” and then “copy”, move to your picture one and "paste" it - then from a pop-up menu chose "anchor layers". And so on.
Repeat the process as many times you have images. If it's your first animated GIF start with four or five frames to get the feel of the technique.
Export your work into Animated GIF format
When you have all your images placed as layers under picture one, it's time to save them as an animated GIF! Go to "file" and "save as". When the dialogue box opens, give your file a new name and then select the "file type" - chose GIF, then click "save" - you will see another dialogue box where you can chose between two options "flatten image" and "save as animation" - of course chose "save as animation". There are other parameters that you can alter, but let's not bother with them yet.
Check if it works!

To check if your animation works open your file either with any browser you are using or chose from the GIMP "filters" then "animation" and finally "playback". After seeing how it works you might want to adjust some of the features. The display time can be set the same for all the frames or varied for each single image to make the animation smoother or more realistic.
Adjusting the display time
This can be done very simply by adding a comment to the name of each of your layers. Double click on the layer name, for example "frame1 "of your animated GIF, and add a line to it "(1200ms)". Now the name of your layer will look like this: "frame1 (1200ms)". Test it and adjust if it necessary. (1200milliseconds is just an example value, you can set each frame to any duration)
Adjusting the size
If your animated GIF is too big there is a very easy way of optimising its size. Go to "filters" then "animation" and then chose "optimise (for GIF)". This will create a new GIF image with all the layers optimised. The file gets much smaller.

Gif animation using GIMP layers

This method is simpler and very effective, and does not require special skills or a profound understanding of the GIMP application.

Open GIMP
Open your first picture
From the file pull down "open" the first of your gif images.
Add a new layer to your picture
When you see your picture, chose "layer" from the top menu bar and then "create new layer" - give the new layer a name (“frame2” would be good) make sure you have the "Layers and Channels" window open (if you're not sure you can see it, click ctrl + L)
To open your second image and add it as a new layer to the first image:
Open your second GIF - when it's visible chose "edit" and then "copy" from the top menu bar.
Go to your image 1, then chose “edit” and then "paste", now you will see in your “layer and channels” window something called "Floating selection (Pasted layer)" click on it and then right click your mouse or hold ctrl to see the pop-up menu and chose "anchor layer". This means that your floating selection becomes frame 2. Now you have an image with two layers. At this point it might be a good idea to rename your first layer, which is called "background " by default. How about “frame1” - why not?
Add more and more frames!
Now we have two layers - called frame1 and frame2. Let's add other images in the same way. First add a layer to your first pictures.
Remember - "layers" then "new layer". Then give it a name: 'frame 3. Open your third GIF picture and again “edit” and then “copy”, move to your picture one and "paste" it - then from a pop-up menu chose "anchor layers". And so on.
Repeat the process as many times you have images. If it's your first animated GIF start with four or five frames to get the feel of the technique.
Export your work into Animated GIF format
When you have all your images placed as layers under picture one, it's time to save them as an animated GIF! Go to "file" and "save as". When the dialogue box opens, give your file a new name and then select the "file type" - chose GIF, then click "save" - you will see another dialogue box where you can chose between two options "flatten image" and "save as animation" - of course chose "save as animation". There are other parameters that you can alter, but let's not bother with them yet.
Check if it works!
To check if your animation works open your file either with any browser you are using or chose from the GIMP "filters" then "animation" and finally "playback". After seeing how it works you might want to adjust some of the features. The display time can be set the same for all the frames or varied for each single image to make the animation smoother or more realistic.