How to Make a GIF Animation Using GIMP and Poser (Tutorial)

How to Make a GIF Animation Using GIMP and Poser (Tutorial)

Une image vaut mille mots – French saying

The purpose of the present simple tutorial is to explain how to make a GIF animation using popular software like Poser and Gimp. GIF, defined as Graphics Interchange Format, are images that used to make small film clips or animations. These images, often small in size and restricted in color pallette available, are looped forever and can keep moving either on the Internet or even, in certain cases, on your computer. While they look like one image, if you download a GIF animation, you will see that the image has several frames. The number of frames may vary from two to so many that it slows down their apparition. Resolution may not be ideal in GIF images, but they remain very catchy and decorate many a Website.

Thus, GIMP – the GNU Image Manipulation Program is a free and open source program similar in its features and capabilities to the professional software produced by the Adobe Creative Suite – Photoshop. Unlike Photoshop, GIMP is free and open source, thus it has a completely different license, its code can be studied and it can be downloaded for free from the GIMP Website or elsewhere on the Internet.

GIF animation. Created with GIMP and Poser (30 frames/layers, 100 milliseconds delay). Image source: Elena

Alternatively, Poser is a commercial animation, modelling and rendering program, which allows content creation. A similar free program is Daz Studio, but Daz Studio has a completely different commercial proposition, since while it can be downloaded for free, the figures or characters (or actors) must usually be bought separately. Conversely, while several additional bundles are available for Poser, the software comes with an integrated content library, complete with figures, props, scenes, poses, expressions and so on.

Therefore, to make a simple GIF animation it is convenient to use both programs. For example, you choose a figure in Poser, customize it to your liking and add animation. To achieve an animated sequence, you customize the figure on scene 1 (the number of scenes is specified on the bottom of the window). Then, if you want the camera to move, you go to the last scene and move the camera. The rest (the movement) will be taken care by the software itself.

Additionally, to have the figure chosen (the primary actor) move, you may move them (translate/pull object) yourself, or add one of the built-in animations available in the library. Pressing play in Poser will show you how the animation looks. While it is possible to make videos in Poser, the present tutorial concentrates on GIF animations. Hence, then you would go to “Make Movie” and change the settings to Render as Images (make sure the Render Settings are specified as FireFly and not Preview). Depending on the number of frames you have, the rendering of all the images may take quite a while. To save time, it may be wise to change the size to Half instead of Full. The rest is a matter of patience.

Furthermore, part two – GIMP. GIMP is a very user friendly program, simple to use and with many tutorials available on the Web on how make banners and other CGI (computer generated imagery). GIMP is also used to add text, transparent watermarks and, of course, photo editing. Hence, now it is the time to create the GIF animation. Simply open GIMP and open the first image. Then, go to Layers and Open as Layers the second image. The process is repeated with every single frame, or layer as it becomes in GIMP. To view your animation in GIMP, you would go to Filters –> Animation –> Playback.

Once you are satisfied with the result, you Export the image. To save it as a GIF animation, you would manually change the format extension to .gif instead of .png or .jpg. A window will pop up and it is important to check Save as Animation. Depending on whether you want to slow or speed up your animation, you would specify the desired milliseconds between frames. Finally, to verify whether everything worked, you can open the newly generated GIF animation and use the same method described above to play it. Once it is done, it can be uploaded to a Website, a blog or perhaps even to social media, although some social networking Websites only show GIF animations in static manner.