Bitmap-editing GIFs
Yesterday, the third issue of Quarter Up was published on Nantucket E-Books. One of the exciting possibilities for e-books is moving images, and this new issue featured an animated GIF by Jeremy Mendiola (artofmeh on Reddit). As I was getting ready to publish the issue, I learned a lot about adding text to a GIF, and I wanted to share what I had learned.
Editing a GIF in a bitmap editor like GIMP is challenging, since each frame is a separate layer. The original artwork had a 1:1 aspect ratio, which was a little too wide, I try to use a 8:5 aspect ratio for covers. Cropping and scaling would need to be applied to each indivudal layer. While I try to only use free software, in this instance I caved and use the resize tool on ezgif.com to get the correct aspect ratio. (If there’s a way to do this in GIMP, leave a comment).
I learned that the text layers will get added as frames of the animation, which caused a ‘blip’ as they vanished and reappeared for a couple frames. To add text to a GIF, the text layers need to be merged down into the background layer.
Lastly, I wanted to add a linear gradient to the text. This tutorial on bettertechtips.com was instructive, the site may be read with JavaScript disabled.
That’s what I learned editing this cover for publication, hopefully it can help someone else.
SHOW/HIDE COMMENTS
WANT TO COMMENT?
SEND AN E-MAIL TO NJB@NANTUCKETEBOOKS.COM WITH THIS SUBJECT LINE: