Topic awaiting preservation: GIF'S?

Hey guys! Its me again. I'm reading tutorials and stuff, still practicing, always practicing.
My question is, how is it possible to turn your image into a gif?
I mean, lets say you make a sig, and you want the real 3D effect by having some of your images "protrude" outta the page. I mean, can you just move your layers over, and save it as a GIF instead of a JPEG? And if so, will it show up the shape you made it, "outside" or will it still be that standard square shaped page?

I guess that makes sense to you, but I'm betting that it doesn't make a lot of sense to anyone else ...

Try to frame your questions in a way which describes the effect you're attemting to achieve, show examples of things you've seen, and/or of attempts you've made, and why you think your attempts don't meet up to your desires, and then ... you'll get assylumites falling over themselves to show you how clever they are ... and your question will be answered.

Be obscure, and you'll only get some tired, old, jerkoff telling you you don't know how to ask the right questions ...

Peace ...

hey L,
I think I understood you... if not you might still learn something

gifs basically have only one layer, but they also got a 'special' color - transparent.
They're still basically rectangular, but by making parts them transparent, you can have them look any shape you want on a web page.

so long,

Tyberius Prime

Hi, how the "L" are you?
First of all, are you using Photoshop? I can tell you about Gif's in PhotoShop (PS), but not with any other software cos I haven't used them. HAve a look here Gif Transparency Tutorial That really helped me. Also it would help if you posted up a pic' of what it is you are doing. "Jump in the waters fine"

Thanks for the link Taobaybee. Yes, I'm still using PhotoShop 6.0.
Tyberius, I think you have begun to answer my question.
I'll try to make a sig, and in the sizing process, the only available options are just making it into a square, or rectangle. And then when you save for web, the jpeg format, your sig is square or rectangular shaped.
Trib, I want images sticking out of the sides of my "square pictures". And I think these are gifs.

If you create a file, with a rectangular image in the center, and then your larger image overlapping the edges of it, the total file shape is still rectangular, but then the background portion behind the extending edges would be transparent...



simple example, but make sense?


Cell 617

Ahaaa .. now I see what you meant ... so just to add my 2c worth...

Once you've got to the stage of making the gif with a transparent background, another thing to remember is to make sure your "trnansparent colour" is as close as possible to the background of the page you're going to put it on (for example, the correct colour for Asylum signatures is #2b0404 - half way between the two browns used as the message column background).

The reason is that often the edges of shapes are anti-aliased, or blurred (drop shadows etc.) and obviously, a drop-shadow fading to white will look a lot different from one fading to black ... so always start your picture on the right background colour. Best of all, if you are developing a sig file for example ... Start with a psd file - make a background layer of one solid colour - do everything else on other layers - AND KEEP THE PSD. Then, when you use the sig on another board with a different golour scheme, all you need to do is switch the background layer to the new colour, and make a new gif from it ... voila - re-usable gifs, customised for each board.

For example .. here's a sig made for a greeny-gray board, not for the Asylum - same as the sig below - different (wrong) b/g colour.


Bug-free software only exisits in two places
A programmer's mind and a salesman's lips

[This message has been edited by trib (edited 06-19-2003).]

Trib, you answered my question, TOTALLY. I thank you very much.
My only thing now is my ability to execute such. I'm gonna try my hardest, and you gave excellent advice, for "re-uasable" gifs.
I'm reading tutorials, and they say that sometimes you might want to post your gif on a board that has more than one background color. The tutorials I read, tell me to take the average of the two background colors.
I have the colors hexadecimal, I think I can just get the RGB's when I type in the hexadecimal #'s.
When I get the average of the two colors for the background, do I use the "ditherboard" or something?
Do I do that before I try to save it as a gif?
The background I want to put it on, has two colors, #DFDFDF and #F1F1F1, two shades of grey.
I have to get the average for those two colors.
Thanks to all you guys, and thanks for bearing with me Trib. I'm a rookie with no manuals, only tutorials online and help from you experts in here.
I'm going to do some experimenting, BBL!

I'm back. I'm doing something seriously wrong. I've been at this for hours now, and I still can't get it.
I made a new document, 2 pixels by 2 pixels. I checkerboarded it both colors of the background I want it displayed on. After I checkerboarded it, I used the Gaussian Blur method, at 2 pixels, and I got a whole new in-between color.
The problem comes in as what to do next.
Do I use this small 2x2 gaussian blurred document as a background? If so, how, because its so small?
To make my gif, I first create a sig, and save it as a photoshop document, so I can still have acces to the layers.
Do I place my sig, ON TOP of my blurred background?
Here is an example of what i'm trying to do....
a woman named Huny made this, on another message board.
The background on this message board is two different shades of grey, which alternate within posts, just like in here.
How did she get that gun to stick out like that?
http://atlas.imagemagician.com/images/the_l/thefutureisnow_sig.gif

Ok, try this :
Record the *whole new inbetween color* or copy it to your clipboard.
Turn the background off in your psd so that all that is showing is the image and Photoshops` checkerboard.
Type CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+S (Save for the Web)
Select gif as the file type, the lowest number of colors possible, make sure the Transparency box is checked, and For Matte color, select *Other* and enter your new color.
Check to make sure the size is right and Save.

Thanks, but its still not working. I got a big chunk of grey on the side of one of my pics.
I don't have a background with my PSD. It just starts as layers 0-4.

Ok, this is just a guessing game without seeing the image (it is a visual sport).
But..either you`ve got some semi-transparent pixels on the edge of your image (and I`m assuming that it`s a grey that doesn`t blend with the chosen backgrounds ?), or the matte color is wrong.
If you`re looking at it on a background that is a different color that the matte, you will see all the aliased edges and such...

Another way to find the average color is create 2 layers. Fill each one with one of the 2 colors. Reduce the top layer to 50%. Does this give you the same color as the blur method you used before ?

DocileBob, I tried what you said, and I think its working. I really don't know if I did it right or not, because I have some grey spots showing around the gif. This grey isnt connected to anything, matter of fact, it appears to be just floating. I can't erase it.
I think my matte color is right; because I have 3 images which "stick out" of my gif, with absolutely NO background showing, perfect. just like a logo. But theres one image, which has these floating grey "stains" they look like, "floating" around the pic. And thats the only object in my gif which has this problem.
My gif file consists of three pics of a lady, in front of a car.
I created it with no background, saved all the layers.
Later I created a background, using the two colors of the background I want to put it on, I used the checkerboard Gaussian Blur method.
I then expanded it to a large size.
I made this "Background"
I then pasted my previous layers onto this "makeshift background".
Then I made everything visible except the "makeshift background".
I go to save it as a gif, selecting transperency, matte color, and I noticed I have these grey looking "stains" surrounding this one particular pic.
And no matter what I do, "these grey pixel splatter stain looking things" just won't go away.
I can remove that particular pic of the lady with the stains, and the stains still remain.
I can even delete the layer, and the stains remain.
I chose to save the GIF as "original", instead of "optimum", and under "original" the stains are GONE! But when I save the gif file like that, then reopen it, I see the stains are there once again.
Maybe I should try different matte colors. I've tried everything else.
How do you get colors from a webpage? I can't cut in paste webpages into documents in my OS, WINDOWS ME, and to get the colors I got for my matte color, I had to "view source" under properties and go to the hexadecimal values.

Good. Glad you`re getting there.
Not sure I understand the *stains* thing. Only thing I can think of (just guessing) is there are some errant pixels on one of your layers. If there are any pixels that are partially visible , saving as a .gif will make them solid.
Maybe try putting some obnoxiously clashing color below your images (in PS) and view the layers one at a time. See if there`s anything showing where the *stains* are.

Here is an example of my problem.
http://atlas.imagemagician.com/images/the_l/gif-experimenrt.gif

what are those chunks of grey I call "stains" that float to the right of my car?

Yup. Those look like loose pixels to me.

Check each layer by turning it off. When they dissappear, that`s the layer. Turn that layer back on and erase them.

And if you make a round erase brush that is the same size as the corner cutouts and just click it once, it will soften up those jaggies.

Floating px ... I just pulled the car picture into ImageReady and deleted the offending pixels ... voila.

Pixel sampling - I'm sure there are several utilities for grabbing a pixel colour value for the screen, but I can't be bothered looking for one, so (on a PC) all I do is ALT-PrintScreen with the desired window active, Go to Photoshop, File->New, Edit->Paste, and then pick off the colours with the eyedropper.

Averaging backgrounds - If you want to be real nerdy, you can do the calclation by hand ... all you need to di is ti treat the 6 digit number as a set of three 2 digit numbers, in the order RR GG BB ... so when you average it, you average each pair separately. (doesn't wear ot as many pencils) And to do that ...

- split each number into three values (DF DF DF and F1 F1 F1 in your case).
- take the first two numbers and average them ... doing it the long-winded way, you get ...
- - DF to EF is 16(decimal) and Ef to F1 is 2 so the difference is 18 (decimal 18 - Hex 12)
- - half that is 9
- - add that to the lower number DF + 9 = E8
- - Repeat that for each of the value pairs
- - stck 'em back together and there's your average colour - #E8E8E8 in your case.

OK - the nerdies are gonna batter me for mixing Hex and Decimal, and the hyper-nerdies are going to batter me for not just doing hex arythmetic on the full 6 digit number, but it's easier to think in decimal and convert back IMO.

(BTW - If you ever wondered why Microsoft insist on putting that dumb little calculator utility on every release of Windows since forever ... well ... view->Scientific->Hex)


Bug-free software only exisits in two places
A programmer's mind and a salesman's lips

[This message has been edited by trib (edited 06-22-2003).]

I thank both of you guys very much. I think I get it. The trial and error is really teaching me. You both are a tremendous help.

The "L",

Yes, they are, but I'm sure you'll be more than willing to help out the next person down the road huh.

Great Forum, umm I mean Asylum.

Good points, trib.
And if I`m feeling mathmatical (not being the nerdy type{not that there`s anything wrong with that}) I just average the RGB numbers, which reduces the number or chances I have to make a mistake.

I'd be glad to help anyone out, if I can!