How do I make an animated gif transparent to black?

[J Trahair]

Hi all. I am a Visual Basic developer, and I have to display a slide show of photos. I could just change quickly from one photo to the next, but sometimes that is too sudden.

What I want to create in PhotoFiltre is an animated gif which starts as completely transparent - so you can see the original photo underneath it. It then gradually turns black, and while it is black the VB program changes the photo, then the black fades back to the transparent overlay - with the new photo now displaying.

This animation would last about 6 seconds.

Is this possible, please? Thank you.

[Tom]

Hi,

The solution exists in the documentation of the official web site.
Here yo can find a rough translation : http://jptom.free.fr/PageTuto/DocPFS/gifanim_en.html
In the exemples, you can look at Blending of images.

[J Trahair]

I can create a gif which is completely transparent. What setting should I use to make it half transparent, like a fog or mist?

Thank you again.

[Tom]

Did you red the page i had given as link ? Opacity adjustment of the layer does'nt match ?

[J Trahair]

Thank you. I have read the link, but in VB I can do the layering and speed of change of the layers. I don't know how to create one stand-alone image with varying opacity levels. I have an image created in PhotoFiltre which is completely transparent, that is good. How do I create another separate image with a small increase in the opacity, then another image with a bit more opacity, etc. until the 8th image is completely not-transparent and black.

The resulting 8 images will be overlaid onto any ordinary photo so that the photo gradually fades to black.

I know my first post in this thread asked how to create an animation. The question has now changed (sorry!) to how to produce a stand-alone image with a certain % opacity.

When I have the image Transparent1.gif many of the menu items and tools are not available.

Thanks again.

[Tom]

Yes, it's will match.
But I don't know if you can have this result with the freeware release ?
In PF Studio select with Ctrl+A the layer which will be partialy transparent and Edit / Clear
Don't worry, and do Edit / Fade Clear and adjust Opacity.
By this way, you can save (Layer / Export layer) your layer as a stand alone png file and keep the partial transparency.

Yes indeed, with a transparent gif, many tools are greyed. In the PF6 release, Transparency is the last operation to do on an image.

[J Trahair]

I now have the Studio version. I want to make a series of transparent gifs such that each one is all-over grey (varying intensity) so that any image behind it is semi-greyed out. I will create an animation which simply fades any photo to black, using 10 or 12 such images.

I have a background as transparent.

I did the Edit Fade Clear and set opacity to say 50%, but the image can't be saved as a gif. I have a layer as black set to about 50% which looks promising but it won't save as or export to.

Can you suggest what I should try next? Thank you.

[Tom]

I thought that it was to compile under VB, so i had believe it was not a problem to work with png files.
Gif files don't support transparency by relative opacity, only png files.
But you have many kinds to skin a cat :
- you have tried to show an image A and successively several black images in relative transparency : B 25%, C 50% D 75%
- you can also show an image A, blend and merge image A with B, A+C, A+D. Finaly : AB, AC and AD are in full opacity,
but it seams like a layer with different opacities is over the background image A.

For example, do an exercise from the animated gif's page which contains layers with relative opacity, save the gif, close the file.
And open it again in PF Studio : you've got a different file which contains layers as merged images but in full opacity.

[J Trahair]

Thank you - I will do the transparent image tutorial. In the meantime, I opened a new transparent image and lightly sprayed it in black (low pressure, high diffusion), with the idea that the spray can get more dense for each gif file. However, after the first save as, subsequent ones will not save as a gif.

My VB gif displayer only uses gif files, not png.

[Tom]

You have to change your mind :
when transparency is not directly possible, try to do it looks like : merge the layer in 25% opacity with the background image,
and so on for the other layers.