Hi Friends,
I was just browsing the Inkscape Wiki, and see that the ability to create animation is a future goal for Inkscape. But meanwhile, I'm curious what might be the "best" alternative. I'm guessing it probably depends on how the animation will eventually be used?

I'm thinking of animating the avatar that I made for these forums. If I remember correctly, it's a PNG. And I'm thinking that my best bet is probably going to be a GIF. But I'm curious about Flash. It would be a nice, simple project to learn with. But then I wonder if Flash is acceptable for use with avatars here?

I guess I wouldn't mind trying to make a simple Flash game, just as another project to learn with. Where would one get started learning? Are there any good freeware and/or open source programs available, or is it ALL Adobe?

Thanks for any comments

Hey Brynn,

I use ImageMagick to do animations. Here's a quick guide from the LGU forums and the relevant topic link: http://linuxgraphicsusers.com/index.php?topic=375.0 ...

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Well I was going to try and do a tutorial with screenshots but it wasn't working out. So here's hopefully a simple explanation to get you started.

Create your images for the animation and put them all in one directory numbering them consecutively as you want them.

Open a terminal program and change directories to where your images are.

With my two animation I did, I used something similar to this command:

animate -resize 329 -delay 50 -loop 0 *.png

If your images are in a different format use that instead of png.

With my latest animation I used 50 images. The first 30 were slightly different, The last 20 are all copies of the same to prolong the final sequence. Obviously the more images you use the smoother the animation.

-resize ### will set the width of the animation.

-delay ### set the time interval between images.

-loop 0 means it will loop indefinitely.

Play around with the delay settings to see what you get.

Once you tap Enter after inputting the command there will be a delay as IM builds the animation. You'll notice the the first sequence is much slower then the rest as it keep cycling.

Once your animation runs through the first time, click on the animation itself and a Commands window will open. A menu appears with...

Animate
Speed
Direction
Help
Image Info
Quit

Clicking on Animate from this menu will allow you to save the animation.

I hope in some small way this helps you. If you got question, I think we should be able to figure them out.

These are the sites I used to investigate doing animation with IM.
http://www.linux.com/articles/46124
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/animate.php
http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/

Keep in mind that for large animations, you may not want them to loop forever, especially if they're used as a banner logo on web pages. Not only does the browser have to keep working but to me they're annoying as hell and distract the eye.

Also be aware that I'm just starting out with this too and there are many different commands that can be used as you'll see if you study the links I posted. I've only scratched the surface.

Cheers

Wow, thanks for all the info Jaws!
Image Magick certainly looks like a powerful program, and maybe is more than I need at this time. Plus, I'm not even sure what it means to "run from the command line". However, I have spent some time reading up on its website, and may end up downloading and trying it. I'd like to learn about all my options b4 I make a decision though.

I have come across AnimEasy, which is actually an Inkscape....I think "add-on" is the proper description, that's meant to teach children about graphics. So that at least would be more my speed, lol.

But I guess I'm still researching. Anyway, thanks again, and I may well end up using IM.

You're welcome Brynn,

Don't let the command line put you off. The syntax of commands are the worst part but if you research and are willing to go the extra mile it really becomes rather easy. I'm the same as most folks who want a graphical display to guide me and I think IM does have a seperate GUI but once you get a few commands under your belt, you'll do alright.

Cheers